Category Archives: NSA

Joseph Baucum , jbaucum@pnj.com Published 8:00 a.m. CT April 10, 2017 | Updated 11:16 a.m. CT April 10, 2017

University of West Florida students Ian Briggs, left, and Jessica Aguilar work on a computer program in the Battle Lab at UWF on Wednesday, April 5, 2017.(Photo: Tony Giberson/tgiberson@pnj.com)Buy Photo

The University of West Florida's role inevolving the Southeastas a power in cybersecurity workforcedevelopment will soon expand exponentially.

In a joint sponsorship betweenthe National Security Agency and the Department of Homeland Security, the university's Center for Cybersecurity has been designated as the National Center Academic of Excellence (CAE) Regional ResourceCenter for the Southeast region.

Only six institutions were given the regional designation. As part of the honor, the universitywill serve as the CAE Regional Resource Center for all colleges and universities in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, Tennessee and Puerto Rico.

"The goal of the National Security Agencys CAE office is to increase the number of qualified cybersecurity professionals by expanding the number of CAE institutions," said Eman El-Sheikh, director of theCenter for Cybersecurity."Our missionwill be to provide leadership to do that in the Southeast."

The university plans to host workshops and professional development activities in the local area and across the region in its role as a resource center. They include a CAE mentor and peer reviewer workshop in June at theNational Cyber Summit in Huntsville, Alabama, andaworkshop on securingsoftware development for faculty in Pensacola in the fall. It will alsocreate an online resource portal thatcolleges and universities in the Southeast can access.

At left, Dustin Mink, University of West Florida assistant director of the Center for Cybersecurity, and student Nathan Earley talk on Wednesday, April 5, 2017, in the UWF Battle Lab.(Photo: Tony Giberson/tgiberson@pnj.com)

With cyberattacksescalatingastechnology advances, a qualifiedworkforce in cybersecurity is critical. According to the Department of Homeland Security's National Initiative for Cybersecurity Careers and Studies, aboutone out of every five Americans havebeen victimized by cybercrime. Cyberattacks also cost the average U.S. company more than $15.4 million annually.

To ensure enough qualified professionals exist, El-Sheikh said the National Security Agency's goal is to increase the number of CAE institutions across the country. More than 200 colleges and universities across the U.S. and Puerto Ricoare already designated as a CAE based on their degree programs and close alignment to specific cybersecurity-related criteria and curriculum.

But a substantial amount more could benefit from earning the designation.

"Currently less than 5 percent of institutions have it, and in our world, that designation is a gold star," El-Sheikh said.

Martha Saunders, University of West Florida president, expects the university'sdesignation as a CAE Regional Resource Center to further its mission of being a community resource. She anticipatescybersecurity to change and be redefined dozens of times over the next few years, but she saidas changes in the industryoccur, the university will always play a handin developing the kind of workforce that is needed.

"There are lots of centers for cybersecurity across the U.S. that could have been picked, but they chose us," she said of the CAE Regional Resource Center designation. "I find that encouragingnot just for the university, but for the whole community."

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NSA awards UWF Center for Cybersecurity with designation - Pensacola News Journal

ISLAMABAD: Accusing India of "defeating the spirit of bilateralism" by defying talks over the Kashmir issue, Pakistan's National Security Adviser Nasser Janjua has said that the two neighbours "cannot remain enemies forever" and they need to engage and resolve their disputes.

Janjua's remarks comes against the backdrop of spike in Indo-Pak tensions over the death sentence awarded to Indian national Kulbhushan Jadhav by a military court and New Delhi's warning to Islamabad to consider the consequences on bilateral ties if he is hanged.

Pakistan's NSA claimed that the international community is overlooking Kashmir issue due to their own strategic interests related to India.

"Although India considers Kashmir a bilateral issue, it has defeated the spirit of bilateralism by defying any dialogue over it," Janjua said while speaking to Canadian High Commissioner Perry Calderwood yesterday.

