New story on Echelon, received via Dave Farber's IP list
Spying on the Spies
by Niall McKay
WIRED 12:15 p.m. 10.May.99.PDT
The National Security Agency has its ear to the world, but doesn't
listen to everyone at once.
That was one conclusion of a new report, Interception Capabilities
2000, accepted late last week by the European Parliament's Science and
Technology Options Assessment Panel (STOA).
The panel commissioned Duncan Campbell, a British investigative
reporter, to prepare a report on Echelon, the US-led satellite
surveillance network.
"I have no objection to these systems monitoring serious criminals and
terrorists," said Glyn Ford, a British Labour Party member of
parliament and a committee member of STOA. "But what is missing here
is accountability, clear guidelines as to who they can listen to, and
in what circumstances these laws apply."
Campbell was asked to investigate the system in the wake of charges
made last year in the European Parliament that Echelon was being used
to funnel European government and industry secrets into US hands.
"What is new and important about this report is that it contains the
first ever documentary evidence of the Echelon system," said
Campbell. Campbell obtained the document from a source at Menwith
Hill, the principal NSA communications monitoring station, located
near Harrogate in northern England.
The report details how intelligence agencies intercept Internet
traffic and digital communications, and includes screen shots of
traffic analysis from NSA computer systems.
Interception Capabilities 2000 also provides an account of a
previously unknown, secret international organization led by the
FBI. According to Campbell, the "secret" organization, called ILETS
(International Law Enforcement Telecommunications Seminar), is working
on building backdoor wiretap capabilities into all forms of modern
communications, including satellite communications systems.
"[The report] is undoubtedly the most comprehensive look at Echelon to
date because of its attention to detail -- [and] the NSA's use of
technology," said John Young, a privacy activist in New York.
Although the United States has never officially acknowledged Echelon's
existence, dozens of investigative reports over the past decade have
revealed a maze-like system that can intercept telephone, data,
cellular, fax, and email transmissions sent anywhere in the world.
Previously, Echelon computers were thought to be able to scan millions
of telephone lines and faxes for keywords such as "bomb" and
"terrorist." But Campbell's report maintains that the technologies to
perform such a global dragnet do not exist.
Instead, Campbell said that the system targets the communications
networks of known diplomats, criminals, and industrialists of interest
to the intelligence community. The report charges that popular
software programs such as Lotus Notes and Web browsers include a "back
door," through which the NSA can gain access to an individual's
personal information.
Citing a November 1997 story in the Swedish newspaper, Svenska
Dagbladet, the report said that "Lotus built in and NSA 'help
information' trapdoor to its Notes system, as the Swedish government
discovered to its embarrassment."
The report goes on to describe a feature called a "workfactor
reduction field" that is built into Notes and incorporated into all
email sent by non-US users of the system. The feature reportedly
broadcasts 24 of the 64 bits of the key used for each communication,
and relies on a public key that can only be read by the NSA.
Lotus could not be reached for comment.
The new report emerges as politicians on both sides of the Atlantic
are growing increasingly concerned about Echelon and its capabilities.
"I believe that it's time that there is some congressional scrutiny of
the Echelon project and I am examining a way to do that," said
Representative Bob Barr (R-Georgia). "I understand the need for
secrecy -- I was with the CIA myself -- but Echelon has raised some
questions about fundamental policy and constitutional rights."
Barr is concerned that the NSA is using its Echelon partners to help
it sidestep laws that forbid the US government from spying on its own
people.
So far, there has been very little scrutiny of spy systems in the
United States, according to Patrick Poole, a privacy advocate and
lecturer in government and economics at Bannock Burn College in
Franklin, Tennessee.
"The only significant examination of spy systems in the United States
was the Church Report, which was prompted by Watergate in the early
'70s," said Poole. "I hope that Europe's interest in the Echelon
system will spark some new debate in the US."
Echelon is believed to be principally operated by the NSA and its
British counterpart, the Government Communications Headquarters. The
system also reportedly relies on agreements with similar agencies in
other countries, including Canada's Communications Security
Establishment, Australia's Defense Signals Directorate, and New
Zealand's Government Communications Security Bureau.
