This is a category of disclosures related to global surveillance.
The following table describes what is known about the below SIGINT Activity Designators (SIGADs). It is not presumed to be complete.
Designation | Covername | Parent Program | Legal Authority | Key Targets | Type of Information collected | Associated Databases | Remarks |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
US-3140 (PDDG:TM) | MADCAPOCELOT | STORMBREW | EO 12333 |
| PINWALE | ||
US-983 (PDDG:FL) | STORMBREW | STORMBREW | Global |
| "Key corporate partner with access to international cables, routers, and switches" | ||
US-3206 (PDDG:6T) | MONKEYROCKET | OAKSTAR | EO 12333 | Counterterrorism in the Middle East, Europe, and Asia | DNI metadata and content |
| |
US-3217 (PDDG:MU) | SHIFTINGSHADOW | OAKSTAR |
|
| "Foreign access point" | ||
US-3230 (PDDG:0B) | ORANGECRUSH | OAKSTAR | "To be determined" |
|
| ||
US-3247 (PDDG:PJ) | YACHTSHOP | OAKSTAR | Worldwide DNI Metadata | Worldwide DNI Metadata | MARINA | "Access through BLUEANCHOR partner" | |
US-3251 | ORANGEBLOSSOM [56] [57] | OAKSTAR | |||||
US-3257 (PDDG:SK) | SILVERZEPHYR [56] [57] | OAKSTAR | Transit Authority | South, Central and Latin America |
| "Network access point through STEELKNIGHT partner" | |
US-3277 | BLUEZEPHYR | OAKSTAR | |||||
US-3354 | COBALTFALCON | OAKSTAR | |||||
US-984XN | PRISM | It is possible, though not directly proven that PRISM falls under the umbrella of BLARNEY, given similar designations. | Known Targets include
| The exact type of data varies by provider:
| TRAFFICTHIEF |
| |
US-984 (PDDG:AX) | BLARNEY | BLARNEY | FISA |
|
| Known facilities:
| |
US-984X | BLARNEY | BLARNEY | FAA |
|
| Known facilities:
| |
US-990 (PDDG-UY) | FAIRVIEW | FAIRVIEW | Transit Authority FAA | Global |
|
| |
US-3105S1 | DARKTHUNDER | SSO Corporate/ TAO Shaping |
| ||||
US-3105S1 | STEELFLAUTA | SSO Corporate/ TAO Shaping |
|
Note: SIGADs not otherwise designated are presumed to operate under the legal authority of Section 702 of the FISA Amendments Act (FAA)
The Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) is the main British intelligence agency responsible for providing signals intelligence (SIGINT) and information assurance to the British government and armed forces.
In cryptography, encryption is the process of encoding information in such a way that eavesdroppers or hackers cannot read it, but that authorized parties can. According to Snowden's recommendations published by The Guardian Edward in September 2013, [107] properly implemented strong crypto systems were among the few things which one can rely on. However, endpoint security is often too weak to prevent the NSA from finding ways around it. [107]
In September 2013, it was reported by the press that a number of countries deemed by the US and its allies to be rogue states, such as Syria, Iran and North Korea, had successfully evaded U.S. government surveillance by constructing secret bunkers deep below the Earth's surface. [108]
China's underground megaproject, the 816 Nuclear Military Plant in Chongqing (now declassified and opened to tourists), was reported to be "most worrying" for the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency. [108]
Libya evaded surveillance by building "hardened and buried" bunkers at least 40 feet below ground level. [108]
The United States Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC), also called the FISA Court, is a U.S. federal court established under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 (FISA) to oversee requests for surveillance warrants against foreign spies inside the United States by federal law enforcement and intelligence agencies.
The National Security Agency (NSA) is an intelligence agency of the United States Department of Defense, under the authority of the Director of National Intelligence (DNI). The NSA is responsible for global monitoring, collection, and processing of information and data for foreign intelligence and counterintelligence purposes, specializing in a discipline known as signals intelligence (SIGINT). The NSA is also tasked with the protection of U.S. communications networks and information systems. The NSA relies on a variety of measures to accomplish its mission, the majority of which are clandestine. The NSA has roughly 32,000 employees.
MUSCULAR (DS-200B), located in the United Kingdom, is the name of a surveillance program jointly operated by Britain's Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) and the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) that was revealed by documents released by Edward Snowden and interviews with knowledgeable officials. GCHQ is the primary operator of the program. GCHQ and the NSA have secretly broken into the main communications links that connect the data centers of Yahoo! and Google. Substantive information about the program was made public at the end of October 2013.
The Terrorist Surveillance Program was an electronic surveillance program implemented by the National Security Agency (NSA) of the United States in the wake of the September 11, 2001 attacks. It was part of the President's Surveillance Program, which was in turn conducted under the overall umbrella of the War on Terrorism. The NSA, a signals intelligence agency, implemented the program to intercept al Qaeda communications overseas where at least one party is not a U.S. person. In 2005, The New York Times disclosed that technical glitches resulted in some of the intercepts including communications which were "purely domestic" in nature, igniting the NSA warrantless surveillance controversy. Later works, such as James Bamford's The Shadow Factory, described how the nature of the domestic surveillance was much, much more widespread than initially disclosed. In a 2011 New Yorker article, former NSA employee Bill Binney said that his colleagues told him that the NSA had begun storing billing and phone records from "everyone in the country."
