Edward Snowden Used a Simple Web Crawler To Gather NSA Data

[Steven Bogos]

Edward Snowden Used a Simple Web Crawler To Gather NSA Data

Snowden used a tool similar to the one Google uses to index websites for its search engine to gather his controversial NSA data.

It would be fun to imagine Edward Snowden speed-hacking his way into the NSA servers like Hugh Jackman in Swordfish, or physically stealing a briefcase full of hard-disks and making a daring escape from NSA headquarters, but the truth is much simpler. Speaking to the New York Times [http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/09/us/snowden-used-low-cost-tool-to-best-nsa.html?pagewanted=all&_r=2], a senior intelligence official said that Snowden used nothing more than a simple web crawler to gather his controversial data.

Using the web crawler, Snowden "scraped data out of our systems" while he went about his day job, said the official. "We do not believe this was an individual sitting at a machine and downloading this much material in sequence," he said, adding that the process was "quite automated." To automatically collect the info he wanted, Snowden only needed the right logins to bypass what internal defenses were in place.

What makes this data so damning is that the NSA's mission statement is to "protect the nation's most sensitive military and intelligence computer systems from cyberattacks," which is quite embarrassing considering the simplicity of Snowden's technique - Investigators found that Snowden's attacks were hardly sophisticated and should have been easily detected.

Agency officials insist that if Snowden was working at NSA's headquarters at Fort Meade, he would have been caught, but the Hawaii branch that he was employed at lacked the activity monitors that would have found his bot.

Web crawlers are commonly used by search engines like Google to index websites.

Regardless of whether or not you think Snowden was "right" or "wrong," you have to admit the NSA is partly to blame for not protecting itself properly.

Source: Engadget [http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/09/us/snowden-used-low-cost-tool-to-best-nsa.html?pagewanted=all&_r=2]



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[Quiet Stranger]

Now I know this whole business has been around for a while now but what EXACTLY did he do?

I have inklings here and there but I would like a full unbiased story of exactly what he did.

 

[Owyn_Merrilin]

There shouldn't be any controversy, the man was not only right, he's a patriot in the truest sense. It's the people clamoring for his head as a traitor who are the traitors, to the very ideals of democracy.

 

[Agayek]

Now I know this whole business has been around for a while now but what EXACTLY did he do?

I have inklings here and there but I would like a full unbiased story of exactly what he did.

The short version is that he gathered a bunch of information regarding some rather severely illegal activity performed by the US government, then released it to the public at large. He's the primary reason people are actively aware of the NSA's ongoing efforts to actively spy on the American populace, rampant violations of the spirit, if not the letter, of nearly every privacy law in existence, and general anti-democratic behavior. It caused something of a kerfluffle over here a bit under a year ago.

Naturally, the US government charged him with treason and he fled the country rather than be executed. Last I heard, he's now living in Russia, and is under their protection.

As far as I'm concerned, the man did the right thing and the feds need to eat a nuke already, but I'm a raging libertarian, so I can't pretend I'm not biased.

 

[Saulkar]

There shouldn't be any controversy, the man was not only right, he's a patriot in the truest sense. It's the people clamoring for his head as a traitor who are the traitors, to the very ideals of democracy.

Sadly the people arguing in favour of lynching Snowden are woefully unawares as to the concept of the chilling effect.

"In United States and Canadian law, the term chilling effects refers to the stifling effect that vague or excessively broad laws may have on legitimate speech activity."

If out of the blue you are a whistle blower sending emails to your publisher and you get a knock on your door from government agents. Imagine the paranoia,how that could uniformly cripple freedom of speech in a nation.

 

[Yopaz]

There shouldn't be any controversy, the man was not only right, he's a patriot in the truest sense. It's the people clamoring for his head as a traitor who are the traitors, to the very ideals of democracy.

I have to agree with this. I am one of those who wholeheartedly support the notion that he should get the Nobel Peace Prize for what he did. We gave it to Obama for far less and we have given it to people for showing they oppose violations of human rights not that long ago. I don't think it will happen for political reasons though. Giving him the Nobel Peace Prize would screw up the relationship with USA so they'll probably give it to someone planting trees again.

 

[Smooth Operator]

Well it's not that surprising, yes they no doubt have huge protection protocols from outside access to their internal system, probably even complete physical separation on most ends.