"Extreme thoughts are to be mitigated through a change of perception, by winning hearts and minds and not by use of force alone," he said, referring to the situation in Kashmir.

"We need to engage with each other and resolve disputes," Janjua was quoted as saying by the state-run Associated Press of Pakistan (APP).

"Pakistan and India cannot remain enemies forever," he said, amid a strain in Indo-Pak ties.

Janjua and Calderwood discussed regional dynamics and bilateral ties, Pakistan's role in eradicating terrorism, counter-terrorism cooperation, the implementation of the National Action Plan (NAP) and Pakistan-India relations with reference to the US' offer for mediation.

Janjua also underscored the need for a non-discriminatory approach while considering Pakistan's membership for elite Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG).

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Pakistan, India cannot remain enemies forever: Pak NSA Nasser Janjua - Economic Times

Last August, the intel world was abuzz following the news that a previously unknown hacker collective, "The Shadow Brokers" had hacked and released legitimate hacking tools from the NSA's own special-ops entity, the "Equation Group", with initial speculation emerging that the Russians may have penetrated the US spy agency as suggested by none other than Edward Snowden. The Shadow Brokers released a bunch of the organization's hacking tools, and were asking for 1 million bitcoin (around $568 million at the time) to release more files, however failed to find a buyer.

Attention then shifted from Russians after some speculated that the agency itself may be housing another "mole" insider. At the time, a former NSA source told Motherboard, that its plausible that the leakers are actually a disgruntled insider, claiming that its easier to walk out of the NSA with a USB drive or a CD than hack its servers." As famed NSA whistleblower William Binney - who exposed the NSA's pervasive surveillance of Americans long before Snowden confirmed it - said, My colleagues and I are fairly certain that this was no hack, or group for that matter, This Shadow Brokers character is one guy, an insider employee."

In a subsequent Reuters op-ed by cybersecurity expert James Bamford, author of The Shadow Factory: The Ultra-Secret NSA From 9/11 to the Eavesdropping on America, and columnist for Foreign Policy magazine, he said that seemed as the most probable explanation, and that Russia had nothing to do with this latest - and most provocative yet - hack.

Since then, the Shadow Broker group, whose origin and identity still remains a mystery, disappeared from the radar only to emerge today, when in an article posted on Medium, the group wrote an op-ed, much of it in broken English, in which it slammed Donald Trump's betrayal of his core "base", and the recent attack on Syria, urging Trump to revert to his original promises and not be swept away by globalist and MIC interests, but far more imporantly, released the password which grants access to what Edward Snowden moments ago called the NSA's "Top Secret arsenal of digital weapons."

The article begins with the group explaining why it is displeased with Trump.

Dont Forget Your Base

Respectfully, what the fuck are you doing? TheShadowBrokers voted for you. TheShadowBrokers supports you. TheShadowBrokers is losing faith in you. Mr. Trump helping theshadowbrokers, helping you. Is appearing you are abandoning your base, the movement, and the peoples who getting you elected.

Good Evidence:

#1Goldman Sach (TheGlobalists) and Military Industrial Intelligence Complex (MIIC) cabinet #2Backtracked on Obamacare #3Attacked the Freedom Causcus (TheMovement) #4Removed Bannon from the NSC #5Increased U.S. involvement in a foreign war (Syria Strike)

The peoples whose voted for you, voted against the Republican Party, the party that tried to destroying your character in the primaries. The peoples who voted for you, voted against the Democrat Party, the party that hates, mocks, and laughs at you. Without the support of the peoples who voted for you, what do you think will be happening to your Presidency? Without the support of the people who voted for you, do you think youll be still making America great again? Do you be remembering when you were sitting there at the Obama Press Party and they were all laughing at you? Do you be remembering when you touring the country and all those peoples believed in you and supported you? You were those peoples hope. How do you be thinking it will be feeling when those people turn on you? Will they be laughing at you, hating you, and mocking you too?

