Monthly Archives: February 2017

In 2010, Thomas Drake, a former senior employee at the National Security Agency, was charged with espionage for speaking to a reporter from the Baltimore Sun about a bloated, dysfunctional intelligence program he believed would violate Americans privacy. The case against him eventually fell apart, and he pled guilty to a single misdemeanor, but his career in the NSA was over.

Though Drake was largely vindicated, the central question he raised about technology and privacy has never been resolved. Almost seven years have passed now, but Pat Eddington, a former CIA analyst, is still trying to prove that Drake was right.

While working for Rep. Rush Holt, D-N.J., Eddington had the unique opportunity to comb through still-classified documents that outline the history of two competing NSA programs known as ThinThread and Trailblazer. Hes seen an unredacted version of the Pentagon inspector generals 2004 audit of the NSAs failures during that time, and has filed Freedom of Information Act requests.

In January, Eddington decided to take those efforts a step further by suing the Department of Defense to obtain the material, he tells The Intercept. Those documents completely vindicate those who advocated for ThinThread at personal risk, says Eddington.

The controversy dates back to 1996, whenEd Loomis, then a computer systems designer for the NSA, along with his team worked to move the NSAs collection capabilities from the analog to the digital world. The shift would allow the NSA to scoop up internet packets, stringing them together into legible communications, and automating a process to instantly decide which communications were most interesting, while masking anything from Americans. The prototype, called GrandMaster, would need to ingest vast amounts of data, but only spit out what was most valuable, deleting or encrypting everything else.

Then in the fall of 2001,four passenger airliners were hijacked by terrorists as part of a suicide plot against Washington, D.C., and New York City. The U.S. intelligence community faced a disturbing wakeup call: its vast collection systems had failed to prevent the attacks.

Yet, in response, the NSA simply started collecting more data.

The NSA sent out a bid to multiple defense contractors, seeking a program that could collect and analyze communications from phones and the internet. Science Applications Internal Corporation, or SAIC, won the contract, known as Trailblazer. Meanwhile, internally, NSA employees were developing a similar, less costly alternative called ThinThread, a follow-on to GrandMaster. ThinThread would collect online communications, sort them, and mask data belonging to Americans.

Those involved in ThinThread argue that their approach was better than a collect-it-all approach taken by NSA.

Bulk collection kills people, says Bill Binney, a former NSA analyst, who rose to be a senior technical official with a dream of automating the agencys espionage. You collect everything, dump it on the analyst, and they cant see the threat coming, cant stop it, he says.

Binney built a back-end system a processor that would draw on data collected by ThinThread, analyze it, look at whether or not the traffic was involves American citizens, and pass on what was valuable for foreign intelligence.

Bulk acquisition doesnt work, agrees Kirk Wiebe, a former NSA senior analyst, who was trying to help convince NSA of ThinThreads value at the time.

The analysts are drowning in data, and Binney and Wiebe believe ThinThread would have solved the problem by helping the NSA sort through the deluge automatically while protecting privacy using encryption.

But Binney and Wiebe say advocates of ThinThread hit every possible bureaucratic roadblock on the way, sitting in dozens of meetings with lawyers and lawmakers. In the meantime, Gen. Michael Hayden, the director of the NSA at the time, said he decided to fund an outside contract for a larger effort, focused on gathering all communications, not just those over the internet, as ThinThread was designed to do.

Additionally, while ThinThread masked American communications, Haydens legal and technical advisors were concerned the collection itself would be a problem. Some of Haydens senior officials at the NSA came from SAIC, the company that won contract to design a proof of concept for Trailblazer.

A tiny group of people at NSA had developed a capability for next to no money at all to give the government an unprecedented level of access to any number of foreign terrorists, Eddington says. Instead that system was shut down in favor of an SAIC boondoggle that cost taxpayers, by my last count, close to a billion dollars.

