It seems the NSA stories insist on staying at the top of the tech radar.  As found in a New York Times article, the NSA may have tapped into fiber-optic connections to achieve their eavesdropping operations.  If that is the case, then this represents a significant physical breach has taken place.  On top of all else, it has people concerned about the integrity in operations of communications companies.

As a result, there has been movement to encrypt data in motion – that is when data is transferred from one data center to another, the transmission of that data is secured by encryption technology.  Both Google and Yahoo have stated that they are now encrypting this type of data, and it appears that Microsoft will be soon to follow.

People knowledgeable about Google and Yahoo’s infrastructure say they believe that government spies bypassed the big Internet companies and hit them at a weak spot — the fiber-optic cables that connect data centers around the world that are owned by companies like Verizon Communications, the BT Group, the Vodafone Group and Level 3 Communications. In particular, fingers have been pointed at Level 3, the world’s largest so-called Internet backbone provider, whose cables are used by Google and Yahoo.

Wiretapping by force

The spotlight now shines on Level 3, a company based in the Denver metro area.  Level 3’s internet traffic volume is enormous, with many points of presence throughout the net.  Interestingly, the article points out that there has been no official response to inquiries about the situation – Google, Yahoo, the NSA, not a word.

In a statement, Level 3 said: “It is our policy and our practice to comply with laws in every country where we operate, and to provide government agencies access to customer data only when we are compelled to do so by the laws in the country where the data is located.”

Also, in a financial filing, Level 3 noted that, “We are party to an agreement with the U.S. Departments of Homeland Security, Justice and Defense addressing the U.S. government’s national security and law enforcement concerns. This agreement imposes significant requirements on us related to information storage and management; traffic management; physical, logical and network security arrangements; personnel screening and training; and other matters.”

So, they’ve kind of said something here without saying something, which seems to be the modus operandi in these cases and all that could legally be done when the matter has been as legal as the operations have played to date.  One way or another the NSA has gotten the data they’ve wanted by any means possible, either through cooperation or circumventing and taking the data they are after elsewhere.  It’s exactly the case that we saw with Lavabit when they wanted to tap Snowden’s email accounts – comply with NSA requests or do as Lavabit chose to do – shutdown.   This probability that the fiber optic lines were tapped is part of a long developing story of aggressive surveillance techniques, as they say by hook or by crook.  It is hard to say who has complied with what and when, it’s all locked away under agreements and so forth.  We do know however that there appears to be a nature of subversion throughout all of this, which is what one would expect of a secret agency one would suppose.

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