Lisa Vaas麗莎vaas

On Dec. 15, 2005, the New York Times於2005年12月15日，紐約時報 broke the news打破新聞 that soon after the Sept. 11 attacks President Bush had secretly authorized the後不久， 9月11日襲擊美國總統布什曾秘密授權 National Security Agency國家安全局 to eavesdrop on US citizens and other persons within the country.以監聽美國公民和其他人在該國境內。

A Federal judge has since ruled that the NSA’s actions were both illegal and unconstitutional—a matter that will likely be decided by the Supreme Court.一位聯邦法官已裁定，美國國家安全局的行動都是非法和違憲的一個問題，將可能的決定是由最高法院來裁決。

But how, exactly, did the NSA do that snooping?但如何，到底時，有沒有國家安全局這樣做探聽？

James Bamford, an expert on intelligence gathering and author of several books on the NSA, including詹姆斯bamford ，一位專家對情報的蒐集和作者的幾本書對國家安全局的，其中包括 “A Pretext for War: 9/11, Iraq, and the Abuse of America’s Intelligence Agencies,” "戰爭的藉口： 9 / 11 ，伊拉克，以及濫用美國的情報機構透露， " described the technological underpinnings of the NSA’s ongoing eavesdropping and how it has had to change to keep up with technology at his keynote here at the Gartner IT Security Summit on June 4.描述了技術依據，國家安全局的監聽正在進行的，以及如何它不得不改變，以保持與技術，在他的基調在此間召開的Gartner的IT安全高峰會於六月四日舉行。

One of the NSA’s main jobs is to eavesdrop—to intercept communications and thereby gather intelligence from countries outside of the United States.其中，國家安全局的主要工作是竊聽-攔截通訊，從而收集情報，由國家在美國以外的國家。 Some might picture an agent climbing a telephone pole and attaching a wire to a telephone line, but such a technique, called retail eavesdropping, is only useful for going after one phone line at a time.有些人可能會圖片代理人爬電話桿和附加導線，以一條電話線，但是，這樣的技術，所謂的零售是家常便飯，不僅可用於去後，一條電話線，在一段時間。

The NSA, on the other hand, goes after entire streams of communications, with each channel containing millions of conversations, Bamford said.美國國家安全局，但另一方面，雲後，整個溪流中的通信，與每個通道含有百萬計的交談， bamford說。

At one point, the NSA’s job was fairly easy.在這一點上，美國國家安全局的工作是相當容易的。 The agency was targeting microwave communications, which travel in a straight line from one tower to the next.該機構是針對微波通信，旅遊一條直線，從一個大樓交給下一任。 That’s “a nice thing for the NSA,” Bamford said, “especially when they’re trying to get Russian communications or those from outside the United States.說的"一件美事，為美國國家安全局" ， bamford說， "尤其是當他們正試圖獲得俄羅斯通信或那些來自美國以外的公司。 Those signals go right out into space.”這些信號轉到右出空間" 。

In the former Soviet Union, cables can’t easily be buried due to permafrost.在原蘇聯的解體，電纜，不能夠輕易被掩埋，由於永久凍土帶。 At one point, this led the country to depend heavily on microwave communications.在這一點上，這導致該國在很大程度上取決於微波通信。 In order to gather intelligence, the NSA would put one of its many satellites in space and position it where it can capture the microwaves.為了蒐集情報，國家安全局將會把它的一個多顆衛星，在太空中的位置和它的地方，它能夠捕捉到微波。 The method is so elegant that many times the NSA can capture information even before a person receiving a given call has picked it up, Bamford said, given the lack of atmospheric interference in space.該方法是如此優雅的，很多時候，國家安全局能夠捕捉到的信息，甚至前一個人接受某一特定呼叫開始回升起來講，就是bamford說，由於缺乏大氣干擾的空間。

The satellites capture communications, convert them and retransmit them, through another satellite or through a ground station, back to earth.該衛星的捕獲通信，轉換和轉發，通過另一個衛星或通過一個地面站，返回地球。 The NSA also has ground stations all over the world to pick up satellite and other communications.美國國家安全局也有地面監測站遍布世界各地，以拿起衛星和其他通信。 “They’re enormous facilities; they look like moon bases,” Bamford said. "他們正在巨大的設施;它們看起來月球基地" ， bamford說。 Most of these bases are covered so observers can’t tell where their antennas are pointing.大部分這些基地涵蓋的，所以觀察家也不能告訴他們的天線指向。 Listening posts also eavesdrop on scores of communications satellites orbiting the earth, picking up on some 2 million pieces of communications per hour.聽力職位也竊聽分數通信衛星進入地球軌道，落於大約200萬件通訊每小時。

The NSA has another type of antenna array, nicknamed an elephant cage, which houses 360 elements.美國國家安全局有另一種類型的天線陣列，綽號大象的籠子裡，其中住房360元素。 When the agency marries multiple elephant cages together, it can pinpoint exactly where a signal is coming from.當該機構嫁給多象籠子在一起，它可以針對恰恰是一個信號，是從。 If a submarine pops to the surface even for a brief moment to send a message, the array can pinpoint it.如果某潛艇持久性有機污染物向地表，甚至作短暫的時刻發出一個信息，數組可以查明原因。 This type of array is going out of style, Bamford said, but there are still a number around.這種類型的陣列，是走出去的作風， bamford說，但仍然存在著一些靠近。

This was all well and good until the late ’90s, at which point most telecommunications companies began switching from satellites to fiber-optic undersea cables due to their lower cost, higher quality and improved speed.這都是很好很好，直到90年代後期，而此時大部分的電信公司開始轉由衛星光纖海底電纜的，由於其成本低，高品質和完善的速度。 Such undersea cables avoid atmosphere and bandwidth problems, are faster since they don’t have to travel as far, and are fairly cheap, Bamford said.例如海底電纜避免氣氛和帶寬問題，速度快，因為他們不須旅行而言，是相當便宜， bamford說。

