The Technology That

Made It Possible

The Technology That Made It

1. Domestic Intercept Possible
Stations
. NSA technicians have installed
intercept stations at key junction
points, or switches, throughout the
country.
. These switches are located in large
windowless buildings owned by the
major telecommunication
companies and control the
domestic internet traffic flow
across the nation.
.

A fiber optic splitter is placed on

the incoming communication lines
and routes the traffic to an NSA

The Technology That Made It

Possible
2. Cellphone Tracking

Bulk cellphone location tracking program

captures almost 5 billion records a day
feeds into a massive 27 terabyte database
stores information about the locations of a hundred million devices.

By tapping into the cables that connect the mobile networks globally and
working with the corporate partners to install intercept equipment
NSA can apply mathematical techniques that enable the analysts to map
cellphone owners' relationships by correlating their patterns of movement
over time with thousands or millions of other phone users who cross their
paths.
This "Co-traveler" program allowed to look for unknown associates of
known intelligence targets by tracking people whose movements intersect.

The Technology That Made It

3. Undersea Cable Tapping
Strategy
Possible
OAKSTAR, STORMBREW, BLARNEY and FAIRVIEWsystems:
tapping into the worldwide network of undersea cables
can process data as it flows across the internet
Each system responsible for different types of intercepted data
BLARNEY system gathers metadata describing who is speaking to
whom and through which networks and devices
Two methods for tapping: 1. Amodified nuclear submarinehouses the technicians and gear needed
to place the physical taps on the undersea cables along strategic points in
the network.
2. Intercept probes at the point where the cables connect to the landing
stations in various countries capturing and copying the data as it flows
onward.

https://nsa.gov1.info/surv

The Technology That Made It

4. Real-Time Internet Possible
Monitoring Capability

XKeyscoresystem:
1. indexes the data flowing through the
worldwide data collection points
2. Stores it in a rolling three-day buffer
database
. XKeyscore is a massive distributed
Linux cluster with over 700 servers
distributed around the world.
. Theory behind XKeyscore:
1. People spend a large amount of time
on the web performing actions that are
anonymous.
2. NSA uses this traffic to detect
anomalies which can lead them to

https://nsa.gov1.info/surveillanc

The Technology That Made It

Possible
5. Tracking Surveillance Data: Boundless Informant
Mapping tool provides NSAs analysts the means to track intelligence
collection statistics worldwide.
Using a color-coded map, to quickly determine the volume of collection
data by geographical location.
This global heat map assigns each nation a color code based on its
surveillance intensity ranging
green: least subjected to surveillance
yellow and orange to
red: most surveillance

https://nsa.gov1.info/surveilla

Do we even need privacy?

UNEXPECTED !!

When Google CEO Eric Schmidt was asked in a 2009CNBC

interview about concerns over his companys retention of user
data, he infamously replied:

If you have something that you dont want anyone to

know, maybe you shouldnt be doing itin the first place.

Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in a 2010

interview that

people have really gotten comfortable not only sharing

more information and different kinds, but more openly and
with more people.

Public Surveillance
Close observation, especially of a suspected
spy or criminal.

THE KNOWN FACT

Even the NSA, with its capacity, could not read
every email, listen to every telephone call, and
track the actions of each individual.
What makes a surveillance system effective
in controlling human behaviour is the
knowledge that ones words and actions
are susceptible to monitoring.

Are we free people?

Change their behaviour when they know they are being

watched.

Strive to do that which is expected of them.

Avoid shame and condemnation.

Adhering tightly to accepted social practices, by staying within

imposed boundaries, avoiding action that might be seen as

deviant
or abnormal. understand that the private realm is
We all instinctively

where we can act, think, speak, write, experiment, and

choose how to be, away from the judgmental eyes of
others.

Consequences of surveillance:
a) It shuts down competence.
b) It shuts down joy.
c) It shuts down creativity and innovation.
When we're being watched, we tend to "normalize" our
behavior. We want - more than anything - to be accepted,
to not be "voted off the island". So, when people can see
(or hear) us, we present what we think they want to see
(or hear) - we turn off what we genuinely feel like doing,
and substitute a socially-acceptable version. We become
fake.

5 Things That Changed After

Snowden
1. Bulk collection of telephone records is
over
Section 215 of the U.S.A Patriot Act gave the government
broad powers to collect business records as part of national
security investigations, and the Bush administration used
the provision to allow the National Security Agency to
sweep up the telephone records of millions of Americans.

5 Things That Changed After

Snowden
2. No more spying on our friends

German leaders said the U.S. was likely spying on

Chancellor Angela Merkels cell phone, with the German
leader telling President Barack Obama that this was fully
unacceptable and a grave breach of trust.

5 Things That Changed After

Snowden

3. Transparency baby steps

Following Mr. Snowdens leaks, Mr. Obama ordered

intelligence agencies to declassify more information about
their programs to give Americans more information about
the scope of some surveillance programs. To be sure, a
tremendous amount of information remains classified and
secret, but the White House for the first time ordered that
the public should be offered a peek into some spy
practices.

5 Things That Changed After

Snowden

4. Data retention changes

The White House ordered that intelligence agencies put

new limits on how long they retain data on foreign
individuals. The new policies, which took several months to
implement, essentially require intelligence agencies to
delete personal information of non-U.S. individuals after
five years unless given special permission.

