Back At The NSA Ranch...

The NY Times tells us that the NSA has been very successful at bypassing the various encryption technologies we all take for granted. The story is kind of a big deal:

Intelligence officials asked The Times and ProPublica not to publish this article, saying it might prompt foreign targets to switch to new forms of encryption or communications that would be harder to collect or read. The news organizations removed some specific facts but decided to publish the article because of the value of a public debate about government actions that weaken the most powerful privacy tools.

The intro:

The National Security Agency is winning its long-running secret war on encryption, using supercomputers, technical trickery, court orders and behind-the-scenes persuasion to undermine the major tools protecting the privacy of everyday communications in the Internet age, according to newly disclosed documents.

The agency has circumvented or cracked much of the encryption, or digital scrambling, that guards global commerce and banking systems, protects sensitive data like trade secrets and medical records, and automatically secures the e-mails, Web searches, Internet chats and phone calls of Americans and others around the world, the documents show.

Many users assume — or have been assured by Internet companies — that their data is safe from prying eyes, including those of the government, and the N.S.A. wants to keep it that way. The agency treats its recent successes in deciphering protected information as among its most closely guarded secrets, restricted to those cleared for a highly classified program code-named Bullrun, according to the documents, provided by Edward J. Snowden, the former N.S.A. contractor.

Beginning in 2000, as encryption tools were gradually blanketing the Web, the N.S.A. invested billions of dollars in a clandestine campaign to preserve its ability to eavesdrop. Having lost a public battle in the 1990s to insert its own “back door” in all encryption, it set out to accomplish the same goal by stealth.

The agency, according to the documents and interviews with industry officials, deployed custom-built, superfast computers to break codes, and began collaborating with technology companies in the United States and abroad to build entry points into their products. The documents do not identify which companies have participated.

The N.S.A. hacked into target computers to snare messages before they were encrypted. In some cases, companies say they were coerced by the government into handing over their master encryption keys or building in a back door. And the agency used its influence as the world’s most experienced code maker to covertly introduce weaknesses into the encryption standards followed by hardware and software developers around the world.

A SPECIAL RELATIONSHIP: Churchill talked of an alliance of the English speaking nations. The Times includes this detail about intelligence sharing:

The full extent of the N.S.A.’s decoding capabilities is known only to a limited group of top analysts from the so-called Five Eyes: the N.S.A. and its counterparts in Britain, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. Only they are cleared for the Bullrun program, the successor to one called Manassas — both names of an American Civil War battle. A parallel GCHQ counterencryption program is called Edgehill, named for the first battle of the English Civil War of the 17th century.

 

Comments

[Another Bob]

Nobody should be surprised at any of this. And I'm not really bothered that much by the idea that NSA can do this. It is, after all, their job to obtain communications that the communicators don't want us to know. And I do think that free Americans ought to want our government to have this capability.

The problem today is we've lost trust that this capability is being pointed at the right people and only the right people, for the right reasons.

What do we do about that?

[MarkO]

I like this country:

"The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures . . .."

[James D.]

AB, I don't know what to do about that problem.

The bigger problem is that we have a political class that views average, law-abiding American citizens as PRECISELY the right people to point those capabilities at, and which clearly doesn't feel that it needs right reasons, or indeed any reasons at all, to do so.

And the Republican leadership as a whole is every bit as complicit as the Dems in this regard.

AND, what's worse, at least a plurality of the citizenry doesn't seem to have a problem with that, or - at best - is too ignorant and ineducable to understand why they ought to.

[Jane]

I say let's impeach the guy.

[matt]

The NSA's job is to break the unbreakable codes. If I were them these days I would insulate the agency completely from the politicians. They have obviously been tainted by the improper use of their data.

You can assume that they have the means to crack anything but the very few one time codes and even then, given enough time, those. That they are processing billions of terabytes of data every day makes it highly unlikely that they would go for anything but the most critical intelligence. They don't have the computing or the manpower.

But handing that tool to an unscrupulous bureaucrat or politician is a whole nother story. And therein lies the issue.

This administration has demonstrated time and again its corruption. They must be stopped.

[Thomas Collins]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gb5moqslJM4

[Thomas Collins]

Here's another candidate for the NSA's theme song:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aBQalkIeE7s

The problem of who will watch the guards themselves is is never ending. However, for most of us, I suspect what we give away to strangers on on Facebook and MySpace and the like is more likely to bite us in the butt than the data the NSA is mining.

[Jane~~~]

MarkO,

I'm gonna crack the code to the undisclosed location sooner or later.

[Frau Sarkasmus]

Pres. ValJar has our best interests at heart.

