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Week 6: NSA, ARE THEY REALLY WATCHING?

Context       

NSA, The National security Agency is one of the largest of the US intelligence organizations in terms of personnel and budget. NSA operated under DOD jurisdiction and report directly to Director of National Intelligence. Formed in 1952 as armed Forces Security Agency.

With all the fuzz about NSA constantly watching, I’ll show you just the tip of the iceberg

1952 - President Truman Establishes the National Security Agency (NSA)
1973 - Supreme Court Rules Warrants Are Required for Domestic Intelligence Surveillance
1975 - Senate "Church Committee" Investigation Uncovers Illegal Domestic Spying by NSA, Recommends Reforms
1978 - Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) Signed Into Law, Protecting Americans from Domestic Spying
2000 - NSA's Expresses Desire to "Live on the Network"
In a report about the NSA's mission for the 21st Century, the agency notes: "The volumes of routing of data make indexing and processing nuggets of intelligence information more difficult. To perform both its offensive and defensive mission, NSA must 'live on the network.'
2001 - Terrorist Attacks of September 11, 2001
2001, Sep 12 - Culture against Domestic Spying Begins to Shift at the NSA
2001, Sep 13 - White House Asks NSA What Could Be Done With More Legal Authority
2001, Sep 14 - With President's Authorization, NSA Director General Michael Hayden Begins Targeting
2001, Sep 15 - NSA Resurfaces Plan from 1999 to Enhance Spying After White House Asks What More Could Be Done
2001, Sep 21 - All US Phone Numbers Calling an Afghanistan Telephone Number Can Be Kept and Shared
2001, Oct 2 - NSA Director Hayden Holds Classified Briefing with Congress
2001, Oct 4 - President Bush Signs Order Beginning NSA's Domestic Spying Program
2001, Oct 4 - NSA Believes Authorization Allowed It to Spy on US Phone Calls and Emails Without Warrant
2001, Oct 5 - Attorney General Told to "Just...Sign It"
2001, Oct 6 - NSA Director General Hayden "Surprised With a Small 'S'" After Authorization Drafted by Vice President's Counsel is Signed by the President
2001, Oct 15 - Attorney General Certifies NSA Program without Assessing Program's Legality
2001, Oct 16 - NSA Approaches Some Companies to Voluntarily Hand Over Data
2001, Oct 16 - NSA Sends First Letters to Some Private Companies Asking for Data
2001, Oct 17 - Administration Starts Secretly Approaching Telecom Companies to Participate in NSA's Domestic Spying Program
2001, Oct 18 - Companies Start Sending Internet and Telephony Content to NSA
2002, Summer - AT&T Technician Discovers NSA Is Working Inside AT&T Facilities
2002, Late - Telecommunications Companies Formally Enter Voluntarily Agreements with US to Give Data to NSA
2003, Jan - NSA Interviews AT&T Employees For A "Special Job" at AT&T
2003, Jan - Construction of Secret Room in AT&T's San Francisco Facility Begins

And as you can imagine it all went crazy downhill from now on. From what we know now:

  1.           All domestic and outside calls are being recorded. They are stored for a month initially. If anyone assigns any importance to the data, it is being saved for good
  2.           Every telephone company works with NSA
  3.           Any person in the world can be spied on without warrant
  4.           Every internet provides sends data to NSA data centers
  5.           NSA has more processing power than every other powerhouse on the planet
  6.           NSA has more storage in one of their centers than every Google datacenter combined
  7.           Every single person can be selected, and all information gathered from the internet (social websites)
  8.           Facebook, twitter, google+ and basically any other are cooperating with NSA
  9.           Microsoft, Apple, Linux – they all work with NSA
  10.           Every single encryption method (doesn’t matter is open source or not) has a one click solution for NSA (True Crypt confirmed)
  11.           NSA intercepts communication between Yahoo and Google
  12.           It has been confirmed that NSA trades delicate information with other agencies and corporations
  13.           It has been confirmed that even the President of United States of American can be spied on without warrant. 
How did it get leaked? Well it started by stupidity. Some of the thousands of employees made their LinkedIn pages and listed the names of programs they use (some of the names are as follows: ANCHORY, AMHS, NUCLEON, TRAFFICTHIEF, ARCMAP, SIGNAV, COASTLINE, DISHFIRE, FASTSCOPE, OCTAVE/CONTRAOCTAVE, PINWALE, UTT, WEBCANDID, MICHIGAN, PLUS, ASSOCIATION, MAINWAY, FASCIA, OCTSKYWARD, INTELINK, METRICS, BANYAN, MARINA). After that, whistleblowers helped getting the information out. But if the world knows now about this spying program – why is no one freaking out? It’s official now that few presidents from Europe and even Vatican secret meetings were spied on. Why is no one making a big story out of it? Simple. Every single country is doing it too.

