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NSA Is Building a New Datacenter In San Antonio
An anonymous reader writes in with an article from a Texas paper on the NSA's new facility in San Antonio. "America's top spy agency has taken over the former Sony microchip plant and is transforming it into a new data-mining headquarters... where billions of electronic communications will be sifted in the agency's mission to identify terrorist threats. ... [Author James] Bamford writes about how NSA and Microsoft had both been eyeing San Antonio for years because it has the cheapest electricity in Texas, and the state has its own power grid, making it less vulnerable to power outages on the national grid. He notes that it seemed the NSA wanted assurance Microsoft would be here, too, before making a final commitment, due to the advantages of 'having their miners virtually next door to the mother lode of data centers.' The new NSA facility is just a few miles from Microsoft's data center of the same size. Bamford says that under current law, NSA could gain access to Microsoft's stored data without even a warrant, but merely a fiber-optic cable." The article mentions the NRC report concluding that data mining is ineffective as a tactic against terrorism, which we discussed a couple of months back.
The article mentions the NRC report concluding that data mining is ineffective as a tactic against terrorism
Anyone wanna bet that Obama won't do a damn thing about these obvious attempts to spy on American citizens?
At Linux.
If any business needs yet another reason to stay away from SaaS, this is the one to pay attention to.
Businesses and their IP are becoming increasingly important. Any time your business IP crosses onto someone elses network, it's susceptible to snooping either by corporate espionage or now government eyes.
If your company has a market advantage caused by proprietary information, SaaS is not for you. Why else would the NSA be shacking up next to a Microsoft data center?
America's top spy agency has taken over the former Sony microchip plant and is transforming it into a new data-mining headquarters - oddly positioned directly across the street from a 24-hour Walmart - where billions of electronic communications will be sifted in the agency's mission to identify terrorist threats.
Keep your friends close, and your Walmarts closer.
See it there, a white plume over the battle - A diamond in the ash of the ultimate combustion - My panache. --Cyrano
i see this is the new "MSA" they've been talking about
The US will never do anything to dislodge Microsoft from the throne. The intelligence value of having Microsoft products in a monopolistic position all over the world is far too important. You don't squander that just to please some customer rights hippies at home.
I would have thought being near a Google data center would be more valuable, with the huge amount of traffic, and the indexing that comes through Google.
Maybe Google has better practices in terms of security of their data centers?
MSIE getting a button on the toolbar that says "Report as Terrorist site"
And MSN Hotmail getting a new link next to contacts that says "report contact as terrorist.
Also, the list of possible threat sources was just expanded to include slashdot.
Rumor has it that certain editors of slashdot and other blogs may be conducting attacks against various industry players by linking to them ( something the terrorists call "Slashdotting" the victim site)
The once Senator & future President has expressed a desire to shut down some of the most egregious abuses of power that Mr. Bush came up with. But the difference between Camp X-ray, warrantless wiretaps of phone calls, and monitoring of online traffic is a sliding scale of outrage - many more people care about Gitmo than about the wiretaps, and many more people care about the wiretaps than online monitoring. Like everything else in life, it's about ordering your priorities.
Have you been touched by his noodly appendage?
Sony wasn't there that long. They got it from AMD. Anway, the NSA has been "moving in" for more than a year. It was almost a fort before, and it certainly is now. They even taken over the public road that ran to its north. I'm on the hill, about a mile northwest of there, and can see and hear it at night. It's also close to the Southwest Research Institute (they did the Columbia wing test that demonstrated the hole could be caused by the foam insulation), which is on the other side of Loop 410. I'm sort of surprised they moved in there, though. Lots of better places farther out. San Antonio used to have five military bases: Fort Sam Houston, Lackland AFB, Kelly AFB, and the smaller Brooks field, and Randolf AFB (nearby). Kelly and Brooks are gone. AT&T used to be headquartered here but most of it moved to Dallas earlier this year (think of room 614a). Mm, maybe that's why AT&T left - NSA was moving in.
User operates multiple accounts
MS and NSA partnering over domestic spying WOPR?
