A woman walks past a branch of Noor Islamic Bank along Khalid Bin Al-Waleed Road in Dubai.

Reuters

For eight months, the hacker group known as Shadow Brokers has trickled out an intermittent drip of highly classified NSA data. Now, just when it seemed like that trove of secrets might be exhausted, the group has spilled a new batch. The latest dump appears to show that the NSA has penetrated deep into the finance infrastructure of the Middle Easta revelation that could create new scandals for the worlds most well-resourced spy agency.

Friday morning, the Shadow Brokers published documents thatif legitimateshow just how thoroughly US intelligence has compromised elements of the global banking system. The new leak includes evidence that the NSA hacked into EastNets, a Dubai-based firm that oversees payments in the global SWIFT transaction system for dozens of client banks and other firms, particularly in the Middle East. The leak includes detailed lists of hacked or potentially targeted computers, including those belonging to firms in Qatar, Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Syria, Yemen, and the Palestinian territories. Also included in the data dump, as in previous Shadow Brokers releases, are a load of fresh hacking tools, this time targeting a slew of Windows versions.

"Oh you thought that was it?" the hacker group wrote in a typically grammar-challenged statement accompanying their leak. There was speculation prior to this morning's release that the group had finally published its full set of stolen documents, after a seemingly failed attempt to auction them for bitcoins. "Too bad nobody deciding to be paying theshadowbrokers for just to shutup and going away."

The transaction protocol SWIFT has been increasingly targeted by hackers seeking to redirect millions of dollars from banks around the world, with recent efforts in India, Ecuador, and Bangladesh. Security researchers have even pointed to clues that a $81 million Bangladesh bank theft via SWIFT may have been the work of the North Korean government . But the Shadow Brokers' latest leak offers new evidence that the NSA has also compromised SWIFT, albeit most likely for silent espionage rather than wholesale larceny.

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WikiLeaks Just Dumped a Mega-Trove of CIA Hacking Secrets

Andy Greenberg

How the CIA Can Hack Your Phone, PC, and TV (Says WikiLeaks)

EastNets has denied that it was hacked, writing on its Twitter account that there's "no credibility to the online claim of a compromise of EastNets customer information on its SWIFT service bureau." But the Shadow Brokers' leak seems to suggest otherwise: One spreadsheet in the release, for instance, lists computers by IP address, along with corresponding firms in the finance industry and beyond, including the Qatar First Investment Bank, Arab Petroleum Investments Corporation Bahrain, Dubai Gold and Commodities Exchange, Tadhamon International Islamic Bank, Noor Islamic Bank, Kuwait Petroleum Company, Qatar Telecom and others. A "legend" at the top of the spreadsheet notes that the 16 highlighted IP addresses mean, "box has been implanted and we are collecting." That NSA jargon translates to a computer being successfully infected with its spyware. 1

Those IP addresses don't actually correspond to the client's computers, says Dubai-based security researcher Matt Suiche, but rather to computers servicing those clients at EastNets, which is one of 120 "service bureaus" that form a portion of the SWIFT network and make transactions on behalf of customers. "This is the equivalent of hacking all the banks in the region without having to hack them individually," says Suiche, founder of UAE-based incident response and forensics startup Comae Technologies. "You have access to all their transactions."

While the Shadow Brokers' releases have already included NSA exploits, today's leak is the first indication of targets of that sophisticated hacking in the global banking system. Unlike previous known hacks of the SWIFT financial network, nothing in the leaked documents suggests that the NSA used its access to EastNets' SWIFT systems to actual alter transactions or steal funds. Instead, stealthily tracking the transactions within that network may have given the agency visibility into money flows in the regionincluding to potential terrorist, extremist, or insurgent groups.

If that sort of finance-focused espionage was in fact the NSA's goal, it would hardly deviate from the agency's core mission. But Suiche points out that confirmation of the operation would nonetheless lead to blowback for the NSA and the US governmentparticularly given that many of the listed targets are in US-friendly countries like Dubai and Qatar. "A big shitstorm is to come," says Suiche. "You can expect the leadership of key organizations like banks and governments are going to be quite irritated, and theyre going to react."

Beyond EastNets alone, Suiche points to references in the files to targeting the Panama-based firm Business Computer Group or BCG, although it's not clear if the firm was actually compromised. Beyond its Twitter statement, EastNets didn't respond to WIRED's request for comment. WIRED also reached out to BCG and the NSA, but didn't get a response.

SWIFT aside, the leak also contains a cornucopia of NSA hacking tools or "exploits," including what appear to be previously secret techniques for hacking PCs and servers running Windows. Matthew Hickey, the founder of the security firm Hacker House, analyzed the collection and believes there are more than 20 distinct exploits in the leak, about 15 of which are included in an automated hacking "framework" tool called FuzzBunch.

This is as big as it gets.

Matthew Hickey, Hacker House

The attacks seem to target every recent version of Windows other than Windows 10, and several allow a remote hacker to gain the full ability to run their own code on a target machine. "There are exploits here that are quite likely zero days that will let you hack into any number of servers on the internet," says Hickey. "This is as big as it gets. Its internet God mode."

In a statement to WIRED, however, a Microsoft spokesperson wrote that the company had previously patched all the vulnerabilities in Windows that the hacking tools exploited. "We've investigated and confirmed that the exploits disclosed by the Shadow Brokers have already been addressed by previous updates to our supported products," the statement reads. In a blog post, the company clarified that several of the exploits do still work, but only on versions of Windows prior to Windows 7. 2

But the Shadow Brokers hinted in their release that they're not done creating trouble for the NSA yet. "Maybe if all suviving [sic] WWIII theshadowbrokers be seeing you next week," the group's message concludes. "Who knows what we having next time?"

1 Updated 4/14/2017 12:15 EST to include comments from EastNets.

2 Updated 4/15/2017 3:50 EST to include a response from Microsoft.

Continued here:

Major Leak Suggests NSA Was Deep in Middle East ... - WIRED

President Donald Trump announced Friday he has directed U.S. Cyber Command to be elevated to a unified combatant command and is exploring separating it from the National Security Agency.

In a statement, Trump said the move will strengthen our cyberspace operations and create more opportunities to improve our Nations defense.

Headquartered at Fort George G. Meade, the move will make Cyber Command a more influential institution within the Department of Defense.

The decision could have significant economic ramifications for western Anne Arundel County, where Fort Meade is based.

Tim OFarrell, general manager for the Fort Meade Alliance, said the decision is huge for the state of Maryland. Its huge for this region.

He said, What this means is greater emphasis on cyber and economic development around the region as companies want to come to a place that is so close to the center of it all.

Claire Louder, the former CEO of the West County Chamber of Commerce, said last year that a change in how Cyber Command is positioned within the Department of Defense could lead to more opportunities for cyber companies looking to sign military contracts.

Currently, the agency is a sub-unified command underneath the U.S. Strategic Command, and Adm. Michael Rogers is the head of the NSA and Cyber Command.

Eric Geller, a cybersecurity reporter for Politico, wrote on Twitter the move elevates Cyber Command to the level of nine other unified combatant commands within the Department of Defense, such as U.S. Strategic Command and U.S. Pacific Command.

Louder said because resources are allocated differently to full combatant commands rather than sub-unified commands, the change could lead to another significant economic boom for the region.

That could also lead to better positioning for county officials to lobby for additional funding for infrastructure and school improvements as more people move to the area following job opportunities.

OFarrell said Friday that while the move was largely expected Congress had authorized the president to make this move through its fiscal year 2017 defense policy legislation its impact on the cybersecurity community should not be understated.

If you want to understand what is happening in that space, youre going to have to come through here, OFarrell said. I think youre going to see, from Annapolis to Columbia, continued new companies coming into the marketplace.

Rep. C.A. Dutch Ruppersberger, D-Baltimore County, whose 2nd District includes Fort Meade, lauded Trumps decision to elevate the agency in a statement.

Demand for cyber warfare capabilities is only going to increase and this decision will give the Command the power and resources it needs to better protect our country, he wrote.

Trump said in the statement the move will also help streamline command and control of time-sensitive cyberspace operations by consolidating them under a single commander with authorities commensurate with the importance of such operations.

The change follows years of intense debate as to how Cyber Command should be positioned within the Department of Defense.

Several high-ranking officials have proposed separating the agency entirely from the NSA.