TheShadowBrokers doesnt want this to be happening to you, Mr. Trump. TheShadowBrokers is wanting to see you succeed.

The hackers then ask Trump whose war is he fighting:

If you made deal(s) be telling the peoples about them, peoples is appreciating transparency. But what kind of deal can be resulting in chemical weapons used in Syria, Mr. Bannons removal from the NSC, US military strike on Syria, and successful vote for SCOTUS without change rules? Mr. Trump whose war are you fighting? Israeli Nationalists (Zionist) and Goldman Sachs war? Chinese Globalists and Goldman Sachs war? Is not looking like you fighting the domestic wars, the movement elected you to be fighting. You not being in office three months and already you looking like the MIICs bitch with John McCain and Chuck Schumer double dutch ruddering each other in the corner over dead corpses.

The post continues by exposing what the ShadowBrokers believe is the general mindset of Trump's support base:

Your Supporters:

In the article, the ShadowBrokers also touch upon what until recently was the primary topic of the daily news cycle, namely the whether Russia is behind this (and any other black hat intel hacking operation):

For peoples still being confused about TheShadowBrokers and Russia. If theshadowbrokers being Russian dont you think wed be in all those U.S. government reports on Russian hacking? TheShadowBrokers isnt not fans of Russia or Putin but The enemy of my enemy is my friend. We recognize Americans having more in common with Russians than Chinese or Globalist or Socialist. Russia and Putin are nationalist and enemies of the Globalist, examples: NATO encroachment and Ukraine conflict. Therefore Russia and Putin are being best allies until the common enemies are defeated and America is great again.

The report than goes on to suggest that the hacking group is in fact comprised mostly of former US spies: "President Trump, theshadowbrokers is offering our services to you and your administration. Did you know most of theshadowbrokers members have taken the oath to protect and defend the constitution of the United States against all enemies foreign and domestic. Yes sir! Most of us used to be TheDeepState everyone is talking about."

Then something changed, and the collective notes that "TheDeepState is being the enemy of the constitution, individualism, life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. With the right funding we can recruit some of the best hacker intel peoples in United States and world. Unmasking is being new buzz word, so we use. TheShadowBrokers is being happy to unmask anyone we considering to be an enemy of the Constitution of the United States."

Enemies like John McCain. Something doesnt rub theshadowbrokers rite about Vietnam War POW who at every opportunity seeks to do violence to others via the proxy of young service men and women. If anyone should be being pacifist, slow to pick fight it should be being former POW. TheShadowBrokers is sure if we unmasking, Senator McCain, Magog itself might come out, many defense contractors, Saudi Princes, and possibly little Vietnamese boy he shares with Senator Lindsey Graham, not cool! Mr. Trump we know you are having DOJ and FBI, so why you be needing theShadowBrokers? You dont, but theshadowbrokers is confused. Why havent you served search warrant to NYT, Washington Post, Goldman Sacks, Jeff Bezos, and all other Globalist for investigation and prosecution of treason, sedition, and un-American activities during a time of war? The

It was the conclusion to the post, however, that was most interesting - in it the Shadow Brokers urges Trump to be the "real deal" and has released the password to the NSA hacking tool binaries that made so much news last summer:

Mr. President Trump theshadowbrokers sincerely is hoping you are being the real deal and that you received this as constructive criticism toward #MAGA. Some Americans consider or maybe considering TheShadowBrokers traitors. We disagreeing. We view this as keeping our oath to protect and defend against enemies foreign and domestic. TheShadowBrokers wishes we could be doing more, but revolutions/civil wars taking money, time, and people. TheShadowBrokers has is having little of each as our auction was an apparent failure. Be considering this our form of protest. The password for the EQGRP-Auction-Files is CrDj(;Va.*NdlnzB9M?@K2)#>deB7mN

Shortly after the blog post hit, Wikileaks noticed:

Even Edward Snowden got involved

As per Wikileaks, the released information include "browsable decrypted Shadow Brokers "NSA" hacking tools+docs files corresponding to password released today", and that "Hundreds of NSA cyber weapons variants publicly released including code showing hacking of Pakistan mobile system"

The github depository of the released code can be found here.

