http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2014/06/tell-a-lie-remove-the-gear-how-the-nsa-covers-up-when-cable-taps-are-found/
Tell a lie, remove the gear: How the NSA covers up when cable taps are found
Get caught, remove the evidence, and come up with a plausible cover story.
by Nate Anderson - June 19 2014, 10:56am PDT23Der Spiegel via Edward Snowden
via NSA
Sometimes, the spooks do get caught. German magazine Der Spiegel yesterday
revealed a new slide (PDF) from the Edward Snowden document cache that offers a
tantalizing glimpse of what it looks like when someone stumbles on an
intelligence agency cable tap.
The NSA's Special Source Operations (SSO) branch isn't in the business of
computer hacking but of cable tapping; its logo shows an eagle flying above the
globe and clutching a string of wires in its talons. These taps, each obscured
with a codename, are often made deep within the network of telecom providers
and often with the cooperation of key executives. But sometimes non-cleared
people start raising questions about just what might be going on, as was the
case with AT&T whistleblower Mark Klein, who revealed an NSA "secret room" in
San Francisco.
On March 14, 2013, an SSO weekly briefing included a note regarding such a
discovery. The unit had been informed two days earlier that "the access point
for WHARPDRIVE was discovered by commercial consortium personnel. Witting
partner personnel have removed the evidence and a plausible cover story was
provided. All collection has ceased."
According to Der Spiegel, Wharpdrive was a fiber-optic cable tap (underseas
fiber is often laid by consortia of companies, so it's possible this took place
at an onshore landing point for such a cable). Employees from one of the
companies involved—though not the company that had a relationship with NSA and
the German intelligence agency BND—apparently noticed some unusual gear and
commented on it. In response, the company involved with the NSA ("witting
partner personnel") removed the tap and made up a story to explain what the
gear in question had been doing.
Though the NSA lost access to Wharpdrive, it wasn't for long. Der Spiegel cites
additional documents in its possession and says that "a team was quietly put
together to reinstall the program."
