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and this nsa hacking unit targets potential terrorists and this is a gold mine. if i can own your computer, if i can gain access to it and gain a foot hold into it, now i have access to all of your secrets. reporter: we contacted the nsa for a response to the report. in a statement, the agency said, quote, tailored access operations is on the front lines to defend the nation and its allies. tao s work is in support of foreign intelligence collection. that is translated to saying that no americans inside the u.s. are targeted by this. so this is the group of nsa hackers that works with the cia and fbi to physically infiltrate some places? yes, they do. the magazine says they work with the cia and fbi to fly to some
user name and password and get into my account and help them in other attacks. but in this scenario, what they want to do is infect my machine. reporter: according to the magazine, they physically intercept computers being delivered to plant spay wear. and ill fill trait offices to and usb plugs.n monitor cables - the agency was concerned enough about the connecting cables on edward snow deposit s computers that it removed them after he leaked nsa documents. according to the magazine, this nsa hacking unit targets potential terrorists, foreign security agencies, and he corporations. from an eaves dropping perspective, this is a gold mine. if i can gain access to your computer, now i have access to all of your secrets. reporter: in response to the report, the nsa said tailored
needed to protect america. a typical error message from microsoft telling you of a bug in your computer. many of us get them all the time. for some users, that error message may be a way into their computer for an elite unit inside the nsa. this is nsa s hacking organization. it s 1,600 men and women, military and civilians, average age, mid 20s, maybe early 30s, so it s a very young, very tech-savvy organization. reporter: the unit s called tailored access operations or tao. new details of its activities are reported in the german magazine which cites internal nsa documents. the magazine says some of the hackers are based in this building in san antonio. aside from getting into a computer through an error message, the magazine says tao hackers can access so-called cookies, the tags that pop up showing a computer s favorite websites, and they can redirect users to a dummy page on a site