US Still Can't Figure Out What Snowden Took

[djohnston]

US Still Can't Figure Out What Snowden Took; What Happened To Those Perfect 'Audits'?

From Techdirt:

Remember how the NSA's biggest defenders keep insisting that the NSA's perfect "audits" prevent abuse? Here's Keith Alexander insisting that such audits are perfect:

    "The assumption is our people are just out there wheeling and dealing. Nothing could be further from the truth. We have tremendous oversight over these programmes. We can audit the actions of our people 100%, and we do that," he said.

    Addressing the Black Hat convention in Las Vegas, an annual gathering for the information security industry, he gave a personal example: "I have four daughters. Can I go and intercept their emails? No. The technical limitations are in there." Should anyone in the NSA try to circumvent that, in defiance of policy, they would be held accountable, he said: "There is 100% audibility." Only 35 NSA analysts had the authority to query a database of US phone records, he said.

Yet, many months after the initial leaks, it's being reported that the US government still doesn't know what Snowden took:

    More than two months after documents leaked by former contractor Edward Snowden first began appearing in the news media, the National Security Agency still doesn’t know the full extent of what he took, according to intelligence community sources, and is “overwhelmed” trying to assess the damage.

First off, this shows that the claims of 100% auditability are complete crap. If they can't tell what Snowden took so many months later, they don't have very good auditability at all. Furthermore, this raises serious questions about the NSA's data management capabilities. For all the claims that there are no "willful" or "intentional" violations by the NSA of people's privacy, it seems difficult to believe they can know that. Here's a case where they flat out know that someone got access to all sorts of documents, and over many months they still can't figure out what he got. And, yet, they expect us to believe that they can tell with perfect accuracy what their staffers are doing with the data they have access to? Seriously?

Yes, there have been thousands of "accidental" violations that were caught in audits, but it seems highly likely that there are intentional violations that the NSA just doesn't know about. If they can't track what an outside contractor is downloading, how can they even pretend that they have control over their data and information?


My comments: This is a perfect illustration of one of the inherent problems with so-called "big data". It's increasingly difficult to find a needle in a haystack if you keep making the haystack larger.

[patrick013]

I read today in the news that the NSA admits it spied
on people who were not terrorists, sometimes for
lengthy periods of time, in violation of it's authority.
But, it gave no indication of what needed to be done
after this fact was made public.

So, to me it seems Snowden isn't lying about everything.

[djohnston]

So, to me it seems Snowden isn't lying about everything.

I'd go so far as to say he probably hasn't lied about anything. (Is that what you meant to say?) I would also have to say, as each new portion of the documents are leaked to the public, that Snowden hasn't exaggerated about anything, either.

[patrick013]

Well if you ever worked for a regional corporation
"industrial espionage" is not appreciated.    Good
strong customers are hard to find and Mr. Snowden
better not be looking for trade secrets, distribution
factors, and then be giving info to special interest groups
and competitors for that purpose.    Promising special
benefits of some kind in the process.   

Booz, Allen, Hamilton is a national special interest group  IMO.

[patrick013]

Considering that there is a directive or order of Mosques and Muslims are off limits.   I would go so far as to say that the NSA is only spying on the people and it was never about stopping terrorism.

Well they did say a few weeks back that they uncovered and stopped
50 terrorists plots while deploying unwarranted surveillance procedures
for lengthy periods of time.

I still think companies are crazy using ISP's for intercompany communications
rather than leased lines dedicated to their intercompany locations only.
Mainframe computers instead of desktop servers, etc..

[melodie]

(...) when questioned by Congress it was discovered that most of or all of the claims by the FBI were false flag operations.

False flag is basically a created situation by the government.  The Times Square bomber- a false flag operation  the person was given a fake bomb.
Another false flag operation in Chicago where a supposed terrorist put a fake bomb in a trash container near Wrigley Field.   Then the FBI came in and arrested the suspect.

I do wonder who apart from people getting information and pointers throught Internet happens to get aware of these manipulation?

[mimas]

> I do wonder who apart from people getting information and pointers throught Internet happens to get aware of these manipulation?

Everyone with a functioning brain as it is a tactic already used in other domains, with some funny side effects :

Fake cop arrested by fake prostitute

DETROIT (WXYZ) - A 51-year-old Detroit man is locked up, accused of breaking up a Wayne County Sheriff's Department prostitution sting by impersonating a police officer.

Investigators say that around 5:00 p.m., Wednesday, the man pulled up to a female detective in the area of Vernor and Oakdale on the city's east side. At the time the detective, who was posing as a prostitute, was talking with another man.

The suspect, who was in a red 1994 Ford Ranger yelled at the detective to "get off the street." Officers say this is when he flashed a badge. The other man sped off, and officers say the suspect began following the detective ranting that he was a cop. When the detective revealed she was a police officer, the man took off. He was arrested a short time later by the nearby arrest team.

When questioned, the suspect denied having a badge. However, officers say the found a Detroit Police department badge, a loaded .40 caliber Glock pistol and hats and clothing with DPD logos during a search of his truck

Speaking about the arrest, Wayne County Sheriff Benny Napoleon says, "This is a very bizarre situation that could have become deadly. This guy was so bold as to interrupt officers conducting a sting. For all intents and purposes he had the weapon, the badge and the clothing—that’s a crime in itself. Who knows what other crimes he would commit in the future had our team not taken him down."

The suspect is being held in Hamtramck until he can be arraigned on one count of impersonating a police officer. The Detroit Police Department has been notified about the badge investigators found.

PS: This bloody forum doesn't let me post the link. It embeds it as a video.
PPS: Take your video, forum : Sepultura - C.I.U. (Criminals in Uniform) and the lyrics.