When satellites ruled the communications interception business, all NSA had to do was put a dish out, sit back and collect signals, without having to ask anybody for permission, Bamford said.當衛星的統治，通信截獲業務外，所有國家安全局已經要做的，就是把一碟出來，坐在後面蒐集信號，不必去請教任何人的許可， bamford說。 “Phone calls, e-mail, data communications, all that information came down like rain into dishes,” he said. "的電話，電子信箱，數據通信，所有這些資料下來一樣，有雨成菜， "他說。 The switch to undersea cables made it more challenging to collect the same information.轉海底電纜使它更具有挑戰性的，以收集相同的信息。

“When [telcos] switched to fiber optics, [the question became,] how do you get access to cables? "當[電信]改用光纖， [問題成了] ，你怎麼獲取電纜？ [The cables] go under the ocean, come up and go into a little building owned by AT&T or another company,” Bamford said. [電纜]到海下，來到起來，走出去成為一個小建築所擁有的AT ＆ T公司或其他公司， " bamford說。

It was a big problem for the agency in the late ’90s, he said.這是一個大問題，該機構在90年代後期，他說。 One way to handle the issue was to build a submarine to go right to the source of communications, and hence the其中一個方法來處理這個問題，以建造潛艦前往權利之源，通信，因此 USS Jimmy Carter美國海軍卡特 was commissioned in June 2004.被委託，在2004年6月。 According to Bamford and據bamford和 others,其他人， the sub was designed to tap undersea cables and eavesdrop on the communications passing through them.該小組的目的是發掘海底電纜和監聽用戶的通信通過他們。

The United States won’t admit that it designed undersea “bugs” to tap the systems, Bamford said, but an美國將不會承認它設計的海底"臭蟲" ，以充分挖掘系統， bamford說，但一個 earlier version較早版本 of such a device is on exhibit at the這種裝置是陳列在 KGB museum克格勃博物館 in Moscow.在莫斯科舉行。

Referring to this earlier version of the cable bug, which the United States used to listen in on Soviet communications during the Cold War in an operation called “Ivy Bells,” Bamford said, “They put this big thing underwater and used induction from copper cable.在談到這個較早版本的有線電視錯誤，但美國用來監聽蘇聯通訊冷戰期間，在一項行動中所謂的"常春藤編鐘， " bamford說， "他們把這個大的事，水下和使用感應，由銅電纜。 They would program it [to listen] for the most important channel.他們將計劃[聽]為最重要的渠道。 One good one they listened to was on Soviet missile testing.一個很好的，他們一個個聽是對蘇聯的導彈試驗。 NSA did that by having the sub sail into [the Northern part of the Sea of Okhotsk].美國國家安全局曾表示，因該次航行到[上海北部的鄂霍次克海] 。 They’d look at the shore, looking for warning signs to fishermen saying, ‘Don’t drag nets, there are cables here.’ They found it.”他們看著在岸邊尋找警告標誌，漁民說， '不拖漁網，有電纜，在這裡' ，他們發現它" 。

It’s more difficult to tap fiber-optic cables, however.它的更難以挖掘光纖電纜，但。 “Information doesn’t leak out as with copper cables,” Bamford said. "信息不洩露與銅電纜， " bamford說。 “You’ve got glass fibers and photons, not electricity going through.” "你的玻璃纖維和光子，而不是電力經歷" 。

Bamford didn’t offer any thoughts on how the NSA has overcome the difficulties presented by fiber-optic cables in relation to tapping by submarine, but he did describe an internal network that the NSA has set up to achieve its monitoring goals, including junction point hubs. bamford並沒有提供任何的想法如何，國家安全局已經克服了困難，由光纖電纜的關係，以開拓由潛艇，但他卻形容一個內部網絡，美國國家安全局成立了以實現其監管目標，包括交界點集線器。

“The NSA began going to AT&T and began building secret rooms,” he said. "美國國家安全局就開始前往AT ＆ T公司，並開始建設秘密房間， "他說。 “A cable from overseas would terminate in this room. "有線電視從海外將終止在這個房間。 They would convert it to usable signals to be sent out around the country” to NSA agents.他們將它轉化成有用的信號發送，緊緊圍繞國家" ，以國家安全局的特工。 “They had a big splitter put on the cable, so when it came in you built a mirror copy of it. "他們有一個大的分路提上了有線電視，因此，當它在你建立了一個鏡像副本。 The mirror copy goes to a secret room that only two people had access to,” Bamford said.鏡像拷貝到了一個秘密的房間只有兩個人有機會， " bamford說。

That activity began after Sept. 11 and continued until 2003, he said, only coming to light after a whistleblower at AT&T publicized photos and internal blueprints of the setup.這項活動開始後， 9月11日一直持續到2003年，他說，只有來輕後，舉報人在AT ＆ T宣傳照片和內部藍圖的格局。 The whistleblower was a retired communications technician, Mark Klein, who has joined the Electronic Frontier Federation in a該舉報人是一名退休通訊技術員，馬克克萊因，他們先後加入了電子邊疆聯合會在 lawsuit against AT&T.起訴的AT ＆ T

Bamford himself said he has joined the ACLU in a bamford自己說，他已經加入了美國公民自由聯盟在 lawsuit against the NSA控告美國國家安全局 over its spying on US residents.其刺探美國居民。

Comment on 'NSA Rolls with Tech Changes to Keep Spying' : 評論'國家安全局的軋輥與高新技術的變化不斷刺探' ：

RSS 的RSS TrackBack URL 跟踪 RUI

Related News: 相關新聞：