If that doesn't make the hair on the back of your head stand up like a soldier on Viagra, nothing will.
Plus, most such efforts so far are nothing but money pits.
Table-ized A.I.
Movie rights.
There's got to be a series in that too.
There's too much officialdom going on and it warrants an expose of some sort.
Don't be apathetic. Procrastinate!
What Obama can do is limited to what the citizens of the U.S. will support. Maybe U.S. citizens will support prosecution. Read the article in Harper's Magazine: Justice after Bush: Prosecuting an outlaw administration.
I think a lot of what the NSA does is just a smokescreen for the real purpose of the NSA, which is surveillance that gives someone an economic advantage. Certainly the NSA doesn't want to eliminate terrorists, because that would eventually cause the elimination of funding for the NSA. Any secret agency will eventually, or soon, become out of control.
So... are they hiring?
The Center should open about the time Bush moves back to Texas, so the Law of Conservation of Intelligence will hold.
__ Someday, but not this morning, I'll finally learn to use the preview button.
Very, very small data centre in the grand scheme of "Data centres". I heard the staffing is under 100, out in the Westover Hills area. Next to... Six Flags, Hyatt Regency HCR (used to be the place to smooch with the rock stars that came to the city), and lots of roads (still) to nowhere. I'd say Bamford is too hung up on catherdrals to see it for what it is, not much really.
How can the governments claim 1) to protect us against terrorism, 2) to be able to dismantle Al-Qaeda, given that:
I) organized crime, such as biker gangs, mafia, etc. roam free without intervention - they commit crimes all the time
II) the governments are unable to dismantle the organized crime elements.
Therefore I ask:
Given that organized crime elements are supposedly a lesser threat and easier target than Al Qaeda and terrorists, should not organized crime dealt away with first?
If we are not going after organized crime, because it is more difficult to root out, how do we expect to root out Al Qaeda and terrorism?
Discuss, please.
Microsoft's data under today's laws "without a warrant" is simply false... unless Microsoft voluntarily cooperates. And the article did make it sound like they were voluntarily cooperating...
which all adds up to yet another reason to boycott Microsoft and use Linux or OS X, and Open Source business software.
To mine data one presumably needs to capture data beforehand. Does this mean ALL traffic on the Internet will ultimately be routed through a node in San Antonio, Texas? Wouldn't this action by a private individual be a criminal offense?
Google has REQUIRED the feds to obey the laws. MS actively works with all govs. for example, the case of the chinese author who was jailed because Yahoo was used; Supposedly, China gov actually had used BOTH Yahoo and MS, but choose to put info about yahoo because MS was closer to the gov. MS has ZERO issues about ignoring the constitution or any rights as long as they get theirs.
I have been making a slow but steady move away from Windows to Linux for a host of reasons. I have also made a decision to NOT buy anything of Sony. It's all in the things we all buy and use everyday. I find it interesting that people will complain about things like this and then turn around and support it by purchasing and using all those things that help to create and expand it all. I know there is no way to stop it or to prevent it. But, there is no reason to willing hand over more power to it. This is part (not all, but part) of the reason I do not use myspace or facebook. I will not buy an Ipod or Iphone. I do not use hotmail and I think I'm starting to end my use of yahoo. I'd like to get away from Google, but it's too useful to me. What it all comes down to is in the way it's all done. The internet is a powerfull tool with many facets. Being a popular thing to do online is just not enough to justify doing when the reality of what it actually is sets in.
How are your math skills? One of the top in nation? NSA wants you. If you want a job doing sysadmin, then you can work for one of the big gov. contractors and they will put you in various locations. Of course, you will need top secret clearance.
The good news is that this datacenter is just ONE of their many. I am surprised that this news got out.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
Of COURSE data mining is ineffective.
Consider the following analogy. A company creates a test that is 99.9% accurate to detect a rare genetic disease. 1 person in 10,000 has the disease.
Let's say your test comes back positive. You should be worried, right? I mean, 99.9% accuracy, and you came back positive.
Actually, no. Let's say you test 1,000,000 people. Of those, 100 will actually have the disease, and 999,900 will not. With 99.9% accuracy, you'll see:
* Of the 999,900 people who do NOT have the disease, about 1000 people will incorrectly test positive.
