Post by unlawflcombatnt on Aug 9, 2013 22:14:00 GMT -6
from the Christian Science Monitor
FISA 101: 10 key dates in the evolution of NSA surveillance
www.csmonitor.com/layout/set/print/Innovation/2013/0718/FISA-101-10-key-dates-in-the-evolution-of-NSA-surveillance/Trailblazer-Program-2001
When news of the PRISM data collection and surveillance program broke in early June 2013,
it shook up the cyber security debate, and called into question just how much information the US government is authorized to collect.
But government data collection isn’t something that just sprang up out of nowhere – it just sprang into national attention after former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden leaked government documents about the secret government agency. Here’s a brief list of post-9/11 legislation and surveillance programs to add a historical perspective to the current government surveillance debate.
The NSA was founded in 1952 and includes the Central Security Service, the military arm of code breakers who work jointly with NSA.
July 18, 2013
By Katherine Jacobsen,
"FISA 101: 10 key dates in the evolution of NSA surveillance
1.Before the September 11 attacks
President Jimmy Carter signed the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) into law in 1978 and established the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court to oversee the electronic surveillance and physical searches of alleged “foreign agents.” The act defines a “foreign agent” as someone who is believed to be colluding with a foreign power. Under FISA, the secret court has to annually report the number of information requests it receives.
The Electronics Communication Privacy Act in 1986 outlines ways in which data should be protected while it is being transferred in correspondence, but it doesn’t outline privacy guidelines for data that companies store.
The Electronic Privacy Information Center now publishes a list of current statistics showing the number of electronic search applications made to the FISC.
2.Trailblazer Program, 2001
Former National Security Agency official Thomas Drake speaking at the National Press Club in Washington.
Drake admitted to giving inside information to The Baltimore Sun about a major government electronic espionage program, Trailblazer.
(Jacquelyn Martin/AP/File)
There were surveillance programs before the September 11th attacks – such as ThinThread – but they included provisions that insured the privacy of US citizens.
In the wake of the 9-11 attacks, the federal government opted for wider-sweeping programs like Trialblazer, which allowed the National Security Agency to collect information, such as cellphone and e-mail records, without encrypting the data. Unencrypted data sets provides significantly less privacy protection for individuals. Encryption jumbles the details of an e-mail correspondence, and makes the memo impossible for third parties to read.
Though the Trailblazer program was scrapped in 2006, it’s significant because it allowed the federal government to search unencrypted stored data. Former NSA executive Thomas Drake detailed the program in an exclusive interview with the Baltimore Sun and managed to avoid prison with a plea bargain made in 2011.
3.Patriot Act, 2001
On October 26, 2001, President George W. Bush signs the Patriot Act into law, widening the federal government’s surveillance powers.
The Patriot Act authorizes the government to search 3rd-party records without notice of the user and does not require the federal government to notify individuals if they have been searched, according to a report by the American Civil Liberties Union.
4.Patriot Act renewed, 2006
In December 2005, the New York Times exposed an NSA eavesdropping program, authorized by President Bush, which allowed for warrantless surveillance of US citizens inside the United States.
Mr. Bush defended the program, saying that it was in the interest of national security. Despite the public outcry that the expose of this program created, Bush singed a renewal of the Patriot Act on March 26, 2006.
Shortly after the renewal, USA Today reported that the NSA has been secretly collecting the phone records of “tens of millions of Americans, using data provided by AT&T, Verizon and BellSouth.” The White House defended the collection, saying that Congress had been briefed on court proceedings.
5.The Protect America Act, 2007
President Bush walks out of the Oval Office to the South Lawn of the White House in Washington on Feb. 14, 2008, to speak on the "Protect America Act."
This act was signed into law in 2007 to “restore FISA to its original focus … while not acting as an obstacle to gathering foreign intelligence on targets located in foreign countries.” As an amendment to FISA, it removed the warrant requirement for government surveillance of foreign agents and “Americans communicating with foreigners who are the targets of a US terrorism investigation.”
