Since we have members with whom communication by email and phone is termed transoceanic, should we begin such messages and calls with a greeting to the tappers? I would not want them thinking we are using some sort of code to disguise any kind of mission we have to take over the world or the world's laundry with subversive energy-hog top loading agitator washers and phosphates.
Overseas communications tapped
- Thread starter tomturbomatic
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Designgeek
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Ha, funny.
I know quite a bit about this stuff (signals intelligence, NSA, etc.). Bottom line is, the probability of any of our communications actually getting to the point where a live person looks at or listens to, is vanishingly small. The automated intercept systems are highly selective; they have to be, given the volume of communications overall. I could go on about this stuff for ten more pages but frankly I've been writing so much about this topic for the past few days that my fingers are getting numb.
There is however a legal issue, and it's quite serious. The law (Foreign Intel Surveillance Act) requires that Administration officials follow specific legal procedures to get the power to intercept communications involving American citizens. The law was not followed. In fact it was flouted; instead of one emergency executive order with limited duration, followed by cases submitted to the special FISA court, what we got was a string of executive orders even when there was ample time to obey the law and go through FISA court.
This is why key NSA employees had to become whistleblowers, why some other key NSA employees had to refuse to follow the presidential order, and why a judge on the FISA court just resigned in disgust.
We are and must remain, a nation of laws, not of men. This is a deadly serious issue.
Meanwhile, if you want a political debate on this topic, there are plenty of those going on across cyberspace.
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But if you want something a bit softer..... well, here are my contributions:
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When the "Furby" toy first came out, NSA techs determined that it was able to record speech and then replay it in a scrambled fashion. A determined hacker could decrypt the scramble and thereby use the Furby as a secret recording device. Furbys were immediately banned from NSA headquarters and field sites, to avoid the risk of them picking up classified conversations.
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One of the Holy Grails for NSA has been continuous live speech translation. You can imagine how useful this would be in intercepting hostile foreigners, and in assisting diplomats to do their regular business. Back in the Cold War, they thought they had it figured out, at least for text communications via computer terminals. A link was set up between Washington and Moscow, where the translation system could potentially avert an accidental nuclear war.
On the day the system was first opened for use, the Director of NSA stood at the terminal at the US end, and the Director of KGB stood at the terminal at the USSR end. The American typed in, "The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak."
This was duly translated to Russian and came out on the terminal in Moscow. The Soviet typed that back in, and it was instantly translated back to English as it appeared on the terminal in Washington: "The ghost is ready but the meat is raw."
I know quite a bit about this stuff (signals intelligence, NSA, etc.). Bottom line is, the probability of any of our communications actually getting to the point where a live person looks at or listens to, is vanishingly small. The automated intercept systems are highly selective; they have to be, given the volume of communications overall. I could go on about this stuff for ten more pages but frankly I've been writing so much about this topic for the past few days that my fingers are getting numb.
There is however a legal issue, and it's quite serious. The law (Foreign Intel Surveillance Act) requires that Administration officials follow specific legal procedures to get the power to intercept communications involving American citizens. The law was not followed. In fact it was flouted; instead of one emergency executive order with limited duration, followed by cases submitted to the special FISA court, what we got was a string of executive orders even when there was ample time to obey the law and go through FISA court.
This is why key NSA employees had to become whistleblowers, why some other key NSA employees had to refuse to follow the presidential order, and why a judge on the FISA court just resigned in disgust.
We are and must remain, a nation of laws, not of men. This is a deadly serious issue.
Meanwhile, if you want a political debate on this topic, there are plenty of those going on across cyberspace.
---
But if you want something a bit softer..... well, here are my contributions:
---
When the "Furby" toy first came out, NSA techs determined that it was able to record speech and then replay it in a scrambled fashion. A determined hacker could decrypt the scramble and thereby use the Furby as a secret recording device. Furbys were immediately banned from NSA headquarters and field sites, to avoid the risk of them picking up classified conversations.
---
One of the Holy Grails for NSA has been continuous live speech translation. You can imagine how useful this would be in intercepting hostile foreigners, and in assisting diplomats to do their regular business. Back in the Cold War, they thought they had it figured out, at least for text communications via computer terminals. A link was set up between Washington and Moscow, where the translation system could potentially avert an accidental nuclear war.
On the day the system was first opened for use, the Director of NSA stood at the terminal at the US end, and the Director of KGB stood at the terminal at the USSR end. The American typed in, "The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak."
This was duly translated to Russian and came out on the terminal in Moscow. The Soviet typed that back in, and it was instantly translated back to English as it appeared on the terminal in Washington: "The ghost is ready but the meat is raw."
Suggestion for a code...
Borax, Bleach and Brighteners!
Borax, Bleach and Brighteners!
Oh, I'll bet if we pepper our transoceanic communiques with words like 'bomb', 'kill', 'Allah', 'murder' and 'plot' we'd have someone looking into our business...
Let's try these: DEEP-ACTION. MISS AMERICA. WIZARD IMPERIAL. 1-18. MODEL 80. UNIMATIC.
Last one to get a call from the FBI is a rotten egg!
Let's try these: DEEP-ACTION. MISS AMERICA. WIZARD IMPERIAL. 1-18. MODEL 80. UNIMATIC.
Last one to get a call from the FBI is a rotten egg!
Luigi, the "#Bs" order was:
Bleach, Borax, & Brighteners
Bleach, Borax, & Brighteners