Other hackers organizations confirm, the key released by the ShadowBrokers has been verified:

Inside the NSA dump among many other findings, we find hundreds of NSA attacks on China, as well as penetration attempts in which the NSA "pretends" to be China so one wonders how difficult it would be for the NSA to pretend they are, oh, say Russia?

Additionally, today's revelation exposes hacking attacks on EU states, as well as Latin America, Russia, China, Japan and South East Asia. Among the contents one also finds the hacking configuration for China Mobile, the world's largest mobile telecom company by number of subscribers (just under 900 million) and market cap.

Another example shows the NSA's EquationGroup tool (ELECTRICSLIDE) impersonating a Chinese browser with fake Accept-Language.

We are in the process of further exploring the disclosed data, and will present any notable revelations in due course, however we find it quite interesting that now that the "rogue" element in the intel community appears to have given up on Trump, they are bypassing the president and taking their war with the "deep state" directly to the people.

Finally, a rhetorical question from Julian Assange on today's revelations:

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Hacker Group Releases Password To NSA's "Top Secret Arsenal ...

Coaches, Parents & Players

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Thanks for supporting NSA I am looking forward to a great tournament and a great year.

See you on the diamond

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NSA of Washington

White House national security adviser H.R. McMaster on Sunday characterized the decision to relocate a U.S. aircraft carrier strike group to the Sea of Japan as "prudent," given North Korea's "pattern of provocative behavior."

"Well, it's prudent to do it, isn't it?" McMaster told Fox News' Chris Wallace on "Fox News Sunday," adding that "the president has asked to be prepared to give him a full range of options to remove that threat the American people and to our allies and partners in the region."

On Saturday, Adm. Harry Harris, commander of U.S. Pacific Command, redirected the USS Carl Vinson strike group from Singapore to the Sea of Japan, due east of the Korean Peninsula. The Navy said the strike group "will operate in the Western Pacific rather than executing previously planned port visits to Australia."

The strike group consists of the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson, the guided missile destroyers USS Wayne E. Meyer and USS Michael Murphy, and the guided missile cruiser USS Lake Champlain.

North Korea has already conducted four missile launches this year, marking a considerable uptick in frequency compared to recent years. The U.S. government and its allies have repeatedly condemned North Korea's nuclear and missile program as illegal.

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NSA McMaster: 'Prudent' to send strike group to Korean Peninsula - ABC News

Forbes

NSA Hacking Tools Leak Online But Are 'The Shadow Brokers ... Forbes The Shadow Brokers just gave the NSA a black eye (and they aren't done yet) but will the latest leak lead to their uncovering? Edward Snowden thinks so. Alleged NSA hack group Shadow Brokers releases new trove of exploitsTechCrunch 'Shadow Brokers' give away more NSA hacking toolsEngadget Hacker group releases password to alleged NSA filesLincoln Journal Star BuzzFeed News -RT -Fossbytes -Medium all 19 news articles »

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NSA Hacking Tools Leak Online But Are 'The Shadow Brokers ... - Forbes

Deputy national security adviser KT McFarland is expected to leave her position and accept an ambassadorship to Singapore, a senior administration official confirms to ABC News.

The move is the latest indication that National Security Advisor H.R. McMaster is taking full control over the National Security Council, following up on last week's decision to remove Steve Bannon from the principals committee.

McFarland is a former Fox News commentator brought on to the job by Trump's former National Security Adviser Mike Flynn, who resigned after reports that he misled Vice President Mike Pence about the nature of his conversations with Russian officials during the campaign.

McFarland is expected to remain at her post for the next two weeks before President Trump formally submits her as a nominee for the ambassadorship.

According to the same official, McFarland is "excited" to accept the position, and McMaster thought she did a great job as deputy national security adviser.

