Report: NSA pays millions for US telecom access

When it comes to tapping into U.S. telecommunications networks for surreptitious surveillance, the U.S. National Security Agency can't be accused of not paying its way.

The government agency pays "hundreds of millions of dollars a year" to U.S. telecommunications companies for the equipment and service required to intercept telephone calls, emails and instant messages of potential interest, according to a story in Thursday's Washington Post.

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For the current fiscal year, the NSA will pay $278 million for such access, and had paid $394 million in fiscal 2011, according to the Post.

Although previous news reports of NSA surveillance noted that the agency paid the costs for tapping into communications networks, the exact amount the agency has paid has not been cited before, according to the Post.

One of the largest of the 16 U.S. intelligence offices, the NSA is in charge of collecting and analyzing data to track foreign activities that could be harmful to the U.S. The agency is overseen by the U.S. Department of Defense's Director of National Intelligence.

The practice dates back at least to the 1970s. These data collection programs -- which have gone under names such as Blarney, Stormbrew, Fairview, and Oakstar -- are separate from the PRISM program first publicly unveiled by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden. PRISM collects data from U.S. service providers such as Microsoft, Facebook and Google, whereas with these programs, the NSA collects potential data of interest as it moves across telecommunication gateways.

The article did not provide the names of any telecommunications companies that participate in the program, though notes they typically are paid for the costs of hardware and the labor to install and run the necessary equipment, as well as a certain percentage for profit.

The privacy advocacy group Electronic Privacy Information Center had noted that it is troublesome that the NSA is paying so much to telecommunication companies given that their customers expect that their communications remain private.

Joab Jackson covers enterprise software and general technology breaking news for The IDG News Service. Follow Joab on Twitter at @Joab_Jackson. Joab's email address is Joab_Jackson@idg.com.

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The NSA pays millions for U.S. telecom access

IDG News Service - When it comes to tapping into U.S. telecommunications networks for surreptitious surveillance, the U.S. National Security Agency can't be accused of not paying its way.

The government agency pays "hundreds of millions of dollars a year" to U.S. telecommunications companies for the equipment and service required to intercept telephone calls, emails and instant messages of potential interest, according to a story in Thursday's Washington Post.

For the current fiscal year, the NSA will pay $278 million for such access, and had paid $394 million in fiscal 2011, according to the Post.

Although previous news reports of NSA surveillance noted that the agency paid the costs for tapping into communications networks, the exact amount the agency has paid has not been cited before, according to the Post.

One of the largest of the 16 U.S. intelligence offices, the NSA is in charge of collecting and analyzing data to track foreign activities that could be harmful to the U.S. The agency is overseen by the U.S. Department of Defense's Director of National Intelligence.

The practice dates back at least to the 1970s. These data collection programs -- which have gone under names such as Blarney, Stormbrew, Fairview, and Oakstar -- are separate from the PRISM program first publicly unveiled by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden. PRISM collects data from U.S. service providers such as Microsoft, Facebook and Google, whereas with these programs, the NSA collects potential data of interest as it moves across telecommunication gateways.

The article did not provide the names of any telecommunications companies that participate in the program, though notes they typically are paid for the costs of hardware and the labor to install and run the necessary equipment, as well as a certain percentage for profit.

The privacy advocacy group Electronic Privacy Information Center had noted that it is troublesome that the NSA is paying so much to telecommunication companies given that their customers expect that their communications remain private.

Joab Jackson covers enterprise software and general technology breaking news for The IDG News Service. Follow Joab on Twitter at @Joab_Jackson. Joab's e-mail address is Joab_Jackson@idg.com

Reprinted with permission from IDG.net. Story copyright 2012 International Data Group. All rights reserved.

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Report: The NSA pays millions for U.S. telecom access

When it comes to tapping into U.S. telecommunications networks for surreptitious surveillance, the National Security Agency can’t be accused of not paying its way.

The government agency pays “hundreds of millions of dollars a year” to U.S. telecommunications companies for the equipment and service required to intercept telephone calls, emails and instant messages of potential interest, according to a story in Thursday’s Washington Post.

