What are you trying to say with the second picture? Getting access to a GFE gets you access to what's going through it? What does that have to do with the FBI hacking into the backend of a airline company?
The FBI (and NSA for that matter) are a lot more constrained by the law than HN seems to think, they can't just shell anyone they want especially if the target is a third party that has done nothing wrong.
Pretty much that, and also tapping any traffic that's in their internal networks, since that's not encrypted either.
> What does that have to do with the FBI hacking into the backend of a airline company?
That's one possible attack that the FBI could be carrying out. ie. sabre doesn't encrypt its communications in their internal network, and that's being tapped similar to how the NSA tapped google's internal networks.
> they can't just shell anyone they want especially if the target is a third party that has done nothing wrong.
The reality is not that clear. A lot of what governs what these agencies can and can't do comes from executive branch policies. There is a lot of gray around what is "legal" and congress likes it that way because it keeps responsibility for allowing to much or not enough surveillance far away from them.
What's more, you cannot adjudicate what you don't know about and a lot of the secrecy in programs like this is just as much about keeping away civil libertarian attorneys as it is about confounding "the enemy". There's a reason the FISA court rules nearly 100% of the time with the state. Responding attorneys are rarely involved and when they are they are often hamstrung due to a lack of knowledge that prevents them from filing any kind of useful motion or raising serious opposition.
The FBI (and NSA for that matter) are a lot more constrained by the law than HN seems to think, they can't just shell anyone they want especially if the target is a third party that has done nothing wrong.