IP: Spy agency taps into undersea cable

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

> Date: Fri, 25 May 2001 09:43:03 -0400
> To: dave () farber net
> From: Manuel Calero <manuel_calero () yahoo com>
> Subject: Spy agency taps into undersea cable
>
> Thought it would be of interest to IP:
>
> Spy agency taps into undersea cable
> By Neil King Jr.
> WSJ Interactive Edition
> May 23, 2001 11:50 AM PT
> (full article: http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/news/0,4586,2764372,00.html)
>
> Using a special spy submarine...(NSA) personnel descended hundreds of feet 
> into one of the oceans and sliced into a fiber-optic cable. The mixed 
> results of the experiment--particularly the agency's inability to make 
> sense of the vast flood of data unleashed by the tap--show that America's 
> pre-eminent spy service has huge challenges to overcome if it hopes to 
> keep from going deaf in the digital age.
>
> Details of the NSA cable-tapping project are sketchy. Individuals who 
> confirm the tap won't specify where or when it occurred. It isn't known 
> whether the cable's operator detected the intrusion, though former NSA 
> officials say they believe it went unnoticed. Nor is it known whether the 
> NSA has attempted other taps since. Efforts to intercept all sorts of 
> signals--ranging from military radar to international phone calls--are 
> among the most highly classified U.S. government operations. Leaking 
> information about interception methods is a federal crime punishable by 
> imprisonment.
>
> In an interview, Air Force Lt. Gen. Michael Hayden, the NSA's director, 
> laughed when asked whether the NSA had tapped undersea cables. "I'm not 
> going to sit here and dissuade you from your views," he said. But he 
> suggested that access isn't the problem. Rather, he said, the sheer volume 
> and variety of today's communications means "there's simply too much out 
> there, and it's too hard to understand."
>
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