"In a new set of top secret documents seen by Heise, it is revealed that in 2009, the British spy agency GCHQ made port scans a "standard tool" to be applied against entire nations" (emphasis
“In a new set of top secret documents seen by Heise, it is revealed that in 2009, the British spy agency GCHQ made port scans a “standard tool” to be applied against entire nations“ (emphasis added)
See the article: The HACIENDA Program for Internet Colonization (heise online, link)
See: Original from GCHQ’s Joint Threat Research Intelligence Group (JTRIG): GCHQ: What is Hacienda? (pdf): All the results of country-wide scans are “stored in JTRIG’s Internal database”
And see: Australia government pushing to expand surveillance, hacking powers (PI, link)