5 Things That Changed After

Snowden

5. Businesses win disclosure flexibility

on subpoenas

A number of businesses and trade groups said Mr.

Snowdens disclosures revealed how much they had been
forced to cooperate with secret government orders and
subpoenas, something that could hurt them with
customers who dont want the government taking records.

What Does the NSA Court Ruling Mean for

Despite overturning a 2013You
decision,
court strongly urged the US
& the
Me?
Government to take action.

Experts say the landmark decision has effectively paved the way
for a full legal challenge against the legitimacy of the NSA.
"minimization" procedures that govern what the NSA can do with the
domestic information it has intercepted
For the first time, the personal information of non-U.S. citizens now can
only be kept for five years
If, within five years, agents havent determined whether the information
is important, it must be deleted unless the DNI determines that theres a
national security reason to keepit.
Any query now also requires advanced approval from the secret court
designed to evaluate such requests, the Foreign Intelligence Security Court.

CYBER ATTACKS
MAKING HEADLINES

Life is uncertain. Nothing - not surveillance, not

police, not even government - can change that
or even modify it; any attempt to reduce it will
buy you only the illusion of safety. Your choices
are: learn to endure it (or even embrace it), or
suffer the shock when your illusions shatter.

Big Questions Left

Unanswered

BIG QUESTIONS OF EVERYONES

CONCERN
Does the NSA need
an individualized warrant to
listen to my calls or look at my emails?

1. The Government Can Still Gather Data on Americans Without

a Warrant
2. The government deems this incidental collection, but
agents can still access and searchthis data without a warrant.
3. Civil liberties experts, who call this backdoor collection,
have raised concerns that such data could be used against
Americans in court if authorities turned up evidence of a
crime.
4. If the intercepted information is reasonably believed to
contain evidence of a crime then the NSA isallowedto turn it

Is all of this legal?

1. YES, assuming the NSA adheres to the restrictions set out in
court orders. Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court decides
what it is legal for the NSA to do.
2. Bulk Collection of Telephone Metadata is Still in Place.
3. Obamasaid in 2014that he wanted to end the Section 215
bulk metadata program as it currently exists.
4. This level of domestic surveillance wasnt always legal
5. The NSA was gradually granted the authority to collect
domestic information on a massive scale through a series of
legislative changes and court decisions over the decade
following September 11, 2001.

How long can the NSA keep information on

Americans?
1. The NSA can generally keep intercepted domestic
communications for up tofive years.
2. It can keep them indefinitely under certain circumstances, such
as when the communication contains evidence of a crime or
when its foreign intelligence information
3. Encrypted communications can be keptindefinitely. That
includes any information sent to or from asecure web site, that
is, a site with a URL starting with "https".

Does the NSA do anything to protect Americans

privacy?
1. YES.
i. NSA is onlyallowedto intercept communications if at least
one end of the conversation is outside of the U.S.
ii. it doesn't have to distinguish domestic from foreign
communication until the "earliest practicable point" which
allows the NSA to record bulk information from Internet
cables and sort it out later.
2.

Intercepted information belonging to an American must

usually be destroyed

3. NSA mustwithhold the namesof U.S. persons who are not

relevant to ongoing investigations when they distribute
information

BIGGEST QUESTION OF ALL: What if Im not

an American?
1. ALL BETS ARE OFF
2. There do not appear to be any legal restrictions on what the NSA can do
with the communications of non-U.S. persons.
3. The European Union has alreadycomplainedto the U.S. Attorney
General.
4. The U.S. is hardly the only country doing mass surveillance
5. GCHQ (Government Communications Headquarters), the British
counterpart to the NSA,has a similar surveillance programand shares
data with the NSA.
6. Many countriesnow have some sort of mass Internet surveillance now in
place.

TOMORROWS SURVEILLANCE
1. The NSAs plans dont end with collecting your phone records.
2. Revealed plans to build acode-breaking quantum computer, a
technology which could spellthe end for cryptographyand privacy.
3. Ways the NSA is trying to crack encryption or keep tabs on you in
general:. Backdooring Encryption: split-key encryption, companies like Apple,
Microsoft, and Google would be forced into creating a digital key that
could unlock
any smartphone
andtablet and
this key would
be
Currently
in
Techniques
being
available to government
agencies
SINGLE-KEY
KEY ESCROW
SPLIT-KEY
use
considered
NO ENCRYPTION
ENCRYPTION
ENCRYPTIONENCRYPTION

Artificial Intelligence?: Mark Bishop, chair of the Society for the Study
of Artificial Intelligence and Simulation of Behaviour,said that, though
he has no proof, hed be
- astonished if the NSA and GCHQ werent using the best AI they
could to scan all electronic communication they could.
- hes always believed that theyre not doing their job properly if
theyre not
using Artificial Intelligence, regardless of belief of
whether thats right or
wrong.

Getting More Out of Data:

- Motion magnification - we can identify movements so minute the
human eye cant see them
- World increasingly saturated with cameras an open book to
organizations like
the NSA, and the motion microscope gives them a
tool to get more out it

Mobile Surveillance:
- Smartphone extremely precise gyroscopes let them detect the
phonesrotation

LETS DISCUSS!