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Across the world, people who work as system administrators keep computer networks in order - and this has turned them into unwitting targets of the National Security Agency for simply doing their jobs. According to a secret document provided by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, the agency tracks down the private email and Facebook accounts of system administrators (or sys admins, as they are often called), before hacking their computers to gain access to the networks they control.

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Hacking into the computers of sys admins is particularly controversial because unlike conventional targets - people who are regarded as threats - sys admins are not suspected of any wrongdoing.

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Once the agency believes it has identified a sys admin's personal accounts, according to the posts, it can target them with its so-called QUANTUM hacking techniques. The Snowden files reveal that the QUANTUM methods have been used to secretly inject surveillance malware into a Facebook page by sending malicious NSA data packets that appear to originate from a genuine Facebook server. This method tricks a target's computer into accepting the malicious packets, allowing the NSA to infect the targeted computer with a malware "implant" and gain unfettered access to the data stored on its hard drive.

"Just pull those selectors, queue them up for QUANTUM, and proceed with the pwnage," the author of the posts writes. ("Pwnage," short for "pure ownage," is gamer-speak for defeating opponents.) The author adds, triumphantly, "Yay! /throws confetti in the air."