Created in 2009 at NSA headquarters in Fort Meade, Cyber Command plays a more active and offensive role in military combat than the NSA, mostly over the internet rather than on the ground.

During President Barack Obamas administration, former Defense Secretary Ash Carter and former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper argued Cyber Command should be independent of the NSA.

However, Arizona Sen. John McCain has been adamant he would block any plans to end the dual-hat leadership that oversees the NSA and Cyber Command.

In a statement, McCain said he was pleased by Trumps decision, adding there is much more to be done to prepare our nation and our military to meet our cybersecurity challenges.

twitter.com/PhilDavis_CG

The rest is here:

Trump elevates US Cyber Command, exploring split from NSA - CapitalGazette.com

Published time: 24 Aug, 2017 11:29 Edited time: 24 Aug, 2017 17:15

Details of an alleged CIA project that allows the agency to secretly extract biometric data from liaison services such as the NSA, the DHS and the FBI have been published by WikiLeaks.

Documents from the CIAs ExpressLane project were released by the whistleblowing organization as part of its ongoing Vault 7 series on the intelligence agencys alleged hacking capabilities.

Abranchwithin the CIA known as Office of Technical Services (OTS) provides a biometric collection system to liaison services around the world with the expectation for sharing of the biometric takes collected on the systems, according to afilereleased by WikiLeaks.

ExpressLane, however, suggests the system has inadequacies as it was developed as a covert information collection tool to secretly exfiltrate data collections from such systems provided to liaison services.

The user guide for the tool states that it was developed to support the branch in its efforts to verify that this data is also being shared with the agency.

ExpressLane v3.1.1 provides an ability to disable the biometric software if liaison doesnt provide the Agency with continued access.

ExpressLane is installed and run under the guise of upgrading the biometric software by OTS agents that visit the liaison sites.

OTS/i2c plans to revisit these sites with the cover of upgrading the biometric software to perform a collection against the biometric takes, a CIA document outlining test procedures for the project states.

Liaison officers overseeing this procedure will remain unsuspicious, as the data exfiltration is disguised behind a Windows installation splash screen.

ExpressLane was intended to remain secret until 2034, according to the files which originate from 2009.

The core components of the OTS system are based on products from Cross Match a US company specializing in biometric software for law enforcement and the Intelligence Community.

In 2011, it was reported that the US military used one of the companys products to identify Osama bin Laden during the assassination operation in Pakistan.

The White House and Department of Defense said facial recognition technology was one of the techniques used to identify Bin Laden but Cross Matchs involvement was not confirmed.

READ MORE: CIA CouchPotato tool captures video stream images remotely WikiLeaks

Read more from the original source:

CIA's secret spy tool helps agency steal data from NSA & FBI, WikiLeaks reveals - RT

The Trump administration this week elevated the US Cyber Command to a Unified Combatant Command, in a long-awaited move that underscores the growing importance of cyber warfare.

The decision, announced Friday, puts the Cyber Command on par with nine other combat commands, and may lead to its separation from the National Security Agency (NSA). In a statement, President Trump said that Secretary of Defense James Mattis will examine the possibility of separating the Cyber Command and the NSA, and that he will announce recommendations at a later date.

This new Unified Combatant Command will strengthen our cyberspace operations and create more opportunities to improve our Nations defense, Trump said in the statement. The elevation of United States Cyber Command demonstrates our increased resolve against cyberspace threats and will help reassure our allies and partners and deter our adversaries.

Trump says the move will streamline command and control of time-sensitive cyberspace operations.

Trump also said that the move will streamline command and control of time-sensitive cyberspace operations, and that it will ensure that critical cyberspace operations are adequately funded.

Proposals for creating an independent Cyber Command were first made under the Obama administration, with supporters arguing that the units mandate was sometimes at odds with the NSAs intelligence gathering operations particularly with regard to the fight against ISIS.

Cyber Command was created as a sub-unit of the US Strategic Command, with a mandate to conduct cyber warfare and defend government networks. Navy Admiral Michael Rogers currently leads both Cyber Command and the NSA.

Continue reading here:

Trump elevates Cyber Command, setting the stage for NSA separation - The Verge

Utilizing recently unlocked information from data that purportedly originated on the DNCs servers, Binney claimed that he is something like 99% sure that the DNC servers were not hacked from the outside. He urged the U.S. Intelligence Community to immediately release any evidence utilized to draw the conclusion that Russia may have been associated with the breach of the DNC servers.

Binney was an architect of the NSAs surveillance program. He is a former NSA technical director who helped to modernize the agencys worldwide eavesdropping network, co-founding a unit on automating NSA signals intelligence. He became a famed whistleblower when he resigned on October 31, 2001, after spending more than 30 years with the agency.

He is also a senior leader of Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS), a group of former officers of the United States Intelligence Community founded in 2003. During the interview, Binney repeatedly referred to a forensic analysis conducted by VIPS members on DNC files posted online by the hacker known as Guccifer 2.0. The VIPS analysis highlighted data that purportedly indicated the DNC server was most likely not hacked from the outside.

Binneys findings are not without detractors, however, with some experts saying the VIPS report is flawed and ignores other explanations for the metadata. Binney pushed back against the criticism, charging the detractors have no evidence for their claims. He squarely placed the onus on the U.S. government to prove any hack.

He was speaking on this reporters Sunday radio program, Aaron Klein Investigative Radio, broadcast on New Yorks AM 970 The Answer and Philadelphias NewsTalk 990 AM.

The VIPS analysis was made possible after an independent researcher who goes by the online name of Forensicator found a way to unlock metadata from Guccifer 2.0s files.

The unlocked metadata shows that on July 5, 2016 a total of 1,976 megabytes of data were quickly downloaded into a file. A key finding is that the file downloads took only 87 seconds in total, which suggests a transfer rate of 22.7 megabytes per second.

A hack of the DNC server would have most likely used an Internet service provider. However, the analysts noted, in mid-2016 U.S. Internet service providers for residential clients did not have speeds capable of downloading data at that rate. The data upload is consistent with a regular transfer to a flash device like a thumb drive.

Yet, the VIPS report seemingly overlooked the fact that some corporate and cloud networks do have upload rates technically capable of transferring at that speed. The DNC has not commented on its own network speeds.

Speaking to this reporter, Binney stated, It is almost absolutely not possible to do it from outside. I mean you have to have some access to the DNC network and some access from there that would allow you to take that rate in. That meant you had to be on the DNC network or some very high-speed network connected to it.

Binney stated that if the data were transferred via the Internet, outside entities would have recordings of the transfer. The network managers would monitor the network log for the Internet, for example, he said. Basically, the people who manage the fiber optic lines. Like AT&T. If they saw a bulge in traffic being passed down one line they could see that maybe we need to offload to another line and reroute. Its like load-leveling across the entire network to make sure that it functions and it doesnt go down for being overloaded on one line only.

Binney, who helped build the NSAs surveillance program, alleged that the NSA would have picked up on any outside hack of the DNC.

They would know exactly where the package went if it were transferred. I would also add that, on the other end, NSA and GCHQ (Government Communications Headquarters), the British equivalent, are watching [WikiLeaks founder] Julian Assange in the embassy and all of the people who are related to him or are contacting him or having any kind of data transfer to or from him.

Theyre watching them all thats Wikileaks, basically they are watching them 24 hours a day cast iron. So, if anybody passed data to them across the network they would know. And be reporting it. Thats the whole problem. They didnt come out and say here is where the data came from that came to Wikileaks. And he is where it came from the DNC server to that point that is related to Wikileaks.

The Hill, however, quoted experts saying the VIP report overlooked other scenarios that could explain the quick transfer rate. This theory assumes that the hacker downloaded the files to a computer and then leaked it from that computer, Rich Barger, director of security research at Splunk, told the publication.

The Hill report continued:

But, said Barger and other experts, that overlooks the possibility the files were copied multiple times before being released, something that may be more probable than not in a bureaucracy like Russian intelligence.

A hacker might have downloaded it to one computer, then shared it by USB to an air gapped [off the internet] network for translation, then copied by a different person for analysis, then brought a new USB to an entirely different air gapped computer to determine a strategy all before it was packaged for Guccifer 2.0 to leak, said Barger.

