Live data from Hacker News

The NSA’s Hidden Spy Hubs in Eight U.S. Cities

theintercept.com

91–100 of 192 posts

Re: The NSA’s Hidden Spy Hubs in Eight U.S. Cities

#91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One of the few groups that should be spied on

No, their activities should largely be public. The NSA having privlaged information on their actions is dangerous, they have no incentive to share them with the public unless it benefits the NSA.

> No, their activities should largely be public.

I can agree on that

Re: The NSA’s Hidden Spy Hubs in Eight U.S. Cities

#92
post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd argue that metadata is more important than content. It enables suspicion-by-association lines of inquiry. Once you know whos' involved in a conversation, it's much easier to target them for closer attention, such as hacking their machine or rubber-hose cryptography, both of which nullify any crypto you might have used.

> I'd argue that metadata is more important than content Isn't metadata, practically speaking, a subset of content? (If you have the latter, you almost certainly also have the former?) Metadata is more useful than content if you're capacity constrained, technologically or legally, in collection and/or analysis.

Isn't metadata, practically speaking, a subset of content?

Importantly to how we think about communication, no.

Metadata is the signature that accompanies or encapsulates content, viewable to the world. You can completely conceal content, through encryption for example, but you can't completely conceal metadata.

In other words there must be a physical exchange of energy somewhere (communication), and metadata tells you something about how the exchange happened, irrespective and ignorant of what the content is.

Re: The NSA’s Hidden Spy Hubs in Eight U.S. Cities

#93
post #42
post #6

One wonders if a CDN might advertise, "we promise once your data enters our network at our edge locations outside of the US, it does not traverse any AT&T networks while reaching your server inside the US". Same with cloud companies' private networks across regions.

If your communication is encrypted it shouldn't matter if it passes AT&T networks. Either A. Popular and well known encryption algorithms are not broken by the NSA, and your communication is private. B. Popular and well known encryption algorithms are broken by the NSA, but the fact that it's broken is top secret and the state will not do any actions that revel the secret. Your communications are not safe, and while…

It could always be used as leverage if the appropriate situation arose.

Re: The NSA’s Hidden Spy Hubs in Eight U.S. Cities

#94
post #29
post #2

I’d love to see the intercept publish the equivalent for China, Russia, etc. It feels the press has very overindexed into the NSA.

The Intercept is "overindexed" to the US in the same way that the Daily Mail is "overindexed" to the UK. That's the whole point.

The Intercept, though I like much of their work, has shown some sympathy with Russia and repeated things that were Russian propaganda from agencies like Sputnik and RT. Wikileaks itself is possibly even a Russian front operation.

Re: The NSA’s Hidden Spy Hubs in Eight U.S. Cities

#95
post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not a secret in the West, or even in China, that there's a "Great Firewall" which surveils and regulates all internet access. It's just America that pretends it doesn't have a secret police.

It is ironic that the "democracy dies in the dark" people still won't report on this even though it has been common knowledge and public record for over a decade.

Still won't report on what? The Chinese firewall is public knowledge, and Cisco helped build it. China doesn't have a democracy and doesn't pretend to.

NSA spying to an extent is public knowledge, but the submission is full of new information. I'm sure it will be reported by other sources in a few hours.

Re: The NSA’s Hidden Spy Hubs in Eight U.S. Cities

#96
post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Intercept is "overindexed" to the US in the same way that the Daily Mail is "overindexed" to the UK. That's the whole point.

The Intercept, though I like much of their work, has shown some sympathy with Russia and repeated things that were Russian propaganda from agencies like Sputnik and RT. Wikileaks itself is possibly even a Russian front operation.

I like The Intercept, but it's mainly Glenn Greenwald who seems to have gone off the deep end and really dug in his heels, even when other authors in the group have written articles disagreeing with his unyielding conclusions.

Re: The NSA’s Hidden Spy Hubs in Eight U.S. Cities

#97

The Seattle location - 1122 3rd Ave - is an interesting spot. According to Google Maps[0], next door is the FBI Seattle Division office. On street view, the building itself has a street-level office with signs for both AT&T and CenturyLink. 3rd Ave itself is slightly notorious - hosting the surface entrances for the Seattle bus tunnel, and a large number of inter-city routes, the area has a reputation for crime and t…

Its choice of location is nothing nefarious. It was built in the mid 1950s as a Pacific Northwest Bell telco central office, for phone lines serving downtown Seattle, in the days when dialtone rotary pulse-dial phone systems were the highest technology available. The PNW Bell phone system and its interconnections with the AT&T Long Lines system had some sites which were mutually shared with military AUTOVON and other federal government long distance telecom circuits (such as those which fed the giant SAGE installations at McChord and in Moses Lake).

It became a USWest site in 1984 through the breakup of the Bell monopoly system, and then Qwest and eventually Centurylink.

Re: The NSA’s Hidden Spy Hubs in Eight U.S. Cities

#98
Is 811 10th (NYCMNY54) even interesting from an Internet perspective any longer? Yes, the building is part of AT&T’s network (AS7018), but as far as I’m aware, no peering occurs here at all. I’d look for equivalent shady racks or rooms at 60 Hudson, 111 8th and 25 Broadway.

Maybe the comfortable relationship between NSA and at&t are more the driver for the location, and the fiber taps are all backhauled here.

From a voice perspective, though, I’d think this was still a useful surveillance point, given AT&T likely still tandems traffic here.

Re: The NSA’s Hidden Spy Hubs in Eight U.S. Cities

#99
post #2

I’d love to see the intercept publish the equivalent for China, Russia, etc. It feels the press has very overindexed into the NSA.

Professor Chomsky has often had to respond to criticism that he singled out the U.S. for his criticisms. He rightly points out that, as a citizen of the U.S., he is obligated first to attempt to address the wrongs (as he sees them) of his own government first, since he (at least in theory) has some ability to influence his own government.

Re: The NSA’s Hidden Spy Hubs in Eight U.S. Cities

#100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

you're really optimistic... why would PRC provide a stable "work" and "exercise" routine when it can simply use a death-van? PRC is wiser to do a quick off-with-their-heads when it wants to shush someone

True, a .22 round is much more efficient then lodging and food

Suicide by multiple gunshots
Post reply on HN