But when it comes to the internal system things don't get monitored that much because everyone who has clearance is already expected to search and cross reference information in their daily operation with automated software, they could go and interview everyone why they needed every particular piece of info but that would take several hours per employee each day... no one is willing to put that much effort into it, at least not for stuff that wasn't that critical to them.

 

[Owyn_Merrilin]

Now I know this whole business has been around for a while now but what EXACTLY did he do?

I have inklings here and there but I would like a full unbiased story of exactly what he did.

he basically blew open the extent of what the NSA actually gets up to and how much data they collect on every day americans.

Not just americans...
We're talking about spying on a global scale here.

I just hope that this controversy won't stop until something happens. As long as he has media coverage, he's safe...

To be fair, there's no protections in the US constitution against spying on non-citizens in foreign countries. US Citizens, however, are supposed to be protected, and that's why the PATRIOT act, which is the legal basis for pretty much all of this crap, is so horrible.

 

[Vivi22]

To be fair, there's no protections in the US constitution against spying on non-citizens in foreign countries. US Citizens, however, are supposed to be protected, and that's why the PATRIOT act, which is the legal basis for pretty much all of this crap, is so horrible.

He hasn't just shone a light on US spying of the rest of the world though. The stuff he's revealed about the NSA has people looking more closely at other countries spy agencies as well. Turns out that CSEC here in Canada isn't a whole lot better.

 

[cerebus23]

Now I know this whole business has been around for a while now but what EXACTLY did he do?

I have inklings here and there but I would like a full unbiased story of exactly what he did.

The president of the united states and the nsa decided that they were going to violate the law, the bill of rights, and the constitution, break the laws of the patriot act, there is total and complete oversite built into tpa, they went around all that stated mass spying on people.

Mr snowden a rather low level nsa guy sees stuff going on he finds objectionable presumably, see above at all the stuff above on doing this and he was the only person in washington that had concerns about what the hell they were doing exactly.

He steals a bunch of files flees the nation, releases the files on rededit, the whole thing blows wide open, the nation learns what is going on the congress learns of what is going on and they sit with their thumbs well and truely up their asses congress and the president wants snowden dead, the press and public instead of focusing on what is important here the ILLEGAL mass spying of this white house and the nsa on INNOCENT americans and political enemies.

The usg at first denied most of it, then they switch to we were doing it for your protection, and we stil in this strange twilight zone nation were we have a administration that give not one single solitary piss about the laws of this nation or the oath he took to uphold the constitution.

Thats about as unbiased as i can put it. It's a fucking crime.

 

[Doom-Slayer]

To automatically collect the info he wanted, Snowden only needed the right logins to bypass what internal defenses were in place.

What makes this data so damning is that the NSA's mission statement is to "protect the nation's most sensitive military and intelligence computer systems from cyberattacks," which is quite embarrassing considering the simplicity of Snowden's technique - Investigators found that Snowden's attacks were hardly sophisticated and should have been easily detected.

To be fair. The technique could be simple... because he had all the security logins, the actual hard bit of acquiring that information. Its kind of like giving the keys to your house over and being confused why they got into your computer so easily. He had all the hard work done, so it necessarily didn't require much effort to gain what he needed.

 

[Nimcha]

When he started working there he never had to sign a confidence agreement or anything?

 

[cerebus23]

When he started working there he never had to sign a confidence agreement or anything?

Yes mr snowden violated the law also, he just violated it less than your president and congress and nsa. Half of them swore an oath on a bible to uphold the laws and constitution of this nation. mr snowden didnt he signed some papers, what should carry more weight?

 

[spartandude]

When he started working there he never had to sign a confidence agreement or anything?

Yes mr snowden violated the law also, he just violated it less than your president and congress and nsa. Half of them swore an oath on a bible to uphold the laws and constitution of this nation. mr snowden didnt he signed some papers, what should carry more weight?

Don't you know that pointing out the illegal things your government does is illegal.

 

[cerebus23]

I would hope it would educate people some on the hyprocracy when these politicians stand up and call snowden a traitor.

So many people seem so wholly unaware of what their government does or cares one bit its near frightening. do we teach the bill of rights, the constitution anymore at all?

This is also a government supposedly made of we the people, that work for our interests, big interests and big money have made that impossible for a long ass time, and now we just on cruise control to the end.

Governments are supposed to be working for us not against us and we better get this ship sorted asap and people better start to wake up, this ship is sailing and its going straight to the bottom of the ocean without some real quick and drastic changes.