In the absence of truth…
Tuesday morning this side of the pond; everyone is getting ready to do whatever they must do, some of us were stuck in a classroom, some others already at work, and some are still sleeping or enjoying a healthy and tasty breakfast (hopefully). Some of us saw it "live"; some others felt the terror in the flesh. No matter the years that have passed since that event, we all share the consequences of that morning, of Tuesday, September 11th.
The first national security measure was to shut down borders and entry points. The second national security measure was the then ominous and controversial Patriot Act , the one that allows the American government; to do whatever is necessary to guarantee national security, and the protection of various interests.
Months passed by, then a few years later some media outlets reported that an agency called the NSA was being accused by civil organizations of "violating certain human rights”. Edward Snowden was in charge of lighting a candle that allowed some more information into the public eye, so the people could see a glimpse of this voracious monster that feeds with our information, even while it watches us sleep… but in reality, many people do not really know (don't want to know) what the NSA is and is not... and this is when things get really interesting.
“Events”
1791, December 15… "The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized." - Fourth Amendment of the Constitution of the United States of America (“Each man’s home is his castle”)
1952- Considering that it evolved into a behemoth-type of agency, it is difficult to imagine that at the beginning it was composed of a few groups of specialists that survived WWII. In 1952, the NSA is created by order of President Truman.
1975- The investigation of the "Church Committee" of the Senate discovers a network of domestic espionage by the NSA and recommends certain reforms.
1978 - It is signed as a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act Law (FISA) that protects American citizens from any type of domestic espionage.
2000 - NSA “expresses its wish to live in the grid”
2001, September 11 - 8:46 a.m. American Airlines Flight 11 crashes against the North Tower of the World Trade Center (1 WTC). The official version says that on that day 3.000 people in the WTC Complex died; 227 passengers and 19 "kidnappers".
Post 9-11... the White House asks the NSA: “That could you do with more legal power”
2001, October 4 - President Bush signs the order starts the domestic espionage program by the NSA
2001, October 26 - The USA PATRIOT ACT becomes Law when signed by President George W. Bush.
2005, December 16th. The New York Times exposes the NSA publicly and for the first time, because espionage.
2005, December 17th. President Bush confirms the existence of the espionage program by the NSA
2010, January 6th. The NSA begins the construction of a Massive Data Center to store intercepted communications from all over the world.
2012, June 6th. PRISM program is exposed: NSA connects to internet providers' systems, compiling massive amounts of information.
2012, June 13th. The New York Times reveals that the NSA monitors Skype, the name of this project is: “Project Chess”.
2012, June 21th. The Guardian reveals that the British counterpart of the NSA is called: GCHQ (Government Communications Headquarters).
2012, July 11th. The Guardian reveals that Microsoft cooperates with the North American Government.
2012, July 11th. The existence of XKEYSCORE is revealed (it is a secret computer system designed for the search and analysis of data in the Internet. XKeyscore detects the nationality of foreigners by means of the analysis of the language used on intercepted emails, and it has been applied in Latin America, specifically in Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico and Venezuela. The purpose is to allow the analysts to look for metadata, contents of emails, BROWSING HISTORY, names, telephone numbers, IP addresses, language and certain key words of any activity that has conducted through the Internet.)
2012, August 9th. The White House publishes “a legal justification” under section 215 of the PATRIOT ACT.
2012, October 4th. The Guardian reveals that the NSA has the ability to hack Tor.
2012, December 4th. The Washington Post reveals that the NSA collects 5 billion records of phone calls a day.
2013, January 27th. The NSA spies on mobile phone users thanks to the "apps with a leak".
2013, February 27th. The Guardian exposes the “Optic Nerve” program of the GCHQ. It compiles photos taken with webcams and feeds a data base that will be used for several face recognition programs.
2013, March 18th. The Washington Post reveals the existence of the MYSTIC program; that helps the NSA to record telephone calls.
“Panopticon”
The Crypto-Mathematician Bill Binney, catalogued as “one of the best analysts in history”, leader of SARC (Signals Intelligence Automation Research Center) and creator of the “ThinThread” (an algorithm that helps to accommodate and make sense of the massive amounts of information that the American spies send. It was designed to track foreign enemies through a digital fingerprint. Binney was terrified when he realized that his algorithm also processed domestic information, without a court order, illegally. Later on, Binney implemented an encryption system that “erased” domestic data, unless there was an order signed by a Judge.)
The supercomputers that Narus makes are not available for the public; in fact, they do not even sell them to state governments. But they do sell them to the NYPD (because of the amounts of data being handled) and obviously, to their favorite clients: the NSA.
The Narus systems help to automate the data collection around the world, including those through the Internet and VoIP calls such as Skype; as well as most of the telephone conversations and mobile communications; also transactions that are carried out through these technologies. Narus created a called technology “deep packet inspection” that allows the geo-location, tracking and extensive monitoring of the internet traffic. Bill Binney thinks that the NSA keeps a copy from all emails that are transmitted within the United States and that Narus is probably the computer that "catches and keeps that information".
The NSA, its British counterpart, the GCHQ; their different projects such as PRISM and XKEYSCORE; plus all the things that we cannot see and are perhaps more horrifying, are already here and are real. They will not go away, in fact they will grow in power and reach since mobile devices are becoming more popular, to the point of becoming a "vital organ" for most users; they will become more invasive due to the “increasing threats to national and international security” on behalf of ISIS in the Middle East, the phantom menace of the drug cartels, networks of illegal traffic of weapons, slaves, prostitution, organs... and all those delicious nontaxable goods.
In 2013, the Record #20130430 created by Citizenlab; reports that there are two “vendors” selling monitoring software (Trojans) assigned to work only in Mexico.
GAMMA/FINFISHER see Report 20130430 in Citizenlab.
HACKINGTEAM see Report 20130425 in Citizenlab.
But there are ways to protect yourselves…
Evolution of the NSA by EFF
Bonus:
The Secret Sentry by Matthew M. Aid, presents a more "real" version of the NSA, do not expect to read about UFOs, who killed Kennedy, etc.
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