Tapping the Google and Yahoo! clouds allows the NSA to intercept communications in real time and to take "a retrospective look at target activity," according to one internal NSA document. Yahoo!'s internal network, for example, sometimes transmits entire email archives - years of messages and attachments - from one data centre to another. In order for the data centres to operate effectively, they synchronise high volumes of information about account holders. These globe-spanning networks, representing billions of dollars of investment, are known as "clouds" because data moves seamlessly around them. To guard against data loss and system slowdowns, Google and Yahoo! maintain fortress-like data centres across four continents and connect them with thousands of miles of fibre-optic cable.
The operation to infiltrate data links exploits a fundamental weakness in systems architecture. "It's fair to say the rules are less restrictive under Executive Order 12333 than they are under FISA."
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"Look, NSA has platoons of lawyers and their entire job is figuring out how to stay within the law and maximise collection by exploiting every loophole," he said. John Schindler, a former NSA chief analyst and frequent defender who teaches at the Naval War College, said it was obvious why the agency would prefer to avoid restrictions where it can. Senate Intelligence Committee Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein has acknowledged that Congress conducts little oversight of intelligence-gathering under the presidential authority of Executive Order 12333, which defines the basic powers and responsibilities of the intelligence agencies. Outside US territory, statutory restrictions on surveillance seldom apply and the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court has no jurisdiction. Such large-scale collection of internet content would be illegal in the United States, but the operations take place overseas, where the NSA is allowed to presume that anyone using a foreign data link is a foreigner. NSA documents about the effort refer directly to "full take," "bulk access" and "high volume" operations on Yahoo! and Google networks. Intercepting communications overseas has clear advantages for the NSA, with looser restrictions and less oversight. That program, which was first disclosed by The Washington Post and the Guardian newspaper, is authorised under Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act and overseen by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. Under PRISM, the NSA already gathers huge volumes of online communications records by legally compelling US technology companies, including Yahoo! and Google, to turn over any data matching court-approved search terms. "We have long been concerned about the possibility of this kind of snooping, which is why we continue to extend encryption across more and more Google services and links," the company said.Īt Yahoo!, a spokeswoman said: "We have strict controls in place to protect the security of our data centre, and we have not given access to our data centres to the NSA or to any other government agency." In a statement, Google said it was "troubled by allegations of the government intercepting traffic between our data centre, and we are not aware of this activity." President Barack Obama pledged an overhaul of US surveillance to bring greater oversight and transparency.
The National Security Agency in Fort Meade, Maryland. From undisclosed interception points, the NSA and GCHQ are copying entire data flows across fibre-optic cables that carry information between the data centre of the Silicon Valley giants. The NSA's principal tool to exploit the data links is a project called MUSCULAR, operated jointly with the agency's British counterpart, GCHQ. In the preceding 30 days, the report said, field collectors had processed and sent back 181,280,466 new records - ranging from "metadata," which would indicate who sent or received emails and when, to content such as text, audio and video. The NSA does not keep everything it collects, but it keeps a lot.Īccording to a top secret accounting dated January 9, 2013, NSA's acquisitions directorate sends millions of records every day from Yahoo! and Google internal networks to data warehouses at the agency's Fort Meade headquarters. Washington: The US National Security Agency has secretly broken into the main communications links that connect Yahoo! and Google data centre around the world, according to documents obtained from former NSA contractor Edward Snowden and interviews with knowledgeable officials.īy tapping those links, the agency has positioned itself to collect at will from among hundreds of millions of user accounts, many of them belonging to Americans.
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