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Privacy Businesses United States Technology

Report Reveals 8 AT&T Buildings Across the US, Hidden in Plain Sight, That Are Central To One of NSA's Most Controversial Internet Surveillance Programs (theintercept.com) 136

Posted by msmash from the hidden-in-plain-sight dept.
News outlet The Intercept on Monday published a report that reveals eight AT&T-owned locations: two in California, one in Washington, another in Washington, D.C., one in New York, one in Texas, one in Illinois, and one in Georgia, that serve as backbone or "peering" facilities that the NSA has secretly been using for eavesdropping purposes. Spokespeople of AT&T, which refers to the aforementioned peering sites as "Service Node Routing Complexes", and NSA, could neither confirm or deny the report's findings. From the report: The NSA considers AT&T to be one of its most trusted partners and has lauded the company's "extreme willingness to help." It is a collaboration that dates back decades. Little known, however, is that its scope is not restricted to AT&T's customers. According to the NSA's documents, it values AT&T not only because it "has access to information that transits the nation," but also because it maintains unique relationships with other phone and internet providers. The NSA exploits these relationships for surveillance purposes, commandeering AT&T's massive infrastructure and using it as a platform to covertly tap into communications processed by other companies.

[...] While network operators would usually prefer to send data through their own networks, often a more direct and cost-efficient path is provided by other providers' infrastructure. If one network in a specific area of the country is overloaded with data traffic, another operator with capacity to spare can sell or exchange bandwidth, reducing the strain on the congested region. This exchange of traffic is called "peering" and is an essential feature of the internet.

Because of AT&T's position as one of the U.S.'s leading telecommunications companies, it has a large network that is frequently used by other providers to transport their customers' data. Companies that "peer" with AT&T include the American telecommunications giants Sprint, Cogent Communications, and Level 3, as well as foreign companies such as Sweden's Telia, India's Tata Communications, Italy's Telecom Italia, and Germany's Deutsche Telekom.
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Report Reveals 8 AT&T Buildings Across the US, Hidden in Plain Sight, That Are Central To One of NSA's Most Controversial In More

Report Reveals 8 AT&T Buildings Across the US, Hidden in Plain Sight, That Are Central To One of NSA's Most Controversial In

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  • Just say it (Score:5, Insightful)

    by sjbe ( 173966 ) on Monday June 25, 2018 @11:49AM (#56842910)

    The NSA considers AT&T to be one of its most trusted partners and has lauded the company's "extreme willingness to help."

    Translation: AT&T is the NSA bitch...

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by epine ( 68316 )

      Bitchmapitis — prison culture envy disorder

      Dbagmapitis — yes, but he's our asshole

    • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward
      Want to know why AT&T will never again be broken up as a monopoly? Look no further....

    • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward
      I love the U.S. and wish it had a healthy government.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Chas ( 5144 )

        Name me ONE government out there that qualifies as "healthy" these days...

        • Re: Just say it (Score:1)

          by Anonymous Coward

          No need for pointless comparisons. Let's not start a pissing contest.
          Just because others are bad doesn't mean we have to emulate them.

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by Chas ( 5144 )

            My basic point is, there is NO government out there that is "healthy".

            Government is a necessary evil (emphasis on both evil AND necessary).

            But we should NEVER delude ourselves into thinking that ANY of them are ANYTHING but a giant, pustulating fistula on ass of society.

        • Comment removed based on user account deletion

    • Re:Just say it (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Kjella ( 173770 ) on Monday June 25, 2018 @12:57PM (#56843304) Homepage

      Translation: AT&T is the NSA bitch...

      You seem to think Big Business and Big Government won't get in bed together voluntarily... I bet AT&T has gotten plenty out of this in kickbacks and recommendations for national security projects. Eisenhower talked about the military-industrial complex between the military and the defense industry but there's an equally obvious one between the intelligence/surveillance branches and the telecom industry.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      federal government is at&t's bitch. they're the ones that approved all those mergers for them (by them, i mean what was once southwestern bell, who acquired snet, comcast's original cellular company, pacbell, ameritech, bell south, cellular one, at&t, directv, time warner, among others).

      the regional bell companies like southwestern bell, should still be little regional bell companies. none of them should have been allowed to buy others or other phone companies.

    • Re:Just say it (Score:5, Insightful)

      by CaptainDork ( 3678879 ) on Monday June 25, 2018 @01:08PM (#56843372)

      Google wants to be a bitch, too.

      Data prostitution pays well.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      There are legitimate reasons for the NSA's data access. To claim there are no ongoing threats to the US means you are living in a fantasy world. A world where the only wrong doer is the US. A world where the US is responsible for every wrong in the world. A world where every tin pot dictator, Chancellor, President, Prime Minister attacks the US to maintain control of their domestic political situations. Little did these people realize there would be a US President throwing the complaints right back at them.