* Essentially all of the 100 people with the disease will also test positive.
1,100 people tested positive. Only 100 of those have the disease. This means that, even of the people who test positive, 91% do NOT have the disease. Statisticians call this kind of problem is called "Type II Error", which is a major problem for detecting rare conditions in a large population, even with a very accurate test.
Why does this relate to NSA data mining? Even if you're paranoid, the number of terrorists operating in the US is very small. Even if we concede that NSA data mining/profiling is very accurate (something I personally don't), it will STILL be the case that the vast number of identified individuals will be "false positives."
During the civil war the slaves developed a method of communication that went unnoticed except by those who knew about it.
They would sing song in the fields that woudl help to spread the word regarding teh undrground railroad.
Today common conversation communication can as well be used where there really is not anything to decipher.
Language and its abstraction work by attaching meaning and only work as well as the argeed upon meaning by those using teh abstraction.
It doesn't matter what meaning is attached so long as those using it understand what is being communicated
Everyone has heard of double speak, where what is communicated is meant to be perceived by the public one way but internally the very same words mean the opposite of what the public perceives. and this is just one example.
There is a saying, "locks as for honest people" meaning here if some dishonest group wanted to communicate without concern for NSA data mining, they could do so easily.
However, considering the massive amounts of data that is transfered from voice to digital on a daily or hourly basis and what the limits we have in computing power, its simple not possible to data mine for the terrorist threats from terrorists who want to avoid exposure and use such common conversation meaning dishonesty.
But it is very possible, very probable, and very reliable that such data mining be used to determine the attitudes of mass population mindsets and mindsets of population sections as well as spying on targeted US citizens that might influence such population in a direction counter to the "why determine the populations mindset and changes in it?" The unsuspecting American public is so easily influenced by the media so by knowing the overall attitudes of the American public and using the media to influence American attitudes, you have a feedback loop of CONTROL.
To properly address terrorist threats is to simply remove the reasons any terrorist group could play off of, that they won't be able to gain a following.
The World Trade Center was attacked on two different dates. The NSA had to know it was a target and why.
It was because of the effects of the trillion dollar bet in south East Asia. Even Ted Turner publicly said 9/11 was an act of desperation and he'd know because his CNN News did a story on the effects as did also ABC. Follow the Money is the reality here.
This was avoidable but caused by greed. And on the other hand there is What The World Wants that shows that we do have the manpower, knowledge and not only the natural resources but the finances to remove reasons for terrorists to gain a following. And even more important, the question of: Why is this not being done?
Given the death and torture imposed upon innocent people during the Spanish inquisition and the fact Galileo was exonerated so very very late (1992 where it only really was to serve the church not this innocent but long dead person) and the fact that Indonesia by CIA records is 88% Muslim, its clear that religion is an excuse both ways. An excuse to use by the bad, be the bad being believers or non-believers. But 9/11 was about money, wrongful World Stock Market manipulations backed by political controlled military, hence the Pentagon and probable White house targets. It was about money not religion, regardless of what you call such evil dishonesty as happened in the stock market.
But if you wanted to get a very accurate view of the general population attitudes for such a media feedback loop of CONTROL , then what the NSA is doing with data mining will clearly work.
...they would do good to read at least this portion of a speech by Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government just last week.
I find it interesting that the linked "article" is actually an opinion piece from an "alternative newsweekly". It makes a lot of assumptions and unwarranted logical leaps; long on paranoia and short on facts. In any event, here's bit of history, with the important parts in bold. I doubt many people will be interested in what the leaders in the Intelligence Community actually have to say for themselves, their missions, and the law.
A political enemy, phone records, bank records and a SQL query.
Technology -- No Place For Wimps! Grateful Dead and Jerry Garcia Chatroom -- http://www.wemissjerry.org
" NSA could gain access to Microsoft's stored data without even a warrant, but merely a fiber-optic cable"
But it would be illegal, and they haven't. It's awful narrow-minded to consider that they're building an entire data-center for the sole purpose of getting Microsoft's Data under the table. The amount of data MS has out there is a drop in the bucket compared to what they sift through on a normal basis. And I highly doubt they'd abandon the site if MS hadn't decided to take up root there as well.