He argues the contract, and the incestuous relationship between the NSA chief and the contractor never received the scrutiny it deserved. It was clearly an ethical problem, Loomis said.

Ultimately, however, the NSA went with Trailblazer. Hayden rejected the ThinThread proposal because the intelligence communitys lawyers were concerned it wouldnt work on a global scale, and that it would vacuum up too much American data. Hayden has continued dismissing concerns years later as the grumblings of disgruntled employees. Hayden told PBS Frontline ThinThread was not the answer to the problems we were facing, with regard to the volume, variety and velocity of modern communications.

In 2002, Wiebe, Binney, Loomis, Drake, and Diane Roark, a Republican staffer on the House Intelligence Committee who had been advocating for ThinThread, united to complain to the Defense Departments inspector general, arguing that ThinThread, while still a prototype, would be the best surveillance system. The oversight body completed its report in 2004, which included major concerns about Trailblazer.

We talked about going for the nuclear option, Wiebe said, referring to discussions at the time about contacting the press.

But Drake went it alone, however, never telling his colleagues what he planned to do. Stories about the disagreements started showing up in news headlines based on leaks. The Bush administration in 2007 sent the FBI after the whistleblowers, raiding each of the whistleblowers homes who raised complaints to the Pentagon inspector general. Drake faced espionage charges after speaking to a reporter from the Baltimore Sun about the alleged mismanagement and waste in the NSA.

Though Drake wasnt sent to prison, he lost his career in government, and now works at an Apple store. The question of whether ThinThread would have provided a better capability than Trailblazer was never resolved.

While ThinThread never made it to production, some of the analytic elements, minus the privacy protections, made it into Fort Meade as part of a massive surveillance program now known as Stellar Wind.

But there may be a way to settle the debate. The watchdog agency tasked with oversight of the Department of Defense completed a full investigation into the battle between ThinThread and the Trailblazer. The Pentagon inspector general published a heavily redacted version of that investigation in 2011; that report is now the only public record available, aside from the account of the whistleblowers who exposed it.

Despite everything thats come out about its surveillance programs, the NSA still wont release the full ThinThread investigation. I dont really know what theyre trying to hide, said Loomis.

Loomis says he thinks those redactions were more for the sake of Haydens reputation than protecting real classified information. He eventually documented the saga in a self-published book called NSAs Transformation: An Executive Branch Black Eye.

Drake told The Intercept in an email that efforts to uncover the Pentagon inspector generals ThinThread investigation were a large part of his defense. Since then, the Office of Special Counsel concluded last March that the Department of Justice may have destroyed evidence that might have helped exonerate him.

In the meantime, however, hope is fading that the entire story of ThinThread will emerge from behind the government door of secrecy. Weve been trying for 15 or 16 years now to bring the U.S. government the technical solution to save lives, but they fight us left and right, said Wiebe.

Eddington says the ThinThread controversy demonstrates the lack of oversight of the intelligence community. The mentality that gave us this system is still in place, he says. We could see this become de facto permanent, he said.

Read more:
Former CIA Analyst Sues Defense Department to Vindicate NSA Whistleblowers - The Intercept

Microsoft announced that the NSA has cleared Windows 10 and the Surface tablet for classified use. The company also teased security improvements that will be discussed at the annual RSA Conference next week, where security experts from all over the world will gather.

Being cleared for classified use could help Microsoft do business with government agencies, independent contractors, and other groups that handle sensitive data. A place on the NSA's list of approved devices also gives Microsoft bragging rights--and the company put 'em to good use in its blog post:

Our customers are the most security-conscious in the world and demonstrating our commitment to meeting their needs is incredibly important to us. Today, Im excited to share that both Windows 10 and Surface devices including Surface Pro 3, Surface Pro 4 and Surface Book have been added to the NSAs Commercial Solutions for Classified Programs (CSfC) list. The CSfC program listing demonstrates Windows 10, as well as Surface devices (the only Windows 10 devices currently on the list), when used in a layered solution, can meet the highest security requirements for use in classified environments.

