The first major incident that alerted the United States to the threat of terrorism on its own soil was the bombing in the garage section of the world trade center in 1993. This sparked a surge amongst the nation’s intelligence organizations to go after suspected future threats. This paper will focus on the national security agency’s transition into the digital era and the tools it uses to prop up its unrestricted global surveillance network. By the late-1990s William Binney, a veteran at the NSA’s was widely regarded as its most talented codebreakers/analysts ever. He was tasked with coming up with a technical solution to filter through massive amounts of data to gain intelligence on who the terrorists were and what their plots were. His background as a codebreaker during the Vietnam war lead him to realize that sometimes even more information could be gained by looking at how data related to other data on a macro scale rather than looking at the specific information within a piece of data; this is essentially the concept of metadata. Bill’s leverage of metadata analysis first proved its legitimacy when he was able to accurately predict the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968.1 …show more content…
Binney co-founded a group within the NSA call SARC (Signals Intelligence Automation Research Center) to accomplish this goal.7 They used people’s digital footprints with one another; things like: text messages, phone calls, geo tags, emails, flights, and transactions. All of this information gets transmitted through phones, computers, credit cards, and other such devices. Again, rather than looking at the actual data of an individual they looked at the relationships between one person’s data and other. This program would implement these features, and would go on to be called “Thin
The pros of electronic surveillance are extensive. The ability for agents of the United States Intelligence Community (IC) to intercept and process communications and information from foreign powers, agents of foreign powers, international terrorist organizations, and others who seek to engage in activities with such groups, provides the ...
In times of great terror and panic, the citizens of a nation must decide what they value most: their right to privacy or the lives of the innocent. Government surveillance is criticized, however there are times in a nation’s history where, in order to ensure the safety of their citizens, they must surveill the country for potential hazards that might exist in the world. The government-issued program, COINTELPRO--a series of illegal projects during the twentieth century organized by the Federal Bureau of Investigation--while heavily criticized for its unconstitutional grounds--was justified because it benefitted the nation during a period of upheaval. COINTELPRO is popularly condemned by historians and professors such as Brandeis University Professor of Sociology, David Cunningham, who asserts that the FBI counterintelligence program was only a form of repression that allowed for the government to suppress matters that they consider bothersome (234) This however was not the case. COINTELPRO was necessary because of the great social unrest, individuals posed threats to society, and creating operations that were beneficial to the United States.
"The Triumph of Technique – The Logic of the NSA." LibrarianShipwreck. WordPress.com, 22 June 2013. Web. 08 Feb. 2014.
With the introduction of the internet being a relatively new phenomenon, the act of cyber espionage is not something that has been properly acknowledged by society. The American Government has done a stand up job of keeping its methods in the shadows and away from the eyes of its people since its documented domestic surveillance began on October 4th, 2001; Twenty three days after the Twin Towers fell President George Bush signed an order to begin a secret domestic eavesdropping operation, an operation which was so sensitive that even many of the country's senior national security officials with the...
According to John W. Whitehead, “The fact that the government can now, at any time, access entire phone conversations, e-mail exchanges, and other communications from months or years past should frighten every American.” (Whitehead). The NSA
The NSA has been secretly ordered to eavesdrop by the Bush administration after the 9/11 terrorist attack. The base of where the NSA has been operating their wiretapping agenda is in Bluff Dale, Utah the building sprawls 1,500,000 square feet and possess the capacity to hold as much as five zeta bytes of data it has cost almost $2,000,000,000. The act of spying over the USA citizens even though they are suspicious is a threat to the people’s privacy and the privacy of other countries’ members are being infringed on by the NSA by the act of wiretapping. The action of wiretapping violates laws for privacy, like the Bill of Right’s Amendment Four which says “Every subject has a right to be secure from all unreasonable searches, and seizures of his person, his houses, his papers, and all his possessions”. The wiretapping controversy has caused the panic and hysteria of the citizens of the USA and USA’s allies. This panic and hysteria has troubled the government by resulting to mistrust and concern against them by both groups. The panic effect of the NSA wiretapping has caused many people such as journalist to have their freedom of speech to be restricted in fear of the NSA to stamp them as terrorist and according to the First Amendment of the Bill of Rights that is an infringement of the people’s right of freedom of expression consists of the rights to freedom of speech, press, assembly and to petition the government for a redress of grievances, and the implied rights of association and belief.
