The New NSA Mission
Submitted by daedlanth on Fri, 07/24/2009 - 21:31
censorshipGlobalizationNSAprivacy
This comes to us by way of deadalanth, a user on the site, who sent us the
following story:
The N.S.A. is back in the news regarding a new data center being
constructed at Camp Williams, Utah. The facility is reported to be sited
on a 200 acre tract with 120 acres of buildings. The center will consume
65 Mw of power when operational. Another is reported to be underway in San
Antonio, Texas as well. There is alot of speculation regarding the mission
of these new installations.
On May 20th 2009 Hugh D'Andrade of the EFF gave a presentation regarding
N.S.A. wiretapping in San Francisco at a AT&T switching center located on
Folsom street. The EFF has filed a class action lawsuit regarding the
Folsom Street installation. The EFFs key witness in this case is a retired
AT&T technician named Mark Klein. Mr. Klein has been branded as a
"Whistleblower" for exposing room 641A in the Folsom street facility in
2006. He has written a book about his experiences while working at AT&T
called "Wiring up the Big Brother Machine ... and Fighting It." News like
this has kept the publics imagination for now.
This is not the first time that the N.S.A. has been reported to have
eavesdropping equipment built into the very foundations of U.S.
communication networks. In David Kahns book "The Codebreakers" he writes
about N.S.A. cable taps in San Francisco. Mr. Kahn also alleges that U.S.
commercial electronic hardware and software designs have been altered for
surveillance purposes per N.S.A. request. I assume the N.S.A. has
sufficient infrastructure in place to complete its fundamental mission of
eavesdropping. This is the same old song and dance that we have known
about since WW2.
I believe these new data centers have a different function: Netcentric
Warfare or rather command and control of national assets in a integrated
environment. The U.S. military is integrating closely with the N.S.A. to
securely deploy highly technical weapons, countermeasures to
cyber-warfare, and to improve joint NetOps. Traditional military
organization is nearly useless. The face of war has changed. Several
services and agencies are currently bifurcating to attack forces or
administrative duties. The later never coming home from trouble spots.
New technology has set the bar too high to realistically control it with
volunteer military personnel. The new military command and control will
function within a highly secure Global Information Grid or GIG network
staffed with highly trained and vetted N.S.A. response teams wielding
enormous power on a level never before seen. Using the N.S.A. to maintain
net hierarchy staffed with civilian and military career technicians makes
common sense and puts real experience behind the wheel. Cyber warfare is a
very real problem that encompasses not only the military but the civilian
infrastructure of the country as well. The United States must protect both
and effectively project force to maintain its status as a superpower.
The N.S.A. will always be snooping, that is the N.S.A.s' basic job and
they have alot of SIGINT practice. Their experience with IT has made them
the perfect agency to vastly improve military capabilities through secured
automation. This organization is so byzantine that it does not exist
overtly as it has no charter. They know how to keep a secret, have root,
and are taking the tree to a whole new level. This new construction is
extremely technical, it has way more scope than I think a lot of us
realize. The U.S. seeks to maintain itself as the defacto world system
administrator. This is another step to further capitalist globalization.
