Officials: NSA's PRISM Targets Email Addresses, Not Keywords 96
wiredmikey writes "The US government's PRISM Internet spying program exposed by Edward Snowden targets suspect email addresses and phone numbers but does not search for keywords like terrorism, officials said Wednesday. Top lawyers of the country's intelligence apparatus including the NSA and FBI participated Wednesday in a public hearing on the controversial US data-mining operations that intercept emails and other Internet communications including on social media networks like Facebook, Google or Skype. 'We figure out what we want and we get that specifically, that's why it's targeted collection rather than bulk collection,' Robert Litt, general counsel at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, told the hearing. Under authority of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, the NSA asks Internet service providers to hand over messages sent from or received by certain accounts such as terrorist@google.com, the Justice Department's Brad Wiegmann said, using a hypothetical example."
So the question is, is this true? (Score:5, Interesting)
Or is this like Clapper said: we only call it "collected" when we look at it. It's not collected yet when we save it in our datacenter with everything else.
Re: (Score:1)
Or you could just make shit up, like what you're doing.
Re: (Score:2)
Who knows bullshit when they hear it? Hands up!
Is there anyone left out there who believes any official word from the NSA? Hands up!
How about any other branch or office of the government? The press? Business? Your next door neighbor?
Is there anyone out there actually telling the truth instead of lying to get what they want?
Re: (Score:2)
2600 Abu Sayyaf Afghanistan Agriculture Agro Agro Terror Aid Airplane (and derivatives) Airport Al Qaeda (all spellings) Al-Shabaab Ammonium nitrate AMTRAK Anthrax Antiviral AQAP (AL Qaeda Arabian Peninsula) AQIM (Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb) Arellano-Felix Artistic Assassins Assassination Attack Attack Avalanche Avian Bacteria Barrio Azteca BART Basque Separatists Beltran-Leyva Biological Biological infection (orevent) Biological weapon Black out Blister agent Blizzard Body scanner Bomb (squad or threat) Border Botnet Breach Bridge Brown out Brown out Brush fire Brute forcing Burn Burst Bust Cain and abel Calderon Cancelled Car bomb Cartel Cartel de Golfo Center for Disease Control (CDC) Chemical Chemical agent Chemical burn Chemical fire Chemical spill Chemical weapon China CIKR (Critical Infrastructure & Key Resources) Ciudad Juarez Closure Cloud Cocaine Collapse Colombia Communications Computer infrastructure Conficker Consular Contamination Conventional weapon Cops Crash Crest Critical infrastructure Cyber attack Cyber Command Cyber security Cyber terror DDOS (dedicated denial of service) Deaths Decapitated Delays Denial of service Dirty bomb Dirty bomb Disaster assistance Disaster management Disaster medical assistance team (DMAT) Disaster DNDO (Domestic Nuclear Detection Office) Dock Domestic nuclear detection Domestic security Drill Drug Drug Administration (FDA) Drug cartel Drug trade Drug war E. Coli Earthquake Ebola Eco terrorism El Paso Electric Emergency Emergency Broadcast System Emergency Landing Emergency management Emergency response Enriched Environmental terrorist Epidemic Epidemic equivalents) Erosion ETA (Euskadi ta Askatasuna) Evacuation Evacuation Execution Exercise Explosion (explosive) Exposure Exposure Extreme weather Extremism Facility Failure or outage FARC (Armed Revolutionary First responder Flood Flu Food Poisoning Foot and Mouth (FMD) Forces Colombia) Forest fire Fort Hancock Fundamentalism Gang Gangs Gas Grid Gulf Cartel Gunfight Guzman H1N1 H5N1 Hacker Hail Hamas Hazardous Hazardous material incident Hazmat Help Heroin Hezbollah Home grown Homeland security Hostage Human to Animal Human to human Hurricane Ice IED (Improvised Explosive Device) Illegal immigrants Improvised explosive device Incident Industrial spill Infection Infection Influenza infrastructure Infrastructure security