Boundless Informant: the NSA's secret tool to track global surveillance data

[dkf]

The National Security Agency has developed a powerful tool for recording and analysing where its intelligence comes from, raising questions about its repeated assurances to Congress that it cannot keep track of all the surveillance it performs on American communications.

The Guardian has acquired top-secret documents about the NSA datamining tool, called Boundless Informant, that details and even maps by country the voluminous amount of information it collects from computer and telephone networks.

The focus of the internal NSA tool is on counting and categorizing the records of communications, known as metadata, rather than the content of an email or instant message.

The Boundless Informant documents show the agency collecting almost 3 billion pieces of intelligence from US computer networks over a 30-day period ending in March 2013. One document says it is designed to give NSA officials answers to questions like, "What type of coverage do we have on country X" in "near real-time by asking the SIGINT [signals intelligence] infrastructure."

An NSA factsheet about the program, acquired by the Guardian, says: "The tool allows users to select a country on a map and view the metadata volume and select details about the collections against that country."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jun/08/nsa-boundless-informant-global-datamining?CMP=twt_gu

Wow Greenwald looks like he has a whole lot of govt docs and is releasing one by one.

[premium]

1. If I were him,

I would be worried about a drone circling high above armed with a air to surface missile.

[dkf]

3. Informant looks to be using WAPO and the Guardian.

[premium]

6. Maybe the informant better look out for a drone. nt.

[MineralMan]

2. Greenwald appears to be making a dare.

If so, whoever is feeding him these classified documents needs to start worrying. Whether it's a congress member or Senator on the Intelligence committees or a staffer for one of those, it's a short search to find out who has access to classified documents at that level. Foolish Informant, I think, would be a better description here.

Greenwald himself is pretty much out of reach, but not the person feeding him this stuff.

[dkf]

4. The Wapo reporter says the informant believes he will be exposed but feels this needs to be done.

[MineralMan]

5. Ah, OK. Well, it will be interesting, I'm sure.

Perhaps less so for the informant, though. We'll see.

[dkf]

7. He's getting into murkier territory IMO.

Not sure we needed to see this doc but I don't understand it all yet.

[MineralMan]

8. It looks to me like he's jumping in with both feet.

Ballsy. It will be interesting to see what comes next and beyond.

I have no particular love for Greenwald, but I hope he knows what he's doing on this one. As for his informant, I'm concerned for whomever that may be.

I'm sure the investigation is already underway. Mr. Greenwald may get a visit shortly by some very serious, very polite people.

On the other hand, we may never find out.

[dkf]

9. Maybe he's gotten too big to go after.

He is obviously a critic who believes in transparency with a strong tilt towards civil liberties.

[MineralMan]

11. Or, he may feel that he has.

I'm just not sure. I don't know where he is these days, either. None of my business.

He is who he is. Based on what he has written over time, I see him as a libertarian, primarily. More along the lines of the Rands than anything else. I think he also has a grudge against the Obama administration. Weird combination. Depending on what information he has, he may expose additional material that will prove embarrassing.

We'll see.

[premium]

13. Disgruntled NSA employee?

You can bet the hunt is on to find the leaker, and, you're probably right, Mr. Greenwald will get a visit by the humorless men of the FBI? Scotland Yard? NSA? MI5? Who knows.

[MineralMan]

14. Probably not. Those folks, and I was one of them years ago,

know the penalties. They get reminded of it frequently. Congress is far more likely as a source. Maybe some staffer for one of the Intelligence Committees members. It's someone with a Top Secret clearance, anyhow. Lists are kept of who has access to what. It won't take long to run it down.

Whoever talks to Greenwald, though, will be very polite, I'm sure.

[premium]

16. Thanks,

probably is a congressional staffer, if it is, they'll be pretty easy to run to ground.

[dkf]

19. Would they have access to screen shots of the tool?

That wouldn't take someone who has a terminal?

