A juggling technophile shares personal stories, challenges, humor and perhaps some political commentary.
Can’t believe I forgot about this! I watched this story with great interest in the wayback. This started in 2003 and was publicly outed in 2006:
"the NSA built a special room to receive data streamed through an AT&T Internet room containing “peering links,” or major connections to other telecom providers. The largest of the links delivered 2.5 gigabits of data — the equivalent of one-quarter of the Encyclopedia Britannica’s text — per second,"
Google "Room 641A" for more information.
The Washington Post brings us a story from Mark Klein, a former AT&T technician, about the AT&T secret room used by the NSA to copy the entire Internet.
He knew that the NSA was supposed to work on overseas signals intelligence. … "This splitter was sweeping up everything, vacuum-cleaner-style," he said. "The NSA is getting everything. These are major pipes that carry not just AT&T’s customers but everybody’s." … the NSA was doing content analysis. [Source, The Washington Post, A Story of Surveillance]
Do you feel safer giving your government unchecked authority?
Update: See also: AT&T Whistleblower: Telecom Immunity Is A Cover-Up
Update: BoingBoing points to Senator Dodd’s video at the EFF.