Interstate IRA (Irish Republican Army) Iran Iraq Islamist Jihad Juarez Keylogger Kidnap La Familia Law enforcement Authorities Leak Lightening Listeria Lockdown Looting Los Zetas Magnitude Malware Mara salvatrucha Marijuana Maritime domain awareness (MDA) MARTA Matamoros Meth Lab Methamphetamine Metro Mexican army Mexicles Mexico Michoacana Militia Mitigation MS13 or MS-13 Mud slide or Mudslide Mutation Mysql injection Narco banners (Spanish Narcos Narcotics National infrastructure National laboratory National preparedness National preparedness initiative National security Nationalist NBIC (National Biosurveillance Integration Center) Nerve agent New Federation Nigeria Nogales North Korea Norvo Virus Nuclear facility Nuclear threat Nuclear Nuclear Nuevo Leon Organized crime Outbreak Pakistan Pandemic Phishing Phreaking Pipe bomb Pirates Plague PLF (Palestine Liberation Front) PLO (Palestine Liberation Organization) Plot Plume Police Pork Port Port Authority Powder (white) Power lines Power outage Power Prevention Public Health Quarantine Radiation Radicals Radioactive Recall Recovery Recruitment Relief Resistant Response Reynosa Reyosa Ricin Riot Rootkit Salmonella San Diego Sarin Scammers Screening Security Service disruption Shelter-in-place Shooting Shootout Shots fired Sick Sinaloa Sleet Small Pox Smart Smuggling (smugglers) Snow Social media Somalia Sonora Southwest Spammer Spillover Standoff State of emergency Storm Strain Stranded/Stuck Subway Suicide attack Suicide bomber Suspicious package/device Suspicious substance SWAT Swine Symptoms Taliban Tamaulipas Tamiflu Tamil Tigers Target Telecommunications Temblor Terrorism Terror Threat Tijuana Tornado Torreon Toxic Trafficking Transportation security Tremor Trojan Tsunami Tsunami Warning Center TTP (Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan) Tuberculosis (TB) Tucson Twister Typhoon U.S. Consulate Vaccine Violence Viral Hemorrhagic Fever Virus Virus Warning Watch Water/air borne Wave Weapons cache Weapons grade Wildfire WMATA World Health Organization (WHO) (and components) Worm Yemen Yuma
Why those cheating lying no good rotten....
Re:So the question is, is this true? (Score:5, Insightful)
Our worst fears about what the NSA was/is doing to privacy and our constitution have been realized and you are trying to trivialize it. Just because you're tired of hearing about it and want to move on to the next thing doesn't mean the rest of us don't feel that this is one of the most important things that has happened in our government during our lives. We need to focus on this shit like crazed lunatics if we are going to clean it up.
So again, fuck you.
Re: (Score:2)
+1 thomas paine. but be sure to save up your vitriol for obama and the nsa, we'll need everything we can muster.
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
Look, the NSA is a department within our government, they are told what to do and held accountable if they do not do it. It is a management problem, unfortunately this seemingly corporate imposed martial law is a product of corporate lobbying. Admission of all of this is only the first step in solving the problem.
Re: (Score:2)
It is always worthwhile to seek humour in adversary, it will stabilise your emotion and allow you to focus you attention on solutions. Personally I think it would be rather cool having suspect email address and being able to put people on a watch list just be sending them an email from your suspect naughty email address. Evil by association is a bit more fun when you are the evil association with somewhat deviant sense of humour, it would be rather handy to know the list of suspected evil axis of email, e
NSA is sooooo unlucky ! (Score:5, Insightful)
Snowden is the gift that keeps on giving... if you want to turn rational people into a stupid mob
Making the people stupid is what every government in the world is busy doing, including the government of the United States of America.
And NSA, being a part of the government of the United States of America, knows that the more stupid the Americans are, the more easier their job will become.