Speaking to this reporter, Binney allowed that the files may have been copied multiple times before being posted by Guccifer 2.0. But he stated there is no proof that that was the case one way or the other. We should never infer anything without at least one fact to indicate its true, he replied.I would say again, if anything happened like these suggested events then NSA would have a trace on at least most of it. They have produced no information at all.

Besides the rate of transfer, here are some other findings from the unlock metadata included in the VIPS report:

The July date, however, is actually months after the DNC said they first registered a breach in April.Binney stated that it was possible the date and timestamp could have been changed.

The Nation related that possibility in a 4,500-word story on the VIPS analysis:

In addition, there is the adulteration of the documents Guccifer 2.0 posted on June 15, when he made his first appearance. This came to light when researchers penetrated what Folden calls Guccifers top layer of metadata and analyzed what was in the layers beneath. They found that the first five files Guccifer made public had each been run, via ordinary cut-and-paste, through a single template that effectively immersed them in what could plausibly be cast as Russian fingerprints. They were not: The Russian markings were artificially inserted prior to posting. Its clear, another forensics investigator self-identified as HET, wrote in a report on this question, that metadata was deliberately altered and documents were deliberately pasted into a Russianified Word document with Russian language settings and style headings.

The magazine points out that the CIAs cyber-tools would have allowed such an encoding. WikiLeaks began to release in March and labeled Vault 7 includes one called Marble that is capable of obfuscating the origin of documents in false-flag operations and leaving markings that point to whatever the CIA wants to point to.

The Nation story on the VIPS report is reportedly being reviewed by the publication. Were doing the review as we speak, and I dont want to rush to say anything, Katrina vanden Heuvel, the Nations editor and publisher, told the Washington Post earlier this month. The Post reported that the Nations review will include the technical feasibility of the article detailing the VIPS report.

The Gufficer 2.0 files are a key part of the Russia hacking narrative. AJanuary 6, 2017 U.S. Intelligence Communityreport alleging Russian government interference in the 2016 presidential campaign states this of the Gufficer 2.0 files:

We assess with high confidence that Russian military intelligence (General Staff Main Intelligence Directorate or GRU) used the Guccifer 2.0 persona and DCLeaks.com to release US victim data obtained in cyber operations publicly and in exclusives to media outlets and relayed material to WikiLeaks.

The U.S. Intelligence Community has not publicly released any evidence to back up its charges. Despite false media characterizations of 17 intelligence agencies, the January 6 report was authored by three U.S. agencies the NSA, the FBI and the CIA.TheWashington Post,in its extensive June 23article, reported on details of the compartmentalized operation that indicates a high degree of secrecy involving top Obama administration officials.

A Bloomberg opinion piece by Leonid Bershidsky asserted that Binneys information should get more attention.

Bershidsky wrote:

Unlike the current and former intelligence officials anonymously quoted in stories about the Trump-Russia scandal, VIPS members actually have names. But their findings and doubts are only being aired bynon-mainstreampublicationsthat are easy to accuse of being channels for Russian disinformation. The Nation, Consortium News, ZeroHedge and other outlets have pointed totheir findings that at least some of the DNC files were taken by an insider rather than by hackers, Russian or otherwise.

In response to the Nation report, the DNC released the following statement:

U.S. intelligence agencies have concluded the Russian government hacked the DNC in an attempt to interfere in the election. Any suggestion otherwise is false and is just another conspiracy theory like those pushed by Trump and his administration. Its unfortunate that the Nation has decided to join the conspiracy theorists to push this narrative.

During the radio interview, Binney pushed back against the DNC conspiracy theory charge.

They are joining the lie, Binney stated. I mean, it is an outright lie. All they are saying is they are claiming something. Where is any substance from anybody to prove any of that? There isnt any. They havent given any proof whatsoever.

The intelligence community has said it is highly likely. Well, they should absolutely know with all of the taps they have on the fiber lines in the U.S. and around the world. They should have no question whatsoever. Saying high confidence that means that they dont know. Thats really what they are saying. If they have anything else to say, let them produce any evidence that they have so that we can all look at it. So far, they have produced nothing but opinion and speculation and a lie to keep this Cold War going.

In a move that has raised eyebrows, the DNC did not allow the FBI to inspect its servers.

In Januarytestimonybefore the Senate Intelligence Committee, then-FBI Director James Comey confirmed that the FBI registered multiple requests at different levels to review the DNCs hacked servers. Ultimately, the DNC and FBI came to an agreement in which a highly respected private company would carry out forensics on the servers and share any information that it discovered with the FBI, Comey testified.

A senior law enforcement officialstressedthe importance of the FBI gaining direct access to the servers, a request that was denied by the DNC.

The FBI repeatedly stressed to DNC officials the necessity of obtaining direct access to servers and data, only to be rebuffed until well after the initial compromise had been mitigated, the official was quoted by the news media as saying.

This left the FBI no choice but to rely upon a third party for information. These actions caused significant delays and inhibited the FBI from addressing the intrusion earlier.

Comeys statement about a highly respected private company gaining access to the DNC servers was a reference to CrowdStrike, the third-party company ultimately relied upon by the FBI to make its assessment about alleged Russian hacking into the DNC.

As this reporterdocumented, CrowdStrike was financed to the tune of $100 millionfrom a funding drive last year led by Google Capital.

Google Capital, which now goes by the name of CapitalG, is an arm of Alphabet Inc., Googles parent company. Eric Schmidt, the chairman of Alphabet, has been a staunch and active supporter of Hillary Clinton and is a longtime donor to the Democratic Party.

CrowdStrikeis a California-based cybersecurity technology company co-founded by experts George Kurtz and Dmitri Alperovitch.

Alperovitch is anonresident seniorfellow of the Cyber Statecraft Initiative at the Atlantic Council. The Council takes a hawkish approach toward Russia and has releasednumerous reportsand briefs about Russian aggression.

The Council isfundedby the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, Inc., the U.S. State Department and NATO ACT.

Another Councilfunderis the Ploughshares Fund, which in turn has received financing from billionaire George Soros Open Society Foundations.

Aaron Klein is Breitbarts Jerusalem bureau chief and senior investigative reporter. He is a New York Times bestselling author and hosts the popular weekend talk radio program, Aaron Klein Investigative Radio. Follow him onTwitter @AaronKleinShow.Follow him onFacebook.

Continue reading here:

EXCLUSIVE NSA Whistleblower: Russia 'Hack' of DNC Server an 'Outright Lie' - Breitbart News

Business | 2017-08-23Page no: 13

THE LAUNCH ... (From left) The deputy director for spatial data and national spatial data infrastructure Namibia, Alex Mudabeti, Khomas police regional crime investigations coordinator, commissioner Silvanus Nghishidimbwa, Information minister Tjekero Tweya, Land reform minister Utoni Nujoma, economic planning minister Tom Alweendo, Florette Nakusera, NSA board chairperson, NSA surveyor general Ndilipunye Shanyangana and statistician general Alex Shimuafeni at the launch of the national geograph

THE Namibia Statistics Agency (NSA) on Monday launched the online national geographic portal (geoportal), which will help citizens to search and evaluate data from different government institutions.

The portal will also help citizens link map browsers through Digital Namibia, which is found within the platform that permits the visualisation and analysis of core data.

The platform can be accessed at Geofind.nsa.org.na.

Speaking during the launch, land reform minister Utoni Nujoma said Namibia is committed to building soft infrastructure of government spatial data which will reflect a digital Namibia.

Together, as a network of government institutions, we can heighten a culture of evidence-based development planning, decision-making and policy formulation.

Spatial data, also known as geospatial data or geographic information, is data or information that identifies the geographic location, features and boundaries on earth, such as natural or constructed features and oceans.

Nujoma said launching the national geographic portal shows that all government ministries will live up to their mandate in maintaining and providing data to avoid promoting a redundant system that is populated with outdated information which does not live up to the government's mandate.

He applauded the Namibia Spatial Data Infrastructure team under the NSA, as well as economic planning minister and director general of the National Planning Commission, Tom Alweendo, and information minister Tjekero Tweya for their commitment towards the realisation of the platform.

This high level of commitment should serve as a pillar of hope and source of motivation to all of us to continue working in the best interests of our country, said Nujoma.

Speaking at the same event, Alweendo encouraged various government ministries and agencies to partner NSA to have full access to the portal.