It's a new data center, for more data mining, so they can keep doing what they've always been doing. Whether you think that's spying on innocent Americans, or providing foreign intelligence is completely irrelevant.
Construction on the new NSA facility (old Sony bldg) started long before MS had finalized work to build the data center in San Antonio. The two are not related in anything other than the fact that they are both in San Antonio; it's not like they can walk over to MS Datacenter with a thumb drive and ask for all their data. It's _just_ a datacenter; coordination between MS and NSA would likely happen in Washington or Redmond.
There are other datacenters in the Westover Hills part of San Antonio; Lowes (or Home Depot, I can't remember) and Stream Realty to name two.
So, for all the conspiracy theory fanatics out there. It comes down to the all-mighty dollar, not some nefarious deed to spy on your daily surfing and email habits....unless of course your are a child predator, drug dealer, human trafficker, organized crime-lord, etc.
TimeOut
Read up on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Information_Awareness_Office
Remember that little spat over the Total Information Awareness project back in 2001? You know, the one where after a lot of public pressure Congress tried to de-fund the program?
I am officially gone from
Thanks NSA, for giving us the irrefutable evidence that, indeed, Microsoft is DIRECTLY involved in spying on America.
Spend your dollars wisely, America. Getting(and keeping) Microsoft OFF your computer, entirely, now directly equates to keeping the NSA off it as well.
You mean a decades-old pearl of wisdom attributed to MINIX creator Andy Tanenbaum?
Microsoft will even pay for the fiber optic cable if the NSA will share the intel with them, so they can rip their customers off even more than they do.
They already let the NSA try to break Vista when it was being developed - meaning that the NSA probably found ten ways to break into Vista machines, then shared seven of them with Microsoft and kept the other three to themselves.
If you use Vista, you're wide open to the NSA.
Richard Steven Hack - This sig is TOO GODDAMN SHORT TO DO ANYTHING USEFUL WITH! MORONS!
What will Obama do with the prisoners? Answer: turn them over to military prisons in the US - where they'll get the exact same treatment they got in Guantanamo.
Or he'll turn them over to the US Bureau of Prisons - where they'll get the exact same treatment they got in Guantanamo - just like US prisoners do.
Where do you think all these brutal methods were developed - in US prisons. Most of the people involved in the Iraq Abu Ghraib abuses were US correctional officers. The Iraqi prison system was developed by correctional officials from states with the worst abuses in the state prison systems.
Richard Steven Hack - This sig is TOO GODDAMN SHORT TO DO ANYTHING USEFUL WITH! MORONS!
What the article doesn't say is that the NSA leased the former Sony site in 2005, with plans to locate as many as 6,000 employees at the site. It had scaled back those plans in 2006, but then decided to build a data center on the property in 2007. Microsoft's project certainly confirmed San Antonio's qualities as a data center site, but it's not really a case of the NSA following Microsoft.
RichM
Data Center Knowledge
If you can handle the false positives.
A sample run against the 9/11 terrorists gets them all flagged right away using both methods. So it's obvious that the solution is to combine these two broad methods with something much more specific like surveillance and simple psychology.
Example: A guy shows up at the border and the broad methods have flagged the guy. Now just observe his behaviour both at the contact with immigration and afterwards. In an airport there's baggage claim after immigration and if you combine his profile with the baggage checked in, what he does while waiting and so on will in almost all cases reveal if there's something wrong.
The 9/11 terrorists had tickets to cross-country destinations but didn't check any baggage. They didn't socialize before bording, nor on the plane, like most people do. In other words - data mining would have flagged them and behaviour would have strengthened the suspicion.
due to the advantages of 'having their miners virtually next door to the mother lode of data centers.' The new NSA facility is just a few miles from Microsoft's data center of the same size.
They forgot to mention the other mother lode of data centers.
Also, San Antonio has a lot of IT people with security clearances, which may also be useful for them.
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