NSA's Keith Alexander Doubles Down On His Plan To Spy On Wall Street To 'Protect' Wall Street
from the this-again? dept
Keith Alexander still doesn't seem to realize that the public has seen through his bullshit, because he keeps doubling down. There were numerous reports this week on a speech Alexander gave, in which he talked up his plan to "protect" Wall Street by getting access to the financial industry's networks.Drawing an analogy to how the military detects an incoming missile with radar and other sensors, Alexander imagined the NSA being able to spot "a cyberpacket that's about to destroy Wall Street." In an ideal world, he said, the agency would be getting real-time information from the banks themselves, as well as from the NSA's traditional channels of intelligence, and have the power to take action before a cyberattack caused major damage.The thing is, this isn't new. Back in July, the Washington Post's excellent profile of Keith "collect it all" Alexander pointed out that he'd been pushing this exact solution for quite some time, though execs from Wall Street found the idea to be ridiculous, since they fully understood what it meant:
His proposed solution: Private companies should give the government access to their networks so it could screen out the harmful software. The NSA chief was offering to serve as an all-knowing virus-protection service, but at the cost, industry officials felt, of an unprecedented intrusion into the financial institutions’ databases.In other words, even well before all the details of Alexander's overreach as NSA director came out, Wall Street execs had no interest in giving him such access to their networks.
The group of financial industry officials, sitting around a table at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, were stunned, immediately grasping the privacy implications of what Alexander was politely but urgently suggesting. As a group, they demurred.
“He’s an impressive person,” the participant said, recalling the group’s collective reaction to Alexander. “You feel very comfortable with him. He instills a high degree of trust.”
But he was proposing something they thought was high-risk.
“Folks in the room looked at each other like, ‘Wow. That’s kind of wild.’ ”
But this is the same basic pitch that Alexander has been making for years. The biggest joke in the intelligence community is the fact that Alexander technically has two jobs: he's both the head of the NSA -- in charge of collecting information for surveillance -- and the head of US Cyber Command, which runs the military's "cyber" initiatives. Alexander loves to use the cover of his Cybercommand position to pretend that his focus is on protecting data and networks.
You may recall that, the NSA's talking points on the breaking ground for the massive Utah datacenter were entirely focused on how the center would be used to protect the internet -- leaving out how it would actually be used to spy on the network. Members of Congress have raised concerns for a while about the conflict of interest between Alexander's two roles. The fact that he uses the Cybercommand role to pretend his focus is on cybersecurity, while in actuality he's been destroying cybersecurity by undermining standards, creating backdoors and encouraging vulnerabilities is a huge problem.
But, perhaps even more stunning, is his inability to recognize that people aren't believing what he says any more, such that he'd start pushing this ridiculous desire to get access to Wall Street's networks yet again, years after it was rejected -- but also after the evidence of his efforts to trample the 4th Amendment have become clear.
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Filed Under: cybercommand, cybersecurity, keith alexander, nsa, nsa surveillance, surveillance, wall street
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One thing I found interesting...
now THAT'S impressive.
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Sure he does, especially after lying to congress on national television. Super trustworthy guy.
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So
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Re: So
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Re: So
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From the people who brought you LOVEINT...
TRADEINT!
Query the Wall Street database and watch your portfolio grow!
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So does he expect to be be able to filter out fake tweets? I'm pretty sure that those have done more damage to the markets than any hackers attempting to attack directly.
On a different note, if a single packet is capable of destroying Wall Street while he's serving as their firewall and antivirus, then it would mean he'd failed horribly in his job, and the systems were already heavily compromised, just waiting on a single packet to trigger the malware.
Yeah, not surprised that Wall Street prefers to stick with their current, generally competent, private IT who they can sue or fire in the event of a screw up depending on whether they're outsourced or in house.
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ping_of_death
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He interviews well, apparently.
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"Nice business you got here. It would be a shame if something were to happen to it. There's lots of unscrupulous people around, you know...we can ensure that your trade secrets don't suddenly end up in the hands of your competitors. For a nominal fee, of course."
or
"Hey BigAmericanCorp. We heard that ForeignCompany was crushing you in the marketplace. For a small fee, we can arrange for a little 'accident' to happen to their servers."
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Keith Alexander
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Talking point
How long to recover?