He also urged citizens to be concerned with the quality of data that the portal will provide, adding that people and government ministries and agencies should make the best use of the platform. Nampa

Read more here:

NSA launches national geographic portal - Namibian

President Donald Trumps elevation of U.S. Cyber Command to a full Unified Combatant Command amps up the powers of a national security unit that has taken center stage amid widening questions about Russian meddling in the 2016 elections.

This new Unified Combatant Command will strengthen our cyberspace operations and create more opportunities to improve our Nations defense, Trump announced in a statementon Friday.

Thepresidents move makes Cyber Command formerly a subordinate command unit under U.S. Strategic Command the 10th unified command in the U.S. military.Cyber Command was first established in 2009 on the orders of then-Defense Secretary Robert Gates to handle the U.S. militarys cyber operations.

Currently, both the National Security Agency and Cyber Command are overseen by Adm. Mike Rogers in a dual-hat role. As part of Trumps announcement, Secretary of Defense James Mattis is conducting a review to determine whether Cyber Command should be separated from the NSA.

The move aims to expand Americas war-fighting strategy: U.S. officials say cyberattacks are part of the military doctrine for Russia, whose interference in the 2016 elections is a focus of House and Senate intelligence committee probes, among other investigations.

But some critics say that removing CYBERCOM from the oversight of the NSA director could lead to information-sharing concerns.

Jamil Jaffer, founder of the National Security Institute at George Mason Universitys Antonin Scalia Law School and a visiting fellow at the Hoover Institution, said that there is little opposition to a unified Cyber Command. But Jaffer added that there has been an ongoing debate over whether and how CYBERCOM should be split off from the NSA.

Ive always thought it made sense to dual-hat the NSA director and the Cyber Command commander because then they can appropriately balance the intelligence gains and losses, Jaffer said in a phone interview Friday. I think when you separate them, then you have competing equities.

Jaffer said a split could have the unintended consequence of slowing down the efficiency of both operations.

I do think its important to have the offensive and defensive cyber capabilities that Cyber Command has, while also ensuring we preserve NSAs signals intelligence capabilities, Jaffer added.

There is bipartisan support in Congress for Cyber Command to receive more independent operational authority, and lawmakers on both sides of the aisle offered support for the decision.

Sen. John McCain, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, praised the announcement. But the Arizona Republican added there is much more to be done to prepare our nation and our military to meet our cybersecurity challenges.

While Cyber Command and the National Security Agency should eventually be able to operate independent of one another, the administration must work closely with the Congress to take the necessary steps that will make this separation of responsibilities successful, and to ensure that each agency will emerge more effective and more capable as a result, McCain said in a statement Friday.

Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee, echoed McCains statement and said in his own Friday statement that the elevation of Cyber Command should also facilitate the eventual division of CYBERCOM from the NSA, a step that I believe is in the interests of both entities.

Trumps announcement fulfills a mandate in the National Defense Authorization Act of 2017 to promote Cyber Command and place it on equal footing with the other combatant commands.

Go here to see the original:

After Cyber Command Elevation, Split From NSA Could Be Next - Morning Consult

President Donald Trump is close to making a decision to elevate the status of the Pentagon's Cyber Command, signaling more emphasis on developing cyber weapons to deter attacks, punish intruders and tackle adversaries, current and former officials told Reuters on Thursday.

A current U.S. official, who was speaking on condition of anonymity, said Trump could make a decision as early as Friday. The official added that the timeline could be pushed back if the White House was dealing with more pressing issues.

The Pentagon and White House declined to comment.

Two former senior U.S. officials with knowledge of the plan said that the proposal awaiting Trump's approval would elevate Cyber Command and lead to a 60-day study to determine whether Cyber Command would be separated from the National Security Agency, a spy agency responsible for electronic eavesdropping.

That would lead to Cyber Command becoming what the military called a "unified command," equal to combat branches of the military such as the Central and Pacific Commands.

It would give Cyber Command leaders a larger voice in arguing for the use of both offensive and defensive cyber tools in future conflicts.

Currently, the NSA and Cyber Command organizations are based at Fort Meade, Md., about 30 miles north of Washington, and led by the same officer, Navy Admiral Michael Rogers.

NSA's focus is gathering intelligence, officials said, often favoring the monitoring of an enemy's cyber activities. Cyber Command's mission is geared more to shutting down cyber attacks and, if ordered, counter attacking.

The NSA director has been a senior military officer since the agency's founding in 1952. Under the plan, future directors would be civilians, an arrangement meant to underscore that NSA is not subordinate to Cyber Command.

Established in 2010, Cyber Command is now subordinate to the U.S. Strategic Command, which oversees military space operations, nuclear weapons and missile defense.

Continued here:

Trump Considering a Big Change for US Cyber Command - Fortune

Cyberwar and cyber intelligence are diverging, as are Cyber Command and the NSA. Heres what that means for the man who leads both entities, the future of signals intelligence collection, and cyberwarfare.

The move to elevate Cyber Command to a full Unified Combatant Command and split it off from the National Security Agency or NSA shows that cyber intelligence collection and information war are rapidly diverging fields. The future leadership of both entities is now in question, but the Pentagon has set out a conditions-based approach to the breakup. That represents a partial victory for the man who directs both Cyber Command and theNSA.

The move would mean that the head of Cyber Command would answer directly to the Defense Secretary and the National Security Agency would get its own head. Its a move that many have said is long overdue, and its exact timing remains unknown. So what does the split mean for the Pentagon, for Cyber Command, and for the future of U.S. cybersecurity?

The split will give the commander of Cyber Command central authority over resource allocation, training, operational planning and mission execution. The commander will answer to the Defense Secretary directly, not the head of Strategic Command. The decision means that Cyber Command will play an even more strategic role in synchronizing cyber forces and training, conducting and coordinating military cyberforce operations and advocating for and prioritizing cyber investments within the department, said Kenneth Rapuano, assistant defense secretary for Homeland Defense and GlobalSecurity.

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The move announced on Friday fulfills a mandate in the National Defense Authorization Act of 2017. Former Defense Secretary Ash Carter hinted at the split back in May 2016. But it wont happenimmediately.

Instead, Defense Secretary James Mattis and Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Joe Dunford will nominate a flag officer to take over the new Cyber Command as well as the NSA. That person could be Adm. Michael Rogers, who currently heads both, or someone else. Trump has reportedly asked Mattis to give him the name of a nominee. Speculation has focused on Army Lt. Gen. William Mayville as the nominee to head CyberCommand.

Once that new person is nominated and confirmed and once Mattis and Dunford are satisfied that splitting the two entities will not hamper the ability of either Cyber Command or the NSA to conduct their missions independently, only then will Cyber Command and the NSA actuallysplit.

What Does it Mean forLeadership?

Read one way, the announcement means Rogers will lose power. Even were he to become the nominee to the new elevated Cyber Command, he would still wind up losing the NSA eventually, or, as the eventual head of the NSA, lose CyberCommand.

Read another way, the lack of a concrete timetable for the split, despite such a requirement in the authorization bill, represents a partial win forRogers.

Rogers took over the NSA and Cyber Command in the spring of 2014. He has been resistant to the idea of a split, telling lawmakers in September that U.S. national security benefitted from the dual-hat arrangement. This view was not shared by then-Director of National Intelligence James Clapper nor then-Defense Secretary Ash Carter. Rogers resistance was one of many issues that rubbed them the wrongway.

It got so bad that in November, unnamed sources told The Washington Post that Clapper and Carter were urging President Barack Obama to fireRogers.

The truth is a bit more nuanced. Clappers goal was to split the NSA from CyberCom. He was not a strong advocate of removal, but was willing to defer to [the Secretary of Defense] if Carter felt strongly about selecting new leadership at Cyber Command, a source inside the intelligence community said. There were other concerns unrelated to the potentialsplit.

Rogers outlasted both Clapper, who had long planned to retire at the end of the Obama administration; and Carter, a political appointee. Rogers attitude toward an NSA-Cyber Command split evolved. In May, he testified that he would support a split was done in a way that did not hamper either the NSA or CyberCommand.

The manner in which the split was announced is in keeping with what Rogers has said hewanted.

