A new report from The Intercept sheds light on the NSAs close relationship with communications provider AT&T.
The Intercept identified eight facilities across the U.S. that function as hubs for AT&Ts efforts to collaborate with the intelligence agency. The site first identified one potential hub of this kind in 2017 in lower Manhattan.
The report reveals that eight AT&T data facilities in the U.S. are regarded as high-value sites to the NSA for giving the agency direct backbone access to raw data that passes through, including emails, web browsing, social media and any other form of unencrypted online activity. The NSA uses the web of eight AT&T hubs for a surveillance operation code-named FAIRVIEW, a program previously reported by The New York Times. The program, first established in 1985, involves tapping into international telecommunications cables, routers, and switches and only coordinates directly with AT&T and not the other major U.S. mobile carriers.
AT&Ts deep involvement with the NSA monitoring program operated under the code name SAGUARO. Messaging, email and other web traffic accessed through the program was made searchable through XKEYSCORE, one of the NSAs more infamous search-powered surveillance tools.
The Intercept explains how those sites give the NSA access to data beyond just AT&T subscribers:
The data exchange between AT&T and other networks initially takes place outside AT&Ts control, sources said, at third-party data centers that are owned and operated by companies such as Californias Equinix. But the data is then routed in whole or in part through the eight AT&T buildings, where the NSA taps into it. By monitoring what it calls the peering circuits at the eight sites, the spy agency can collect not only AT&Ts data, they get all the data thats interchanged between AT&Ts network and other companies, according to Mark Klein, a former AT&T technician who worked with the company for 22 years.
The NSA describes these locations as peering link router complex sites while AT&T calls them Service Node Routing Complexes (SNRCs). The eight complexes are spread across the nations major cities, with locations in Chicago, Dallas, Atlanta, Los Angeles, New York City, San Francisco, Seattle and Washington, D.C. The Intercept report identifies these facilities:
Among the pinpointed buildings, there is a nuclear blast-resistant, windowless facility in New York Citys Hells Kitchen neighborhood; in Washington, D.C., a fortress-like, concrete structure less than half a mile south of the U.S. Capitol; in Chicago, an earthquake-resistant skyscraper in the West Loop Gate area; in Atlanta, a 429-foot art deco structure in the heart of the citys downtown district; and in Dallas, a cube-like building with narrow windows and large vents on its exterior, located in the Old East district.
in downtown Los Angeles, a striking concrete tower near the Walt Disney Concert Hall and the Staples Center, two blocks from the most important internet exchange in the region; in Seattle, a 15-story building with blacked-out windows and reinforced concrete foundations, near the citys waterfront; and in San Franciscos South of Market neighborhood, a building where it was previously claimed that the NSA was monitoring internet traffic from a secure room on the sixth floor.
While these facilities could allow for the monitoring of domestic U.S. traffic, they also process vast quantities of international traffic as it moves across the globe a fact that likely explains why the NSA would view these AT&T nodes as such high-value sites. The original documents, part of the leaked files provided by Edward Snowden, are available in the original report.
Update: A representative from AT&T provided TechCrunch with the following comment.
Like all companies, we are required by law to provide information to government and law enforcement entities by complying with court orders, subpoenas, lawful discovery requests and other legal requirements. And, we provide voluntary assistance to law enforcement when a persons life is in danger and in other immediate, emergency situations. In all cases, we ensure that requests for assistance are valid and that we act in compliance with the law.
Read this article:
AT&T collaborates on NSA spying through a web of secretive ...
