How AT&T Tapped the Trunk Lines for the NSA

via wikipedia.com...

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Room 641A is an intercept facility operated by AT&T for the U.S. National Security Agency, beginning in 2003. Room 641A is located in the SBC Communications building at 611 Folsom Street, San Francisco, three floors of which were occupied by AT&T before SBC purchased AT&T. The room was referred to in internal AT&T documents as the SG3 [Study Group 3] Secure Room. It is fed by fiber optic lines from beam splitters installed in fiber optic trunks carrying Internet backbone traffic and, therefore, presumably has access to all Internet traffic that passes through the building.

The room measures about 24 by 48 feet (7.3 by 15 m) and contains several racks of equipment, including a Narus STA 6400, a device designed to intercept and analyze Internet communications at very high speeds.

The existence of the room was revealed by a former AT&T technician, Mark Klein, and was the subject of a 2006 class action lawsuit by the Electronic Frontier Foundation against AT&T. Klein claims he was told that similar black rooms are operated at other facilities around the country. 

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Room 641A and the controversies surrounding it were subjects of an episode of Frontline, the current affairs documentary program on PBS. It was originally broadcast on May 15, 2007. It was also featured on PBS's NOW on March 14, 2008.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) filed a class-action lawsuit against AT&T on January 31, 2006, accusing the telecommunication company of violating the law and the privacy of its customers by collaborating with the National Security Agency (NSA) in a massive, illegal program to wiretap and data-mine Americans' communications. On July 20, 2006, a federal judge denied the government's and AT&T's motions to dismiss the case, chiefly on the ground of the States Secrets Privilege, allowing the lawsuit to go forward. On August 15, 2007, the case was heard by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.

An additional case by the EFF was created on September 18, 2008, titled Jewel v. NSA.

Watergate II in America

AT&T building in downtown San Francisco

 Lawyers for civil liberties groups asked a federal appeals court Wednesday to revive two groups of lawsuits claiming the government has monitored the communications of millions of Americans without warrants since 9/11.

The cases involve the federal government's widely expanded efforts to track down terrorists following the attack a decade ago - efforts that included, at minimum, the interception of international communications that could include members of al-Qaida or other extremist groups.

The San Francisco-based Electronic Frontier Foundation, the American Civil Liberties Union and other critics allege that the surveillance was much broader than that. They cite among other things a declaration from a longtime AT&T worker that the company had allowed the National Security Agency to build a room in one of the company's buildings and route copies of customers' communications there. (more)

History

Secret NSA Room 641A - Note ladder and open ceiling tile. Oops.

1/21/10 - A federal judge has dismissed Jewel v. NSA, a case from the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) on behalf of AT&T customers challenging the National Security Agency's mass surveillance of millions of ordinary Americans' phone calls and emails. (more) 

7/17/09 - The NSA wiretapping story nobody wanted

7/9/09 -  Wiring Up The Big Brother Machine...And Fighting It by Mark Klein and James Bamford

8/15/07 - Spectators lined up outside the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco starting at noon to guarantee a seat at a much-anticipated legal showdown over the government’s secret wiretapping program. 

The hearing involves two cases: one aimed at AT&T for allegedly helping the government with a widespread datamining program allegedly involving domestic and international phone calls and internet use; the other a direct challenge to the government’s admitted warrantless wiretapping of overseas phone calls. (more)

Watergate in Colombia

In Colombia, a major scandal involving the country's intelligence service is unfolding. Colombia's chief prosecutor says the spy service bugged the Supreme Court, intercepted the phones of its justices and followed their every move.

With hours of tape as evidence, prosecutors say the Department of Administrative Services (DAS), which is under the president's control, targeted the court's justices and the investigative magistrates, who function something like prosecutors.

The purpose was to find ties between the criminal underworld and the court in order to discredit the country's highest judicial body.

(more) (audio report)

And now for something completely different...

From the book, The Spy (note the police used a Packard)...

Let's take a look at a Packard today...

Hot Coffee Stock Loses Buzz Upon Leak

NY - Shares in ultra-hot Coffee Holding Co. stock cooled considerably on Wednesday after someone spilled the beans about the Staten Island roaster’s upcoming quarterly results

Coffee Holding, which packs java under such labels as Café Caribe, is one of the market’s stranger-performing stocks. Shares in the 40-year-old, family-run enterprise have soared this year, to more than $30 a share from less than $4 on Nasdaq...

After the market closed, Coffee Holding, “aware that there is certain information in the marketplace,” released preliminary figures for sales and cost of sales. The numbers were lower than investors had hoped and the stock fell 10% as of midday Wednesday...
 
CEO Andrew Gordon, who controls about 1 million shares, or 20% of his company’s stock, wouldn’t comment on the source of the leak. But it comes at a sensitive time for Coffee Holding... (more)

A Brief History of Personal Video Teleconferencing

Browsing through eBay can be an educational experience. Last night I saw the history of how we got to where we are today with smartphone video calls. Here is a quick look, in pictures, of course. Some will enlarge when clicked. ~Kevin

1912 - Scientific American

1914 - Tom Swift

1914 - Tom Swift graphic

1931 - A prediction.