The move toward a conditions-based split also met with the approval of Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz, a longtime Rogers ally. I appreciate the administrations commitment today to ensuring that a future separation of the so-called dual hat relationship between Cyber Command and the National Security Agency will be based on conditions, rather than arbitrary political timelines, McCain said in a statement. While Cyber Command and the National Security Agency should eventually be able to operate independent of one another, the administration must work closely with the Congress to take the necessary steps that will make this separation of responsibilities successful, and to ensure that each agency will emerge more effective and more capable as aresult.

What It Means for Cyber Command, the NSA, and CyberOperations

The elevation of Cyber Command represents a big step forward for the militarys cyber ability, but it has yet to be catch up to the NSA in terms of collecting signals intelligence or creating network accesses, according to Bill Leigher, who as a rear admiral helped stand up Navy Fleet Cyber Command. Leigher, who now directs government cyber solutions for Raytheon, applauds the split because the NSA, which collects foreign intelligence, and Cyber Command, a warfighting outfit, have fundamentally different missions.This caused tension between the two organizations under one roof. Information collected for intelligence gathering may be useful in a way thats fundamentally different from intelligence for military purposes, he says. If you collecting intelligence, its foreign espionage. You dont want to get caught. The measure of success is: collect intelligence and dont get caught. If youre going to war, I would argue that the measure of performance is what we do has to have the characteristics of a legal weapon in the context of war and the commander has to know what he or she usesit.

This puts the agencies in disagreement about how to use intel and tools that they share. From an NSA perspective, cyber really is about gaining access to networks. From aCyber Command point of view, I would argue, its about every piece of software on the battlefield and having the means to prevent that software from working the way it was intended to work [for the adversary], hesaid.

The split will allow the agencies to pursue the very different tools, operations, and rules each of their missions requires, he said. Expect NSA to intensify its focus on developing access for intelligence, and Cyber Command to prepare to rapidly deploy massive cyber effects at scale during military operations and shut down the enemy. Both of this will likely leverage next-generation artificial intelligence but in very different ways saidLeigher.

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What the Announced NSA / Cyber Command Split Means - Defense One

M&T Bank Corp. has named a former deputy director of the National Security Agency to its board of directors.

Richard H. Ledgett Jr., a Maryland resident, spent 29 years with the NSA, including serving as itsdeputy director from January 2014 until his retirement last April. M&T said Ledgett has a total of four decades of experience in intelligence, cyber security and cyber operations experience.

Richard H. Ledgett Jr. (PRNewsfoto)

As the NSA's deputy director, Ledgett acted as the agency's chief operating officer, and he also led the NSA's 24/7 Threat Operations Center, which is responsible for identifying and countering cyber threats to the United States' national security systems.

Robert G. Wilmers, M&T's chairman and CEO, said Ledgett "will be an invaluable addition to our board, bringinga management, operational and technical perspective to cyber security and information assurance that will further strengthen M&T's commitment to information security and risk management."

With Ledgett's appointment, M&T now has 15 directors on its board.

Ledgett was also named to the board of M&T Bank, M&T's principal banking subsidiary.

Read more here:

Former NSA official named to M&T board - Buffalo News

The Uttar Pradesh government has decided to slap the National Security Act (NSA) and Goondas Act against those obstructing electricity department officials from discharging their duties in checking power thefts and award those who give information about such thefts.

State Energy Minister Shrikant Sharma said honest customers suffer because of power theft and the government is committed to check the menace.

National Security Act and Goondas Act will be slapped on those obstructing officials from discharging their duties while curbing electricity theft. Power theft is a national crime. We are in the process of setting up 75 bijli thane (power police stations) for this, he said here.

Under the stringent NSA, a person can be detained without bail or trial and the authorities need not disclose the grounds of detention if they believe the detainee can act in a way that poses a threat to the security of the state/country or the maintenance of public order.

The Goondas Act aims at a year-long preventive detention of habitual offenders. According to the law, a goonda is a person who, either by himself or as a member or leader of a gang, habitually commits or attempts to commit or abets the commission of offences.

Meanwhile, in a bid to ensure adequate availability of electricity by minimising the line losses, the state Cabinet has given approval to the Protsahan Yojana (encouragement scheme).

In this regard, provisions have been made that a person informing about power theft will be given 10 per cent of the compounding fee (realised from a person indulging in power theft) as protsaahan (encouragement).

Similarly, 10 per cent of the compounding fee will also be given to the enforcement team, the Uttar Pradesh Cabinet said in an official statement.

Sharma said the state government would follow the Gujarat Model of power distribution and keep a check on pilferage and establish dedicated police stations in all 75 districts where cases of power theft would be taken up.

The tough Gujarat Model envisages constitution of dedicated vigilance squads and setting up special police stations to check pilferage.

The Uttar Pradesh government has already initiated name and shame policy for power bill defaulters under which names of big defaulters are disclosed in a bid to cajole them to pay their bills at the earliest.

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UP govt to use NSA, Goondas Act to curb power theft, award informers - Hindustan Times

Team EnergyInfraPost

Determined to curb power theft that is financially bleeding its power distribution companies (discoms), the BJP-ruled Uttar Pradesh has decided to invoke stringent laws like the National Security Act and Goonda Act to deal with electricity thieves.

UP energy minister Srikant Sharma has said the state government would slap the stringent NSA and Goonda Act on those obstructing power officials from discharging their duties to curb electricity theft.

Power theft is an infringement of the rights of honest consumers. Power saved through action against pilferers could be given to those who pay their bill regularly, Sharma told a newspaper

This came two days after an enforcement squad of Uttar Pradesh Power Corporation Ltd (UPPCL) was attacked in Rampur where it had gone to check power theft. Following the incident, Sharma directed the UPPCL brass to take strict action against the attackers.

UPPCL has been demanding adequate security during such drives.

The state government would follow the Gujarat model for power distribution and keep a check on pilferage, Sharma said, adding, UP government would also establish dedicated police stations in all 75 districts where cases of power theft would be taken up.

UP government officials said that imposing NSA would be at the discretion of the district magistrate.

DISCOMs, Goonda Act, National Security Act, power theft, UPPCL, Uttar Pradesh

Read the rest here:

UP To Invoke NSA, Goonda Act In Fight Against Power Theft - EnergyInfraPost

The move to elevate Cyber Command to a full Unified Combatant Command and split it off from the National Security Agencyshows that cyber intelligence collection and information war are rapidly diverging fields. The future leadership of both entities is now in question, but the Pentagon has set out a conditions-based approach to the breakup. That represents a partial victory for the man who directs both Cyber Command and the NSA.

The move would mean that the head of Cyber Command would answer directly to the Defense Secretary and the National Security Agency would get its own head. Its a move that many have said is long overdue, and its exact timing remains unknown. So what does the split mean for the Pentagon, for Cyber Command, and for the future of U.S. cyber security?

The split will give the commander of Cyber Command central authority over resource allocation, training, operational planning and mission execution. The commander will answer to the Defense secretary directly, not the head of Strategic Command. The decision means that Cyber Command will play an even more strategic role in synchronizing cyber forces and training, conducting and coordinating military cyberforce operations and advocating for and prioritizing cyber investments within the department, said Kenneth Rapuano, assistant defense secretary for Homeland Defense and Global Security.

The Start of a Process

The move announced on Friday fulfills a mandate in the National Defense Authorization Act of 2017. Former Defense Secretary Ash Carter hinted at the split back in May 2016. But it wont happen immediately.

Instead, Defense Secretary James Mattis and Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Joe Dunford will nominate a flag officer to take over the new Cyber Command as well as the NSA. That person could be Adm. Michael Rogers, who currently heads both, or someone else. Trump has reportedly asked Mattis to give him the name of a nominee.Speculation has focused on Army Lt. Gen. William Mayville as the nominee to head Cyber Command.

Once that new person is nominated and confirmed and once Mattis and Dunford are satisfied that splitting the two entities will not hamper the ability of either Cyber Command or the NSA to conduct their missions independently, only then will Cyber Command and the NSA actually split.

What Does it Mean for Leadership?

Read one way, the announcement means Rogers will lose power. Even were he to become the nominee to the new elevated Cyber Command, he would still wind up losing the NSA eventually. If he were to stay on as head of NSA after the confirmation of a new Cyber Command head, as expected, he would briefly serve under Mayville until the formal split.

Read another way, the lack of a concrete timetable for the split, despite such a requirement in the authorization bill, represents a partial win for Rogers.