But NSA is soooooooooooo unlucky, for there are _still_ a portion of the Americans who prefer to use their brains, yes, the ones in between their ears, rather than believe in everything that came down from the White House and the Congress.
With Snowden's revelation, at the very least, we have proofs that our government, the government of the United States of America, has turned rogue.
Our Constitution, the Constitution of the United States of America, have been violated.
Our rights, as defined by the Bill of Rights, have been purposely ignored.
And luckily for America, we, whom still manage to keep our rationality (unlike those who soak in everything Obama / Feinstein said) know that we not only have the right, but it is *OUR DUTY" as Citizens of the United States of America, to stand up against this goddamn rogue regime.
Re: (Score:2)
but the summary even sounds skewed.
the explanation is not about the data collection but about DATA REQUESTING which is a totally fucking different thing and program..
of course they don't just go asking google for all emails that used the words "terrorist". they search that from their own db of collected data and then they ask google for all emails from the interesting looking accounts (and of everyone who emailed them and who emailed those persons)
Re: (Score:2)
Of course they ask ISPs to hand over stuff by email addresses, etc.
How do they select those email addresses? Because that's the bit we're actually talking about. The Snowden docs suggest it's by automatically inspecting everything and applying selectors to find the interesting stuff. IMO that's dragnet surveillance.
Re: (Score:2)
Perhaps it is true in the sense that PRISM doesn't do this, and there is something else by another name that does it. Not they are not saying "We don't do this at all" what they are saying is "PRISM" doesn't do it.
If so, then they are stepping up their game on the treasonous lies.
Comment removed (Score:4, Interesting)
Re: (Score:1)
It took them a year to create the backstory.
Why should I believe anything officials say (Score:5, Insightful)
to the public, when the Snowden documents show they've been lying for years.
Re:Why should I believe anything officials say (Score:4, Funny)
to the public, when the Snowden documents show they've been lying for years.
Not to argue your fundamental point, but AFAICT they haven't been lying for years they've been saying nothing for years. They have lied recently, though, and internally they've been using carefully-crafted definitions to interpret the law in ways that allowed them to convince themselves they were obeying it. So, in essence they've been fooling themselves for year, but not actually lying to the public because they haven't been saying anything to the public.
Re: (Score:1)
Yes. And the carefully crafted definition in this case is that "PRISM targets email addresses". Seeing as PRISM requests are the ones sent to providers (which they probably only send in cases where they want to be absolutely certain they have got everything possible. Or provide deniability for the true source being fibre-taps) then this is pretty self explanatory. It does not deny that the other programs which (for example) tap fibre-optic cables do match on keywords.
Re: (Score:3)
I would guess that what they really mean is PRISM captures and stores everything, but their agents are under orders only to look at specified email addresses. Probably with an audit trail if they go beyond this.
Re: (Score:2)
um, no. Actually they have been lying for years.
Re: (Score:2)
um, no. Actually they have been lying for years.
Cite? I've looked and other than Alexander's recent statements to Congress, I don't see any lies. It's possible they've been lying in closed-door sessions for years, but we have no evidence of that.
Re: (Score:2)
It's probably more accurate to say that they said nothing unless they had to and then they lied.
Re: (Score:2)
As you just pointed out, apparently unwittingly, they have been lying [wikipedia.org] for years.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Lying by omission is still lying.
Re: (Score:2)
Lying by omission is still lying.
Depends on the context. If you're asked in a context where you should answer and you leave something out, yes. But if you're not even asked, you don't typcially have an obligation to volunteer information.
Nowadays perjury to congress is no more crime ! (Score:2)
As has been portrayed to all of us, lying to the congress, even under oath, is not a crime, as long as you can proof that you are part of the spook network, and/or in charge of the "security" of the nation.
We have become a country where the laws no longer apply to certain *special privileged* people.
Re: (Score:2)
Or consider it another way. The people at the very top of the organization most likely don't know what the people toward the bottom of the organization, aka those who actually work are doing. It's fairly likely that even lower-middle management doesn't truly know what the end worker does, let alone higher-level management.