[MineralMan]

22. They might.

What the document may be is a briefing document. Such a document might well contain screen shots. It could even be a printout of a Powerpoint presentation. I don't know, though. They didn't have Powerpoint back in the 1960s, but I remember seeing briefing documents, prepared for people outside of the agency who had a need to know something. Very professionally done.

That might limit the number of people who had access even further, and makes me think more and more of Congress and Intelligence Committees. They have the oversight, and the security clearances. Who knows, though?

[DevonRex]

10. I think The Guardian and Glenn might have a surprise

coming their way. There are agreements between nations that come into play. Software and hardware and people are shared. UK laws are much, much stricter on the press regarding leaks. They are also much, much more lenient on privacy issues. Much.

[MineralMan]

12. Can O' Worms.

[DevonRex]

15. Yes.

I can't decide whether he didn't think that far ahead or if it's deliberate. Or if he believes that as long as he doesn't release anything that specifically says UK on it then they'll leave him alone. If that's the case

[MineralMan]

17. Well, I doubt that the source is a UK citizen.

It's a very small group there who would have access to these documents. Here in the US, it's a little larger. But not that much. The NSA is pretty careful with dissemination of documents, and they keep meticulous records. They'll be checking their list for the documents that have been leaked.

This is a nose-thumbing by Greenwald. He'll probably skate, but not the informant.

[DevonRex]

21. ...

Oh, the source is obviously here. I'd be shocked if they didn't know already. The only question is (and has been) do they expose what they already know or are there more people involved who would scurry underground?

So far they've decided to wait but the cost could be too dear if this keeps up. Except in one long-shot possibility which I'll keep mum about.

[MineralMan]

23. Hmm...I think I know what your long-shot might be.

I doubt it, though. I suspect some over-zealous someone decided this was just too good not to leak. I also suspect that someone will be regretful, soon. What will happen may or may not be public information. We'll see.

One thing I imagine that has already happened is a Presidential briefing on the matter, and I'll bet who ever did the briefing saw President Obama's unhappy face. Heads may roll.

[FarCenter]

26. So far, the docs have been marked TS/SI/NOFORN. Is that a high classification?

Since it is a declassified classification, I would think it is only medium.

[MineralMan]

28. Top Secret is serious.

NOFORN is serious. It means no dissemination to foreign (non-US) nationals.

The second document is marked Unclassified. That leads me to think this all may not so serious, since the second document actually provides more information than the first. These are briefing documents for people outside of the NSA, like Intelligence Committee members.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

24. Fortunately, the NSA can of worms is, apparently, being opened from the inside.

To borrow a line from "Mississippi Burning".

[MineralMan]

27. Maybe. Maybe not.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

29. Hopefully, this esposure of government abuse won't go away.

Even some Democratic politicians are speaking out.

[MineralMan]

30. OK.

I'm just following the process. There's really not much new that has been revealed.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

31. Hopefully, more will be revealed.

I think it naive beyond words to think that the NSA instituted a Top Secret program to mine harmless data as some here claim.

[MineralMan]

32. Their not looking for harmless data.

They don't care about harmless data. They're looking for potential harmful data. The rest is discarded. Needles in haystacks.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

33. Are we to trust the nice, privacy loving, people at NSA with it?

[longship]

18. This is a good thread.

People being respectful and polite.

Happy to R&

I am with MM, here. Greenwald is what he is.

But, I hope that the leaker covers their tracks well, not that I think that would do much good.

I will stay tuned.

[FarCenter]

20. Basically an operations dashboard built using Hadoop, MapReduce and Cloudbase

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/interactive/2013/jun/08/nsa-boundless-informant-data-mining-slides
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/interactive/2013/jun/08/boundless-informant-nsa-full-text

Pretty standard stuff.

[MineralMan]

25. Interesting that the first link shows a document

classified Top Secret Noforn, while the second, which has much more information, is Unclassified. Weirdness.