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Special Source Operations
Special Source Operations (SSO) is a division in the US National Security Agency The National Security Agency (NSA) is an intelligence agency of the United States Department of Defense, under the authority of the director of national intelligence (DNI). The NSA is responsible for global monitoring, collection, and proces ... (NSA) which is responsible for all programs aimed at collecting data from major fiber-optic cables and switches, both inside the US and abroad, and also through corporate partnerships. Its existence was revealed through documents provided by Edward Snowden to media outlets in 2013 and, according to him, it is the "crown jewel" of the NSA. History The program began in 2006, according to one of Snowden's documents, when the NSA was collecting the equivalent of "one Library of Congress every 14.4 seconds". ''The Washington Post'' described the official seal of the SSO division as something "that might have been parody: an eagle with all the world's cabl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
National Security Agency
The National Security Agency (NSA) is an intelligence agency of the United States Department of Defense, under the authority of the director of national intelligence (DNI). The NSA is responsible for global monitoring, collection, and processing of information and data for global intelligence and counterintelligence purposes, specializing in a discipline known as signals intelligence (SIGINT). The NSA is also tasked with the protection of U.S. communications networks and information systems. The NSA relies on a variety of measures to accomplish its mission, the majority of which are clandestine. The NSA has roughly 32,000 employees. Originating as a unit to decipher coded communications in World War II, it was officially formed as the NSA by President Harry S. Truman in 1952. Between then and the end of the Cold War, it became the largest of the U.S. intelligence organizations in terms of personnel and budget. Still, information available as of 2013 indicates that the C ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Guardian Media Group, owned by the Scott Trust Limited. The trust was created in 1936 to "secure the financial and editorial independence of ''The Guardian'' in perpetuity and to safeguard the journalistic freedom and liberal values of ''The Guardian'' free from commercial or political interference". The trust was converted into a limited company in 2008, with a constitution written so as to maintain for ''The Guardian'' the same protections as were built into the structure of the Scott Trust by its creators. Profits are reinvested in its journalism rather than distributed to owners or shareholders. It is considered a newspaper of record in the UK. The editor-in-chief Katharine Viner succeeded Alan Rusbridger in 2015. S ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Washington Post
''The Washington Post'', locally known as ''The'' ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'' or ''WP'', is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C., the national capital. It is the most widely circulated newspaper in the Washington metropolitan area and has a national audience. As of 2023, the ''Post'' had 130,000 print subscribers and 2.5 million digital subscribers, both of which were the List of newspapers in the United States, third-largest among U.S. newspapers after ''The New York Times'' and ''The Wall Street Journal''. The ''Post'' was founded in 1877. In its early years, it went through several owners and struggled both financially and editorially. In 1933, financier Eugene Meyer (financier), Eugene Meyer purchased it out of bankruptcy and revived its health and reputation; this work was continued by his successors Katharine Graham, Katharine and Phil Graham, Meyer's daughter and son-in-law, respectively, who bought out several rival publications. The ''Post ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Edward Snowden
Edward Joseph Snowden (born June 21, 1983) is a former National Security Agency (NSA) intelligence contractor and whistleblower who leaked classified documents revealing the existence of global surveillance programs. Born in 1983 in Elizabeth City, North Carolina, he attended a community college and later enrolled at a masters programme of the University of Liverpool without finishing it. In 2005 he worked for the University of Maryland, in 2006 he started working for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and then switched to Dell in 2009 where he was managing computer systems of the NSA. In 2013, he worked two months at Booz Allen Hamilton with the purpose of gathering more NSA documents. In May 2013, Snowden flew to Hong Kong and in early June he revealed thousands of classified NSA documents to journalists Glenn Greenwald, Laura Poitras, Barton Gellman, and Ewen MacAskill. Global surveillance disclosures (2013–present), His disclosures revealed numerous global surveillance ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
PRISM (surveillance Program)
PRISM is a code name for a program under which the United States National Security Agency (NSA) collects internet communications from various U.S. internet companies. The program is also known by the SIGINT Activity Designator, SIGAD . PRISM collects stored internet communications based on demands made to internet companies such as Google LLC and Apple Inc., Apple under Section 702 of the FISA Amendments Act of 2008 to turn over any data that match court-approved search terms. Among other things, the NSA can use these PRISM requests to target communications that were encrypted when they traveled across the internet backbone, to focus on stored data that telecommunication filtering systems discarded earlier, and to get data that is easier to handle. PRISM began in 2007 in the wake of the passage of the Protect America Act under the Presidency of George W. Bush, Bush Administration. The program is operated under the supervision of the United States Foreign Intelligence Surveill ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act
The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 (FISA, , ) is a Law of the United States, United States federal law that establishes procedures for the surveillance and collection of foreign intelligence on domestic soil.''Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA): An Overview'' (updated April 6, 2021), Congressional Research Service. FISA was enacted in response to revelations of widespread privacy violations by the federal government Presidency of Richard Nixon, under president Richard Nixon. It requires Federal law enforcement in the United States, federal law enforcement and United States Intelligence Community, intelligence agencies to obtain authorization for gathering "foreign intelligence information" between "foreign powers" and "agents of foreign powers" suspected of espionage o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