6.PRISM program launched, 2007
The PRISM program was launched in 2007, according to an NSA PowerPoint presentation released by the Washington Post and the Guardian in June 2013. The government denied that this surveillance and data collection program uses data mining, which would collect vast amounts of information, and responded saying that it targeted individual threats, gathering data using warrants authorized by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court.
7.FISA Amendments Act, 2008
The US Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court ruled on July 15, 2013 that information should be made public about a 2008 case that ordered Yahoo to turn over customer data.
This 2008 amendment allowed the government to destroy records of searches,
increased the time period for warrantless searches from 48 hours to 7 days, and
permitted unauthorized surveillance during an “emergency situation.”
Among other things, this amendment also releases electronic communication service providers from liability for providing “any information, facilities or assistance” under orders of the FISC.
The same year, an Internet company, later revealed to be Yahoo, was forced to turn over its users’ data, after its challenge to the FISC was rejected.
8. Four-year extension to Patriot Act, 2011
On May 26, 2011, President Obama authorized a 4-year extension of the Patriot Act while in France using a mechanical signature.
This keeps all of the previous amendments to FISA in place and allows government surveillance programs to continue.
In the same year, Sen. Ron Wyden (D) of Oregon and Sen. Mark Udall (D) of Colorado, both members of the Senate Intelligence Committee, were concerned by certain government surveillance techniques and provided the public with vague warnings about certain data collection methods.
9.Office of the Director of National Intelligence declassifies 2 statements, 2012
In July 2012, Sen. Ron Wyden secured the declassification of 2 statements from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence that acknowledged the FISC had found some information gathering procedures were “unreasonable under the Fourth Amendment” and that the government had “circumvented the spirit” of FISA.
10.Edward Snowden leaks classified NSA documents, June 5, 2013
Former NSA contractor Edward Snowden leaked documents to the Guardian and Washington Post, revealing details of a secret surveillance and data collection program called PRISM that was authorized by the FISC.
An article in the Guardian also revealed details of the Boundless Informant program, which mapped the amount of information the NSA collects from each country as part of its efforts to monitor threats from “foreign agents.”
FISA 101: 10 key dates in the evolution of NSA surveillance
www.csmonitor.com/layout/set/print/Innovation/2013/0718/FISA-101-10-key-dates-in-the-evolution-of-NSA-surveillance/Trailblazer-Program-2001
When news of the PRISM data collection and surveillance program broke in early June 2013,
it shook up the cyber security debate, and called into question just how much information the US government is authorized to collect.
But government data collection isn’t something that just sprang up out of nowhere – it just sprang into national attention after former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden leaked government documents about the secret government agency. Here’s a brief list of post-9/11 legislation and surveillance programs to add a historical perspective to the current government surveillance debate.
The NSA was founded in 1952 and includes the Central Security Service, the military arm of code breakers who work jointly with NSA.
July 18, 2013
By Katherine Jacobsen,
"FISA 101: 10 key dates in the evolution of NSA surveillance
1.Before the September 11 attacks
President Jimmy Carter signed the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) into law in 1978 and established the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court to oversee the electronic surveillance and physical searches of alleged “foreign agents.” The act defines a “foreign agent” as someone who is believed to be colluding with a foreign power. Under FISA, the secret court has to annually report the number of information requests it receives.
The Electronics Communication Privacy Act in 1986 outlines ways in which data should be protected while it is being transferred in correspondence, but it doesn’t outline privacy guidelines for data that companies store.
The Electronic Privacy Information Center now publishes a list of current statistics showing the number of electronic search applications made to the FISC.
2.Trailblazer Program, 2001
Former National Security Agency official Thomas Drake speaking at the National Press Club in Washington.
Drake admitted to giving inside information to The Baltimore Sun about a major government electronic espionage program, Trailblazer.
(Jacquelyn Martin/AP/File)
There were surveillance programs before the September 11th attacks – such as ThinThread – but they included provisions that insured the privacy of US citizens.
