Tracking NSA Disclosures

[JMS]

2013-12-9  NSA snoops online Video Game (World of Warcraft, and XBox )
 
2013-11-28 -  NSA spied on G20 in Toronto
 
2013-11-26 - US spied on notable Muslims' porn habits - The Huffington Post reveals that the NSA considered publicly discrediting six Muslim figures — one of whom is a "US person" — it felt were "radicalizing" other Muslims. The agency reportedly pondered taking this step after it gained embarrassing information about the individuals by spying on their online porn habits and personal finances. The documents reportedly do not accuse any of the people of being directly involved with terrorist plots.
 
2013-11-23  NSA infected 50,000 computer networks, - Dutch media outlet NRC reveals that the NSA has infected over 50,000 computer networks worldwide with malicious spying software, in a technique known as Computer Network Exploitation (CNE). The software can reportedly be controlled remotely and turned off and on at will. An NSA slide published with the article shows the agency's access to computer networks and high-speed fiber optic cables worldwide, including several within the United States.
 
2013-11-22 - Monitoring : 'Anyone, anytime, anywhere'  A major new article in the New York Times lays out the NSA's desire for greater legal power and technological dominance. According to an internal agency document from 2012, the NSA wants to expand its already broad legal authority. It also plans to "influence the global commercial encryption market" through partnerships with tech firms and its own spies within private tech companies. Its end goal, according to the document, is accessing data from "anyone, anytime, anywhere" it needs.
 
2013-11-19 NSA admits violation of US Privacy Laws - Over 1,000 pages of documents declassified by the NSA reveal how two agency programs - discontinued bulk collections of Americans' email metadata and ongoing bulk collection of Americans' cell phone metadata - systematically violated privacy laws and policies. According to the agency, its violations were due to poor management, lack of involvement by compliance officials and lack of internal verification procedures but not by bad faith.
 
2013-11-2 NSA strategic missions revealed - A major article in the Washington Post discloses details of the NSA's core philosophy - to collect all the data it legally can, no matter how significant. The article details the agency's surveillance of U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and obscure German politicians. A separate document published with the article lists the agency's strategic missions. Alongside concerns like terrorism and nuclear proliferation, it lists: securing the U.S. diplomatic advantage - even over allies like Japan and Germany; reliable access to fossil fuels; and maintaining the U.S. economic advantage over Brazil and Japan.
 
2013-11-1  NSA relies on corporate partners, The Guardian publishes documents that show the NSA's close reliance on cooperation from tech and telecom companies. One of the documents puts the agency's goal bluntly: "Leverage unique key corporate partnerships to gain access to high-capacity international fiber-optic cables, switches and/or routers throughout the world."
2013-10-3 Spies also stationed in Australian embassies - Documents leaked to the Sydney Morning Herald by Edward Snowden reveal that Australia's Defence Signals Directorate has electronic surveillance teams stationed in Australian embassies
 
2013-10-30 US monitored the Vatican - Without citing a source, Panorama reports that the NSA spied on the Vatican - including on the 2013 papal conclave that elected Pope Francis and Ernst von Freyberg's appointment as president of the board of superintendence at the troubled Vatican Bank.
 
2013-10-30 Google and Yahoo targeted by NSA- Major new documents published by the Washington Post reveal that the NSA has hacked into the connections between data centers owned by Google and Yahoo. While data passing between a user and company data centers is encrypted, data passing among data centers is not. Hacking these links gives the agency direct, unencrypted access to almost all user data stored "in the cloud"—including email, web searches, photographs and documents. Because the NSA carries out this surveillance outside the United States, it falls outside the jurisdiction of many laws meant to protect the privacy of American citizens.
 
