NSA ‘Follow the Money’ branch spied on Visa customers, SWIFT transactions – report
The NSA has been widely monitoring international banking and credit card transactions, a new report says referencing Edward Snowden’s leak. The agency targeted Visa customers and global financial service SWIFT and created its own money flows database.

CFPB's data-mining on consumer credit cards challenged in heated House hearing
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau officials are seeking to monitor four out of every five U.S. consumer credit card transactions this year — up to 42 billion transactions – through a controversial data-mining program... A CFPB strategic planning document for fiscal years 2013-17 describes the “markets monitoring” program through which officials aim to monitor 80 percent of all credit card transactions in 2013. 

NSA masqueraded as Google to spy on web users - report
The NSA used ‘man in the middle’ hack attacks to impersonate Google and fool web users, leaks have revealed. The technique circumvents encryption by redirecting users to a copycat site which relays all the data entered to NSA data banks. 

WSJ: Emails Show IRS' Lerner Targeted Tea Party Groups
In a February 2011 email, Lerner told her staff that a tea party issue is "very dangerous" and is something "Counsel and [Lerner adviser] Judy Kindell need to be in on ... Cincy should probably NOT have these cases." That contradicts former IRS Commissioner Steven Miller's comments in May that the targeting was merely the work of two "rogue" employees in Cincinnati.  

Armed EPA raid in Alaska sheds light on 70 fed agencies with armed divisions
The recent uproar over armed EPA agents descending on a tiny Alaska mining town is shedding light on the fact that 40 federal agencies – including nearly a dozen typically not associated with law enforcement -- have armed divisions. The agencies employ about 120,000 full-time officers authorized to carry guns and make arrests, according to a June 2012 Justice Department report. 

Report: NSA defeats many encryption efforts
The NSA has cracked much of the encryption that protects global commerce, banking, trade secrets, and medical records, according to the report, which cites documents leaked by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden. The NSA has invested billions of dollars in efforts to defeat encryption since 2000, according to the report.