[NK(tryin')]

Frau@12:48 -- Heh

Hey!.. did the Iranian Ferret get the word from Khamemei that the 12th Imam was a go, and the USA should let loose the dogs of war?

I'll believe anything, because Obummer's reality is inconceivable.

[Frau Sarkasmus]

Quoting Insty -"The press will abandon Obama last. Their loyalty is their honor."

The trolls are loyal as long as the $oro$ stipend lasts.

[Cecil Turner]

. . . is more likely to bite us in the butt than the data the NSA is mining.

Undoubtedly true. Besides, the fact that our code breakers can break codes hasn't been news since WWII.

The big story, which is getting surprisingly little play, is reports of using the information for something other than national security:

The August report revealed that a secretive DEA unit passes the NSA information to agents in the field, including those from the Internal Revenue Service, the FBI and Homeland Security, with instructions to never disclose the original source, even in court. In most cases, the NSA tips involve drugs, money laundering and organized crime, not terrorism.

Like applying the Patriot Act to the "war on drugs," these abuses discredit the entire effort.

[Ignatz]

The ME changed fundamentally in 1979.

Even a regime as relatively benign toward its citizens and our interests as the Shah's is simply no longer an available option in the current Islamic fervor, unless we're willing to launch a full scale invasion to prop up some hopeless "democracy" that will fail as soon as we leave.

Unless we accept that fact we are doomed to pointless failed interventions and 'limited' operations, every failure of which makes us look weaker, further destabilizes the region and strengthens our enemies.
Am I wrong? If so where?

[Cecil Turner]

Quoting Insty -"The press will abandon Obama last. Their loyalty is their honor."

Pretty sure that's a Godwin's law violation.

[NSA - Special Network Operations Officer, Public]

Attn: "MarkO" - Please be advised that *no* search undertaken by this agency can, by virtue of our mission, be described as "unreasonable".

Furthermore, please note that while your location may be undisclosed to your fellow co-conspirators, it is not unknown by this agency.

We remain dedicated to obtaining whatever information is required by our Great Leader, and would remind you that we have access to *every* communication you believe is private.

Have a good day,

Office of Public Liaison,
NSA

[Ignatz]

It's a strange world when the fact that our intelligence guys' are adept at breaking code tends to make us feel less secure.

[NK(tryin')]

Ig@1:15- I would say it this way-- US Policy right now should be to support to the full the benign governments in the ME-- Morocco, Egypt (assuming the military stays in charge), Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, and Iraq. The Turks have to choose, are they allies of the MB or modernism. The rest treat as the adversaries they are. This sounds alot like the Truman Doctrine and reagan in the 80s. I think it's the best course.

[NK(tryin')]

Dr. K gives conservatives/supporters of US Power a good template for their thinking: http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/charles-krauthammer-unless-hes-serious-vote-no/2013/09/05/18fb85be-165c-11e3-804b-d3a1a3a18f2c_story_1.html

[GMax]

With all the scandals surrounding him and the Syria vote looming as a huge NO CONFIDENCE motion that he is likely to lose, at least he has the green energy thing going well.

Another genius investment with our tax dollars turns into pixie dust:

Indiana-based AM General agreed to acquire the Michigan-based MV-1 wheelchair accessible vehicle funded by the Obama administration with a $50 million loan.

AM General said it had reached a deal with the U.S. Department of Energy to purchase the DOE’s secured loan to the Vehicle Production Group LLC. AM General bought the loan for $3 million.

For those of you keeping score at home that is a 94% loss. Very efficient, at wasting investments for sure.

[GMax]

Well that does for me, where do I sign up?

Maddy Notverybright says we should support a war in Syria. She was awful in the Cabinet of BJ, they must be scraping the bottom of the barrel trying to find folks to trot out.

[Jane~Proud member of the Rebel Alliance]

The latest Bill Whittle is nothing short of spectacular - and well worth the time.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wrp6uewkFTk

[Tom Maguire]

Pretty sure that's a Godwin's law violation.

Insty was too fast for the house, but not too fast for Mr. Turner.

[Ignatz]

NK, Agree with what you said at 1:25.
When I said relatively benign governments are no longer available I meant any change in government is likely in the present environment to lead to even more malignant regimes, not that there are no relatively benign ones left.

[GMax]

What? Powerline scoops TM on a Paul Krugman special? You're slippin' TM...

Paul Krugman now says that the five years of the Obama administration have been “years of tragic waste,” and that the nation’s economic policies during that time have been “an astonishing, horrifying failure.” One wonders: what took Krugman so long to figure that out?