2013-10-26  NSA spies work in 80 US embassies A new report in Der Spiegel shows that the NSA has surveillance teams stationed at 80 U.S. embassies around the world,
 
2013-10-25  NSA spied on Spanish leaders, citizens
 
2013-10-24 NSA spied on Italian citizens, companies and officials
 
2013-10-24  NSA listened to 35 world leaders' phone calls
 
2013-10-24 NSA 'spied' on German Chancellor
 
2013-10-21 NSA monitoring French citizens, companies and diplomats
 
2013-10-23  NSA spies on Mexican president
 
2013-10-16  Drone strikes draw on NSA data - An article in The Washington Post reveals that closely-targeted NSA surveillance plays a pivotal role in the U.S. targeted killing program. In particular, the post focused on an October 2012 drone strike on al-Qaeda operative Hassan Ghul, in which NSA data was key.
 
2013-10-14 -NSA collects online contact lists en masse- The Washington Post publishes documents revealing that the NSA collects over 250 million email inbox views and contact lists a year from online services like Yahoo, Gmail and Facebook.
 
2013-10-7  Canada spied on Brazil's Ministry of Mines and Energy - A segment on Fantástico reveals that Canada's main signals intelligence agency, Communications Security Establishment Canada (CSEC), spied on telephone and computer networks belonging to Brazil's Ministry of Mines and Energy - presumably to gain a competitive advantage for Canadian mining and energy companies. CSEC shared details of the operation at a June 2012 meeting of intelligence officials from the so-called "Five Eyes" - Canada, the United States, Britain, Australia, and New Zealand.
 
2013-9-30  Metadata storage revealed - A new report from The Guardian shows that the NSA uses its massive databases to store metadata - including web searches, email activity and browsing histories on millions of web users for up to a year - whether or not those individuals are agency targets. Much of this data is taken from the agency and its partners' taps on the large fiber optic cables that carry the world's internet and telephone data.
 
2013-9-28  NSA creating maps of Americans' social contacts -  The New York Times reports that the NSA uses Americans' data — including phone and email metadata, as well as information from social media and financial transactions — to create maps of targets' social connections. "
 
2013-9-26  Love interests followed by NSA - In response to a request from Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa), the NSA's Office of the Inspector General releases details of the 12 "substantiated instances" of "intentional and willful" misuse of NSA surveillance authority since January 2003. Most involved so-called "love intelligence" - LOVEINT, in agency parlance - where agents spied on current or former love interests.
 
2013-9-25 Drone strike opponents are 'threats' In a blog post about the detention of Yemeni anti-drone activist Baraa Shiban at London's Gatwick Airport under the U.K.'s 2000 Terrorism Act, Glenn Greenwald reveals internal NSA documents that list opponents of U.S. drone policies among other "threats" and "adversaries." One paragraph quoted by Greenwald calls anti-drone activists "propagandists." Another document reportedly lists lawsuits by civil-liberties groups alongside terrorist counter-attacks.
 
2013-9-25  American citizens tracked in 60s and 70s, Using recently declassified documents and archival materials, Foreign Policy reveals that an NSA program called Minaret monitored the overseas communications of anti-war activists, civil rights leaders and even two sitting U.S. senators between 1967 and 1973. Targets included Martin Luther King Jr., Muhammad Ali, Jane Fonda, Stokely Carmichael, Sen. Frank Church (D-Idaho) and Sen. Howard Baker (R-Tenn.). The New York Times's Washington bureau chief, Tom Wicker, and Washington Post columnist Art Buchwald were also targeted.
 
2013-9-23 US monitors Indian diplomats and leaders
 
2013-9-16 Financial networks monitored by NSA - Der Spiegel reveals that a special branch of the NSA called Follow the Money performs bulk data collection on international networks belonging to Visa, Mastercard, the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT)
 
2013-9-11 NSA shares data with Israel - The Guardian publishes an information-sharing agreement between the NSA and the Israeli SIGINT National Unit (ISNU). Under it, the NSA shares information with Israel that includes U.S. citizens' data and metadata. The agreement requires Israel to handle American citizens' data according to U.S. law; however, that requirement is not legally binding.
 
2013-9-17 Der Spiegel reveals the NSA has the ability to tap into data - including emails, contacts, notes and physical location - from all the major smart phones on the market.
 