- Iraq to NSA spying: The biggest revelations by Julian Assanges WikiLeaks - Al Jazeera English - June 26th, 2024
- Just the Facts: What We Know About the NSA Spying on Americans - December 28th, 2022
- Big Brother Has Hacked the Constitution - Tenth Amendment Center - September 13th, 2022
- Julian Assange is my husband his extradition is an abomination - The Independent - June 29th, 2022
- NSA Surveillance: Why NSA Spying On Us - RedefinePrivacy - April 28th, 2022
- Edward Snowden - Wikipedia - April 13th, 2022
- EU/US Say They've Agreed To A New Privacy Shield That Doesn't Seem To Deal With Any Of The Problems Of The Old One - Techdirt - April 1st, 2022
- Global surveillance disclosures (2013present) - Wikipedia - January 15th, 2022
- Four refugees who sheltered Snowden find sanctuary in Canada - FRANCE 24 - October 5th, 2021
- Section 215 Expired: Year in Review 2020 - EFF - December 31st, 2020
- America's Nihilism blues | The Retriever - The Retriever - November 18th, 2020
- The socialist perspective in the 2020 US elections - World Socialist Web Site - WSWS - November 7th, 2020
- Big Brother is spying on you - Hillsboro Times Gazette - October 28th, 2020
- From Scandals To War, Here Are The 15 Best Documentaries Of All Time According To Rotten Tomatoes - ScoopWhoop - September 29th, 2020
- Guest view: Should Trump pardon Edward Snowden? - The-review - August 30th, 2020
- Screen Talk 300: Revisiting the Biggest Stories of the Last Six Years - IndieWire - August 30th, 2020
- Trump Wants to Build a Wall Around the Internet, How Worried Should The U.S. Be? - Gizmodo Australia - August 21st, 2020
- A list of known NSA spying techniques - Tumbex - July 27th, 2020
- How does NSA spying effect you? (Infographic) - ProPrivacy.com - July 22nd, 2020
- NSA Spying Federal Jack - July 22nd, 2020
- NSA Spokesman Accidentally Admits that the Government Is ... - July 22nd, 2020
- Liz Cheney the latest target of Trump loyalists which is enough to label her voice of reason on the left - RT - July 21st, 2020
- EU Court Again Rules That NSA Spying Makes U.S. Companies ... - July 18th, 2020
- Op-ed: Congress must act now to rein in the NSA's ... - July 18th, 2020
- Join EFF's 30th Anniversary Livestream and Party Like It's 1990! - EFF - July 9th, 2020
- 8 Ways The NSA is Spying on You Right Now - July 9th, 2020
- The Lizard People Invented Bitcoin: Why Crypto is a Hotbed for Conspiracy Theories - Cointelegraph - June 3rd, 2020
- Made-up murder claims, threats to kill Twitter, rants about NSA spying anything but mention 100,000 US virus deaths, right, Mr President? - The... - May 29th, 2020
- Author David Rohde on what the deep state is and why Trump is obsessed with it - Vox.com - May 13th, 2020
- Yes, Section 215 Expired. Now What? - EFF - April 17th, 2020
- More Than Half of Adults Say Their Video Calls Are Secure, Despite Hacking Concerns - Morning Consult - April 12th, 2020
- Edward Snowden warns COVID-19 could give governments invasive new data collection powers that will last long a - Business Insider India - March 30th, 2020
- ASSANGE EXTRADITION: An Extension of the US War on Terror - Consortium News - March 27th, 2020
- Assange's Extradition: An Escalation of the US War on Terror - Common Dreams - March 27th, 2020
- Presidential Candidates Should Declare Their Stance on "Costly Failure of the NSA's Unconstitutional Mass Surveillance Program," Says... - February 27th, 2020
- LTE: The Deep State is alive in well - GoErie.com - February 27th, 2020
- Pilger, Burchett and Assange: Three Extraordinary Australian Journalists That Spoke Truth to Power - Mintpress News - February 12th, 2020
- Edward Snowden warns that Assange and Greenwald prosecutions mark new stage in assault on press freedom - World Socialist Web Site - January 31st, 2020
