General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: NSA Staffer: Snowden Didn't Dupe Coworkers Out of Passwords [View all]Mnpaul
(3,655 posts)It can be done with a prism/beam splitter
Similar techniques can surreptitiously tap fibre for surveillance, although this is rarely done where electronic equipment used in telecommunication is required to allow access to any phone line for tapping by legal authorization. Tapping the fibre means that all signals from every communications source being routed through the fibre are presented and must be sorted for relevant data, an immense task when thousands of sources of data or voice may be present.
According to reports, tapping fibre was used by the US government for surveillance following the September 11, 2001 attacks and a nuclear submarine, the Jimmy Carter, was modified to allow tapping undersea cables.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fiber_tapping
Gee, I wonder why they called the program Prism?