Seems like the NYT is trying to create a dangerous, terrorist aura around tools that access the internet through any means but an 'standard' browser.
And by referring to whatever it is as a "low-cost tool", they're probably just making up facts. It's far more likely that Snowden used one of the many no-cost tools that are used every day by people who work with and on computers.
This article is pretty much a no-op other than creating a dangerous mystique around people who access the internet through obscure tools that don't have an icon on the Mac or Windows stock desktop.
It's not the NYT trying to do that, it's the government. (The nyt may be enabling though, yeah, welcome to US journalism).
In Pvt. Manning's trial, the governments' case was that Manning's wget use was a CFAA violation. Manning was convicted of a CFAA violation.
And yeah, at the Manning trial, the government lawyers repeatedly explicitly brought up the fact that wget was an unusual tool that doesn't have an icon on the desktop, trying to make it seem sinister.
And yeah, it is frightening.
(I sat in on several days of the trial as an observer).
And by referring to whatever it is as a "low-cost tool", they're probably just making up facts. It's far more likely that Snowden used one of the many no-cost tools that are used every day by people who work with and on computers.
This article is pretty much a no-op other than creating a dangerous mystique around people who access the internet through obscure tools that don't have an icon on the Mac or Windows stock desktop.