Report: NSA creating spy system to monitor domestic infrastructure

Report: NSA creating spy system to monitor domestic infrastructure

rawstory.com

The National Security Agency has begun work on an "expansive" spy system that will monitor critical infrastructure inside the United States for cyber-attacks, in a move that detractors say could end up violating privacy rights and expanding the NSA's domestic spying abilities.

The Wall Street Journal cites unnamed sources as saying that the NSA has issued a $100-million contract to defense contractor Raytheon to build a system dubbed "Perfect Citizen," which will involve placing "sensors" at

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Internal Raytheon email calls system 'Big Brother'

I think that we all knew that they were already doing things like this, however at least it will now be more efficient. For anyone doubting that we are turning into a police state, just take a look at this. Our liberties aren't coming back.

We all know that the military industrial complex is corrupted to the core but is this really so for the employees of these companies? Surely, many of them would have a huge problem with this. We have already seen at&t employees that had a problem with the "data-rooms" and I can bet we just may get more whistle blowers with this.

--airspoon


rawstory.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

Interesting. From The Register:

The NSA - whose boss has now also been confirmed as head of the Pentagon's uniformed Cyber Command - apparently got the job by default, as it is considered the only US agency with enough network and cyber savvy to take the task on.

So is this just a SCADA monitoring grid with centralized correlation, or something with more end-point control?

reply to post by Ian McLean


Couldn't you get pretty good control with a SCATA system emplamented? I'm sure that this system will be used to process all of the data coming from those at&t sites (I'm stumped on what they are called), where it is suspected that the NSA is cloning all network data.

--airspoon

First thought: places like nuclear power generating stations should have top notch built in security systems protected against tampering by anyone with a plan to do damage.

The rest of us, not so much.

So, the internet, once again, must be confirmed as the equivalent of a public megaphone. Anything you communicate via the medium is as good as broadcast to the world.

So keep it sweet and light and don't discuss anything you wouldn't want the local cop or FBI to know. I think most of us can live with that.

Mind you, there is a lot to bitch about the way things are, and I do think the cops, FBI and all the alphabet agencies need to know how we feel about it. So having them monitor our complaints has the potential to be a good thing

nah ........... I doubt they would put such information to any good use, but only hold it against us as proof for need of higher "security"

I thought this is was they were doing with ECHELON.

reply to post by airspoon


Well think about the name: "Perfect Citizen". Yes it can sound a little Orwellian, but I think it refers to something different. Each machine or system on a computer network such as a power plant, water treatment plant, warehouse tracking system, etc., plays a certain role. Systems may be tasked with controlling specific mechanical systems, auditing or event logging, or any of thousands of other discrete determinable tasks.

Each of those machines are like individual "citizens" in the community of a facility's network.

Now, it would certainly be possible to write 1000 rules, lists of things to verify, to make sure that a specific type of network is 'operating properly'. That would be things to check on: "make sure the pump monitor is sending regular status updates to the control log", for example. Check that a particular 'citizen' is performing it's role on the network.

But could a system be written that would look at network traffic, and learn what roles each connected component plays? Certainly, it wouldn't be able to understand the patterns it noticed, but it should be possible for a monitoring system to gradually develop 'common patterns' of rules, and notice when things deviate suddenly or significantly from those patterns.

Such as a pump or chemical-injection system suddenly stop sending update packets. Or sending the same update packet over and over. Or an audit system that begins to send or receive date from a new source. That stops being a "Perfect Citizen".

That kind of system would be handy for safety! No matter how careful a 'hand designed' system of rules and checks is, there are bound to be gaps. Sure, there'd be gaps in an automated system, too (and no security or safety measure is ever a complete substitute for another), but where they're found they could be corrected, and the entire system would benefit from the improvements, perhaps in previously-unnoticed areas of inadequacy.

Well, that might take care of attacks coming from across the Internet. But what about someone getting in through a targets WiFi network(s)? I've scanned surrounding WiFi signals when I've been out somewhere with my notebook computer and there's a lot of vulnerability out there. There's some pretty good software for probing all those signals too, it keeps track of everything, it can even identify vulnerabilities. I've gotten into a few systems in the past that I thought were open public WiFi hot spots only to discover I was into some businesses office network or someone's personal home network, ha. Even if a network is highly secured, employees can infect an internal network if they have been hooking their notebook computer into other not-so-secured networks.

Weird thing I would like to know is why are critical infrastructure things being connected to the Internet in the first place? 30 years ago you would have been laughed at if you suggested government computers that contained top secret data would be connected to a world wide public communications network, ha. When I was in the military back in the late 70's, they didn't even use the public telephone network, and they had their own data network.

Critical infrastructure things should NOT be connected to the Internet for crying out loud. Heck, they shouldn't even have mailing addresses so some idiot could FedEx a bomb to them either.

Man, the stupid people are in charge of the world, and they are going to get us all killed.

reply to post by wayno


The entire internet should not be like a megaphone. The people should be protected through their 4th Amendment from illegal search and seizure. What you say in an email, cell phone call, VOIP or any other digital medium where privacy is expected, should be up to you who can hear that message.

--airspoon


Edit to add: As far as the government not being able to do anything with the information that they gather, I think they can and they do.

Several years ago a story broke about the government keeping a database of regular airline passenger behavior. Such thing as whether or not you choose window seat, whether you choose peanuts or pretzels, soda or juice, how far out do you purchase your tickets, etc... This wasn't anonymous data collection as there were names to the data and they were doing this with everyone. It also came out that they were using this information to construct the terror watch and no-fly lists. They were actually profiling your behaviors and listing you as a threat if those behaviors seemed to correlate with the behaviors of terrorists and you have no way to appeal or fight their decision. So if some psychologist believes that your perfectly legal and normal pattern of behaviors match those of terrorists, such things as purchasing a ticket three days in advance, getting a window seat and drinking a sprite, then you are just a^^ed out.

If they were doing this kind of psychological profiling on the airplanes and airports, then rest assured they are doing it in everyday life. This information is being used against us and we have no recourse what-so-ever to dispute their findings.

--airspoon


[edit on 10-7-2010 by airspoon]

reply to post by airspoon


I was the top of the class in psychology in a large university way back when. When I got into "real life" I learned that about 90% of the stuff we were taught was just plain wrong. I have "0" trust in their tests and theories or their ability to profile a terrorist from the kinds of data they collect.

Unfortunately, the gub'mint has no such smarts. It is a crime what they are doing. I really do hope one day some sanity creeps into the world, but my hopes are not high.

How long will the invasion of our privacy continue on under the guise of "safety"? How long will the population put up with this, will we ever put a stop to it? Is it already too late?

I think it's already too late to stop the govt. from spying on us. It is only a matter of time until absolutely every aspect of our daily lives is controlled to "protect us from ourselves"

reply to post by SUICIDEHK45


I read somewhere recently the notion that if a technology or tool exists, it will be used.

We will never see the end of this because every new advancement in science that can be applied to spying w i l l b e!

When they perfect implants that monitor every aspect of our functioning, location and probably even thought patterns, those will be used universally. Perhaps I should say they will be imposed on us by the PTB universally.

Most people will not resist. A few may. I could envision an underground movement of scientists working to foil or otherwise sabotage the monitoring devices. Unfortunately, I cannot think of any corner of the world where one could escape to to and be safe from this kind of intrusion.