The official characterized the move as a "promotion," because instead of working as a deputy, she will be a leader in a "critical diplomatic outpost."

ABC News' Erin Dooley contributed to this report.

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KT McFarland to depart as deputy NSA, take ambassadorship to Singapore, official confirms - ABC News

Special to The Washington Post.

Yul Williams is the technical director for the National Security Agency/Central Security Service, working with computer scientists, mathematicians and engineers to develop new technologies in the cybersecurity field that will assist the agency in its intelligence operations. In a conversation with Tom Fox, Williams described an NSA idea incubation technique that has led to many innovations. The conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

Q: What is your main area of focus at the National Security Agency?

A: My work is centered on cybersecurity, and its mostly of a defensive nature. We are trying to gather ideas from the workforce that we can develop and implement to enhance our overall mission. Our CYBERx incubation model provides a venue where anyone in the workforce can present concepts to an audience of senior leaders that may have the potential to affect the manner in which we conduct business.

Q: If I am an NSA employee and I have an idea, how do I get it to you?

A: We developed a crowdsourcing tool that is available to the NSA workforce. The workforce can look at the idea submitted and vote for or against it. They can leave comments saying why an idea is great or that it has been tried before. Afterward, a group known as the Innovators In Residence reviews the idea and decides how we can bring it into the incubation stage.

Q: What happens next?

A: We guarantee the idea champion will have an audience within four weeks with the Innovators in Residence, which will make the determination whether the idea should move to the next stage. The group makes a list of all the good and bad things about the idea. The focus is mostly on the negative comments because they surface the institutional fears as to why the idea hasnt been implemented before. Our emphasis is on proving why those fears are unfounded. If the idea champion cannot overcome those concerns, the idea dies on the spot. We refer to this concept as a fast failure, and it limits the energy expanded on ideas with low mission potential. If the idea has merit, the group helps the idea champion develop a pitch that can be used to convince the organization of the value of the idea to the bottom line.

Q: What happens if an idea passes that phase?

A: The idea champion is given an audience with the RIP or the Resource Investment Panel that is made up of NSA senior leaders who run organizations and have staff. Instead of giving funding for the first round of development, we ask the RIP to loan a resource to the project. For example, a resource may be an analyst who might have skill in microelectronics or optoelectronics. Once the RIP concurs, it provides resources to the idea champion who then has up to five months to conduct experiments. During that phase, the idea champion must periodically meet with the RIP and explain the experiments status. If all of the requirements are satisfied, the idea champion meets with the same panel, now called the Strategic Investment Panel or SIP. The SIP must come to a consensus about turning the idea into a product and deploying it.

Q: How many ideas on average go through this process?

A: There are around 117 ideas percolating in the crowdsourcing process.

Q: Can your approach be adopted by other agencies?

A: I would strongly encourage other federal agencies to adopt an incubation model. I am shocked at the amount of interest employees have in lending their ideas to make us a better agency. You should see the passion that people bring to the table and the pride they have when their idea makes it to the end of the incubation model or is even considered. We dont attribute failure of an idea as a personal failure. We celebrate that the person was willing to step away from what they do on a daily basis and take an idea through the process.

Q: Tell me about your management philosophy or management style.

A: My leadership style is to respect the professionalism of the people I work with. I learned long ago that if youre working with low-skilled people, it is more direction-oriented. In this environment, we have very professional people, so you want to leverage what they have to offer and challenge them to do things that they did not believe were possible. I find that people always exceed their own expectations.

Q: Have you learned any important leadership lessons during your time as a manager?

A: One of the lessons I learned is to always seek out others who have more experience in areas where you may be lacking so you can consider a wider range of ideas. It is important to confer with a diverse set of people who you can bounce ideas off of and those that help you to grow as a professional and as a person.

- - -

Fox is a guest writer for The Posts On Leadership blog and the vice president for leadership and innovation at the nonprofit, nonpartisan Partnership for Public Service.

nsa-innovate-qanda

Keywords: Yul Williams, NSA, cybersecurity, innovation, fast failure

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Yul Williams on fostering innovation at the NSA - Standard-Examiner

This report first appeared on CyberScoop.

