This is a scary precedent.<p>From the bits I&#x27;ve seen of it, the Vulnerabilities Equities Process is a really great bit of government transparency, run by a group of people who understand that the best interests of different parts of the government and the citizens of the country often end up at odds. The process allows for vulnerabilities to be periodically reviewed so that the costs and benefits of not disclosing can be weighed over time, and by an at-least-somewhat independent group.<p>Just skipping it altogether because &quot;we paid a contractor&quot; completely subverts the process. What&#x27;s stopping all the TLAs from simply routing all their vulns through a private third party and bypassing the VEP altogether?