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Danish military intelligence uses XKEYSCORE to tap cables in co-op with the NSA

electrospaces.net

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Re: Danish military intelligence uses XKEYSCORE to tap cables in co-op with the NSA

#11

>The novelty of XKEYSCORE is that it enables analysts to find exactly those anonymous communications. For that purpose it reassembles IP packets into their original format ("sessionizing"), like Word documents, spreadsheets, chat messages, etc. This sounds interesting. Does it mean they write a sort of serialization/deserialization routine for whatever format they can grab at hand? For example maybe it's possible to…

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Re: Danish military intelligence uses XKEYSCORE to tap cables in co-op with the NSA

#12
post #10
post #3

Totally off topic, but I love that XKEYSCORE sounds like a Redis command. There has to be an opportunity for some sort of practical joke here but I can't find it.

They always sound so memorable yet mysterious, especially so the ones created by concatenation of two ordinary words, like ETERNALBLUE or FOGBANK. We should make a GPT-based generator of USA secret codenames ;)

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Re: Danish military intelligence uses XKEYSCORE to tap cables in co-op with the NSA

#13

I love how the politicians presume NSA is safe partner and their danish citizens are not in the data. It does not really help if every other neighbouring country does the same. NSA will get danish info elsewhere. Everyone gets played. It works as long as USA is an trusthworthy ally. They wouldn't dare to abuse the information for private gains... right?

This doesn't even need to be a specifically anti-US thing. I think countries should generally not trust other countries that don't have a strong and nearly binding interest in their stability, security, prosperity, etc. In a close multinational union like the EU, one could argue that this is currently the case, or perhaps with closely-tied countries like Australia and New Zealand. It becomes harder to justify as you move down the line, even if the US is far from an enemy of the aforementioned places. Consequently, in the other direction I don't think the US should necessarily trust Germany with sensitive data, or Switzerland should trust Canada, etc.

EDIT for clarity.

Re: Danish military intelligence uses XKEYSCORE to tap cables in co-op with the NSA

#14

I love how the politicians presume NSA is safe partner and their danish citizens are not in the data. It does not really help if every other neighbouring country does the same. NSA will get danish info elsewhere. Everyone gets played. It works as long as USA is an trusthworthy ally. They wouldn't dare to abuse the information for private gains... right?

Are you sure? I find it very convincing that NSA would not betray the trust, as it also says in the article.

> "I can not at all imagine in my imagination that the NSA would betray that trust. I consider it completely and utterly unlikely. If the NSA had a desire to obtain information about Danish citizens or companies, the United States would simply turn to [the domestic security service] PET, which would then provide the necessary legal basis."

I definitely think it would make more sense to give up on using the system on the citizens of a single small country, in exchange for not risking the extensive access to citizens of many other countries, including China and Russia.

If they want to investigate danes, they still have all their other methods at disposal.

Re: Danish military intelligence uses XKEYSCORE to tap cables in co-op with the NSA

#17
post #8

I love how the politicians presume NSA is safe partner and their danish citizens are not in the data. It does not really help if every other neighbouring country does the same. NSA will get danish info elsewhere. Everyone gets played. It works as long as USA is an trusthworthy ally. They wouldn't dare to abuse the information for private gains... right?

> abuse the information for private gains What do you think intelligence is?

"Intelligence is probably the least understood and the most misrepresented of the professions. One reason for this was well expressed by President Kennedy when, on November 18, 1961, he came out to inaugurate the new CIA Headquarters Building and to say good-bye to me as Director. He then remarked: 'Your successes are unheralded, your failures are trumpeted.' For obviously you cannot tell of operatives that go along well. Those that go badly generally speak for themselves.

The President then added a word of encouragement to the several thousand men and women of CIA:

'...but I am sure you realize how important is your work, how essential it is - and in the long sweep of history how significant your efforts will be judged. So I do want to express my appreciation to you now, and I am confident that in the future you will continue to merit the appreciation of your country, as you have in the past.'

It is hardly reasonable to expect proper understanding and support for intelligence work in this country if it is only the insiders, a few people within the executive and legislative branches, who know anything whatever about the CIA. Others continue to draw their knowledge from the so-called inside stories by writers who have never been on the inside."

- Allen W. Dulles, 'The Craft of Intelligence'

Re: Danish military intelligence uses XKEYSCORE to tap cables in co-op with the NSA

#19

I love how the politicians presume NSA is safe partner and their danish citizens are not in the data. It does not really help if every other neighbouring country does the same. NSA will get danish info elsewhere. Everyone gets played. It works as long as USA is an trusthworthy ally. They wouldn't dare to abuse the information for private gains... right?

Are you looking for more oversight than is expressed in the article? It says the Danes check to make sure what the NSA searches for on that system does not include Danish citizen identifiers.
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