Latest Leak: NSA Can Spy On Almost Anything, Gets To Set Its Own Filters
from the and-another-shoe-drops dept
And, here we go again. This time, it's the WSJ journal with the scoop on NSA surveillance, and how the defenders of the NSA have been lying to us. Despite claims that the NSA was really only focused on foreign communications, the WSJ is reporting that it actually covers 75% of US internet traffic:The National Security Agency—which possesses only limited legal authority to spy on U.S. citizens—has built a surveillance network that covers more Americans' Internet communications than officials have publicly disclosed, current and former officials say.Basically, they're just revealing more details about the things that whistleblower Mark Klein revealed years ago: that the NSA has deals with the major telcos which scoop up a huge amount of internet traffic.
The system has the capacity to reach roughly 75% of all U.S. Internet traffic in the hunt for foreign intelligence, including a wide array of communications by foreigners and Americans. In some cases, it retains the written content of emails sent between citizens within the U.S. and also filters domestic phone calls made with Internet technology, these people say.
The programs, code-named Blarney, Fairview, Oakstar, Lithium and Stormbrew, among others, filter and gather information at major telecommunications companies. Blarney, for instance, was established with AT&T Inc., former officials say. AT&T declined to comment.The WSJ report is wrong on one account, though. It claims that people believed that the NSA's filtering actually happened "where undersea or other foreign cables enter the country" but that's not true. Mark Klein made it clear that the NSA had machines directly on AT&T's property.
This filtering takes place at more than a dozen locations at major Internet junctions in the U.S., officials say.
And, of course, it will come as no surprise that these programs that work directly with telcos to tap into full internet traffic aren't just about metadata:
...this set of programs shows the NSA has the capability to track almost anything that happens online, so long as it is covered by a broad court order.This also shouldn't be a surprise. For all the talk of "metadata" it was always clear that the surveillance defenders were talking about this program only, which was the Patriot Act Section 215 "business records" program. But other programs, such as these listed above, were clearly about actual content as well.
[....] Inevitably, officials say, some U.S. Internet communications are scanned and intercepted, including both "metadata" about communications, such as the "to" and "from" lines in an email, and the contents of the communications themselves.
While the report does note that some "minimization" happens, there is clearly widespread ability to abuse. The system works by having the NSA telling the telcos to only send over certain traffic covering "certain areas of interest" which the NSA then "briefly copies" and decides what to keep and what to dump. Again, this is consistent with earlier reports of the NSA searching all emails that go into and out of the US.
The latest report is, again, replete with NSA doublespeak. It claims that it's not "accessing" all of this traffic, because it asks the telcos to do some of the filtering for it. That's how it gets away with talking about "things we actually touch," even though its deals with the telcos basically mean they can access almost everything.
The WSJ further reports that, while most of the requests are targeted towards foreign communications, there are times when it's quite clear that requests are likely to cover domestic communications. Some telcos apparently push back, causing "friction", while others seem to comply with no qualms, though there is no indication of which telcos fall into which camp.
The report further confirms that this program is considered "legal" by the administration thanks to a broad interpretation of the FISA Amendments Act, giving the NSA the power to snoop on people "reasonably believed" to be outside the US, rather than requiring "probable cause" that they were "an agent of a foreign power." Also, there's this:
NSA has discretion on setting its filters, and the system relies significantly on self-policing. This can result in improper collection that continues for years.The report also claims that it was one of these "mistakes" that resulted in three years of illegal collections (much greater than the "few months" that were revealed in last week's Washington Post article).
And now we wait for another bunch of carefully worded statements from NSA defenders...
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Filed Under: abuses, americans, blarney, fairbiew, filters, lithium, nsa, nsa surveillance, oakstar, spying, stormbrew
Companies: at&t, cisco, juniper, narus, verizon
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but but but terrorism.
*shakes head in disgust*
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but but we are protecting your children for the big bad terrorists
"shakes head in disgust and throws out popcorn"
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The world is full of sickos and the only way to stop them is by spying on everyone.
If you are against this spying you must be a pedofile terrorist.
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Sounds about right.
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But but international child porn and human trafficking!!
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It's almost funny in a way how completely inept it is, and the assumption that everyone else is as gullible and easily scared as they are.
'The enemies of the free world are militant and ruthless. They will stop at nothing to skewer you and me, roast us up over a fire and throw some livers on the bbq.'
That's the latest scare-mongering attempt from that AC, I'd have to do a little digging to find the other one I responded to, but it was equally as childish, and like his/her other comments follows the same theme of 'The big bad monsters are going to get you, but don't worry, the government will protect you, as long as you do as you're told and don't question them'.
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There, fixed it for your AC.
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Sounds legit. If the NSA had been around in 1776, we'd still be a British colony.
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I fully expect the average citizen caught up in an act of terrorism to sue the NSA as they would have clearly failed in their duty of care in stopping it.
And especially now, when it seams the authorities are willing to call anything an act of terrorism, well missed the last episode of breaking bad? it was the terrosists, NSA I want compensation.
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Bizarrely it's the other way around. Every time the mass surveillance fails to prevent a terrorist attack, there will always be cries for pumping more resources into the very programs that just failed to achieve the designed result. Thus the path to more money and power for the government departments and the corporations that benefit from these programs, is to not succeed in stopping 100% of terror attacks. A successful attack every once in a while will thus yield a large influx of cash.
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Those statements take on a whole new meaning in light of the Snowden documents, now that we know some of what they knew.
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This pretty much seals up the claims we've been hearing about oversight, authority, and what is or is not done. Even though this is highly unlikely to be the worst of the worst on it's capabilities and it's practices, by itself this is enough. It's enough to stick a fork in and call it done.