In the wake of the 9-11 attacks, the federal government opted for wider-sweeping programs like Trialblazer, which allowed the National Security Agency to collect information, such as cellphone and e-mail records, without encrypting the data. Unencrypted data sets provides significantly less privacy protection for individuals. Encryption jumbles the details of an e-mail correspondence, and makes the memo impossible for third parties to read.
Though the Trailblazer program was scrapped in 2006, it’s significant because it allowed the federal government to search unencrypted stored data. Former NSA executive Thomas Drake detailed the program in an exclusive interview with the Baltimore Sun and managed to avoid prison with a plea bargain made in 2011.
3.Patriot Act, 2001
On October 26, 2001, President George W. Bush signs the Patriot Act into law, widening the federal government’s surveillance powers.
The Patriot Act authorizes the government to search 3rd-party records without notice of the user and does not require the federal government to notify individuals if they have been searched, according to a report by the American Civil Liberties Union.
4.Patriot Act renewed, 2006
In December 2005, the New York Times exposed an NSA eavesdropping program, authorized by President Bush, which allowed for warrantless surveillance of US citizens inside the United States.
Mr. Bush defended the program, saying that it was in the interest of national security. Despite the public outcry that the expose of this program created, Bush singed a renewal of the Patriot Act on March 26, 2006.
Shortly after the renewal, USA Today reported that the NSA has been secretly collecting the phone records of “tens of millions of Americans, using data provided by AT&T, Verizon and BellSouth.” The White House defended the collection, saying that Congress had been briefed on court proceedings.
5.The Protect America Act, 2007
President Bush walks out of the Oval Office to the South Lawn of the White House in Washington on Feb. 14, 2008, to speak on the "Protect America Act."
This act was signed into law in 2007 to “restore FISA to its original focus … while not acting as an obstacle to gathering foreign intelligence on targets located in foreign countries.” As an amendment to FISA, it removed the warrant requirement for government surveillance of foreign agents and “Americans communicating with foreigners who are the targets of a US terrorism investigation.”
6.PRISM program launched, 2007
The PRISM program was launched in 2007, according to an NSA PowerPoint presentation released by the Washington Post and the Guardian in June 2013. The government denied that this surveillance and data collection program uses data mining, which would collect vast amounts of information, and responded saying that it targeted individual threats, gathering data using warrants authorized by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court.
7.FISA Amendments Act, 2008
The US Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court ruled on July 15, 2013 that information should be made public about a 2008 case that ordered Yahoo to turn over customer data.
This 2008 amendment allowed the government to destroy records of searches,
increased the time period for warrantless searches from 48 hours to 7 days, and
permitted unauthorized surveillance during an “emergency situation.”
Among other things, this amendment also releases electronic communication service providers from liability for providing “any information, facilities or assistance” under orders of the FISC.
The same year, an Internet company, later revealed to be Yahoo, was forced to turn over its users’ data, after its challenge to the FISC was rejected.
8. Four-year extension to Patriot Act, 2011
On May 26, 2011, President Obama authorized a 4-year extension of the Patriot Act while in France using a mechanical signature.
This keeps all of the previous amendments to FISA in place and allows government surveillance programs to continue.
In the same year, Sen. Ron Wyden (D) of Oregon and Sen. Mark Udall (D) of Colorado, both members of the Senate Intelligence Committee, were concerned by certain government surveillance techniques and provided the public with vague warnings about certain data collection methods.
9.Office of the Director of National Intelligence declassifies 2 statements, 2012
In July 2012, Sen. Ron Wyden secured the declassification of 2 statements from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence that acknowledged the FISC had found some information gathering procedures were “unreasonable under the Fourth Amendment” and that the government had “circumvented the spirit” of FISA.
10.Edward Snowden leaks classified NSA documents, June 5, 2013
Former NSA contractor Edward Snowden leaked documents to the Guardian and Washington Post, revealing details of a secret surveillance and data collection program called PRISM that was authorized by the FISC.
An article in the Guardian also revealed details of the Boundless Informant program, which mapped the amount of information the NSA collects from each country as part of its efforts to monitor threats from “foreign agents.”