The NSA Is Building the Country’s Biggest Spy Center (Watch What You Say)

[Wilikon]

http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2012/03/ff_nsadatacenter/all/1

[...] Under construction by contractors with top-secret clearances, the blandly named Utah Data Center is being built for the National Security Agency. A project of immense secrecy, it is the final piece in a complex puzzle assembled over the past decade. Its purpose: to intercept, decipher, analyze, and store vast swaths of the world’s communications as they zap down from satellites and zip through the underground and undersea cables of international, foreign, and domestic networks. The heavily fortified $2 billion center should be up and running in September 2013. Flowing through its servers and routers and stored in near-bottomless databases will be all forms of communication, including the complete contents of private emails, cell phone calls, and Google searches, as well as all sorts of personal data trails—parking receipts, travel itineraries, bookstore purchases, and other digital “pocket litter.” It is, in some measure, the realization of the “total information awareness” program created during the first term of the Bush administration—an effort that was killed by Congress in 2003 after it caused an outcry over its potential for invading Americans’ privacy.

But “this is more than just a data center,” says one senior intelligence official who until recently was involved with the program. The mammoth Bluffdale center will have another important and far more secret role that until now has gone unrevealed. It is also critical, he says, for breaking codes. And code-breaking is crucial, because much of the data that the center will handle—financial information, stock transactions, business deals, foreign military and diplomatic secrets, legal documents, confidential personal communications—will be heavily encrypted. According to another top official also involved with the program, the NSA made an enormous breakthrough several years ago in its ability to cryptanalyze, or break, unfathomably complex encryption systems employed by not only governments around the world but also many average computer users in the US. The upshot, according to this official: “Everybody’s a target; everybody with communication is a target.”

For the NSA, overflowing with tens of billions of dollars in post-9/11 budget awards, the cryptanalysis breakthrough came at a time of explosive growth, in size as well as in power. Established as an arm of the Department of Defense following Pearl Harbor, with the primary purpose of preventing another surprise assault, the NSA suffered a series of humiliations in the post-Cold War years. Caught offguard by an escalating series of terrorist attacks—the first World Trade Center bombing, the blowing up of US embassies in East Africa, the attack on the USS Cole in Yemen, and finally the devastation of 9/11—some began questioning the agency’s very reason for being. In response, the NSA has quietly been reborn. And while there is little indication that its actual effectiveness has improved—after all, despite numerous pieces of evidence and intelligence-gathering opportunities, it missed the near-disastrous attempted attacks by the underwear bomber on a flight to Detroit in 2009 and by the car bomber in Times Square in 2010—there is no doubt that it has transformed itself into the largest, most covert, and potentially most intrusive intelligence agency ever created.

In the process—and for the first time since Watergate and the other scandals of the Nixon administration—the NSA has turned its surveillance apparatus on the US and its citizens. It has established listening posts throughout the nation to collect and sift through billions of email messages and phone calls, whether they originate within the country or overseas. It has created a supercomputer of almost unimaginable speed to look for patterns and unscramble codes. Finally, the agency has begun building a place to store all the trillions of words and thoughts and whispers captured in its electronic net. And, of course, it’s all being done in secret. To those on the inside, the old adage that NSA stands for Never Say Anything applies more than ever. [...]

Inside, the facility will consist of four 25,000-square-foot halls filled with servers, complete with raised floor space for cables and storage. In addition, there will be more than 900,000 square feet for technical support and administration. The entire site will be self-sustaining, with fuel tanks large enough to power the backup generators for three days in an emergency, water storage with the capability of pumping 1.7 million gallons of liquid per day, as well as a sewage system and massive air-conditioning system to keep all those servers cool. Electricity will come from the center’s own substation built by Rocky Mountain Power to satisfy the 65-megawatt power demand. Such a mammoth amount of energy comes with a mammoth price tag—about $40 million a year, according to one estimate.

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[1715459737]

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[cryptoanarchist]

http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2012/03/ff_nsadatacenter/all/1

[...] Under construction by contractors with top-secret clearances, the blandly named Utah Data Center is being built for the National Security Agency. A project of immense secrecy, it is the final piece in a complex puzzle assembled over the past decade. Its purpose: to intercept, decipher, analyze, and store vast swaths of the world’s communications as they zap down from satellites and zip through the underground and undersea cables of international, foreign, and domestic networks. The heavily fortified $2 billion center should be up and running in September 2013. Flowing through its servers and routers and stored in near-bottomless databases will be all forms of communication, including the complete contents of private emails, cell phone calls, and Google searches, as well as all sorts of personal data trails—parking receipts, travel itineraries, bookstore purchases, and other digital “pocket litter.” It is, in some measure, the realization of the “total information awareness” program created during the first term of the Bush administration—an effort that was killed by Congress in 2003 after it caused an outcry over its potential for invading Americans’ privacy.