MAINWAY is a database maintained by the United States' National Security Agency (NSA) containing metadata for hundreds of billions of telephone calls made through the largest telephone carriers in the United States, including AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile.
"Stellar Wind" was the code name of a warrantless surveillance program begun under the George W. Bush administration's President's Surveillance Program (PSP). The National Security Agency (NSA) program was approved by President Bush shortly after the September 11, 2001 attacks and was revealed by Thomas Tamm to The New York Times in 2004. Stellar Wind was a prelude to new legal structures that allowed President Bush and President Barack Obama to reproduce each of those programs and expand their reach.
PRISM is a code name for a program under which the United States National Security Agency (NSA) collects internet communications from various U.S. internet companies. The program is also known by the SIGAD US-984XN. PRISM collects stored internet communications based on demands made to internet companies such as Google LLC and Apple under Section 702 of the FISA Amendments Act of 2008 to turn over any data that match court-approved search terms. Among other things, the NSA can use these PRISM requests to target communications that were encrypted when they traveled across the internet backbone, to focus on stored data that telecommunication filtering systems discarded earlier, and to get data that is easier to handle.
Boundless Informant is a big data analysis and data visualization tool used by the United States National Security Agency (NSA). It gives NSA managers summaries of the NSA's worldwide data collection activities by counting metadata. The existence of this tool was disclosed by documents leaked by Edward Snowden, who worked at the NSA for the defense contractor Booz Allen Hamilton. Those disclosed documents were in a direct contradiction to the NSA's assurance to United States Congress that it does not collect any type of data on millions of Americans.
Special Source Operations (SSO) is a division in the US National Security Agency (NSA) which is responsible for all programs aimed at collecting data from major fiber-optic cables and switches, both inside the US and abroad, and also through corporate partnerships. Its existence was revealed through documents provided by Edward Snowden to media outlets in 2013 and, according to him, it is the "crown jewel" of the NSA.
Fairview is a secret program under which the National Security Agency cooperates with the American telecommunications company AT&T in order to collect phone, internet and e-mail data mainly of foreign countries' citizens at major cable landing stations and switching stations inside the United States. The FAIRVIEW program started in 1985, one year after the Bell breakup.
XKeyscore is a secret computer system used by the United States National Security Agency (NSA) for searching and analyzing global Internet data, which it collects in real time. The NSA has shared XKeyscore with other intelligence agencies, including the Australian Signals Directorate, Canada's Communications Security Establishment, New Zealand's Government Communications Security Bureau, Britain's Government Communications Headquarters, Japan's Defense Intelligence Headquarters, and Germany's Bundesnachrichtendienst.
BLARNEY is a communications surveillance program of the National Security Agency (NSA) of the United States. It started in 1978, operated under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act and was expanded after the September 11 attacks.
The practice of mass surveillance in the United States dates back to wartime monitoring and censorship of international communications from, to, or which passed through the United States. After the First and Second World Wars, mass surveillance continued throughout the Cold War period, via programs such as the Black Chamber and Project SHAMROCK. The formation and growth of federal law-enforcement and intelligence agencies such as the FBI, CIA, and NSA institutionalized surveillance used to also silence political dissent, as evidenced by COINTELPRO projects which targeted various organizations and individuals. During the Civil Rights Movement era, many individuals put under surveillance orders were first labelled as integrationists, then deemed subversive, and sometimes suspected to be supportive of the communist model of the United States' rival at the time, the Soviet Union. Other targeted individuals and groups included Native American activists, African American and Chicano liberation movement activists, and anti-war protesters.
OAKSTAR is a secret internet surveillance program of the National Security Agency (NSA) of the United States. It was disclosed in 2013 as part of the leaks by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden.
STORMBREW is a secret internet surveillance program of the National Security Agency (NSA) of the United States. It was disclosed in the summer of 2013 as part of the leaks by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden.
During the 2010s, international media reports revealed new operational details about the Anglophone cryptographic agencies' global surveillance of both foreign and domestic nationals. The reports mostly relate to top secret documents leaked by ex-NSA contractor Edward Snowden. The documents consist of intelligence files relating to the U.S. and other Five Eyes countries. In June 2013, the first of Snowden's documents were published, with further selected documents released to various news outlets through the year.
The global surveillance disclosure released to media by Edward Snowden has caused tension in the bilateral relations of the United States with several of its allies and economic partners as well as in its relationship with the European Union. In August 2013, U.S. President Barack Obama announced the creation of "a review group on intelligence and communications technologies" that would brief and later report to him. In December, the task force issued 46 recommendations that, if adopted, would subject the National Security Agency (NSA) to additional scrutiny by the courts, Congress, and the president, and would strip the NSA of the authority to infiltrate American computer systems using "backdoors" in hardware or software. Geoffrey R. Stone, a White House panel member, said there was no evidence that the bulk collection of phone data had stopped any terror attacks.
Global mass surveillance can be defined as the mass surveillance of entire populations across national borders.
Former U.S. President Barack Obama favored some levels of mass surveillance. He has received some widespread criticism from detractors as a result. Due to his support of certain government surveillance, some critics have said his support violated acceptable privacy rights, while others dispute or attempt to provide justification for the expansion of surveillance initiatives under his administration.
This timeline of global surveillance disclosures from 2013 to the present day is a chronological list of the global surveillance disclosures that began in 2013. The disclosures have been largely instigated by revelations from the former American National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden.
{{cite news}}
: |author=
has generic name (help){{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)