For the current fiscal year, the NSA will pay $278 million for such access, and had paid $394 million in fiscal 2011, according to the Post.

Although previous news reports of NSA surveillance noted that the agency paid the costs for tapping into communications networks, the exact amount the agency has paid has not been cited before, according to the Post.

One of the largest of the 16 U.S. intelligence offices, the NSA is in charge of collecting and analyzing data to track foreign activities that could be harmful to the U.S. The agency is overseen by the Department of Defense’s Director of National Intelligence.

The practice dates back at least to the 1970s. These data collection programs—which have gone under names such as Blarney, Stormbrew, Fairview, and Oakstar—are separate from the PRISM program first publicly unveiled by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden. PRISM collects data from U.S. service providers such as Microsoft, Facebook and Google, whereas with these programs, the NSA collects potential data of interest as it moves across telecommunication gateways.

The article did not provide the names of any telecommunications companies that participate in the program, though notes they typically are paid for the costs of hardware and the labor to install and run the necessary equipment, as well as a certain percentage for profit.

The privacy advocacy group Electronic Privacy Information Center had noted that it is troublesome that the NSA is paying so much to telecommunication companies given that their customers expect that their communications remain private.

Joab Jackson covers enterprise software and general technology breaking news for the IDG News Service.
More by Joab Jackson

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Hacker points Syrian telecom website to AT&T, T-Mobile

The website of a Syrian telecommunications provider redirected to AT&T's website and then T-Mobile's on Wednesday, an apparent prank by a hacker who has been probing the country's Internet infrastructure for several days.

The hacker apparently found a way to modify the authoritative DNS (Domain Name System) record for the Syrian Telecommunications Establishment (STE), said Doug Madory, senior analyst with Renesys, a company that monitors global Internet activity.

The style of hack is similar to one that affected The New York Times, Twitter, Sharethis and others on Tuesday when certain domain names they controlled were pointed to an IP address controlled by the Syrian Electronic Army (SEA), a group of pro-Syrian government cyberattackers.

DNS is a distributed database that translates domain names, such as twitter.com, into an IP address that can be called up in a browser.

The DNS server used by STE also runs several other Web services "which is quite unusual for high-profile DNS servers," said Andree Toonk, founder of the network monitoring company, BGPmon.net.

"It's not unlikely the attacker gained access to this machine exploiting one of these services," Toonk said.

The attack on STE also modified the organization's mail exchange (MX) records, which are used to route email messages.

At one point, STE's MX record pointed to a domain in Israel. The record was then changed to point to a mail server run by Iran's presidential office, Madory said. Then the hacker changed it once more to "oliver.tucket.boom."

On Wednesday, The Washington Post published an interview with a person going by the pseudonym "Oliver Tucket," who took credit for a series of attacks on the Syrian's government's infrastructure.

The Post identified him as an American white-collar worker who has sought to embarrass President Bashar al-Assad's regime. A Twitter account, @olivertuckedout, showed several tweets on Sunday claiming attacks against Syria. The person running that Twitter account could not immediately be reached.

It's unlikely that the MX record tampering actually allowed the hacker to intercept emails, although that in theory is possible. Emails directed to another server that is not configured correctly to receive mail would be rejected, Madory said.

The MX record tampering is likely designed "more just to embarrass," Madory said.

Syria's government has waged a long-running, bloody campaign against rebels seeking to topple al-Assad's government. In protest of coverage of the conflict, the SEA has conducted a range of cyberattacks against the websites and Twitter accounts of media outlets such as the Financial Times, the Associated Press, The Guardian, BBC and Al Jazeera.

The SEA's attack on Tuesday compromised a reseller of domain name services affiliated with Australia-based Melbourne IT.

Through a spear phishing email, the group gained account credentials that allowed it to modify authoritative DNS records for many websites, redirecting people to a website in Russia that it controlled.

Send news tips and comments to jeremy_kirk@idg.com. Follow me on Twitter: @jeremy_kirk

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