Question time!


  1. What is your opinion on the idea of NSA surveillance?
  2. How do you secure your private data? (I’m not from NSA I promise……
  3. What is your opinion on this matter in general?
  

Comments

alt_pl said…
1. Invigilation in the Internet is not new problem. People who were interested in security of networks and computer systems knew that big companies like Google, MS, Apple and many more collected data and sold that to other companies for commercial use. So why any government agency wouldn't be interested in such data? Nothing special.
2. Confidential. My advice : You want to have secure machine? Plug off internet cable or WiFi :)
3. Government of US should pay lots of compensations to countries monitored by them. What's more I think that many of international servers mainly used 'pro publico bono' should be placed in neutral country like Switzerland or United Nations.
armandstanczak said…
1) I think the problem here is not that they sell our data for ad companies that we put ourselves on the internet, but they gather data that is even more extensive than that. I wouldn't like for them to record my phone conversations.... But hey, I'm new here... 2) Hardware hacks exist. Other than that, fully agree. 3) The UN is not a country as far as I remember..... ? Jk jk . Government should, but it won't. That's the beauty of it.
Cheers
Sylwia said…



I'm aware that our life is getting more and more invigilate. However I think we can't change it. It's inseparable part of development and I accept it. Personally I don't have any critical data, which I would like to hide. Of course there are all personal data, accounts and passwords, but I don't see any reason why such organization as NSA can be interest in it. Let be honest I'm irrelevant. To me is controversial activity, but if it helps to prevent crimes I'm OK with it. The situation is different when your data are stolen by some smaller criminal organization or single person. Unfortunately Internet doesn't help here. We left a lot of information about us on the Internet and in many cases do not secure them properly. To me that is the real problem for regular people.
Unknown said…
It was, is and will be since the beginning of the internet. That is the price that we pay for this type of society, society od knowledge and information. A wise man i have once known said that there is no such think like secure computer. If there is someone that want your data he will get it, sooner or later. So the best solution is to stay invisible for the internet and that's what i am trying to do. I do concur with alt - only safe machine is the one disconnected from internet.
armandstanczak said…
Hi! :)
To me, the problem itself has more to do with business than it does with regular people. People like John Smith, who cares about them, right? I'm ok with gathering data about me from the internet - this is where I put it in the first place, but having the control over marketing and business decisions is little too much for me to accept.
diana said…
I don't really care about this. Information has real value just like money and why would anyone be surprised that those in charge want to accumulate it? It's kind of.. normal? We (I mean those who belong to western civilization) do have humans rights constitutionally guaranteed, but I doubt our privacy would be ever secured on such level. And I doubt it ever should - we cannot function in society without revealing some information about us, and internet or telecommunication just simplifies it. Is storing and using it by one huge entity morally good or wrong? I don't know. But still, people could be at least more aware about what's going on and what are the real consequences of their activities - so that they would not be too surprised about their precious private data leaking and being used by someone else.
Besides, I'm eager to watch the fight between people inventing better and better encrytpion methods and those who are breaking it :)
Natalia said…
I'm suprised that people put so much trust in equipment they use. Let consider following example: You are 12 years old child and want to keep your daily diary in secret - you don't want to know anyone to see what is there especially not your mom! At the same time your mom tells you that she will give you notepad for your notes and will store it for you in her drawer and she promises that she will not look at it.
Would you trust her? I don't think so... that would be stupid from your side to give precious secrets to anyone! So the question is why do we put so much trust in equipment (or internet) which is from the government / from companies which cooperate with government ? Someone could say that everyone is using them! And often we don't have choice - we have o replay to e-mails, communicate with others etc. After some time we do not realy care about what we are doing/reading/watching, but there is always someone who does - don't worry ;)

Does anyone have any idea how could we from one side have latest "toys" and the internet and from the other be safe from NSA?
What do you think about TOR?

