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NSA Can't Search Its Own Email
cycoj writes "The NSA says that there is no central method to search its own email. When asked in a Freedom of Information Act request for emails with the National Geographic Channel over a specific time period, the agency, which has been collecting and analyzing the data of hundreds of millions of Internet users, says it can only perform person-per-person searches on its own email."
Maybe they should run all their internal email through their PRISM system, that way it can be searched for keywords and META data much easier. Problem solved.
As an Exchange administrator, I can say that searching across an entire mail database is absolutely possible, and also very simple to do from the Management Shell. They're either lying, or just don't want to do it.
If I were in charge, and the agency responsible for technological espionage and information security told me they couldn't search through their own emails, I would fire them. Every single one of them. Bam. Agency dissolved, someone go think of a new TLA for the new agency. This is like a Navy that can't figure out how to dock a battleship, or a tax agency that doesn't know what all the valid exemptions are. Complete and utter incompetence.
What's saddest is that this almost certainly isn't true. They've got these capabilities. They're just trying to hide something ("everything" qualifies as something, for their purposes). *Maybe* they're telling the truth, if they've got some custom, highly-encrypted system where emails can only be decrypted by the users. But that doesn't seem like the phrasing used here.
What's saddest is that "we're completely fucking incompetent" is not just the excuse they went with, but that it actually works.
What a bunch of lying douches.
More likely a case of somebody lying to get around a FOIA request, for which there will be consequences. All government agencies have very strict regulations concerning record keeping and FOIA, with jail time possible for anyone who fails to abide by those regulations.
Avoided the feature because of FOIA requests. There are a lot of loopholes for gov organizations to avoid sunshine requests if they really want to--part of it is making the information difficult to reach (can't get the info==do not have to comply). Also, FOIA compliance hinges on each institution's policy in regard to the information. They can set a two day retention policy so that if you request it four days from now they will delete it and reply that the information is not available. Government institutions are hostile to information requests--believe it or not. Power and control is paramount in these environments and arbitrary information requests from outsiders flies in the face of this disposition. [first-hand knowledge]
I object to power without constructive purpose. --Spock
Why wouldn't they continue to lie? Congress, the President, and the American public have made it abundantly clear that there will be no consequences for lying. So, why not?
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