The man responsible for leading the National Security Agencys defensive mission says his team is fielding more calls than ever from agencies across the government.

Dangerous, highly capable hackers and a desire by agencies to adopt cloud technology have increased the workload forInformation Assurance chief Paul Pitelli and his office, which he says is sort of like the Geek Squad for defense in government.

Pitelli is acareer professionalwho has served in the NSA for more than 20 years as the secretive spy agency transformed into what it is today a highly sophisticated technology behemoth with an array of federal responsibilities, including both signals intelligence and protecting sensitive government systems. With the recent retirement of former Information Assurance Directorate head Curtis Dukes, a renown computer scientist and intelligence community icon, Pitelli took on an increased role in an ever important effort to ensure that the Defense Department and broader government arent hacked.

Well get a wide range of calls from Hey were trying to set up a whole new [information technology] environment and that could be the White House calling, Pitelli said.

A big focus in recents years for Information Assurance, according to Pitelli, has been helping a variety of different federal agencies establish secure cloud data storage processes.

I have never been more busy, Pitelli told CyberScoop in an interview Thursday after he spoke at the McAfee Security Through Innovation Summit.We are getting calls because they all need help. Everyone wants to take advantage of cloud services, thats sort of one thing were getting called for, but its also traditional issues because our nation is being constantly attacked. Were one of the few agencies that get to see when and how the adversary starts operating.

Federal lawmakers have increasingly encouraged agencies in recent years to adopt cloud data storage technologies as a way to both save costs and phase out old on-premise servers.

Because of the economics of cloud services theres so much incentive [for agencies] to migrate many of their capabilities, Pitelli said. A lot of people in government want the NSAs help.

Nobody in government wants to be the next to suffer a hack like the2015 data breach that exposed federal employee information held by theOffice of Personnel Management, he said.

So were getting a lot of calls where its basically, Hey we want to make this move, but how do we do it well? Pitelli said.

Turnoverat the White House also adds to the Information Assurance divisions current workload.

With a change of administration, you know, they typically take a fresh look. And for us thats an opportunity because it allows us to sometimes make an [IT] environment better, Pitelli said. The cyber dimension is adding, on one hand, what you can call issues or events, but I think can be opportunities.

Historically, Fort Meades defensive efforts in cyberspace have been overshadowed by the spy agencys more offensive-centric, intelligence gathering mission set. This is evident from a labor perspective, given that the NSAs Signals Intelligence workforce remains much larger than the Information Assurance unit.

An overwhelming majority of budget dollars are allocated to offense rather than defense, former intelligence officials say, and thats resulted in an agency that is known almost exclusively for digital espionage rather than cyber-defense.

Dukes, former IAD head Debora Plunkett and departing NSA Deputy Director Rick Ledgett recently voiced their concerns that the NSA should be focusing on defense more than it has in the past.

Roughly 90 percent of the U.S. government cybersecurity spending is used to fuel offensive operations, Ledgett told Reuters.

I absolutely think we should be placing significantly more effort on the defense, particularly in light of where we are with exponential growth in threats and capabilities and intentions, Plunkett, who oversaw the NSAs defensive mission from 2010 to 2014, recently told Reuters.

Defense under NSA21

The trios comments come amid an expansive reorganization effort by the NSA, instituted by agency Director Michael Rogers, that works to combine what was once called the Information Assurance Directorate and Signals Intelligence Directorate into a single, joint entity.

Although Rogers plan, known as NSA21, is intended to streamline operations, it has also spurred new concerns that the spy agencys defensive mission will receive even less resources in the future.

When the NSA goes through a change a lot of that discussion goes on because theres a big difference between offense and defense as far as the budget and so that was one of the big concerns that some folks vocalized, said Pitelli, I see a need, a bigger need for cybersecurity not just at NSA but for everybody.