MUSCULAR (surveillance Program)
MUSCULAR (DS-200B), located in the United Kingdom, is the name of a surveillance program jointly operated by Britain's Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) and the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) that was revealed by documents released by Edward Snowden and interviews with knowledgeable officials. GCHQ is the primary operator of the program. GCHQ and the NSA have secretly broken into the main communications links that connect the data centers of Yahoo! and Google. Substantive information about the program was made public at the end of October 2013. Overview The programme is jointly run by: * – Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) (United Kingdom) * – U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) MUSCULAR is one of at least four other similar programs that rely on a trusted 2nd party, programs which together are known as WINDSTOP. In a 30-day period from December 2012 to January 2013, MUSCULAR was responsible for collecting 181 million records. It was however dwa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Upstream Collection
Upstream collection is a term used by the National Security Agency (NSA) of the United States for intercepting telephone and Internet traffic from the Internet backbone, meaning major Internet cables and switches, both domestic and foreign. Besides the Upstream collection, NSA also gathers information from Internet communications through arrangements with Internet companies under the program codenamed PRISM. Both the Upstream programs and PRISM are part of the Special Source Operations (SSO) division, which is responsible for collection in cooperation with corporate partners. Programs One of the slides of a presentation about the PRISM program describes Upstream as "collection of communications on fiber cables and infrastructure as data flows past" and says the Upstream collection is conducted under the following four major surveillance programs: * FAIRVIEW * BLARNEY * STORMBREW * OAKSTAR The FAIRVIEW, BLARNEY and STORMBREW programs are for collecting data at facilities ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fairview (surveillance Program)
FAIRVIEW is a secret program under which the National Security Agency cooperates with the American telecommunications company AT&T in order to collect phone, internet and e-mail data mainly of foreign countries' citizens at major cable landing stations and switching stations inside the United States. The FAIRVIEW program started in 1985, one year after the Bell breakup.New York TimesAT&T Helped U.S. Spy on Internet on a Vast Scale& Pro PublicaNSA Spying Relies on AT&T’s ‘Extreme Willingness to Help’ August 15, 2015. In 2010, the NSA had access to these AT&T facilities: * 8 internet peering points * 26 VoIP router facilities * 1 VoIP hub router facility (with 30 planned) * 9 submarine cable landing points (with 7 planned) * 16 4ESS circuit switching stations Except for the VoIP facilities, most are along U.S. borders. In 2011, NSA spent $188.9 million on the program, which was twice as much as on its second-largest program, STORMBREW. In 2013, whistleblower Edward Snowden ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Blarney (code Name)
BLARNEY is a communications surveillance program of the National Security Agency (NSA) of the United States. It started in 1978, operated under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act and was expanded after the September 11 attacks. The collection takes place at top-level telecommunications facilities within the United States, choke points through which most traffic will flow, including wireless. This type of surveillance is referred to as Upstream collection. BLARNEY was first brought to public view in a PRISM slide revealed by Edward Snowden. The FY 2013 budget for BLARNEY was $65.96 million. Misrepresentations Initially it was assumed that BLARNEY was the program under which the NSA cooperated with AT&T and that among the tapping facilities were AT&T's Room 641A in San Francisco, California, revealed in 2006 by Mark Klein, and another in New Jersey. However, new NSA documents released on August 15, 2015 show that the cooperation with AT&T takes places under FAIRVIEW, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
STORMBREW
STORMBREW is a secret internet surveillance program of the National Security Agency (NSA) of the United States. It was disclosed in the summer of 2013 as part of the leaks by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden. The FY 2013 budget for STORMBREW was $46.06 million. Scope of the program The program comprises cooperation with a "key corporate partner", which was identified on October 23, 2013 by ''The Washington Post''—quoting NSA historian Matthew Aid—as Verizon. This was confirmed by a joint report by ''Pro Publica'' and ''The New York Times'' from August 15, 2015.New York TimesAT&T Helped U.S. Spy on Internet on a Vast Scale& Pro PublicaNSA Spying Relies on AT&T’s ‘Extreme Willingness to Help’ August 15, 2015. STORMBREW is an umbrella program involving surveillance of telecommunications. It falls under the category of "Upstream collection", meaning that data is pulled directly from fiber-optic cables and top-level communications infrastructure, which allows access ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
OAKSTAR
OAKSTAR is a secret internet surveillance program of the National Security Agency (NSA) of the United States. It was disclosed in 2013 as part of the leaks by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden. OAKSTAR is an umbrella program involving surveillance of telecommunications. It falls under the category of "Upstream collection Upstream collection is a term used by the National Security Agency (NSA) of the United States for intercepting telephone and Internet traffic from the Internet backbone, meaning major Internet cables and switches, both domestic and foreign. Besid ...", meaning that data is pulled directly from fiber-optic cables and top-level communications infrastructure. Upstream collection programs allow access to very high volumes of data, and most of the pre-selection is done by the providers themselves, before the data is passed on to the NSA. The FY 2013 budget for OAKSTAR was $9.41 million. OAKSTAR consists of the following SIGADs: ''Note: SIGADs not otherwise de ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