Rogers took over the NSA and Cyber Command in the spring of 2014. He has been resistant to the idea of a split, telling lawmakers in September that U.S. national security benefitted from the dual-hat arrangement. This view was not shared by then-Director of National Intelligence James Clapper nor then-Defense Secretary Ash Carter. Rogers resistance was one of many issues that rubbed them the wrong way.

It got so bad that in November, unnamed sources told The Washington Post that Clapper and Carter were urging President Barack Obama to fire Rogers.

The truth is a bit more nuanced. Clappers goal was to split the NSA from CyberCom. He was not a strong advocate of removal, but was willing to defer to [the Secretary of Defense] if Carter felt strongly about selecting new leadership at Cyber Command, a source inside the intelligence community said. There were other concerns unrelated to the potential split.

Rogers outlasted both Clapper, who had long planned to retire at the end of the Obama administration; and Carter, a political appointee. Rogers attitude toward an NSA-Cyber Command split evolved. In May, he testified that he would support a split was done in a way that did not hamper either the NSA or Cyber Command.

The manner in which the split was announced is in keeping with what Rogers has said he wanted.

The move toward a conditions-based split also met with the approval of Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz, a longtime Rogers ally. I appreciate the administrations commitment today to ensuring that a future separation of the so-called dual hat relationship between Cyber Command and the National Security Agency will be based on conditions, rather than arbitrary political timelines, McCain said in a statement. While Cyber Command and the National Security Agency should eventually be able to operate independent of one another, the administration must work closely with the Congress to take the necessary steps that will make this separation of responsibilities successful, and to ensure that each agency will emerge more effective and more capable as a result.

What It Means for Cyber Command, the NSA, and Cyber Operations

The elevation of Cyber Command represents a big step forward for the militarys cyber ability, but it has yet to be catch up to the NSA in terms of collecting signals intelligence or creating network accesses, according to Bill Leigher, who as a rear admiral helped stand up Navy Fleet Cyber Command. Leigher, who now directs government cyber solutions for Raytheon, applauds the split because the NSA, which collects foreign intelligence, and Cyber Command, a warfighting outfit, have fundamentally different missions.This caused tension between the two organizations under one roof. Information collected for intelligence gathering may be useful in a way thats fundamentally different from intelligence for military purposes, he says. If you collecting intelligence, its foreign espionage. You dont want to get caught. The measure of success is: collect intelligence and dont get caught. If youre going to war, I would argue that the measure of performance is what we do has to have the characteristics of a legal weapon in the context of war and the commander has to know what he or she uses it.

This puts the agencies in disagreement about how to use intel and tools that they share. From an NSA perspective, cyber really is about gaining access to networks. From aCyber Command point of view, I would argue, its about every piece of software on the battlefield and having the means to prevent that software from working the way it was intended to work [for the adversary], he said.

The split will allow the agencies to pursue the very different tools, operations, and rules each of their missions requires, he said. Expect NSA to intensify its focus on developing access for intelligence, and Cyber Command to prepare to rapidly deploy massive cyber effects at scale during military operations and shut down the enemy. Both of this will likely leverage next-generation artificial intelligence but in very different ways said Leigher.

View original post here:

What the Announced NSA / Cyber Command Split Means - GovExec.com

The Trump administration this week elevated the US Cyber Command to a Unified Combatant Command, in a long-awaited move that underscores the growing importance of cyber warfare.

The decision, announced Friday, puts the Cyber Command on par with nine other combat commands, and may lead to its separation from the National Security Agency (NSA). In a statement, President Trump said that Secretary of Defense James Mattis will examine the possibility of separating the Cyber Command and the NSA, and that he will announce recommendations at a later date.

This new Unified Combatant Command will strengthen our cyberspace operations and create more opportunities to improve our Nations defense, Trump said in the statement. The elevation of United States Cyber Command demonstrates our increased resolve against cyberspace threats and will help reassure our allies and partners and deter our adversaries.

Trump says the move will streamline command and control of time-sensitive cyberspace operations.

Trump also said that the move will streamline command and control of time-sensitive cyberspace operations, and that it will ensure that critical cyberspace operations are adequately funded.

Proposals for creating an independent Cyber Command were first made under the Obama administration, with supporters arguing that the units mandate was sometimes at odds with the NSAs intelligence gathering operations particularly with regard to the fight against ISIS.

Cyber Command was created as a sub-unit of the US Strategic Command, with a mandate to conduct cyber warfare and defend government networks. Navy Admiral Michael Rogers currently leads both Cyber Command and the NSA.

Continued here:

Trump elevates Cyber Command, setting the stage for NSA ... - The Verge

LUCKNOW: UP energy minister Srikant Sharma on Monday said the state government would slap the stringent National Security Act (NSA) and Goonda Act on those obstructing power officials from discharging their duties to curb electricity theft. "Power theft is an infringement of the rights of honest consumers. Power saved through action against pilferers could be given to those who pay their bill regularly," Sharma told TOI. This comes two days after an enforcement squad of Uttar Pradesh Power Corporation Ltd (UPPCL) was attacked in Rampur where it had gone to check power theft. Following the incident, Sharma directed the UPPCL brass to take strict action against the attackers. In fact, UPPCL has been demanding adequate security during such drives. Sharma said the state government would follow the Gujarat model for power distribution and keep a check on pilferage. He said the UP government would also establish dedicated police stations in all 75 districts where cases of power theft would be taken up. Officials in the UP government said that imposing NSA would be at the discretion of the district magistrate. UPPCL chairman Alok Kumar said it would continue to carry out an exhaustive anti-power theft drive.

Go here to read the rest:

UP to use NSA to curb power thefts: Minister - Times of India

The tasking we get at Pine Gap is look for this particular signal coming out of this particular location. If you find it, report it, and if you find anything else of interest, report that as well. David Rosenberg, former NSA Team leader, weapons analysis at Pine Gap, Aug 20, 2017

At times, there is a lag between the anticipation and the revelation, the assumption that an image might be as gruesome, or perhaps enlightening, as was first assumed. Nothing in the latest Edward Snowden show suggests anything revelatory. They knew it, as did we: that the US military satellite base spat on a bit of Australian dust in a part of the earth that would not make Mars seem out of place, is highly engaged.

Radio Nationals Background Briefing made something of a splash on Sunday, with some assistance from the Edward Snowden National Security Agency trove. The documents do much in terms of filling in assumptions on the geolocating role of the facility, much of which had already had some measure of plausibility through the work of Richard Tanter and the late Des Ball.

As Tanter puts it, Those documents provide authoritative confirmation that Pine Gap is involved, for example, in the geolocation of cell phones used by people throughout the world, from the Pacific to the edge of Africa.

NSA Intelligence Relationship with Australia, by way of example, discloses the NSA term for the Pine Gap facility, ironically termed RAINFALL. Joint Defence Facility at Pine Gap (RAINFALL) [is] a site which plays a significant role in supporting both intelligence activities and military operations.

Another document supplies some detail as to the role of the facility, confirming that it does beyond the mundane task of merely collecting signals. It also does the dirty work analysing them. RAINFALL detects, collects, records, processes, analyses and reports on PROFORMA [data on surface-to-air missiles, anti-aircraft artillery and fighter aircraft] signals collected from tasked target entities.

Pine Gap has always generated a gaping accountability gap of its own, and these Snowden treats affirm the point. Rather than being an entity accountable to the queries and concerns of the local indigenous population; rather than supplying the local members of parliament from the Senate and the lower house briefings about its activities, Pine Gap is hived off from usual channels, a reminder about how truly inconsequential democracy is in the Canberra-Washington alliance.

Pine Gap has always had its platoons of unflinching apologists, and a common theme, apart from the worn notion that the US security umbrella prevails with fortitude, is that the base is genuinely good. In a Central Intelligence Agencys National Intelligence Daily (Feb 13, 1987), the agency notes with approval the forthcoming Australian Defence white paper indicating strong support or US-Australian joint defence facilities.

The publication would dispel any wobbliness on Australian military commitments, a point alluded to by the then minister for defence, Kim Beazley. A further point was to note the defensive nature of the facilities, opposition to those leftwing groups to the contrary.

So what if Australians in the Northern Territory are ignorant that the communications facility pinpoints targets for drone strikes? We can be assured that these are legitimate, vetted and, when struck, obliterated with fastidious care.