[BBb Key]

Biden has completely lost it, he wants Janet Napolitano on SCOTUS . Justice Thomas unavailable for comment .

[MarkO]

"Biden has completely lost it, he wants Janet Napolitano on SCOTUS."

How does this crew have a reputation for being smart?

[MarkO]

"I'm gonna crack the code to the undisclosed location sooner or later."

Faster, Jane, faster.

[NK(tryin')]

... TomM let me be the first to say I anticipate with giddy glee your "When you've lost paul Krugman" post

[pinkman]

I'm ambivalent wrt Guardian, outright distrustful of NYT so ProPublila is a nice balance for credibility.

BTW; AT G20 the EU took Vlad's position over Obummers on Syria. Good god. What a world.

[pinkman]

'ProPublica'

[Rob Crawford]

One wonders whose dime led Krugman to that conclusion.

[NK(tryin')]

"BTW; AT G20 the EU took Vlad's position over Obummers on Syria."

Well... yeah. Winter's coming and Gazprom controls EU's nat gas taps.

[pinkman]

" They have obviously been tainted by the improper use of their data."

How many others failed to see this coming? Was there ever any doubt this is exactly what would happen, issuing from people who were born before yesterday?

[NK(tryin')]

I didn't see the possibility of NSA sending data to cops and tax collectors; I was too naive.

[MarkO now on a first name basis with the NSA]

Dear NSA,

You have the wrong MarkO. Thank you for your consideration.

Yours in the love of a secure country,

X

[GMax]

Can I go on record as saying that Paul Krugman and I agree on a major point? First time ever for me I would think. This is the final of his piece see if you would vote AYE on this motion when brought forward for a vote:

"... by any objective standard, U.S. economic policy since Lehman has been an astonishing, horrifying failure."

The world may end soon...

[jimmyk]

I wouldn't get too excited about Krugman's statement. It's like the American lefties who criticized the Soviet Union, not for its communist policies, but for its failure to be communist enough.

[Account Deleted]

He's saying if BOzo had just gone for SolyndraX3, everything would be A-OK. He'll die a Keynesian pimp.

[pinkman]

Mark @ 2:37 You jest.......http://www.cnn.com/2013/09/02/opinion/neighly-fbi-background-checks/index.html?hpt=hp_bn7

I know Mark Zaid (DC) and he specializes in such cases. You might keep that name handy.

[Jane~Proud member of the Rebel Alliance]

I'm really enjoying all of this far to much. The fall will be hard.

[rse]

Rick-reminds me of something Brookings put out this morning on how India needs to fix their economy using funding public infrastructure.

[NK(tryin')]

jimmyk/rickb-- yes that's what Krugman is doing. But my glee stems from to things: 1. a high keynesian priest proclaims Obummer's Stimulus! and BenB's QEs to be 'horrifying failures' and 2. This just shows that it kick Barry when he's down time. He has become Jimmy Carter, an international joke. The Left know he is a loser and he no longer doesn't help them, so it's time to kick him-- a lot.

[matt]

here's a new suggestion. Why not bomb the shit out of the Quds Force bases in Iran? Maybe throw in some precision guided bombs on that scumbag Khameini.

[pinkman]

That fits in rather well, Matt.

http://forward.com/articles/183523/aipac-plans-all-out-push-for-syria-vote/

[Porchlight]

How many others failed to see this coming? Was there ever any doubt this is exactly what would happen, issuing from people who were born before yesterday?

Indeed, it was the very reason that the powers of government were circumscribed by the Framers. You don't hand over power because you understand that inevitably the power will be used against the people.

[Account Deleted]

RSE,

The prog fascists desperately seeking stasis don't seem to have caught on to facts regarding the OPM Famine as yet. India is at the point of ignoring the Iran sanctions because the Iranians will accept rupees (and have a decent market for Indian goods). It's better for India and the Indian people to defy a toothless UN than to starve while waiting for another US/G20/IMF "loan".

I wonder how Russia and the KSA will resolve their contretemps re Syria so they can get on with beggaring the EUnuchs and using the money to purchase consent for their actions from the cup rattlers in the G20? I don't believe that quite fits the Western progressive fascist model.

[NK(tryin')]

well Khamenei did threaten Obama's daughters, who would begrudge any father shoving a Hellfire missile up Khamenei's arse in response.

[rse]

Well said Porch. Which is why history is not taught properly anymore and as Bill Whittle said in that fine speech, the idea that wealth is unearned had to be fostered.

Hubby gets annoyed when cousins from either family start in on the beauties of working at a nonprofit. "What's wrong with creating jobs because people voluntarily want to part with their own money to buy what you are selling?"

