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How an Obscure Acronym Helped Link AT&T To NSA Spying
netbuzz writes: Slashdot on Saturday highlighted a story by Pro Publica and the New York Times that used Snowden documents to reveal previously unknown details of the "highly collaborative" relationship between AT&T and the NSA that enabled the latter's controversial Internet surveillance program. An aspect of the story that received only passing mention was how the reporters connected an acronym for an obscure proprietary network configuration – SNRC — to AT&T and the NSA in part through a 1996 story in the now-defunct print version of Network World. In essence, that acronym proved to be a fingerprint confirming the connection — and its match was found thanks to Google Books.
In the fires of Mount Doom, the Dark Lord Sauron forged in secret, a master ring, to control all others. And into this ring he poured all his cruelty, his malice and his will to dominate all life. One ring to rule them all. One by one, the free peoples of Middle Earth fell to the power of the Ring. But there were some who resisted.
You mean NSAT&T?
(help us cold fjord you're our only hope)
So you have proof, now what ? are there going to be prosecutions ?, assets seized ?, jail ?, fines ?, contracts nullified ?, de-listing from stock exchanges ?
otherwise the minutia is meaningless if there are zero consequences for the actors involved, you need to start naming names, protesting outside the boards office is laughable, protest outside their own houses ? disseminate their personal details (dox) them ?, oh now you got their attention.
So what? The same acronym linked back to Kevin Bacon.
metadata and thus not important.
EFF Sues AT&T Over NSA Wiretapping
January 31, 2006
http://yro.slashdot.org/story/06/01/31/2222236/eff-sues-att-over-nsa-wiretapping
AT&T Forwarding All Internet Traffic to NSA?
April 07, 2006
http://slashdot.org/story/06/04/07/1246259/att-forwarding-all-internet-traffic-to-nsa
Under the Hood of AT&T's Monitoring System
April 09, 2006
http://slashdot.org/story/06/04/09/1657258/under-the-hood-of-atts-monitoring-system
AT&T Seeks to Hide Spy Docs
April 13, 2006
http://slashdot.org/story/06/04/13/1218237/att-seeks-to-hide-spy-docs
NSA Spying Comes Under Attack
April 28, 2006
http://slashdot.org/story/06/04/28/1830209/nsa-spying-comes-under-attack
DOJ To Claim National Security in NSA Case
April 29, 2006
http://slashdot.org/story/06/04/29/040225/doj-to-claim-national-security-in-nsa-case
The NSA Knows Who You've Called
May 11, 2006
http://slashdot.org/story/06/05/11/1216245/the-nsa-knows-who-youve-called
Americans Not Bothered by NSA Spying
May 12, 2006
http://slashdot.org/story/06/05/12/1334217/americans-not-bothered-by-nsa-spying
U.S. Government Intervenes in EFF vs. AT&T
May 13, 2006
http://slashdot.org/story/06/05/13/219216/us-government-intervenes-in-eff-vs-att
The AT&T Whistleblower's Evidence
May 18, 2006
http://slashdot.org/story/06/05/18/1626248/the-att-whistleblowers-evidence
Wired Releases Full Text of AT&T NSA Document
May 22, 2006
http://slashdot.org/story/06/05/22/132206/wired-releases-full-text-of-att-nsa-document
Government May Help Bells Defend Against Wiretap Suits
June 02, 2006
http://slashdot.org/story/06/06/02/1515252/government-may-help-bells-defend-against-wiretap-suits
NSA Had Domestic Call Monitoring Before 9/11?
July 02, 2006
http://slashdot.org/story/06/07/02/0659222/nsa-had-domestic-call-monitoring-before-911
EFF Case Against AT&T To Go Forward
July 20, 2006
http://slashdot.org/story/06/07/20/2026250/eff-case-against-att-to-go-forward
Ex AT&T Tech Says NSA Monitors All Web Traffic
November 09, 2007
http://yro.slashdot.org/story/07/11/09/2040206/ex-att-tech-says-nsa-monitors-all-web-traffic
Despite it all, people rushed to sign up with AT&T so they could get their hands on the iPhone when the iPhone was first released exclusively with AT&T.
We can use big data mining to uncover YOUR secrets, too! I'll be you guys and AT&T really like that, don't you?
Maybe this helped grease the AT&T/ DirecTV merger... the government wants to treat their best partner right.
Just shut up and take it, bitch.
One of the problems with jargon is that it is often has the side-effect of obscuring information from outsiders. If you don't know the acronyms, it is that much harder to figure out what the people are talking about. That side-effect isn't really intentional, but many jargon users find it useful, protects their job security, reduces the number of people poking their nose in, etc.
This story makes an interesting counterpoint - instead of just obscuring, this jargon also ended up being very revealing. Linking two things that the people involved wanted to keep concealed.