2013-9-5 The NSA has cracked methods of encryption used by millions of people ever day for secure email, e-commerce, financial transactions and more.  Also revealed: The NSA collaborates with the tech industry to implant security back doors into consumer products; the U.S. works to weaken international encryption standards;
 
2013-9-2  NSA used a "man-in-the-middle" attack to spy on private computer networks belonging to Google, the Brazilian oil company Petrobras, the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT).
 
2013-9-1  NSA spied on Brazilian and Mexican presidents
 
2013-8-30 The Washington Post reveals previously unpublished details of the US's cyber attack-operations, showing that intelligence agencies launched 231 cyber-attacks in 2011 - primarily against government targets in Russia, China, Iran and North Korea.
 
2013-8-29 The Washington Post reveals that the NSA spends hundreds of millions of dollars each year paying private companies for access to large fiber optic communications backbones - part of the agency's Corporate Partner Access Project.
 
2013-8-29  Leaked documents detail the black ops budget of 52.6 billion dollars budget proposal for 2013, The documents include information about the NSA's intelligence - or lack thereof - on Russia, China and North Korea. According to the Post, "Analysts know virtually nothing about the intentions of North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un."
 
2013-8-21 The National Security Agency declassifies three secret court opinions showing how in one of its surveillance programs it scooped up as many as 56,000 emails- annually over three years - by Americans not connected to terrorism'
 
2013-8-15  The Washington Post publishes two documents that reveal how the NSA violated US laws and its own internal regulations 2,776 times between March 2011 and March 2012.
 
2013-8-15  leaks from Edward Snowden - reveals incidents of NSA employees spying on love interests outside the U.S. The program is called LOVEINT in agency parlance.
 
2013-8-2    Leaked documents report that the agency provided surveillance intended to give U.S. diplomats the upper hand in negotiations at the U.N. over sanctions against Iran and at the 2009 Summit of the Americas.
 
2013-8-2   Seven telecom companies - BT, Vodafone, Verizon Business and four smaller companies - provide GCHQ with direct, unimpeded access to their fiber optic cable networks,
 
2013-8-1   We learn the NSA contributes 155 million to fund the British spy efforts in part because the UK laws allow for surveillance which US law does not.
 
2013-7-31 Leaked papers tell of directly about operation XKeyscore, an NSA program alluded to in several other news reports. They reveal a network of 500 servers scattered across the globe that collect "nearly everything a user does on the Internet" and store it in databases searchable by name, email, IP address, region and language.
 
2013-7-20  Germany contributes data to the NSA
 
2013-7-10  NSA program called Upstream that collects information from the fiber optic cables that carry most Internet and voice phone traffic data in the United States.   That's why they collect the meta data ( data about the call ).... so they can pair it up with the actual call... The NSA slide spells out "you have to use both"..
 
2013-6-21  We learn about Operation Tempura, which is similar to the NSA's Upstream (later revealed in July). Tempura taps into large fiber optic cables that carry massive amounts of Internet and telephone traffic across Europe.
 
2013-6-18  We learn from leaked documents that the FISA court oversight means,  no transparency or accountability...   Not even the FISA court knows who is being survaled.

• No individualized warrants required under 2008 Fisa law
• At times no Warrants support interception of Americans' communications
• Vast discretion vested in NSA analysts

2013-6-16   U.S. and the U.K. spied on foreign leaders and diplomats at the 2009 G20 summit. They also bugged the South African foreign ministry and planned to spy on envoys to the 2009 Commonwealth Summit. The motive was apparently to gain trade advantage over developing nations.
 
2013-6-14    We learn NSA hacked civilian computer networks in both Hong Kong and mainland China. Nine days later, the paper publishes a series of articles detailing the hacks - which include major Internet backbones at Tsinghua University in Beijing and the Chinese University of Hong Kong, as well as text messages from ordinary Chinese citizens.
 
2013-6-8     We learn about Boundless Informant, an NSA tool that provides "near real-time" statistics on the agency's spying capabilities and is broken down by country. Among the information the slides reveal is that the NSA collected almost 3 billion pieces of intelligence on U.S. citizens in February 2013 alone.
 
2013-6-7    We learn about Presidential Policy Directive 20. Among other things, the directive orders government officials to draw up a list of potential targets for cyber-attacks by the U.S. government.
 
