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XKeyscore: NSA program collects 'nearly everything a user does on the internet'

theguardian.com

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Re: XKeyscore: NSA program collects 'nearly everything a user does on the internet'

#161

Post by vidarh »

TsiCClawOfLight wrote: post #28
ck2 wrote: post #6

Imagine if storage limitations weren't holding back the NSA. Those 60TB density HAMR[1] drives that are due in 2016 are really going to take invasive to a whole new level. [1] http://storageeffect.media.seagate.com/files/2012/03/perpham...

mmh... but maybe the military is also ahead in that area? Maybe DARPA has 1TB GB/s drives?

I don't quite know what you intend "1 TB GB/s drives" to mean.

But note that you can buy off the shelf PCIe cards with SSD's mounted that will give you 1TB storage and an aggregate read bandwidth of more than 1GB/sec today. I've got three sitting in various servers. They're expensive, and frankly for the future I'll rather get a couple of extra SATA III controllers and get multiple "regular" SSDs on separate controllers for that reason, but they're available.

For NSA style data collection, though, the collection is trivially to do in parallel: Hash all keys to a "virtual bucket", and hold a map of virtual buckets to physical servers. Then when you want more capacity, you add some physical servers, reassigns some of the virtual buckets from other physical servers to the new ones, and synchronises any old data (given that NSA claims they could only hold the full data stream for three days, you don't even need the hassle of moving data, just make collection on different days map to different virtual buckets, so that on day one you "just" reassign virtual buckets the content of which is being expired on the old servers anyway, on day two, the next set etc. - you maintain full spread of read/write traffic by ensuring that in normal operation all servers have an even spread of "day 1", "day 2" and "day 3" buckets).

It's amusing they see storage as an issue, but of course this was in 2008. Today I have 6TB in my home NAS, and my perfectly off the shelf tower case can easily fit 40TB+ with current size harddisks (though I doubt the noise would make me popular at home).

Re: XKeyscore: NSA program collects 'nearly everything a user does on the internet'

#162

Post by joering2 »

pavs wrote: post #101
nikcub wrote: post #29

This is overwhelming. Even when you always hear the claims about we knew this was going on, somehow it is still shocking when you see it all laid out infront of you with screenshots and the capabilities described. I can see how they get HTTP information, since they would intercept at transit hubs - but how are they getting all Facebook private messages and Gmail? I was also looking for another unique ID that users ar…

Facebook ex-CTO joined NSA not too long ago, that might have helped?

Probably not as much as FB co-founder offering his company Palantir services to government on people's intelligence.

Re: XKeyscore: NSA program collects 'nearly everything a user does on the internet'

#163

Post by nicholassmith »

akmiller wrote: post #141

Honest, maybe naive question, but what types of programmers actively help build and maintain systems like this? I turned down a job for a company that is less than a mile from my house because I viewed their business as immoral. Hard for me to fathom anyone taking a job, helping to build systems like this. I get that many of the components of a system like this could be seen as harmless. However, a system of this com…

They're probably not thinking of it as immoral. Most likely they actually do believe they're improving national security by doing this.

Or they just like the paycheck, that's a big possibility. I imagine the NSA is probably happy to pay a lot with a large amount of bonuses to keep people in roles.

Re: XKeyscore: NSA program collects 'nearly everything a user does on the internet'

#164

Post by w_t_payne »

clicks wrote: post #113
scottdeagan wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Probably because he has dark skin, and his native tongue is probably something other than English. I'm a little worried now because I visited his page, and this will surely be logged, hence my past online activities may now be investigated.

Don't worry, you were already on their list. HN fields roughly 200,000 unique visitors each day, most of which have a markedly anti-gov't-spying slant[1], that's enough evidence to be in their cross-hairs. [1]: Such that in some capacity you might participate in the creation/promotion of methods or software to get around their snooping technologies.

Yup. I think that we all classify as "Enemy sympathizers". I wonder when we will be classified as "Enemy combatants?". As soon as somebody mentions violence, I suppose.

Oh bum..

Re: XKeyscore: NSA program collects 'nearly everything a user does on the internet'

#165

Post by talmand »

aspensmonster wrote: post #110

>How do I find a strong-selector for a known target? >How do I find a cell of terrorists that has no known connection to strong-selectors? >Answer: Look for anomalous events >E.g. Someone whose language is out of place for the region they are in >Someone who is using encryption >Someone searching the web for suspicious stuff Lovely. Suspicious stuff and encryption. But wait! There's more! >Show me all the VPN startup…

I'd like to know where they are keeping these "over 300 terrorists" that have been captured due to this program.

How is one labeled a terrorist by this program I wonder?

Re: XKeyscore: NSA program collects 'nearly everything a user does on the internet'

#166

Post by northwest »

"The NSA documents assert that by 2008, 300 terrorists had been captured using intelligence from XKeyscore."

So, even IF this number is not just another lie, XKeyscore has been made worthless, with something ridiculously small as the 2 prison breaks of the recent days.

That means: What remains is a police state that is not even "secure".

Good job, governments/lobbyists/"defense" corporations.

Re: XKeyscore: NSA program collects 'nearly everything a user does on the internet'

#167

Post by semenko »

MrKurtz wrote: post #149
semenko wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> edit: Gmail messages must only be captured when they leave the Google network. It seems easier for the NSA to tap datacenter datacenter fiber links inside Google's network. Why worry about decryption when you can have Google's frontend servers do it for you?

Why would Google (or anyone) link to them directly? with fiber no less! this stuff is alarming enough no need for FUD. This XKS business seems about intercepting non-encrypted traffic as the references to HTTP payload quoted in the article would suggest.

(Keep in mind these slides are 5 years old, before Google Search over SSL)

The NSA has clearly tapped trans-oceanic fiber -- why not also tap high-volume inter-datacenter links?

Re: XKeyscore: NSA program collects 'nearly everything a user does on the internet'

#168

Post by nicholassmith »

griffordson wrote: post #87
haakon wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Notice that the presentation is from 2008 - a lot changes in five years.

One such change is coming/has come online in Utah.

That's a huge change as well as it's from all accounts a massive single purpose data centre.

Re: XKeyscore: NSA program collects 'nearly everything a user does on the internet'

#169

Post by jgrahamc »

kyro wrote: post #157

Is this information the NSA could've attained left to their own devices, or is this sort of stuff only accessible with help from service providers, eg Facebook and Google? What I'm trying to ask is: with all the hullabaloo Google, Facebook, Yahoo, Microsoft, etc have made about individual, manual reviews of information requests, are we still being lied to? I suspect that we obviously haven't been told the whole story…

If you can tap large Internet connections then you can siphon off all HTTP and SMTP traffic and from there it's trivial to reconstruct sessions and from there get application level stuff.

I was doing similar things in the mid-1990s on shared Ethernet. It's really only a question of speed and scale and then of writing code that recognizes particular traffic (such as "this HTTP connection is a Facebook chat session").

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