1954 - Caption for Kay Labs "Soundphoto" unit.

1954 - First commercial video teleconferencing by Kay Labs.

1964 - Japanese demo at an industrial fair.

1958 - Toshiba video teleconferencing.

1964 - Bell System. Demoed at NYC World's Fair.

1979 - Early teleconferencing.

Today - Apple iPhone FaceTime

Amazing.

More on License Plate Reading in Massachusetts

A Security Scrapbook Blue Blaze Irregular in the area checks in...

"A related observation to the automatic license plate scanners. I bet Boston/MA has more than they are admitting to.

For instance: Logan Airport central parking has been employing this technology for at least a year if not two.

They scan your plate when you take your ticket to park. This way they know which car is tagged to which serialized parking ticket. Then the periodically drive through the parking lot capturing plates. When you pay for your parking they print the location of your car as a courtesy.

I recently tested the system. I usually park facing out and I have only a rear plate. Most times the system cannot tell me where I left my car. So this past time I purposely parking with my plate facing out. Sure enough my location was printed.

I bet they drive through at night. I keep my eyes peeled when I'm there looking for the vehicle."

10-4 ~Jersey

SpyCam Story #621 - ...and he's still not jaded.

Australia - Hidden cameras in change rooms and toilets are far more common than people realize and advances in technology have made them so small that they are virtually impossible to detect, a Sydney counter-surveillance expert said.

Organizations are typically oblivious to the presence of hidden cameras and, on the odd occasions they do find them, are reluctant to come forward to police for fear of reputational damage, said Julian Claxton, a surveillance expert whose company, Jayde Consulting, conducts sweeps for recording devices.

Just this year, Claxton has investigated two instances in Sydney, one involving a hidden camera in the change room of a Sydney private school and another involving a camera placed in the toilet of a building in Haymarket. (more)

Remember the guy who bolted a camera to his cranium?

Cameraman now has competition... 

Take a one eyed film maker, an unemployed engineer, and a vision for something that’s never been done before and you have yourself the EyeBorg Project. Rob Spence and Kosta Grammatis are trying to make history by embedding a video camera and a transmitter in a prosthetic eye. That eye is going in Robs eye socket, and will record the world from a perspective that’s never been seen before... (videos)

San Francisco artist Tanya Marie Vlach has a very similar project underway - she lost her left eye in a car accident, and is now working on replacing it with a camera eye, that will play a part in a variety of art works. (more)

But... 

Who thought of this first?

March 7, 1974

Artificial Eye May Give Blind New Sight

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FutureWatch - Highway Panopticon Panic

MA - Civil libertarians are raising the alarm over the state’s plans to create a Big Brother database that could map drivers’ whereabouts with police cruiser-mounted scanners that capture thousands of license plates per hour — storing that information indefinitely where local cops, staties, feds and prosecutors could access it as they choose...

The computerized scanners, known as Automatic License Plate Recognition devices, instantly check for police alerts, warrants, traffic violations and parking tickets, which cops say could be an invaluable tool in thwarting crime...

Some ALPR scanners already are deployed on Massachusetts roads. State police have two. Several cities use them for parking enforcement. Chelsea has four scanner-mounted cruisers.

“It’s great for canvassing an area, say after a homicide if you are looking for a particular plate,” said Chelsea police Capt. Keith Houghton. “You can plug it in, and drive up and down side streets. It sounds an alarm if you get a hit.” (more) (video demo - worth watching) (countermeasure:)

Libyan Spy Center Provides Glimpse of Government Capabilities Worldwide

via The Wall Street Journal...

On the ground floor of a six-story building here, agents working for Moammar Gadhafi sat in an open room, spying on emails and chat messages with the help of technology Libya acquired from the West.

The recently abandoned room is lined with posters and English-language training manuals stamped with the name Amesys, a unit of French technology firm Bull SA, which installed the monitoring center...

Earlier this year, Libyan officials held talks with Amesys and several other companies including Boeing Co.'s Narus, a maker of high-tech Internet traffic-monitoring products, as they looked to add sophisticated Internet-filtering capabilities to Libya's existing monitoring operation, people familiar with the matter said.

Libya sought advanced tools to control the encrypted online-phone service Skype, censor YouTube videos and block Libyans from disguising their online activities by using "proxy" servers, according to documents reviewed by the Journal and people familiar with the matter...

Libya is one of several Middle Eastern and North African states to use sophisticated technologies acquired abroad to crack down on dissidents. Tech firms from the U.S., Canada, Europe, China and elsewhere have, in the pursuit of profits, helped regimes block websites, intercept emails and eavesdrop on conversations...

The Tripoli Internet monitoring center was a major part of a broad surveillance apparatus built by Col. Gadhafi to keep tabs on his enemies. Amesys in 2009 equipped the center with "deep packet inspection" technology, one of the most intrusive techniques for snooping on people's online activities, according to people familiar with the matter.