You may ask why am I writing not only about the internet but also about the equipment - http://tech.wp.pl/kat,1009779,title,Tajemnicze-kody-na-wydrukach-z-kazdej-drukarki,wid,15878830,wiadomosc.html?ticaid=1119ac I hope that this informaton is not new for you :)
Heh, thisi is a subject that has caused a lot of confusion in the states. I mean, if they even make a south park episode about it than it has to be serious xD. I'll have to start from the last question to make clear that I don't pay much attention to this matter. I mean, I never "felt" that my private data is being exploited. Of course there is spam, but spam is a nuisance that always will be there. But I never actually felt, like my life is being spied on or whatever. Obviously I protect information that some people might use to steal my money or cause me any kind of trouble. But I don't think that is the case with the NSA. As long as I don't have anything to hide from a legal point of view and I actually don't feel "controlled" and can live my life, than... why should I care? Also, if this surveillance can help keep us safe from dangers like terrorists attacks, all the better! So summing up, we obviously need to protect are private data from hackers and similar people, but if an organization like the NSA "spies" on people to protect them, while not exploiting the information for their own personal gain I don't see much wrong with that.
Seisyll said…
This is a price of safety which we all demand from our governments. It might not be right and all, but invigilance and disregard for privacy is needed to keep everyone safe. Also as Konrad said we live in society of knowledge and information, and we give out most of those information. I am pretty sure that there was a case of Facebook selling gathered information to companies. Again there was a big uproar about that, but IMHO it is better for me because it enables them to personalize ads to suit me.
lukasz-anwajler said…
1. What is your opinion on the idea of NSA surveillance?

I will use words which describe situation with governments best:

"Relying on laws to keep your private information safe is like relying on a dog to guard a plate of bacon."

2. How do you secure your private data? (I’m not from NSA I promise……

Who gives? This post is stored on Google servers anyway :) I don't publish stuff which I don't consider public.

3. What is your opinion on this matter in general?

I think that we need better cryptography and decentralization. I recommend very good presentation about the theory of cryptography and current state of it: 'The Factoring Dead: Preparing for the Cryptopocalypse: A talk at Black Hat USA 2013 discussing recent advances in academic research that imperils two critical algorithms upon which Internet trust rests: RSA and Diffie-Helman.' http://www.slideshare.net/astamos/bh-slides?utm_source=slideshow&utm_medium=ssemail&utm_campaign=weekly_digest
Unknown said…
What is your opinion on the idea of NSA surveillance?
Really I don’t care about this NSA\CIA case. I can understand surveillance in terms of national safety or safety of my country so If they are using it to really help why not?

How do you secure your private data?
I don’t because I simply don’t have so precious private data. My credit card PIN number is in my head and it is the best way to keep it safe (for now at least). If someday I want to be secure I just disconnect pc from network at that’s it. In other case there is no way to really secure your data.

What is your opinion on this matter in general?
I think that people are crazy about this privacy stuff nowadays. But if you are using free mail account your privacy is lost so only way to keep your personal information safe is to stop using services which are linked with global network or like me just don’t think about it and do nothing with it.
elos said…
Its more than it should be. NSA probably doesn’t have better things to do, so they concentrate on normal people. I am sorry for NSA employees` friends, girlfriends, boyfriends, wives, husbands. Why? Each single step is probably known by mentioned employees. It`s not fair. In my opinion this power is too much for anybody.

My best approach for securing private data is storing on external disc drive without connection to the Internet and if I want to discuss something important I prefer direct conversation. If it is not very secret I don’t care, NSA can feel free to read stupid things written by me or my friends. I hope they fluently know polish.

In general I think, I will say it once again this power, possibility is too much for anybody. Unfortunately we cannot deal with it. It is the other side of the coin. The dark side. If we want advanced technologies in our live we should accept it and a little bit be careful.
Tomek Niezgoda said…
We hear a lot about security these days. Companies like Google or Facebook are changing their policies to have unlimited access to more and more information their users share. It’s not really a secret and everybody agrees every time. Once you publish something on the Internet, it’s there forever.
It seems to me that the leak about the US spying on us not as important as the news agencies are trying to make it. The scale is bigger than before but every country has spies. The US has more of them than others.
yoshi said…
Surveillance nowadays is quite common practice. Organization like NSA is kind of big brother which supervises activity of people around the world. With present technological advance there are a lot of ways to get valuable data. Moreover, people help to access their private data by using social services and keeping "virtual profile" in web. As in some of preceding comments, best way to completely protect our information is avoiding any technologically advanced channels which is simply impossible in our times

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