But “this is more than just a data center,” says one senior intelligence official who until recently was involved with the program. The mammoth Bluffdale center will have another important and far more secret role that until now has gone unrevealed. It is also critical, he says, for breaking codes. And code-breaking is crucial, because much of the data that the center will handle—financial information, stock transactions, business deals, foreign military and diplomatic secrets, legal documents, confidential personal communications—will be heavily encrypted. According to another top official also involved with the program, the NSA made an enormous breakthrough several years ago in its ability to cryptanalyze, or break, unfathomably complex encryption systems employed by not only governments around the world but also many average computer users in the US. The upshot, according to this official: “Everybody’s a target; everybody with communication is a target.”

For the NSA, overflowing with tens of billions of dollars in post-9/11 budget awards, the cryptanalysis breakthrough came at a time of explosive growth, in size as well as in power. Established as an arm of the Department of Defense following Pearl Harbor, with the primary purpose of preventing another surprise assault, the NSA suffered a series of humiliations in the post-Cold War years. Caught offguard by an escalating series of terrorist attacks—the first World Trade Center bombing, the blowing up of US embassies in East Africa, the attack on the USS Cole in Yemen, and finally the devastation of 9/11—some began questioning the agency’s very reason for being. In response, the NSA has quietly been reborn. And while there is little indication that its actual effectiveness has improved—after all, despite numerous pieces of evidence and intelligence-gathering opportunities, it missed the near-disastrous attempted attacks by the underwear bomber on a flight to Detroit in 2009 and by the car bomber in Times Square in 2010—there is no doubt that it has transformed itself into the largest, most covert, and potentially most intrusive intelligence agency ever created.

In the process—and for the first time since Watergate and the other scandals of the Nixon administration—the NSA has turned its surveillance apparatus on the US and its citizens. It has established listening posts throughout the nation to collect and sift through billions of email messages and phone calls, whether they originate within the country or overseas. It has created a supercomputer of almost unimaginable speed to look for patterns and unscramble codes. Finally, the agency has begun building a place to store all the trillions of words and thoughts and whispers captured in its electronic net. And, of course, it’s all being done in secret. To those on the inside, the old adage that NSA stands for Never Say Anything applies more than ever. [...]

Inside, the facility will consist of four 25,000-square-foot halls filled with servers, complete with raised floor space for cables and storage. In addition, there will be more than 900,000 square feet for technical support and administration. The entire site will be self-sustaining, with fuel tanks large enough to power the backup generators for three days in an emergency, water storage with the capability of pumping 1.7 million gallons of liquid per day, as well as a sewage system and massive air-conditioning system to keep all those servers cool. Electricity will come from the center’s own substation built by Rocky Mountain Power to satisfy the 65-megawatt power demand. Such a mammoth amount of energy comes with a mammoth price tag—about $40 million a year, according to one estimate.

Yeah, its so secret that 'Wired' knows about it. It seems every couple of years there is a story about a new giant data collection building being bought - there should be dozens by now.

Fact is, those in government are far too incompetent to actually make use of that much information in the first place. These stories are just psy-ops to make you fear them.

[Wilikon]

The part that could be of concern:

"But “this is more than just a data center,” says one senior intelligence official who until recently was involved with the program. The mammoth Bluffdale center will have another important and far more secret role that until now has gone unrevealed. It is also critical, he says, for breaking codes. And code-breaking is crucial, because much of the data that the center will handle—financial information, stock transactions, business deals, foreign military and diplomatic secrets, legal documents, confidential personal communications—will be heavily encrypted. According to another top official also involved with the program, the NSA made an enormous breakthrough several years ago in its ability to cryptanalyze, or break, unfathomably complex encryption systems employed by not only governments around the world but also many average computer users in the US. The upshot, according to this official: “Everybody’s a target; everybody with communication is a target.”

[EskimoBob]

"The heavily fortified $2 billion center should be up and running in September 2013. Flowing through its servers and routers and stored in near-bottomless databases will be all forms of communication, including the complete contents of private emails, cell phone calls, and Google searches, as well as all sorts of personal data trails—parking receipts, travel itineraries, bookstore purchases, and other digital “pocket litter.” It is, in some measure, the realization of the “total information awareness” program created during the first term of the Bush administration—an effort that was killed by Congress in 2003 after it caused an outcry over its potential for invading Americans’ privacy."

This shit is getting crazier bay the hour.

[myrkul]

http://www.gnupg.org/

[EskimoBob]

http://www.gnupg.org/

In last 10 years I have decided about 3 or 4 times: "This is it, I'll GPG all my emails from now on"
Guess what, most people at the receiving end do not use it and have no wish to use it. I do hope this attitude changes over time and using GPG will become a trend.

[iCEBREAKER]

Does it look anything like this?  



These Stasi 2.0 types are getting out of hand.  


Even the Germans eventually got sick of this shit and reminded their government that patriots kill tyrants.

As the GDR began to fall, the Stasi did as well. They began to destroy the extensive files that they had kept, both by hand and with the use of shredders.