FWIW, my experience with classified military programs is that they understand this risk. There are often two (or more) sets of names for the same program - unclassified names which are used to talk about the program in unclassified contexts (for as much as you are permitted to talk about the programs) and then classified names that are used to refer to the programs only in classified material. It isn't perfect, but it is another firewall to reduce the kind of information leakage like these reporters were able to exploit.
I remember read it somewhere that many later leaking documents only named after Snowden to cover the real sources.
NSA also should be a new word, BTW.
Oh no, the NetWare 3.X bindery server has been compromised! Everyone better shut down their Windows NT and Novel Netware servers down and wait for a patch to be issued on a 5 1/4 floppy disk.
Nothing wrong with Google Books but wouldn't it be easier to just look up SNRC and AT&T? AT&T is kind enough to provide us with their complete list of acronyms.
https://www.corp.att.com/gov/c...
SNRC's your basic techie jargon kind of name for something that a phone company would come up with. CBB, the "Common Backbone", was a very AT&T-specific name, because it was an internet backbone shared between several organizations who'd been providing different services. Good detective work on the part of the folks who noticed it.
I wonder if there comes a time when you can make Intel stickers that says "NSA inside".
By refusing to hear Heptig vs. AT&T and caving to Congressional Complicity by granting (retroactive) immunity to telecom employees, NSA managed to escape a certain level of scrutiny for full-backbone tap technology, and a certain stretch of road that may have had AT&T admitting corroboration in a purely (or massively) domestic spying operation.
As this corroborative glimpse shows... Heptig vs.AT&T may not just have revealed AT&T consenting to unconstitutional, illegal surveillance forbidden by NSA charter by simply plugging in and splitting fiber into racks and rooms provided by NSA. It may have shown that NSA was actively developing this technology in partnership with AT&T (perfectly fine) but also listening to the conversations of Americans while doing so (not so fine).
I hate repeating myself, see this background post. At the very least if you're not up to speed on Heptig vs AT&T please review this case. It's the closest we had been to a true turning point to reveal and roll back true-Orwellian full content tap framework before it's too late.
Judge not Caesar, who is fulfilling his own destiny. Judge the idiots and bastards who are polishing his empty throne in anticipation of his arrival by building a state-wide surveillance apparatus.
Perhaps it's too late.
<blink>down the rabbit hole</blink>
I know it is not specifically related to the article, but I thought this was worth mentioning:
Sometime around 1999, a security researcher - Andrew Fernandes - found a variable - _NSAKEY - unmasked inside Windows NT4 SP5.
_NSAKEY, it has been suggested, is a secondary key used by the NSA to compromise the security of systems running M$ Windows.
Microsoft said that the key's symbol was "_NSAKEY" because the NSA is the technical review authority for U.S. export controls, and the key ensures compliance with U.S. export laws.
I have a difficult time trusting Microsoft or the NSA to tell the truth. It certainly makes you wonder....
Political correctness is really just herd psychology pushed by insecure people who desperately seek social conformity.
See subject: On my points on hosts being superior to browser addons.
* Nobody here on /., or elsewhere online for that matter, ever has validly & technically.
APK
P.S.=> You can weakly & vainly *TRY* (& fail) to "lump me in" with those REAL completely off-topic spammers, but it doesn't wash - I only (usually) post on hosts where appropriate & on-topic, which is typically in DNS related articles here on /., or those on ads or malware etc. that hosts stop & they do so FAR MORE EFFICIENTLY than slower usermode messagepassing context-switch overheads inferior browser addons (& hosts do more from a SINGLE FILE, by far, also)... apk
See subject & this fair challenge to you in this link http://it.slashdot.org/comment... and to live up to it on YOUR part...
* You can't (& never will...)
APK
P.S.=> And that's TRULY that - & you know it! apk
You may have noticed a story over the weekend by Pro Publica and the New York Times that used documents provided by Edward Snowden to reveal previously unknown details of the “highly collaborative” relationship between AT&T and the NSA that enabled the latter’s controversial domestic spying program.
Someone on the reporting team somehow had the wherewithal to recognize SNRC not only as an acronym he or she didn’t recognize, but as a potential clue as to the identity of “FAIRVIEW’s Partner.”
081715blog snrc google books
That led to Google Books and this Network World story – AT&T reveals ANCS network underpinnings -- dated March 18 1996 and written by my former colleagues Joanie Wexler and Kevin Fogarty.
Anyone who worked directly for, or as a contractor for AT&T as far back as at least the early 1990's can tell you there were rooms set up specifically for .gov and LEO use only. You needed security clearances to get into them even as a direct AT&T employee, and they were locked behind keycard/numpad protected doors, etc. It didn't take a genius to figure out what they were using those rooms for, especially when an awful lot of power and telecoms lines ran right to them (we weren't allowed to discuss or ask about them outside of our training sessions when our corporate trainers would say "those rooms are off limits at all times, except that some of you will be promoted to work in them as needed").
@Mindless Drivel: 100% of Twitter posts ever Tweeted.