But that doesn't mean Microsoft is done battening down the hatches of its software and hardware. The company also teased a number of security improvements that have either recently debuted or are expected to be released this year. These include more control over devices via Surface Enterprise Management Mode (SEMM), expanded device management, and updates to Windows Defender Advanced Threat Protection (WDATP), among others.

Many of those updates share a common goal: letting businesses use Windows 10 to control end points and defend against common threats. Microsoft said updates to SEMM will let companies disable a tablet's camera or microphone, for example, whereas updated Windows Analytics will let them know if software updates are being installed like they should be. To abuse the obvious pun--Windows is getting some bars, locks, and other reinforcements.

Microsoft also touted some of the operating system's existing features, such as Windows Hello, which allows people to sign in to their PC via facial recognition or fingerprint scan instead of a password. Combine that with a feature that automatically locks a PC when a paired smartphone leaves its vicinity--which is already available to Windows Insider program members--and Microsoft can help prevent careless mistakes on Windows 10 devices.

More information about these updates is available from Microsoft's blog post, and still more will be revealed in the days leading up to the RSA Conference that will run February 13-17. The bottom line is this: Windows 10 and Surface got a vote of confidence from the NSA, and over the next couple months, Microsoft will make it easier for businesses to manage their own security instead of relying on their employees' competence.

Original post:
Microsoft Gets NSA Approval For Windows 10 And Surface - Tom's Hardware

MSNBC

New Russia revelations pose new problems for Trump's NSA MSNBC Michael Flynn, Donald Trump's National Security Advisor, has maintained close ties to Moscow in recent years, even getting paid by the Kremlin's propaganda outlet. It therefore caused quite a stir a month ago, when the Washington Post noted that Flynn ... CIA freezes out top Flynn aidePolitico Trump says he has 'full confidence' in Michael Flynn amid allegations over phone call with RussiaBusiness Insider National security adviser Flynn discussed sanctions with Russian ambassador, despite denials, officials sayWashington Post New York Times -CBS News all 178 news articles »

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New Russia revelations pose new problems for Trump's NSA - MSNBC

[JURIST] A former National Security Agency (NSA) [official website] contractor was indicted [indictment, PDF] on Wednesday by a federal grand jury on charges that he willfully retained national defense information. US officials are stating [press release] that the theft by Harold Thomas Martin may have been the largest heist of classified government information in history. Martin allegedly spent over 20 years stealing highly sensitive government material [CNN report] related to national defense. It is unclear what, if anything, Martin did with all the stolen data. Martin now faces 20 criminal counts, each of which is punishable by up to 10 years in prison. Martin worked for Booz Allen Hamilton Holding Corp, which also employed Edward Snowden. Martin was employed as a private contractor for at least seven different companies, beginning in 1993. His positions dealing with government computer systems, gave him various security clearances that routinely provided him access to top-secret information. The indictment alleges Martin stole documents from US Cyber Command, the CIA, the NSA and the National Reconnaissance Office [official websites]. Martin's initial appearance in the US District Court for the District of Maryland is scheduled for next Tuesday.

Governments around the world have re-examined their data privacy laws in the wake of a myriad of data leaks, including the Edward Snowden [JURIST backgrounder] leaks. National governments around the world have attempted [JURIST op-ed] to gain control over data transferred within their borders. On Tuesday the US House approved [JURIST report] a measure that would updat US privacy laws in regards to e-mails and cloud storage. In October 2015 the European Court of Justice ruled [JURIST report] that EU user data transferred to the US was not sufficiently protected. In June 2015 a court in The Hague struck down [JURIST report] a Dutch law that allowed the government to retain telephone and Internet data of Dutch citizens for up to 12 months in an effort to combat terrorism and organized crime.

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Former NSA contractor indicted in theft of classified government information - JURIST