When these activities became known, a protest erupted in front of the Stasi headquarters.[62] In the evening of 15 January 1990, a large crowd of people formed outside the gates in order to stop the destruction of personal files. In their minds, this information should have been available to them and also have been used to punish those who had taken part in Stasi actions. The large group of protesters grew and grew until they were able to overcome the police and gain entry into the complex. The protesters became violent and destructive as they smashed doors and windows, threw furniture, and trampled portraits of Erich Honecker, leader of the GDR.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stasi#Storming_the_Stasi_headquarters

All NSA goons and assorted jackboots involved better remember this phrase:

[TheFootMan]

As the GDR began to fall, the Stasi did as well. They began to destroy the extensive files that they had kept, both by hand and with the use of shredders.

When these activities became known, a protest erupted in front of the Stasi headquarters.[62] In the evening of 15 January 1990, a large crowd of people formed outside the gates in order to stop the destruction of personal files. In their minds, this information should have been available to them and also have been used to punish those who had taken part in Stasi actions. The large group of protesters grew and grew until they were able to overcome the police and gain entry into the complex. The protesters became violent and destructive as they smashed doors and windows, threw furniture, and trampled portraits of Erich Honecker, leader of the GDR.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stasi#Storming_the_Stasi_headquarters

That was a great story, and it goes to show the power of the people. The people sometimes feel they don't have power, but what will the government do, if thousands and perhaps millions of people come towards them and demand change. Then they can do nothing.

[wtfvanity]

http://www.gnupg.org/

In last 10 years I have decided about 3 or 4 times: "This is it, I'll GPG all my emails from now on"
Guess what, most people at the receiving end do not use it and have no wish to use it. I do hope this attitude changes over time and using GPG will become a trend.

I work in a law firm. I've pitched millions of times that emails are sent plain text. If you REALLY want secure communication with clients and other law firms, they should use GPG... never happened.

[counter]

Fuck You NSA!  This thread is now on my watchlist, thanks OP.

[pinger]

http://www.gnupg.org/

In last 10 years I have decided about 3 or 4 times: "This is it, I'll GPG all my emails from now on"
Guess what, most people at the receiving end do not use it and have no wish to use it. I do hope this attitude changes over time and using GPG will become a trend.

I work in a law firm. I've pitched millions of times that emails are sent plain text. If you REALLY want secure communication with clients and other law firms, they should use GPG... never happened.

Pepsico Spain do it, I know for sure. So, sometimes happens.

[bernard75]

The heavily fortified $2 billion center should be up and running in September 2013.

No way! The servers alone cost several times as much.
I guess this is construction costs only.

[lemonginger]

and recent leaks should let you know at least part of their capabilities.

Reminder. EFF accepts bitcoin donations.

[BitSmile]

and recent leaks should let you know at least part of their capabilities.

Reminder. EFF accepts bitcoin donations.

Yea, even guardian is full of NSA shit now...
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2013/jun/07/uk-gathering-secret-intelligence-nsa-prism
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jun/07/prism-tech-giants-shock-nsa-data-mining
etcetera
Of course me as a bit of tinfoil hat kind of guy never had any doubts, I use torchat or pgp if I want to keep it private.

[ElectricMucus]

I'd say that's a lame media duck. Something gonna be built for sure but in the end, I think all it's gonna contain is a bunch of new servers full of porn.

[Stampbit]

Fuck You NSA!  This thread is now on my watchlist, thanks OP.

This thread is now on their watchlist.

[mprep]

I think the NSA are really building a giant bitcoin mining farm.  If you can't beat them, join them.

You never know, it might actually be true.

[ShireSilver]

I think the NSA are really building a giant bitcoin mining farm.  If you can't beat them, join them.

You never know, it might actually be true.

And like I said on another forum, they're incompetent enough that they'll be CPU mining. 

[RodeoX]

Why should I watch what I say? Instead let's all publicly say we don't like to be spied on.

[bernard75]

The bomb system is actually plane easy to break.
If 0.01% of the internet users would randomly insert known keywords into all communication, no system in the world could handle the information.
Inshallah!

Warning: Not advisable for people living in the Land of the Free.

[Spendulus]

The bomb system is actually plane easy to break.
If 0.01% of the internet users would randomly insert known keywords into all communication, no system in the world could handle the information.
Inshallah!

Warning: Not advisable for people living in the Land of the Free.

This shows something of a "present moment focus."  These systems are intended to allow total trackback, so for example once someone is targeted (for whatever or whatever reason) the system contains everything, so everything is immediately available about that person.  More importantly, the nexus - his friends and associates, same deal.

EG

I'm curious about Mr. Smith.
<total dump of Smith received>
Let's see his son, his wife, her lover, the son's best three friends.
<total dump of 6 more received>
Run cross check with known religious kooks, anti-abortionists, Tea Party members (or whatever, insert Islamic terrorists if you wish)