It's the same with institutional change. Unless the workers at the bottom ac
Simple explanation (Score:2)
Because I doubt the real "terrorists" would send out emails like:
"OMG I can't wait until we commit our terrorist act in NYC on 9-11! It's such an exciting time to be a jihadi terrorist! GG TERRORISM!"
Re: (Score:2)
No, they'd certainly obfuscate it. For example, they'd change the date to 9-12.
Re: (Score:2)
keywords like terrorism (Score:2)
Mail from Bob:
>Hey Alice, wanna go do some terroism next monday?
I can't I'm busy, how about we terrorism on tuesday?
Take care,
Alice
Re: (Score:2)
Shouldn't Bob be asking Mallory about a terrorism date next monday? Or is Mallory the NSA? I'm confused... can someone provide a car-centric metaphor?
Re: (Score:2)
Mail from Bob:
Hey Alice, I have teh car bombz ready for the infidelz. You got Mallory hooked up on the jihadi kick yet? We need a driver.
Is that so? (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
And who would we be to question a government employee? I mean, if you can't trust your government, who can you trust?
Re: (Score:2)
The username terrorist@gmail.com does exist. Why won't the NSA let me send him an email?
Damn it! (Score:2)
I wish i'd thought of registering that! Not that i'd use it for my primary account, but it would be fun to use on occasion, and i'm sure some really weird stuff gets sent there.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:1)
Snowperson! Insensitive clod!
Re: (Score:2)
Get an e-mail account like name@jihad.com. Anyone puts you on a spam distribution list and you can just sit back and wait for the NSA/CIA/FBI to "take care" of the problem for you.
So they are just incompetent? (Score:5, Insightful)
Are we really supposed to believe that they put in a system that can scan emails at major email providers and even scan emails on the fly at internet exchange points, yet they didn't design the system to allow keyword scanning?
If they are really targeting specific email addresses, then why do they need the system at all? Just get warrants and get the data from the user's ISP.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Lets say you have members of the US press finding/requesting/sorting/working on/publishing using freedom of information documents, interviews, other documents open to the public...
You cant get a warrant just because the US press is been too smart and working too hard.
For that you need something classic like FIRST FRUITS
http://cryptome.org/nsa-heroes... [cryptome.org] ".....maintains a database that tracks unoffi
Phew (Score:1)
What a relief! At least they know the target is guilty before they start surveillance.
Re: (Score:2)
What a relief! At least they know the target is guilty before they start surveillance.
Yes, and as guilt can be determined by TLA employees, it would save We The People a lot of money to dispense with the whole judiciary branch. It's clearly pointless.
Parallel construction (Score:3)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P... [wikipedia.org]
Translation (Score:2)
Official: "The US government's PRISM Internet spying program exposed by Edward Snowden targets suspect email addresses and phone numbers but does not search for keywords like terrorism."
Public: "So, how many email addresses and phone numbers are suspect?"
Official: "Er... Well, all of them..."
Does anyone believe this? (Score:3)
The NSA has taps on the backbone, and they want us to believe that they are only searching for specific email addresses? Give me a break. Email addresses are way too easy to setup and discard. Any spy / terrorist with any modicum of trade craft training is going to go through email addresses like a fat girl goes through ice cream.
If people are really using email to coordinate attacks against the United States, then by all means go after them. But please, stop treating us like we are stupid. Do not piss on my leg and tell me it is raining. The NSA got caught, at least man up to it. What is the line the cops use? "Just tell me the truth, and I will get the DA to take it easy on you." ???
Keywords (Score:3)
Hey Steve,
You wanna go out this weekend and do some terrorism?
Jeff
A big lie (Score:2)
Snowden even published the keyword list. To lazy to search for it know, but it was a big honor for the CCC, when it found itself on the list ;).
Empty Wheel (Score:2)
Dubious (Score:3)
If all they are collecting are email addresses and phone numbers, why do they need such a ginormous new data center in Utah?