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by Anonymous Coward
        There HAVE been criminal prosecutions using data collected by spook agencies using a method called "parallel construction". Don't think for a second they won't use it against those who are noisy, standing in their way, part of a larger agenda, or those whom they just don't like.

      • Comment removed (Score:4, Insightful)

        by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Monday June 25, 2018 @08:58PM (#56845788)
        Comment removed based on user account deletion

      • There are legitimate reasons for the NSA's data access.

        At times yes. Nobody argued otherwise. Problem is that they cannot seem to restrain themselves from listening in on people who they should need a warrant to listen to. It's not even a debate that they performed illegal and unjustified surveillance of US citizens.

        The NSA and CIA are legally empowered by all three branches of the government to conduct surveillance operations to safe guard the security of the US.

        That doesn't mean they get to step on my civil rights in the process. Their convenience does not supersede my Constitutional rights.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by DeVilla ( 4563 )
          I think the statement here is that all 3 branches of the government who are responsible for protecting your civil rights disagree with your interpretation of your Constitutional rights.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Agripa ( 139780 )

        There are legitimate reasons for the NSA's data access.

        When does their access become a search for 4th amendment purposes?

        I ask because we also know that the NSA is forwarding search results to domestic law enforcement who then use parallel construction to prevent court review.

    • NSA is AT&T's customer, no ethics are involved (Score:4, Interesting)

      by Medievalist ( 16032 ) on Monday June 25, 2018 @01:35PM (#56843528)

      Under GW Bush the telcos all claimed they were doing unconstitutional widespread monitoring of law abiding citizens because they were totally patriotic and selfless. They wrapped themselves in the flag.

      McCain and Obama both broke off campaigning for the Presidency so they could give the telcos immunity from prosecution, despite both of them saying they wouldn't (Obama saying so quite strongly).

      BUT when the fedguv screwed up their accounting and stopped paying the bill, the telcos immediately cut them off, proving their true motivation - wealth.

      Patriots acting for a principle don't stop acting just because they aren't being bribed enough.

    • Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)

      by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Monday June 25, 2018 @08:57PM (#56845778)
      Comment removed based on user account deletion

  • But I remember when slashdottirs used to scoff that there were more than 3.

    Keep up, this is only one of the TLAs.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      Like I am shocked :O

      For 15 years my routing has gone 1000 miles if I ping across the street.

  • How quickly people forget... (Score:5, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 25, 2018 @11:57AM (#56842954)

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Room_641A

  • NSA said 'jump', AT&T said 'how high' (Score:1, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward

    Qwest said 'no'

    Qwest no longer exists. And AT&T is doing just fine. Imagine that.

    Enjoy your surveillance state, America

  • Or, in this case ... (Score:5, Funny)

    by fahrbot-bot ( 874524 ) on Monday June 25, 2018 @11:59AM (#56842968)

    Spokespeople of AT&T ... and NSA could neither confirm or deny the report.

    ... "Spookspeople"

  • So what (Score:3, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 25, 2018 @12:00PM (#56842974)

    everyone knew about this, and it's pretty damn obvious too. Huge building with no windows, no people going in/out, and giant radio antennas and satellite dishes sticking out at the top. Hmm...I wonder what it could be.

    • Hmm...I wonder what it could be.

      Perhaps it's just a Class 4 switch... Oh hell, no one is going to put on a tinfoil hat for one of those. So it must be spies.

  • Just burn those buildings down. If whomever does so gets picked up by services higher than the FBI, you already know AT&T is utterly their bitch and helping them spy on us.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      You first. Also they know you said it now.

      Oh wait that's right you only harass Republican women. Scared?

    • 10 S Canal St is right next 2 train stations so you will being looking at some hard time starting at 2700 S California Ave or 71 W Van Buren St

    • So the "easy way" involves getting disappeared to some secret torture facility.

    • No need to resort to arson. Just rock up with some friends in hi-viz jackets and some pneumatic drills and "accidentally" cut through the cables when digging up the street...

  • Um, wrong (Score:3)

    by 110010001000 ( 697113 ) on Monday June 25, 2018 @12:27PM (#56843144) Homepage Journal
    The Washington DC one is a Verizon switching center, not an AT&T one. You can go look yourself.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by darkain ( 749283 )

      Some of these buildings have multiple tenants inside of them. The Seattle building is owned by Qwest Communications, part of CenturyLink now (which also owns Level3). The building is a peering location, with AT&T being one of the major peers.

      • Re: (Score:2, Troll)

        by 110010001000 ( 697113 )
        I can confirm that the NSA is not monitoring from this location. We do all our monitoring from 3400 Conne

  • Room 641A (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    Leave it to the Intercept to report on a 12 year old story [wikipedia.org] as if it was suddenly new information coming to light. I suppose they can get a little credit for listing 7 other AT&T sites that have dedicated rooms for NSA listening equipment, but it was already known that even after AT&T engineer, Mark Klein, blew the whistle on the NSA surveillance, the NSA did NOT it shut down and withdraw the equipment. Much of the article just goes over previously reported facts. And to make this a complete wash of

  • The American people spend millions every year for their own personal eavesdropping devices that they keep in their pockets, their pocketbooks, and their bedrooms. I think that saying that Americans don't care about their privacy is (somehow) an understatement.