- 8 Ways the NSA Is Spying on You Right Now | ExpressVPN - January 19th, 2020
- Trump administration to illegally divert an additional $7.2 billion to border wall construction - World Socialist Web Site - January 19th, 2020
- So, who has been wiretapping the prime minister? - Free Malaysia Today - January 9th, 2020
- Tucker Carlson Patrick McGeehan and Rising Deep Red State Revulsion Against the Neocons - Morgan County USA - January 8th, 2020
- 11 Tech Trends We Need to Dump in 2020 - PCMag AU - December 26th, 2019
- If Devin Nunes wants to call the FBI 'dirty cops', he better be ready to propose a solution - The Independent - December 19th, 2019
- The Simpsons even predicted the Anthony Joshua v Andy Ruiz Jr rematch - GIVEMESPORT - December 9th, 2019
- Nov. 21 Letters to the Editor | Opinion - Lewiston Morning Tribune - November 21st, 2019
- 5 Myths About the National Security Agency - ClearanceJobs - November 5th, 2019
- Democrats Make a Huge Mistake If They Just Focus Impeachment on the Ukraine Scandal - CounterPunch - November 5th, 2019
- Democrats make a huge mistake if they just focus impeachment on the Ukraine scandal - NationofChange - November 2nd, 2019
- Democrats are Making a Huge Mistake on Impeachment if They Focus on the Ukraine Scandal - ThisCantBeHappening! - October 31st, 2019
- NSA Spying on Americans Is Illegal | American Civil ... - October 7th, 2019
- Opinion: Why NSA spying puts the U.S. in danger ... - May 31st, 2019
- NSA spying? Everyone does it. - CSMonitor.com - May 26th, 2019
- NSA spying fiasco sending customers overseas | Computerworld - May 23rd, 2019
- NSA Spying Violated The Constitution - Business Insider - May 13th, 2019
- Judge Dodges Legality of NSA Mass Spying, Citing Secrecy ... - May 3rd, 2019
- Judge who ruled against NSA spying passes on Corsi case ... - April 5th, 2019
- Hearing Friday in Jewel NSA Spying Lawsuit: EFF Asks Court ... - March 28th, 2019
- Video: New NSA Spying Revelations Spark Call for More ... - March 19th, 2019
- NSA spying scandal: what we have learned | US news | The ... - March 8th, 2019
- Clapper claims he didnt lie about NSA spying on ... - March 7th, 2019
- NSA spying program ended six months ago, maybe permanently ... - March 7th, 2019
- Clapper: I Didnt Lie to Congress About NSA Spying I ... - March 7th, 2019
- Congress Reauthorizes NSA Spying on Americans American ... - March 5th, 2019
- European officials lash out at new NSA spying report - CBS ... - March 1st, 2019
- Huawei: U.S. Is Afraid We Will Stop NSA Spying -- It Has ... - February 28th, 2019
- Obama Justifies NSA Spying: Paul Revere Did It First - February 28th, 2019
- Mass government surveillance pros and cons: NSA spying ... - February 22nd, 2019
- Judge: NSA spying almost Orwellian, likely unconstitutional - February 12th, 2019
- The NSAs Hidden Spy Hubs in Eight U.S. Cities - August 5th, 2018
- The Trump Administration Is Hiding a Crucial Report on NSA ... - July 16th, 2018
- Obama knew of NSA spying on Merkel and approved it, report ... - July 16th, 2018
- Potential NSA spying hub revealed in D.C. AT&T building ... - June 28th, 2018
- RNC condemns NSA spying in huge turnaround | MSNBC - April 2nd, 2018
- Stop the Expansion of NSA Spying - eff.org - February 25th, 2018
- Congress demanded NSA spying reform. Instead, they let you ... - January 21st, 2018
- National Security Agency - Wikipedia - January 17th, 2018
- Dont Reauthorize NSA Spying in a Must-Pass Funding Bill ... - December 21st, 2017
- FACT CHECK: Did Clapper Get 'Caught Lying To Congress'? - The Daily Caller - August 24th, 2017
- The struggalo is real as radical ICP fans mobilize online - A.V. Club - August 18th, 2017