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NSA and Wall Street
A September 15, 2013 Der Spiegel article, based on NSA documents leaked by Snowden, reveals that the NSA bank surveillance project is not only still ongoing but also that NSA has an entire Follow the Money branch. The article also reveals that the British SIGINT agency, GCHQ, is worried that NSA's Follow the Money bank surveillance project may be too deeply invasive of the privacy rights of citizens. What makes that concern truly extraordinary is that the GCHQ appears to operate under fewer constraints than even NSA.
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Re: NSA and Wall Street
nearly EVERYTHING these slimepigs have 'speculated' about, or 'wished for' has turned out they've been doing it 'illegally' (which has no meaning any longer, THANKS TO SLIME LIKE THEM) for years or decades...
have no doubt they are doing this shit anyway, plus more we don't/won't know about...
alphabet soup spook orgs are INIMICABLE to the survival of small dee democracy...
(aside: dog damn it, either get a decent spel czech on this damn input box, or get rid of the damn thing: INIMICABLE is too a fucking word, you POS spel czecher...)
art guerrilla
aka ann archy
eof
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Of course, then the Cybermen get bullied by a 2000-year-old Centurion and his 900-year-old Time Lord sidekick...
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Level of distrust
"Holy cow, this guy really thinks we really trust him? What kind of booze is he on?"
"My tech people would kill him on sight if they ever got their hands on him."
And of course, this one should be the newest point:
The Utah Datacenter is a walking fire box-and it isn't even functional yet, or open. How competent is that?
I seriously doubt that any Wall St. exec would ever seriously allow this guy near their technology. Not in a million years.
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So what you're saying is..
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HSBC Money Laundering, LIBOR Rigging
Boston Marathon bombing?
LIBOR rigging by major banks?
HSBC laundering money for drug cartels?
What good are they? I'm beginning to think NSA stands for "Nerds Sitting Around." Sheesh.
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gOOD IDEA, bad IDEA..
2. Being able to SEE trades BEFORE they happen..even a few seconds, could make a trade worth LOTS of money.
3. Security. If hacking Wall street was EASY, it would of been done. AND the best point to do it..INSIDE wall street.
There are many levels to Security..and if they DIDNT USE them, they are VERY VERY stupid.
#1 the only thing accessible from the net, is OUTPUT..
INPUT must be HIGHLY secure..and registered, and CONTROLLED.
Im sorry, but I see where this situation could be totally abused, MORE...Then to give him access and control.
The AMOUNTS of data is To much for 1 person to deal with for EVEN a GROUP it would be enormous..and only replicate what Wall street already does.
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The road to hell....
With all of the years of secret intrusions into the internet, including as it turns out, direct links to the web backbone, and NSA operatives creating backdoors into unknown web software with unknown capabilities, it occurred to me that it may now be possible for law enforcement to have "evidence" of wrong-doing, such a state secrets or kiddie-porn, planted directly onto a citizen's computer for later "discovery" by LEOs, eliminating the need to actually catch real bad guys and enhancing law enforcement's apparent effectiveness in the public's eye.
And then it occurred to me that real perps could use this very same process to deny ownership of real state secrets or kiddie porn they made or bought, that was found on their computers by LEOs, simply by claiming the LEOs had downloaded the material to their computers through the backdoors that have been manufactured for specifically that purpose by NSA operatives working inside IT companies.
In a way, the global surveillance of the public has created a near perfect escape clause for criminals who get caught with contraband material on their computer, since it is widely known now that Law Enforcement has the capabilities to pull off such stunts and the bad track record that proves they really would use it in such a manner.
At the same time, it has created a tremendous opportunity for Authority to plant evidence on the computers of innocents who have in some way, angered the powers that be or who stand in the way of those on top of the food chain getting what they desire.
They have done nothing to solve the known problems facing law enforcement through this overwhelming public surveillance, but have definitely created a greater problem than was originally apparent, both for the public and themselves.
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Misdirection
I would make it sound like all I wanted to do was protect them from bad guys, as if I was utterly unaware of the huge security breach such access would create for Wall Street.
That way they would keep on thinking I was some sort of moron, and keep on thinking the moron was NOT yet surveilling their whole system.
If you're still wondering why these guys retain their employment, this might lend a clue. :)
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