RAKMEiSTER
21st March 2011, 01:31
TIL that AT&T installed a fiberoptic splitter at its facility at 611 Folsom Street in San Francisco that makes copies of all emails, web browsing, and other Internet traffic to and from AT&T customers (including data from iPhones and iPads), and provides those copies to the NSA. (eff.org)
NSA Spying
he U.S. government, with assistance from major telecommunications carriers including AT&T, has engaged in a massive program of illegal dragnet surveillance of domestic communications and communications records of millions of ordinary Americans since at least 2001.
News reports in December 2005 first revealed that the National Security Agency (NSA) has been intercepting Americans’ phone calls and Internet communications. Those news reports, plus a USA Today story in May 2006 and the statements of several members of Congress, revealed that the NSA is also receiving wholesale copies of their telephone and other communications records. All of these surveillance activities are in violation of the privacy safeguards established by Congress and the U.S. Constitution.
The evidence also shows that the government did not act alone. EFF has obtained whistleblower evidence [PDF] from former AT&T technician Mark Klein showing that AT&T is cooperating with the illegal surveillance. The undisputed documents show that AT&T installed a fiberoptic splitter at its facility at 611 Folsom Street in San Francisco that makes copies of all emails, web browsing, and other Internet traffic to and from AT&T customers, and provides those copies to the NSA. This copying includes both domestic and international Internet activities of AT&T customers. As one expert observed, “this isn’t a wiretap, it’s a country-tap.”
EFF is fighting these illegal activities on multiple fronts. In Hepting v. AT&T, EFF filed the first case against a telecom for violating its customers' privacy. In addition, EFF is representing victims of the illegal surveillance program in Jewel v. NSA, a lawsuit filed in September 2008 against the government seeking to stop the warrantless wiretapping and hold the government officials behind the program accountable.
EFF is not alone in this fight. There are multiple cases challenging various parts of the illegal surveillance against both the telecoms and the government. This page collects information on EFF's cases as well as cases brought by individuals, the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California and of Illinois, the Center for Constitutional Rights, and others.
http://www.eff.org/issues/nsa-spying
reddit!!
http://www.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/comments/g7rvy/til_that_att_installed_a_fiberoptic_splitter_at/
Exactly. I saw a nova special about the NSA (netflix). The undersea cable is in San Diego, then to sf (AT&T) where the feed is copied.
DCSNet:
DCSNet, an abbreviation for Digital Collection System Network, is the FBI's point-and-click surveillance system that can perform instant wiretaps on almost any communications device in the US.[1]
It allows instant access to all cellphone, landline, SMS communications anywhere in the US from a point-and-click interface. It is impervious to external attacks, as it runs on Sprint's "Peerless IP network", run on a fiber-optic backbone separate from the internet.[2] It is intended to increase agent productivity through workflow modeling allowing for the routing of intercepts for translation or analysis with only a few clicks.
Fyi, it's more than just AT&T customers. It's pretty much everyone since most telecoms lease bandwidth from each other.
src: http://thestory.org/archive/the_story_120910_full_show.mp3/view
TIL the Electronic Frontier Foundation offers access to their site via an encrypted SSL connection.
* https://www.eff.org/
Side note for Firefox users: Check out the EFF's HTTPS-Everywhere add-on for default SSL connections to many popular sites.
NSA Spying
he U.S. government, with assistance from major telecommunications carriers including AT&T, has engaged in a massive program of illegal dragnet surveillance of domestic communications and communications records of millions of ordinary Americans since at least 2001.
News reports in December 2005 first revealed that the National Security Agency (NSA) has been intercepting Americans’ phone calls and Internet communications. Those news reports, plus a USA Today story in May 2006 and the statements of several members of Congress, revealed that the NSA is also receiving wholesale copies of their telephone and other communications records. All of these surveillance activities are in violation of the privacy safeguards established by Congress and the U.S. Constitution.
The evidence also shows that the government did not act alone. EFF has obtained whistleblower evidence [PDF] from former AT&T technician Mark Klein showing that AT&T is cooperating with the illegal surveillance. The undisputed documents show that AT&T installed a fiberoptic splitter at its facility at 611 Folsom Street in San Francisco that makes copies of all emails, web browsing, and other Internet traffic to and from AT&T customers, and provides those copies to the NSA. This copying includes both domestic and international Internet activities of AT&T customers. As one expert observed, “this isn’t a wiretap, it’s a country-tap.”
EFF is fighting these illegal activities on multiple fronts. In Hepting v. AT&T, EFF filed the first case against a telecom for violating its customers' privacy. In addition, EFF is representing victims of the illegal surveillance program in Jewel v. NSA, a lawsuit filed in September 2008 against the government seeking to stop the warrantless wiretapping and hold the government officials behind the program accountable.
EFF is not alone in this fight. There are multiple cases challenging various parts of the illegal surveillance against both the telecoms and the government. This page collects information on EFF's cases as well as cases brought by individuals, the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California and of Illinois, the Center for Constitutional Rights, and others.
http://www.eff.org/issues/nsa-spying
reddit!!
http://www.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/comments/g7rvy/til_that_att_installed_a_fiberoptic_splitter_at/
Exactly. I saw a nova special about the NSA (netflix). The undersea cable is in San Diego, then to sf (AT&T) where the feed is copied.
DCSNet:
DCSNet, an abbreviation for Digital Collection System Network, is the FBI's point-and-click surveillance system that can perform instant wiretaps on almost any communications device in the US.[1]
It allows instant access to all cellphone, landline, SMS communications anywhere in the US from a point-and-click interface. It is impervious to external attacks, as it runs on Sprint's "Peerless IP network", run on a fiber-optic backbone separate from the internet.[2] It is intended to increase agent productivity through workflow modeling allowing for the routing of intercepts for translation or analysis with only a few clicks.
Fyi, it's more than just AT&T customers. It's pretty much everyone since most telecoms lease bandwidth from each other.
src: http://thestory.org/archive/the_story_120910_full_show.mp3/view
TIL the Electronic Frontier Foundation offers access to their site via an encrypted SSL connection.
* https://www.eff.org/
Side note for Firefox users: Check out the EFF's HTTPS-Everywhere add-on for default SSL connections to many popular sites.