2013-6-6    US Public finds out about Prism..  The NSA's access to Internet company servers including, Apple, Google, Facebook, Yahoo, SKYPE  and Microsoft.   ( NSA pays for compliance costs )..
 
2013-6-5    US Public finds out NSA collects data on Millions of Americans phone calls.
 

2014-1-16   NSA COLLECTS 200 MILLION TEXT MESSAGES PER DAY
'UNTARGETED' GLOBAL SWEEP   

* The NSA extracts Locations, Contacts and Financial Transactions

* DISHFIRE sweeps up everything it can

* GCHQ uses this in concert with Metadata databases for UK numbers.
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jan/16/nsa-collects-millions-text-messages-daily-untargeted-global-sweep

[CurseReversed]

Thanks for putting this together, very good info.

 

 

 

 

2013-9-25 Drone strike opponents are 'threats' In a blog post about the detention of Yemeni anti-drone activist Baraa Shiban at London's Gatwick Airport under the U.K.'s 2000 Terrorism Act, Glenn Greenwald reveals internal NSA documents that list opponents of U.S. drone policies among other "threats" and "adversaries." One paragraph quoted by Greenwald calls anti-drone activists "propagandists." Another document reportedly lists lawsuits by civil-liberties groups alongside terrorist counter-attacks.

 

 Well I guess having nothing to hide is not exactly the safe place people think it is.  Unless you feel like you should need to hide your dislike of Drones. 

[Predicto]

They also went after World of Warcraft.   Is nothing sacred anymore?

[JMS]

What I always suspected but was shocked to see it spelled out was that the NSA has been collecting all the Traffic over the backbone of the Nation's fiberoptic lines since 2003.    This gives them access to everything,  telephone calls,  email,  you name it...   They call it Operation upstream...    and then the leaked NSA power point presentation shows how they use this raw calls and link it up with Operation Prism,  or the Meta data which the companies have shared with the NSA in order to pair the conversation with the incoming and outgoing destinations....

 

[PokerPacker]

I need to start using Tor.

[CurseReversed]

I need to start using Tor.

 

I actually just heard today from someone that Tor was not safe anymore, but I do not have a link or info to back it up.

[PokerPacker]

I actually just heard today from someone that Tor was not safe anymore, but I do not have a link or info to back it up.

ugh. Is nothing sacred anymore?

[CurseReversed]

ugh. Is nothing sacred anymore?

 

 

Here is something I found just after a quick look. 

 

it seems that its been made public that one of the encryptions the nsa cracked to gather information on the internet is  the same encryption used by tor.  There maybe more too it, i just skimmed it. 

 

http://vr-zone.com/articles/tor-isnt-safe-nsa/55319.html

[JMS]

They also went after World of Warcraft.   Is nothing sacred anymore?

 

See you would be a poor strategist in the war on terror....   

 

What do we know about Terrorists?  Their dream is to be surrounded by 40 virgins, right?...   Now can you think of anyplace where there are more virgins on the internet than playing online games such as World of Warcraft?   It's only reasonable the NSA is keeping watch on them.

[Mocountyskins]

Man spying on WoW players is a messed up as a Mage PoMing you into a sheep while a rogue opens up with a disarm on your Dk, and then the Mage gets a 2nd sheep off on you followed by the priest Shadow guising+ angelic feathering over to you to hit you with a fear followed by the rogue get a re stealth off to re sap you, then they start going Ham on the dk and smokebomb gets dropped by the rogue and then you have to run into the bomb because the Dk is getting stunlocked but then when you run it the rogue hits you with a blind and the dk dies. gg rmp scumlords.

[War Paint]

It'll eventually come out that the NSA spies through the Xbox One kinect.

[Mocountyskins]

It'll eventually come out that the NSA spies through the Xbox One kinect.

 

Then you would have an epidemic of teenage boys flopping out their you know what and giving the middle finger to to kinect saing "**** the NSA"

[DallasCowboyFan156]

It'll eventually come out that the NSA spies through the Xbox One kinect.

