One of the features of bulk communications records available to a large number of people is that they have value, sometimes extremely high. What's more, you don't even need to overtly sell them (which is more risky) - whether you are a poorly paid call center operator, or direct or indirectly employed TLA snoop, the scope for financial insider dealing of huge value and little chance of detection is fantastic. Of course, nations indulge in this, but there's nothing really stopping a little freelance work inside the companies or agencies, particularly given that the access often goes across security boundaries. I'd guess there would be hundreds of these opportunists for every Snowden. Why am I so under-impressed at the "security procedures to counter it"?