Much of this dressed up bunk is based on the notion, sacrosanct as it is, that drone strikes work. They certain do on a few levels in galvanising more recruits and liquidating more civilians. Like any military weapon, the hygienic notion of the engineered kill, the surgical operation on the battlefield, is fantasy. If the target so happens to be embedded in an urban setting, one filled with non-combatants, the moral calculus becomes less easy to measure.

The other through-the-glass-darkly feature of the Pine Gap facility lies not only in its geolocation means, but its value as a target. Having such conspicuous yet inscrutable tenants places Australia in harms way, a loud invitation to assault.

The CIA was already cognisant of this point in 1987, identifying awareness on the part of Australian defence officials that the joint facilities would be attacked in a US-Soviet nuclear exchange but argues that removal of the US presence would increase the likelihood of superpower conflict. The end of the Cold War does little to dispel the significance of Pine Gap as a target of considerable interest.

Where to, then? A firm insistence, for one, that Australia detach itself from the tit of empire, the bosom of Washingtons military industrial complex. This requires something virtually outlawed in Canberra: courage. It has fallen upon such delightfully committed if motley outfits as the Independent and Peaceful Australian Network (IPAN), an organisation of calm determination committed to seeing Australia as something more than the grand real estate for empire.

With each disclosure, with each revelation about Australias all too willing complicity in facilitating strikes against foreign targets, many in countries Australians would barely know, the will to change may be piqued. They most certainly will once Australian officials face their first war crimes charges over the use of drones, aiding and abetting their US counterparts in the whole damn awful enterprise.

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Target Finding for the Empire: The NSA and the Pine Gap Facility - International Policy Digest

Ashort drive south of Alice Springs, the second largest population center in Australias Northern Territory, there is a high-security compound, codenamed RAINFALL. The remote base, in the heart of the countrys barren outback, is one of the most important covert surveillance sites in the eastern hemisphere.

Hundreds of Australian and American employees come and go every day from Joint Defence Facility Pine Gap, as the base is formally known. The official cover story, as outlined in a secret U.S. intelligence document, is to support the national security of both the U.S. and Australia. The [facility] contributes to verifying arms control and disarmament agreements and monitoring military developments. But, at best, that is an economical version of the truth. Pine Gap has a far broader mission and more powerful capabilities than the Australian or American governments have ever publicly acknowledged.

An investigation, published Saturday by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation in collaboration with The Intercept, punctures the wall of secrecy surrounding Pine Gap, revealing for the first time a wide range of details about its function. The base is an important ground station from which U.S. spy satellites are controlled and communications are monitored across several continents, according to classified documents obtained by The Intercept from the National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden.

Together with the NSAs Menwith Hill base in England, Pine Gap has in recent years been used as a command post for two missions. The first, named M7600, involved at least two spy satellites and was said in a secret 2005 document to provide continuous coverage of the majority of the Eurasian landmass and Africa. This initiative was later upgraded as part of a second mission, named M8300, which involved a four satellite constellation and covered the former Soviet Union, China, South Asia, East Asia, the Middle East, Eastern Europe, and territories in the Atlantic Ocean.

The satellites are described as being geosynchronous, which means they are likely positioned high in orbit at more than 20,000 miles above the earths surface. They are equipped with powerful surveillance technology used to monitor wireless communications on the ground, such as those sent and received by cellphones, radios, and satellite uplinks. They gather strategic and tactical military, scientific, political, and economic communications signals, according to the documents, and also keep tabs on missile or weapons tests in targeted countries, sweep up intelligence from foreign military data systems, and provide surveillance support to U.S. forces.

An aerial image of the Pine Gap surveillance facility, located near Alice Springs in Australias Northern Territory.

Photo: BING

Outside Pine Gap, there are some 38 radar dishes pointing skyward, many of them concealed underneath golfball-like shells. The facility itself is isolated, located beyond a security checkpoint on a road marked with prohibited area signs, about a 10-minute drive from Alice Springs, which has a population of about25,000 people. There is a large cohort of U.S. spy agency personnel stationed at the site, including employees of the NSA, the CIA, and the National Reconnaissance Office, the agency that manages the spy satellites. Intelligence employees are joined by compatriots from the U.S. Army, Navy, and Air Force.

Pine Gap plays a significant role in supporting both intelligence activities and military operations, according to a top-secret NSA report dated from April 2013. One of its key functions is to gather geolocational intelligence, which can be used to help pinpoint airstrikes. The Australian base has a special section known as the geopit for this function; it is equipped with a number of tools available for performing geolocations, providing a broad range of geolocation capabilities in conjunction with other overhead, tactical, fixed site systems, notes an Aug. 2012 NSA site profile of the facility.

Richard Tanter, a professor at the University of Melbourne, has studied Pine Gap for years. He has co-authored, with Bill Robinson and the late Desmond Ball, several detailed reports about the bases activities for California-based security think tankNautilus Institute. He reviewed the documents obtained by The Intercept, and said that they showed there had been a huge transformation in Pine Gaps function in recent history.

The documents provide authoritative confirmation that Pine Gap is involved, for example, in the geolocation of cellphones used by people throughout the world, from the Pacific to the edge of Africa, Tanter said. It shows us that Pine Gap knows the geolocations it derives the phone numbers, it often derives the content of any communications, it provides the ability for the American military to identify and place in real-time the location of targets of interest.

The base, which was built in the late 1960s, was once focused only on monitoring missile tests and other military-related activities in countries such as Russia, China, Pakistan, Japan, Korea, and India. But it is now doing a great deal more, said Tanter. It has shifted from a national level of strategic intelligence, primarily to providing intelligence actionable, time-sensitive intelligence for American operations in [the] battlefield.

In 2013, the Sydney Morning Herald reported that Pine Gap played a key role in controversial U.S. drone strikes. Over the past decade, drone attacks have killed a number of top Al Qaeda, Islamic State, and Taliban militants. But the strikes often taking place outside of declared war zones, in places such as Yemen, Somalia, and Pakistan have also resulted in the deaths of hundreds of civilians, and in some cases are considered by human rights advocates to constitute potential war crimes and violations of international law.

The U.S. and its allies regularly use surveillance of communications as a tactic to track down and identify suspected militants. The NSA often locates drone targets by analyzing the activity of a cellphones SIM card, rather than the content of the calls an imprecise method than can lead to the wrong people being killed, as The Intercept has previously revealed. Its really like were targeting a cellphone, a former drone operator told us in 2014. Were not going after people were going after their phones, in the hopes that the person on the other end of that missile is the bad guy.

Concerns about such tactics are amplified in the era of President Donald Trump. Since his inauguration earlier this year, Trump has dramatically increased drone strikes and special operations raids, while simultaneouslyloosening battlefield rules and seekingto scrap constraints intended to prevent civilian deaths in such attacks. According to analysis from the group Airwars, which monitors U.S. airstrikes, civilian casualties in the U.S.-led war against the Islamic State are on track to double under Trumps administration.

Afghan villagers gather near a house destroyed in an apparent NATO raid in Logar province, south of Kabul, Afghanistan in Wednesday, June 6, 2012.

Photo: Ihsanullah Majroh/AP

David Rosenberg, a 23-year veteran of the NSA who worked inside Pine Gap as a team leader for more than a decade, acknowledged that the base was used to geolocate particular electronic transmissions. He told The Intercept and ABC that the base helps to provide limitation of civilian casualties by providing accurate intelligence, and insisted that the governments of Australia and the United States would of course want to minimize all civilian casualties.

But that reassurance is unlikely to satisfy critics.

Emily Howie, director of advocacy and research at Australias Human Rights Law Centre, said the Australian government needs to provide accountability and transparency on its role in U.S. drone operations. The legal problem thats created by drone strikes is that there may very well be violations of the laws of armed conflict and that Australia may be involved in those potential war crimes through the facility at Pine Gap, Howie said. The first thing that we need from the Australian government is for it to come clean about exactly what Australians are doing inside the Pine Gap facility in terms of coordinating with the United States on the targeting using drones.