Chinese telecom company ZTE Corp. also provided technology for Libya's monitoring operation, people familiar with the matter said. Amesys and ZTE had deals with different arms of Col. Gadhafi's security service, the people said. A ZTE spokeswoman declined to comment.

VASTech SA Pty Ltd, a small South African firm, provided the regime with tools to tap and log all the international phone calls going in and out of the country, according to emails reviewed by The Wall Street Journal and people familiar with the matter. VASTech declined to discuss its business in Libya due to confidentiality agreements.

Libya went on a surveillance-gear shopping spree after the international community lifted trade sanctions in exchange for Col. Gadhafi handing over the suspects in the 1988 bombing of Pan Am flight 103 and ending his weapons of mass destruction program...

The Tripoli spying center reveals some of the secrets of how Col. Gadhafi's regime censored the populace. The surveillance room, which people familiar with the matter said Amesys equipped with its Eagle system in late 2009, shows how Col. Gadhafi's regime had become more attuned to the dangers posed by Internet activism...

The Eagle system allows agents to observe network traffic and peer into people's emails, among other things. In the room, one English-language poster says: "Whereas many Internet interception systems carry out basic filtering on IP address and extract only those communications from the global flow (Lawful Interception), EAGLE Interception system analyses and stores all the communications from the monitored link (Massive interception)."

On its website, Amesys says its "strategic nationwide interception" system can detect email from Hotmail, Yahoo and Gmail and see chat conversations on MSN instant messaging and AIM. It says investigators can "request the entire database" of Internet traffic "in real time" by entering keywords, email addresses or the names of file attachments as search queries... 

Across town from the Internet monitoring center at Libya's international phone switch, where telephone calls exit and enter the country, a separate group of Col. Gadhafi's security agents staffed a room equipped with VASTech devices, people familiar with the matter said. There they captured roughly 30 to 40 million minutes of mobile and landline conversations a month and archived them for years, one of the people said.

A description of the company's Zebra brand surveillance product, prepared for a trade show, says it "captures and stores massive volumes of traffic" and offers filters that agents can use to "access specific communications of interest from mountains of data." Zebra also features "link analysis," the description says, a tool to help agents identify relationships between individuals based on analysis of their calling patterns.

Capabilities such as these helped Libya sow fear as the country erupted in civil war earlier this year. Anti-Gadhafi street demonstrators were paranoid of being spied on or picked up by the security forces, as it was common knowledge that the regime tapped phones. Much of the early civil unrest was organized via Skype, which activists considered safer than Internet chatting. But even then they were scared. (more)

Back When International Calls Could Not Be Direct Dialed

On Aug. 30, 1963, the hot-line communications link between Washington, D.C., and Moscow went into operation. (more)

The first generation of the hot line had no voice element at all; the memorandum called for a full-time duplex wire telegraph circuit, based on the idea that spontaneous verbal communications could lead to miscommunications and misperceptions. This circuit was routed Washington, D.C. - London - Copenhagen - Stockholm - Helsinki - Moscow. The Washington - London link was originally carried over the TAT-1, the first submarine transatlantic telephone cable. A secondary radio line was routed Washington, D.C. - Tangier - Moscow.

Leaders would state their message in their native language, which would be translated at the receiving end.

This was the Washington side of the hotline. In the foreground, an Air Force S/SGT is examining tape from the Teletype Corp. Model 28 ASR Automatic Send-Receive teletype (ASR) which is fitted with an "under the dome" reperforator. The reperforator is separate from the keyboard,  printer,  and T-D (reader), and was usually plugged into a patch panel. Directly behind the standing man is a  Teletype Model 28 ASR. Also pictured are two identical sets of equipment at the right side:  two Russian T63 teleprinters and two ETCRRM  crypto units. The above configuration would have been duplicated in Moscow.  (NSA photo enhanced by Jerry Proc)

The first use of the hotline was in 1967, during the six-day Egypt-Israel War, when both superpowers informed each other of military moves which might have been provocative or ambiguous.

Bligh me, Captain Lowcock. Right handy havin' a third leg.

UK - Private security firm G4S has sacked two members of staff who tagged a man's false leg allowing him to remove it and break a court-imposed curfew.

The pair were fooled by Christopher Lowcock, 29, who wrapped the prosthetic limb in a bandage when G4S set up the system at his Rochdale home.

He was then able to remove the limb and break a curfew imposed for offences involving drugs, driving and a weapon...
 

The company revealed the second employee who went to check on the monitoring equipment at Lowcock's home was also sacked for failing to realize he had fooled them into tagging his false leg. (more)

Project for a Rainy Day - Build a Motion Detecting SpyCam

A quick and dirty tutorial for building a spycam that begins recording when it detects motion within its field of view. With a little more effort and imagination it could be covertly re-packaged into almost any everyday object around the office, or home, or car, or... well, you get the idea. (video) Why do I mention it? So you will know what you're up against.

Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy

Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy comes to theaters November 18th, 2011 and stars Ralph Fiennes, Colin Firth, Gary Oldman, Tom Hardy, Ciarán Hinds, Benedict Cumberbatch, Jared Harris. The film is directed by Tomas Alfredson. (trailer)