How global corporations can hack anyone's computers for $2.5 million

[Cliff Arnebeck]

7. White hats and black hats

Endgame provides information about a target's computers and its points of vulnerability to hacking. The hacking, which is illegal unless done by the government pursuant to a warrant or extraordinary powers granted by the Patriot Act, is done by the subscriber to Endgame's services. It's illegal and punishable as a crime.

I think the "illegality" of a private person using NSA data relates to the the violation of that person's employment agreement or the subsequent use of that data with knowledge that it was illegally obtained.

When government is acting illegally, is it a crime for a government employee to disclose it and for a news organization to report it to the public? If done for the purpose of exposing criminality, then it would seem to be in the nature of civil disobedience for the sake of the public interest and investigative journalism under the protection of the First Amendment's guarantee of Freedom of the Press.