For more than 100 years, Australia has been a close U.S. ally; the country has supported the American military in every major war since the early 1900s. This relationship was formalized in 1951, when Australia and the U.S. signed the ANZUS Treaty, a mutual defense agreement. Australia is also a member of the Five Eyes surveillance alliance, alongside the U.S., the United Kingdom, Canada, and New Zealand. The countrys electronic eavesdropping agency, the Australian Signals Directorate, maintains extremely close ties with its American counterparts at the NSA. The agencies have a mutually beneficial partnership, according to one top-secret NSA document. While the NSA shares its technology, cryptanalytic capabilities, and resources for state-of-the-art collection, processing and analytic efforts, the Australians provide access to Pine Gap; they also hand over terrorism-related communications collected inside Australia, plus intelligence on some neighboring countries in their region, such as Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore.

The relationships foundations are strong, but some cracks may be beginning to appear. This was highlighted in late January when, after just two weeks in the Oval Office, Trump had a contentious first conversation with Australias prime minister Malcolm Turnbull. Trump berated his Australian counterpart over the terms of a refugee deal and abruptly ended the call, describing it as ridiculous and unpleasant.

Meanwhile, Trump has adopted a more confrontational tone with China Australias top trading partner and he has threatened North Korea with fire and fury over its repeated missile tests. The situation has created a degree of uncertainty for Australia, and some in the country are pondering whether it is time to reevaluate its traditional alliances.

There are changing moods in the United States, said John McCarthy, one of Australias most distinguished and experienced diplomats, who formerly served as the countrys ambassador to the U.S. So, we then need to think, should we try and develop closer security relationships with other countries in Asia? Should we seek to improve our overall structural relationship with China?

Were entering into a very, very fluid situation in Asia, McCarthy added. I dont know what the outcomes are going to be. But we have to be very, very nimble in terms of trying to create new structures, create new relationships, to be able to look at new circumstances from a very independent security perspective, if we are to do the right thing by the Australian people over the next generation or so.

Because of Australias proximity to the Korean peninsula, the North Korea issue is a particularly sensitive one. The city of Darwin in the Northern Territory is about 3,600 miles from Pyongyang, within range of an intercontinental ballistic missile strike. As such, the implications are severe for Australia: it could be dragged into a devastating conflict if the U.S. were to become embroiled in war with Kim Jong-uns rogue state. And despite its isolated position in the outback, Pine Gap would likely be at the forefront of the action.

Pine Gap literally hardwires us into the activities of the American military and in some cases, that means we will cop the consequences, like it or not, said Tanter, the University of Melbourne professor. Pine Gap will be contributing hugely in real-time to those operations, as well as in preparation for them. So whether or not the Australian government thinks that an attack on North Korea is either justified, or a wise and sensible move, we will be part of that, Tanter added. Well be culpable in the terms of the consequences.

The NSA and the Australian governments Department of Defence declined to comment.

This story was prepared in collaboration with the Australian Broadcasting Corporations investigative radio program Background Briefing and ABC News. Peter Cronau contributed reporting.

Documents published with this article:

Top photo: Australian Defence Facilities Pine Gap in Feb. 19, 2016.

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The US Spy Hub in the Heart of Australia - The Intercept

The Augusta National Security Agency leak suspect will get to review classified information federal prosecutors might use against her during her upcoming espionage trial.

In an supplemental protective order signed by U.S. District Court Magistrate Judge Brian K. Epps on Wednesday, both sides have agreed to the procedure which will allow Reality Leigh Winner to access evidence the prosecutors may use to prove she committed the crime of willful retention and transmission of national defense information.

Winner, 25, has pleaded not guilty. She has been held without bond since her June 3 arrest in which federal agents armed with a search warrant raided her Battle Row rental home. The search was brought on by a federal investigation launched after a National Security Agency official was approached by a reporter seeking to authenticate a national security document.

The prosecutors contend Winner accessed and copied a classified document through her job with the National Security Agency contractor Pluribus International Corp., at Fort Gordon. Winner, who served in the Air Force for six years as a linguist specializing in Middle Eastern languages, had a top security clearance.

In the order Epps signed this week, Winner will be held to the obligations of her security clearance. She can face further prosecution if she releases any classified information she may learn through the discovery materials in her case. She may see any document that is deemed unclassified or is specifically marked by federal prosecutors as authorized for disclosure to Reality Leigh Winner. That material is expected to include intelligence reporting, network audit logs of U.S. government agency, FBI interview reports including Winners own interview, and correspondence of contractors from May 24 to June 1.

Although federal prosecutors insist the document Winner allegedly leaked is classified, The Intercept online news media produced an in-depth report on a classified document it received this summer that is an analysis of the extent of Russias tampering efforts during the latest presidential election.

Winners trial is tentatively set to begin the week of Oct. 23.

Reach Sandy Hodson at sandy.hodson@augustachronicle.com or (706) 823-3226

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Accused NSA leaker will get to see classified evidence in her espionage prosecution - The Augusta Chronicle

Prime News, Nation, (Bareilly), August 17:-Madrassas in Bareilly area which defied the Uttar Pradesh (UP) government order on unfurling the national flag and singing the national anthem on Independence Day may face action, including under the stringent National Security Act (NSA), a senior official said here.

If we get a complaint that any madrassa did not comply with the government order on the unfurling the national flag and the recital of national anthem, we will get it probed and after giving a chance to all, action will be taken against the guilty as per the law, Bareilly Divisional Commissioner, P V Jaganmohan said today.

He added that action could be initiated as per the Indian Penal Code (IPC), Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC), besides other laws, for showing disregard to the national flag and national anthem, including the National Security Act (NSA).

Under the NSA, a person can be detained without bail or trial and the authorities need not disclose the grounds of detention if they believe the detainee can act in a way that poses a threat to the security of the state, country or the maintenance of public order.

Jaganmohan said that all the minority welfare officers had been asked to immediately submit a list of madrassas where the national anthem was not recited. Complaints from the public in this regard will also be probed, he said. According to officials, a majority of the madrassas followed the order.

However, according to some reports, the call by some clerics to defy the order had an impact in some madrassas and Saare jahan se achcha Hindustan hamara was sung instead of the national anthem. However there was no official confirmation about this.

-(NAV, Inputs: Agencies)

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UP: Madrassas defying order on I-Day may face action under NSA - citytoday

WASHINGTON President Donald Trump's national security adviser on Sunday minced no words and clearly labeled Saturday's deadly car attack in Charlottesville, Virginia, as terrorism.

"Certainly I think we can confidently call it a form of terrorism," the adviser, Lt. Gen H.R. McMaster, said on NBC's "Meet The Press."

"What terrorism is is the use of violence to incite terror and fear, and of course it was terrorism."

McMaster's words went further than Trump's did on Saturday, when Trump was widely criticized by members of both parties for placing blame on "many sides" for violence that was sparked by a white nationalist rally and for not specifically naming and condemning the racist groups involved.

McMaster said the president intended to denounce the racists.

"He condemned hatred and bigotry on all sides, and that includes white supremacists and neo-Nazis," McMaster said. "I think it's clear I know it's clear in his mind and ought to be clear to all Americans: We cannot tolerate, obviously, that bigotry, that hatred that is rooted in ignorance, ignorance of what America stands for, what America is."

But McMaster also offered very vague answers when asked more than once whether he can work with Trump's chief strategist, Steve Bannon, since considerable friction between the two advisers has seeped into the public.

"I am ready to work with anybody who will help advance the president's agenda and advance the security, prosperity of the American people," McMaster answered.

Asked whether Bannon is someone who does that, McMaster didn't specifically answer. Instead, he replied, "I believe everyone who works in the White House, who has the privilege, the great privilege every day of serving their nation, should be motivated by that goal."

Later on "Meet The Press," Rich Lowry, editor of National Review, assessed McMaster's language.

"He used Washington-speak three times to basically answer your question: 'No, I cannot work with Steve Bannon,'" Lowry told host Chuck Todd.

McMaster also said Sebastian Gorka, a deputy assistant for the president who frequently appears on television to speak about national security issues, "is not in the National Security Council."

McMaster indicated that if Gorka represents himself as a spokesman on national security, he wasn't involved. "The scheduling people for the media and spokespeople is not my area of responsibility," he said.

McMaster also rebutted an assertion that Gorka made to BBC Radio on Thursday, when Gorka called it "nonsensical" for Secretary of State Rex Tillerson to discuss military matters.

"We should always take Secretary of State Tillerson at his word," McMaster said. "He is a tremendously talented leader and diplomat."

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NSA McMaster on Charlottesville: "Of course it was terrorism"