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How Secret Partners Expand NSA's Surveillance Dragnet
Advocatus Diaboli (1627651) writes It has already been widely reported that the NSA works closely with eavesdropping agencies in the United Kingdom, Canada, New Zealand, and Australia as part of the so-called Five Eyes surveillance alliance. But the latest Snowden documents show that a number of other countries, described by the NSA as "third-party partners," are playing an increasingly important role – by secretly allowing the NSA to install surveillance equipment on their fiber-optic cables. The NSA documents state that under RAMPART-A, foreign partners "provide access to cables and host U.S. equipment." This allows the agency to covertly tap into "congestion points around the world" where it says it can intercept the content of phone calls, faxes, e-mails, internet chats, data from virtual private networks, and calls made using Voice over IP software like Skype.
This is oppressive and unconstitutional.
meet man-in-the-middle
...Spain, Sweden, Japan, Brazil, all of NATO, etc, etc. Not to mention partnerships on key areas with the likes of Russia and China.
I thought that Skype used some proprietary protocol/encryption to prevent unauthorized clients that would also prevent the NSA from listening in. Does somebody know something I don't?
dom
the powerful of the world use their confiscated wealth (via taxes) to harness technology to spy on everyone else. really how surprising.
move along, there is nothing to see here...
never bring a twinkie to a food fight.
I've sat on the sidelines since the whole NSA "revelations" began unfolding, but I've finally had enough. I'll not stand by and let the government continue intercepting my faxes.
... somewhat Merkel deserved all the snooping that the NSA did on her. Putting trust in governments that deceive even their own people is a dumb idea.
I would _love_ to see the NSA install a tap on a fiber associated with the network I work with. They would get charged with espionage and terrorism in a pretty clear-cut case. The networks I work with are not your usual Internet-user traffic. They're something which needs to be much more secure (think the ability to break critical non-telco infrastructure).
Oh, and the company I work for is bigger and more powerful than most governments (and no, it's not Google nor any other internet/computing services company, but it is big enough to own a Class A).
What is the 5 partner alliance now referred to as the "**so-called** Five Eyes surveillance alliance". AU-CN-NZ-US-UK have been partners for so long even their opponents accept the alliance exists.
"Terrorism" is not a charge and espionage only applies to the lifting of government secrets by individuals.
should start the call with Dirka Dirka Muhhamed Jihad New York. That should keep the Team NSA busy for a while
by TheSpoom (715771) Uncaring Linux user here. I have nothing to add to this but please continue. *munches popcorn*
So if you have a government more like the East German government, and a secret police service more like the Stasi, as long as it prevents one tragedy, you're fine with it?
You're fine with allowing the Land of the Free to become the Land of the Surveillance Police State?
You certainly don't deserve the moniker "Home of the Brave," you fucking coward.
I've been to NZ.. it's a wonderful place. Beautiful, raw, remarkable in all of its unique features. It's also pretty fucking empty with more sheep than people. There isn't a threat within 5,000 miles unless Australia turns Taliban. The worst thing they need to look out for is Chinese fishing poachers emptying their seas.
//spy agency//?! Enjoy the wonderful land you live in and leave the stupids to the rest of the world.
In all seriousness, please, kiwis, tell me why you have a
Being from Singapore, and currently still here, am not surprised that Singapore is in the list.
Actually many people have suspected that Singapore is working very closely with the US in many aspects.
Can't really blame them all that much, considering their closest (surrounded by) neighbours are Islamic countries which have been known to have extremists present at times. Especially Indonesia.
Dec. 22, 2010: The great Skype blackout
Feb. 6, 2011: Skype goes online with NSA PRISM spying (6 weeks after blackout)
October 2011: Microsoft completes Skype acquisition
July 2012: NSA boasts that "a new capability had tripled the amount of Skype video calls being collected through Prism"
Congratulations, America.
You have become everything you have historically stood against.
Now instead of being the (alleged) champions of truth, freedom, and democracy, you are basically turning the world into a police state in order to give yourself the illusion of security.
You cower in the dark, and decide it is better to give up your rights and your privacy than to hold to your principles.
And you've decided that everybody else in the world has to give up their freedom and privacy to this end.
Fuck you, America. You've become whiny cowards, who believe your right to cower in fear trumps the hard-won rights of the rest of us.
Welcome to the new America. Fascists, cowards, and oligarchs, jumping at shadows, and pretending to be the most important people in the world.
I weep for what America once was. America has declared themselves the enemy of freedom, while convincing themselves they're still its champion.
Land of the free home of the brave has become a fucking joke. Because you're anything but.
You have become your own worst nightmare. And you've also started to become the worst nightmare of the rest of the world.
Assholes.
This is nothing NZ specific.
Intelligence is all about mutual exchange, if you don't give any you soon don't receive any. To NZ and all others involved, they need to contribute valuable data/information or risk being left out without relevant information their own limited resources aren't enough to get. It's simple as that.