In the past few years the National Security Agency has been all over the news, and not in a good way. Former contractor of the National Security Edward Snowden leaked classified documents to several media outlets on such a scale the world took notice. The day the world learned about the Prism program among others was June, 5, 2013 when Ed Snowden gave the specifics of the programs to The Guardian, and the Washington Post. Ed Snowden turned those secrets over as a member of the NSA but fled the country before the leaks so he would not be imprisoned by the authorities. Immediately after the leaks Ed Snowden became infamous with around the clock watch as to what country would grant his asylum, he currently resides in a Moscow airport pending appeal (Staff, 2013). He claimed he “did not want to live in a society like this” that’s why he decided to turn over states secret for all the world to see (Staff, 2013). Now that you know the man behind the leaks it is time that you find out about the program, and the reach and impact it really had.
The future of America is definitely affected by terrorism and terrorism has benefited from the new technologies that aid and speed up communication around the world. Terrorists can use tactics that they know and manipulate advanced technologies such as the internet. These technological advantages have certainly improved the capabilities of terrorist groups to plan and accomplish their operations. It also offers these terrorists the ability to affect communities faster and much more intensely than earlier terrorists. In order to reduce America's vulnerability to terrorism, in regards to their threats, strategies and tactics, when dealing with the internet, a complete understanding of the nature of America’s enemies is necessary.
The Central Intelligence Agency The CIA is one of the U.S. foreign intelligence agencies, responsible for getting and analyzing information about foreign governments, corporations, individuals, and reporting such information to the various branches of the U.S. government. The State Department's Bureau of Intelligence and Research and the Defense Department's Defense Intelligence Agency comprise the other two. Its headquarters is in Langley, Virginia, across the Potomac River from D.C. The Agency, created in 1947 by President Harry S. Trueman, is a descendant of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) of World War 2. The OSS was dissolved in October 1945 but William J. Jonavan, the creator of the OSS, had submitted a proposal to President Roosevelt in 1944.
12. Walsh, Trudy. Now it’s easier to ID the crooks. Government Computer News. p13. Vol23. Feb, 2014.
The FBI should monitor what were doing. This is a point that needs emphasizing since so many people believe it’s all about their privacy. When people found out the u.s government surveillance program, granted the NSA access to data held on private citizens, they didn’t like the idea of it. I get that people would disagree with this because it is a violation of civil rights. On the other hand, by security taking this justifiable measure it will ensure the safety, therefore; the FBI should be monitoring online content when it comes to our well being.
Kasdorf, B. (2014). Welcome to the metadata millenium. Book Business, 17(1), 18-23. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/1500945974?accountid=10043
In 2001, the MIT Technology Review listed data mining as one of the top 10 technologies that will change the world.[i] So, what is data mining? For many people, the simple answer is that data mining is the collecting of people’s information when logged onto the Internet. But Webopedia emphasizes that data mining is not the collection of data itself, but the statistical interpretation of it – allowing people to obtain new information or find hidden patterns within that collected data.[ii] It is the combination of these, collection and analysis, which are cause for concern. People want to know: What information is being collected about me? Who has access to that information? What decisions are people making about me based upon that information?
XKEYSCORE is fed a constant flow of Internet traffic (up to 15 terabytes/s) from fiber optic cables. These cables are part of the internet's backbone. The raw data it collects can be stored for 4-5 days, and the metadata for up to 45 days, unless the National Security Agency or other organization granted access to the database, requests for it to held longer. TEMPROA, a addon for XKEYSCORE. Its function is to collect all data in and out of the UK routers, in a rolling database, this allows analysts see every single scrap of data, and can be analyzed easier, faster, and with more thoroughness. PRISM: a Program where the National Security Agency, with the help of telephone carriers such as verizon, and at&t, take phone data such as geo location, caller logs, duration, recieving caller, caller id. They claimed to have used it during the early 2000’s to 2009 to pattern organized crime, when they would call or recieve texts. Also to track suspected terrorists in the U.S.. SKYNET, “from use of GSM metadata, we measure aspects of each selectors pattern-of-life, social network, and travel behavior”. SIGINT,”specifically limited to gathering information about international terrorists and foreign powers, organizations, or persons. These requests for information can be requested by any department in the Executive branch” Kaspersky Lab, One
A major reason the U.S. needs to increase restrictions on the type and amount of data collected on individuals from the internet is due to the fact that the United States government can track communications and browsing histories of private citizens without warrant or cause. After the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, ...