This release is from WSJ. Greenwald has yet to respond to the latest oneupmanship that was played out in the UK yesterday. Somehow, the shoe that falls will undoubtedly reveal more damaging news but this one hits fairly hard already.
Just like there is no accountability unless the NSA chooses to reveal it voluntarily, it also looks with this new release that it can pick and choose it's requirements with no one looking over it's shoulder.
Given how much we've been lied to already, there is nothing left to suspect but the public trust continue in freefall given that none of the officials want to be truthful and up front.
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Someone talking about blowing up something and context isn't clear? Check and see what else they do online. Buy a bunch of movie tickets online? Play a bunch of videogames? Casually argue about the politics of the war on terror? Likely a false positive. Go on about conspiracy theories, call for direct action against the government, and buy a pressure cooker on amazon? Time for the men in black SUVs to pay you a visit.
Talk about buying drugs? Been browsing online pharmacies? Likely just someone looking to lower their Rx costs. Talk about buying drugs, and have no indications that you're talking about prescriptions? Time for some tracking, after all, drug money can fund terrorists. Etc.
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The NSA are like cockroaches
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Huge NSA fan
Sarin, or GB, is an organophosphorus compound with the formula [(CH3)2CHO]CH3P(O)F. It is a colorless, odorless liquid,[4] used as a chemical weapon owing to its extreme potency as
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how can this be fixed
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Keep 'em coming Guardian, WP, WSJ!
I just hope I get to see it happen, after all I'm part of that bull. I'll let you speculate which part. :)
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Only 75%?
Sheesh!
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My favorite part from the CarrierIQ Wikipedia article was this.
"A request to the FBI under the Freedom of Information Act for “any manuals, documents or other written guidance used to access or analyze data gathered by programs developed or deployed by Carrier IQ” was denied, citing pending law enforcement proceeding. This has led to speculation that the FBI is using data obtained through Carrier IQ for investigations.[50]"
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Soon everyone will be pigeon holed in there place in society.
I think I did my best with this years ago. To me, it doesn't bother me.
I moved to California, Seattle, New York, Los Angeles, but the only resident that responded to me personally with ideas and options was someone from New York. And don't get me wrong.
I told Mike to move to Denver because they were going to build the first USPTO office outside of Virginia and he needed to run it.
Today, I know your busy selling T-Shirts and busy with flagging other comments, so I don't do that anymore.
Keep up the good work, Mike.
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Re: Soon everyone will be pigeon holed in there place in society.
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Re: Soon everyone will be pigeon holed in there place in society.
Showing a complete lack of understanding as to what it is that Mike does. Stay classy, Malcolm.
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Telco's no longer needed to follow the laws of Congress, they only needed NSA to say it was legal.
So telco's obeyed General Alexander and could safely ignore the laws of Congress.
First thing he did when this scandle came out was demand the same immunity for every company he had done a deal with.
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Dear Michael Masnick.
"This is Doctor Who".
I know you've deleted my previous comments, and actually, I think you still owe me respect. Or Money.
It's based on you, Son. Get your life in gear.
I am Malcolm Tucker and, I am from Scotland and you have no idea what Scotts will do, Michael Masnick.
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Re: Dear Michael Masnick.
Tough to do that these days.
Still, you deleted comments that are legal on BBC Broadcast.
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Re: Re: Dear Michael Masnick.
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No harm
Http://www.qr.net/YouTubeVideo
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http://foot-paws.deviantart.com/art/Wile-E-Coyote-sprung-up-245985491
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A remarkable point
The WSJ is known as the paper of the people who actually have the power over this country-Wall St and friends. When they start covering this kind of news, you know there's something bad going on. They're not ignoring it any more.
Everyone's getting into the game, and having a field day (although I do wish the WSJ would release this kind of reporting out from their paywall.)letting them know it.
Yes, indeed-when you attack one source of the information, it would seem the rest of the entities who can get involved do jump into the fray.
Perhaps there's hope for the journalism media after all.
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We are close to achieving this goal. Some would say that human liberty has been compromised, but the reality is just the opposite. As surveillance expands, people become free from danger, free to walk alone at night, free to work in a safe place, and free to buy any legal product or service without the threat of fraud. One day every man and woman will quietly earn credits, purchase items for quiet homes on quiet streets, have cook-outs with neighbors and strangers alike, and sleep with doors and windows wide open. If that isn't the tranquil dream of every free civilization throughout history, what is?
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If you're true to your ideal, why don't gather others who share it and build a walled garden where you have total surveillance and 0 privacy. That way you get to live your dream.
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Wait a second...
http://deusex.wikia.com/wiki/Anna_Navarre
Given that, fairly sure this is just a well done Poe, as the 'logic' presented would suit that character to a 't'.
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Re: Wait a second...
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Rather horrifying how serious people took that, though given how close it is to the rational being used by the governments today I suppose it's not too surprising that they weren't able to tell the difference between the two.
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FM Hilton Remarkable point
When you know where the bodies are buried, or have a "map" and how deep, you have power.
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Dear WSJ
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...really? you're surprised?
And now we're all super shock and awe because the NSA is spying on the interwebs. Just shocked. SHOCKED.
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YA RLY
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Re: YA RLY
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For example, what's their relationship to the military and its programs that facilitate agents having multiple accounts (read multiple identities) on social media sites and blogs?
Agents provocateurs for Tea Partiers and Occupy? hand puppets for federal policy and declining privacy trends? enlisting assets to promote X in favor in Y?
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Flood them
In reality all NSA is achieving is creating a market for terrorists to use heavier encryption of find alternatives.
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Obvious question
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WIFI INTRUDER
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