The dual impact of NSA21s rollout and Dukes recent retirement has caused some confusion in government.

I know Curt voiced concerns that as we make this move [towards NSA21] there can be this perception that Oh well who do I call? And if they dont know who to call the question is, Well where did it go? Curt was really one of the great, visible icons of Information Assurance and he retired and so there is that time right now where we are waiting to find out whose going to be given the mantle next, Pitelli said.

Pitelli declined to specifically discuss the NSAs budget but said he would like to see Congress broadly allocate greater resources for cybersecurity writ large, across the entire government.

I will go so far as to say I would hope that the government not just at NSA, but the government really tries to allocate additional funds for the cybersecurity information assurance mission, Pitelli said. Alot of times people have lumped in their information assurance budgets with their IT budgets and the challenge I think youre seeing now is that we havent kept up with the budgets of cybersecurity.

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NSA cyber-defense chief: 'I have never been more busy' - FedScoop

For many, many years, Senator Ron Wyden has been directly asking the US intelligence community a fairly straightforward question (in his role as a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee): just how many Americans are having their communications swept up in surveillance activities supposedly being conducted on foreigners under the FISA Amendments Act (FISA being Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act). Wyden started asking way back in 2011 and got no answers. His continued questioning in 2013 resulted in Director of National Intelligence James Clapper lying to Congress in a public hearing, which Ed Snowden later claimed was a big part of the inspiration to make him leak documents to the press.

Just last month, we noted that Wyden had renewed his request for an accurate depiction of how many Americans have had their communications swept up, this time asked to new Director of National Intelligence, Dan Coats. Unfortunately, for all these years, it's basically felt like Senator Wyden tilting at a seeming windmill, with many others in Congress basically rolling their eyes every time the issue is raised. I've never understood why people in Congress think that these kinds of things can be ignored. There have been a few attempts by others -- notably on the House Judiciary Committee -- to ask similar questions. Almost exactly a year ago, there was a letter from many members of the HJC, and there was a followup in December. But, notably, while there were a number of members from both parties on that letter, the chair of the House Judiciary Committee, Bob Goodlatte, did not sign the letter, meaning that it was unlikely to be taken as seriously.

Suddenly, though, it seems that the ins-and-outs of Section 702, and how the "incidental" information it collects on Americans is used has taken on a much wider interest, following President Trump's misleading suggestion that President Obama tapped his phone lines, and some Trump supporters trying to twist typical 702 surveillance to justify those remarks. Either way, if that leads people to actually look at 702, that may be a good result out of a stupid situation. And, thus, we get to this surprising moment, in which Goodlatte has actually sent a similar letter to Coats (along with ranking member John Conyers) asking about the impact of 702 surveillance on Americans. And since (for reasons that are beyond me) Reuters refuses to link to the actual source materials, you can read the full letter here or embedded below.

The letter demands an answer by April 24th. And, yes, it's notable that Goodlatte has signed on, because Section 702 is up for reauthorization at the end of the year, and if Goodlatte is not on board with reauthorization, then the NSA is going to have some difficulty in getting it through.

You have described reauthorization of Section 702 as your "top legislative priority." Although Congress designed this authority to target non-U.S. persons located outside of the United States, it is clear that Section 702 surveillance programs can and do collect information about U.S. persons, on subjects unrelated to counterterrorism. It is imperative that we understand the size of this impact on U.S. persons as our Committee proceeds with the debate on reauthorization.

The letter then even points to Coats' response to Wyden during Coats' confirmation hearing that he was "going to do everything I can to work with Admiral Rogers in NSA to get you that number." Of course, back in December, it was said that the intelligence community might finally deliver that number... in January. And it's now April. Still, with Goodlatte finally taking an interest in this, it's a sign that the NSA can't just coast by and continue to completely ignore this.

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Oh, Sure, Now Congress Is Serious About Asking NSA About Surveillance On Americans - Techdirt