  • I work down the street from 611 Folsom. In the Network diagram with thumbnails, the ominous building shown for that address is down the street and belongs to PG&E. The shots of 611 Folsom in the body are from the parking lot and the alley behind it... Not really very pretty or representative of the building. From the street, the building just looks like your everyday office building. Look at google maps street view.

    I know, why is that important? Because when they go to that length to make it look b

    • The building in the thumbnail is indeed 611 Folsom. The PG&E building you are referring to is Embarcadero Substation (aka Station Z), located at Fremont and Folsom. There are two nefarious looking buildings there now. The larger of the two is the original 230 kV distribution substation (Z) and the new smaller building contains GIS switchgear.

      • Probably looking at different thumbnails then.

        The substation is quite distinctive... Huge blockhouse/fortress looking building. Blank facades on all sides, with a door sized entrance, and truck entrance right next to that on folsom. That is 422 Folsom (fremont and folsom) and one I saw in the thumbnail on the map.

        631 Folsom has a kind of blank facade and smallish plaza on Folsom, but it faces 2nd street.

        Going against traffic from there, everything all the way back to third just look like very ordinary off

        • Just FTR, this is the thumb I was seeing:

          https://i.imgur.com/nlkWKup.pn... [imgur.com]

          • Yeah, different thumb.

            That's the Folsom side of the building that faces 2nd street... Ugly as the worst thing people can imagine.

            • And looking around, it really doesn't have a front... Just one of those silly corner entrances.

              It's a Central Office/Data Center building. Not too surprising it doesn't have windows. They tend to make temperature control... Interesting.

              I once worked in an old building that they decided to put a modern switch into, but leave the south facing windows intact for the aesthetics... We got a 30 degree swing through the day. We put foam core panels with mylar space blankets glued onto one face in the windows to

        • 1455 Market is a fascinating building. Look at it closely - it's quite secure. Really very secure.

          Uber moved it's headquarters there a few years ago. There are rumors about other tenants...

          • 30 years ago, it was a BofA processing office. You think the front is interesting? Try a cute little idea they called man traps at the entrance to every floor I had to visit... Little, and I do mean little, booths. Walk in one side. door closes, and only then does the inner door open.

            I hated to go there. It was a bear to get into the booth with my tools.

  • Hah, I can see the one in Illinois right out my window.... and I walk by it every day...

  • 197 petabytes of "metadata" per day. (Score:2, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward

    That sure is a lot of storage just for a list of phone numbers.

  • Kinda crazy to think it hasn't even been 100 years since technology was used to systematically cull the world of undesirable people through historically unprecedented violent means.

  • Go figure (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    A company going out of their way to cooperate with warrant-less surveillance gets green lighted for all manor of mergers & government contracts. Meanwhile any company that opposes these activities (see Qwest) gets all of their government contracts canceled and "coincidental" investigations and charges which slow/kill their company.

  • The Phone Company

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]

  • Say they refused to cooperate with the NSA/CIA/FBI or any number of alphabet agencies. They'd have the FCC drum up something and come down on them like a ton of bricks. Oh? at&t? You want to expand into this or that? Sorry, can't let you do that. Don't underestimate the power of the deep state to get what they want!

  • Since the executive, judicial, and legislative branches of government are not enforcing the 4th Amendment and are not going to, I no longer care about court decisions and the false reassurances from politicians. The solution is much more practical; encrypt absolutely everything and throw away the session keys. With some cleverness, even traffic analysis can be prevented by multiplying traffic which the ISPs should love since they have so much extra capacity.

  • Callback to a recent posting on 5EYES that references this topic [reddit.com]. I'm lukewarm about this 'exposé', they're presenting a number of buildings that are communications exchanges and dubbing them NSA buildings. Weatherproof climate controlled spaces are not spooky. This is ripe for debunking as anyone counters with their primary uses, and this issue is too critical to have agitated people harassing anyone who enters and exits the buildings as spooks. We now have two full generations of young who were

  • Meet Me at Your Riser [2013] [youtube.com] is a purely aesthetic Phillip Glassy video presentation by Deborah Natsios, who with John Young [wikipedia.org] runs the successful CRYPTOME.ORG [cryptome.org] website.

    The insinuation is, the practice is not relegated to willing participants such as AT&T, it may well include other carriers whose fiber has been secretly split in the 'telecom risers' that ascend throughout the building. Are Young/Natsios insinuating this from theory or an anonymous tip? You may as well ask how licks to the center of a T

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