 

My brother refuses to buy one because he believes that the government will watch him as he plays Madden or something. I teased him at the time that he said it but now it turns out he may be right.

[JMS]

Man spying on WoW players is a messed up as a Mage PoMing you into a sheep while a rogue opens up with a disarm on your Dk, and then the Mage gets a 2nd sheep off on you followed by the priest Shadow guising+ angelic feathering over to you to hit you with a fear followed by the rogue get a re stealth off to re sap you, then they start going Ham on the dk and smokebomb gets dropped by the rogue and then you have to run into the bomb because the Dk is getting stunlocked but then when you run it the rogue hits you with a blind and the dk dies. gg rmp scumlords.

 

You sir are just one step away from waking up in Yemen  dressed like Barbara Eden.    The NSA would save you from all of that.

[JMS]

200 million text messages a day,  and all the meta data, locations,  etc they can decern from them.

 

The reforms are being announced Friday by Obama... 

 

 

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jan/16/nsa-collects-millions-text-messages-daily-untargeted-global-sweep

 

NSA collects millions of text messages daily in 'untargeted' global sweep

• NSA extracts location, contacts and financial transactions

• 'Dishfire' program sweeps up 'pretty much everything it can'

• GCHQ using database to search metadata from UK numbers

 

The NSA has made extensive use of its text message database to extract information on people under no suspicion of illegal activity. Photograph: Dave Thompson/PA

The National Security Agency has collected almost 200 million text messages a day from across the globe, using them to extract data including location, contact networks and credit card details, according to top-secret documents.

The untargeted collection and storage of SMS messages – including their contacts – is revealed in a joint investigation between the Guardian and the UK’s Channel 4 News based on material provided by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden.

The documents also reveal the UK spy agency GCHQ has made use of the NSA database to search the metadata of “untargeted and unwarranted” communications belonging to people in the UK.

The NSA program, codenamed Dishfire, collects “pretty much everything it can”, according to GCHQ documents, rather than merely storing the communications of existing surveillance targets.

The NSA has made extensive use of its vast text message database to extract information on people’s travel plans, contact books, financial transactions and more – including of individuals under no suspicion of illegal activity.

An agency presentation from 2011 – subtitled “SMS Text Messages: A Goldmine to Exploit” – reveals the program collected an average of 194 million text messages a day in April of that year. In addition to storing the messages themselves, a further program known as “Prefer” conducted automated analysis on the untargeted communications

[Tulane Skins Fan]

200 million text messages a day,  and all the meta data, locations,  etc they can decern from them.

 

The reforms are being announced Friday by Obama... 

 

 

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jan/16/nsa-collects-millions-text-messages-daily-untargeted-global-sweep

 

 

This doesn't sound that bad to me.  

 

What do you think happens when you send a text?  You think the phone company doesn't know an track who you send texts to?

[Larry]

This doesn't sound that bad to me.  

 

What do you think happens when you send a text?  You think the phone company doesn't know an track who you send texts to?

 

Post every text message you've sent or received, for the last six months. 

 

I mean, since your point is that, if someone allows his phone company to deliver a text message for them, then they also consent to allow anybody else in the world to have it, too, and to keep it, and do whatever they want with it, and all. 

[TheGreatBuzz]

I believe this is morally wrong.  Let me get that out of the way.  But I don't really care that much.  I've got nothing to hide. 

[JMS]

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2014/01/23/independent-federal-review-board-says-nsa-phone-data-collection-program-should/

 

Board declares NSA data sweep illegal, says program should be ended

 

An independent board tasked with reviewing National Security Agency surveillance called Thursday for the government to end its mass data collection program and "purge" its files, declaring the program illegal in a major challenge to President Obama.

 

The president did not go nearly as far when he called last week for ending government control of phone data collected from hundreds of millions of Americans. In its report, obtained by Fox News and scheduled for release Thursday afternoon, The Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board (PCLOB) said the program ran afoul of the law on several fronts.

"The ... bulk telephone records program lacks a viable legal foundation," the board's report said, adding that it raises "serious threats to privacy and civil liberties" and has "only limited value."