Jane-I have used that Rebel Alliance metaphor to explain I am just telling the actual story and the nefarious intent is both bipartisan and just a result for too many of unmerited assumptions as to what is really going on.

[NK(tryin')]

RickB-- OPM famine. Can't come soon enough IMO. Yes it will cause disruptions, but the sooner the Prog-Fascist plans to turn into serfs are bankrupted, the better.

[matt]

The religious oligarchy in Iran are truly evil and utterly corrupt. That is where a significant percentage of the oil wealth ends up; in the hands of the mullahs and their families. They get their cut and the Quds get theirs as the country's oil infrastructure slowly collapses.

Such a strike would also have the support of a lot of the Iranian people, who despise the mullahs.

[Clarice]

NK: "well Khamenei did threaten Obama's daughters, who would begrudge any father shoving a Hellfire missile up Khamenei's arse in response.
"
Stop me if I'm wrong but I believe Saddam Hussein tried to assassinate GW's dad and on the left not only was that an outrage but they pretended it was the reason for the invasion of Iraq.

[Clarice]

Some contrary where the "spiritual leaders" threaten to kidnap and rae the kids of the leader of another country.

[Jane~Proud member of the Rebel Alliance]

RSE, I love the "rebel alliance" thing. Altho I was just talking with a friend and told him I was an "armed rebel" because I forgot the name. That was okay too.

[Clarice]

"rebel alliance" does sound very Star Wars.

[pagar-----]

"AIPAC Plans"

http://www.trevorloudon.com/2013/09/war-on-syria-means-victory-for-al-qaeda/

"This, then, is why McCain succeeds with his policy of going to war on behalf of the mysterious “moderates” in Syria. We have a media that are afraid of telling the truth about the senator when he makes bone-headed comments that have no relation to reality."

[Ignatz]

Funny how to left wing idiotlogues a temporary blip in a free market's steady wealth creation is invariably the result of too much freedom, but the repeated catastrophic failures of socialism/welfare statism are always due to too little socialism.

[NK(tryin')]

Ig@3:53-- well said

[rse]

Jane-last year a science teacher said she had heard I was involved with opposing the Common Core. I said I was sort-of the commander of the Rebel Alliance and it was nothing personal.

It was the same teacher who later said she had believed in social justice all her life and I had just explained it did not and could not work as she had hoped.

There may be an OPM famine but the progs are still charging on a credit card to fund the gap caused by the famine and sending the bill COD to the taxpayers.

[Tom Maguire]

Paul Krugman now says that the five years of the Obama administration have been “years of tragic waste,” and that the nation’s economic policies during that time have been “an astonishing, horrifying failure.”

I didn't even read Krugman past his lead because I assumed he was going on about the stimulus being too small, insufficient transfers to state/local governments, tolaerance of too-high unemployment and general "not left-wing enough" criticisms of Obama and those hate-filled Republicans.

And a cautionary note - if Krugman is giving up on the economy, that probably means the recovery has taken hold, which may give the Dems some oxygen for 2014.

I suppose I should trudge off and read the column.

[NK(tryin')]

rse@:409 a clarification if I may: the bill for that nonsense (federal funding anyway) first goes to the Fed which buys the T-Bonds to generate the money for crap like that. When the Taper bites, and T-Bond rates rise further, the T-Bond issuances will start to shrink, dramatically IMO. The interest bill on the T-Bonds ultimately goes to the federal taxpayers of course. State funding portion? get a Gov Walker, problem will be addressed.

[NK(tryin')]

TomM@4:16-- excellent Krug snark. Please do read Krug and enlighten us... I know I won't read it.

[narciso]

Yes, you got the gist of it. TM.

[Jane,Proud member of the Rebel Alliance]

I can't post in the other thread where I brilliantly said: "Maybe Georgie Girl" 3 times.

[pinkman]

Time for some Clausewitz.

http://www.informationdissemination.net/2013/09/if-its-not-war-it-sounds-like-checkers.html

[Ignatz]

--I suppose I should trudge off and read the column.--

Why?

[Porchlight]

If there wasn't a McCain the left would be obliged to invent one. Fortunately for them he's still alive, still in the Senate and still available to grab any passing microphone.

[Jim Miller]

Tom - The one good thing in the column, which I glanced at over lunch -- is that Krugman claims to have done some actual calculations. He doesn't show his work, but he is specific enough so that, in principle, others should be able to replicate it -- or not, as the case may be.

[Jim Miller]

On a happier note, Tim Blair is asking for pictures of celebratory drinks for the Australian election.

He's posted his, a vodka named "Alaskan Rock".