This is business office II nigh the High German parliamentary commission which investigates NSA spying activities as well as the cooperation betwixt NSA as well as the High German unusual tidings service BND.
Here nosotros render summaries of the hearings of a publish of BND employees, who provided about interesting details nigh satellite interception at the Bad Aibling station, the subsequent processing as well as storage of information as well as also nigh the cooperation betwixt NSA as well as BND inwards the Joint SIGINT Activity (JSA).
These summaries are based upon transcripts of a alive blog, kept yesteryear volunteers of the High German digital civil rights website Netzpolitik.org, who attended the hearings.
The employees of the BND are designated yesteryear initials, non of their existent names, but of those of the comprehend names they are using when at work(!).
> See also: Introduction + Hearings, Part I
The room where the hearings of the parliamentary commission possess got place
(photo: DPA)
14th Meeting, September 25, 2014 (Transcript)
- Hearing of the witness Mr. R. U. (BND, caput of the site inwards Bad Aibling):
The BND site inwards Bad Aibling is for satellite interception. In Bad Aibling there's no interception of point-to-point microwave transmissions, which is done yesteryear putting an antenna inwards betwixt the 2 microwave antennas that transmit the signals that possess got to survive intercepted.
(This BND satellite station is business office of the old NSA Bad Aibling Station that was codenamed GARLICK, from which BND took over most of the facilities inwards 2004, including ix of the large satellite dishes hidden nether white radomes)
When the Bad Aibling site was led yesteryear the witness, it had 120 personnel as well as was divided into 3 sections:
- Management
- Technical (operation of the antennas, network security, script programming, installation of computers)
- Analysis (analysing the collected data, linguistic communication translating capabilities)
An of import destination was protection of High German troops deployed inwards countries similar Afghanistan. BND was also able to forestall attacks on ISAF forces. Other goals for the satellite interception were anti-terrorism as well as rescuing people who possess got been kidnapped.
Satellite interception
In remote countries, domestic communications also purpose satellite links, which tin also survive intercepted from within Germany. This collection is restricted yesteryear technical limits, which brand that there's access to exclusively a pocket-size publish of satellites, as well as from them, exclusively business office of the communications tin survive intercepted. Also, non everything tin survive analysed, because much of it is inwards local languages. Therefore, there's no majority surveillance. BND exclusively collects promilles of what would survive theoretically possible.
Nonetheless, the amount of satellite traffic from Transitional Islamic State of Afghanistan that tin survive intercepted from Bad Aibling is rather high. Asked nigh media reports quoting old NSA as well as CIA manager Michael Hayden "We kill people based on metadata", the witness replied that metadata are non specific plenty for pinpointing drone attacks on specific people. Metadata similar cell-IDs define areas of 50-60 foursquare kilometers, which is non precise plenty for bombarding a house.
(Hayden's "we kill people based on metadata" was Two examples of similar analysis tools
In several cases, similar for illustration alongside INBE as well as VERAS, BND failed to comply alongside the formal requirement from the Data Protection Act for a so-called "Dateianordnungsverfahren", fifty-fifty for several years. After the witness recognized this, she forced to fulfill these legal requirements, although it was to a greater extent than a bureaucratic formality than a large shortcoming.
There's yet word at BND nigh whether metadata are ever personal data. Metadata similar High German telephone numbers are considered to survive personal data, because it is tardily to expect upwardly to whom such a publish belongs. In unusual countries, similar Transitional Islamic State of Afghanistan as well as Pakistan, that's non thence easy. Phone numbers are also used yesteryear a whole clan for example.
The president of the BND has decided that collection inwards Bad Aibling is non dependent patch to the provisions of the BND Act (BND-Gesetz), because exclusively unusual satellite communications are intercepted. The witness disagrees, but was overruled yesteryear the president.
- The planned hearing of the witness A. F. (also a BND employee) was postponed to Nov 13.
- . - . - . - . -
18th Meeting, Oct 16, 2014 (Transcript)
- Hearing of the witness Mr. T. B. (BND, at Bad Aibling from 2002-2007):
The witness explained that i telephone phone telephone creates betwixt xx as well as xxx pieces of metadata. Not all of them are usefull for targeting because they are non specific enough, similar for illustration a mobile telephone cell-ID. Metadata include the publish that was called, the cell-ID, the provider, the duration of the call, etc.
Raw information are signals (like radio frequencies) that possess got been processed. Raw information on their plough tin survive processed into metadata as well as content. These are thence automatically filtered as well as selected, as well as when in conclusion a human takes a expect at them, this tin lawsuit inwards a written report (Meldung).
Raw information were non counted yesteryear BND, exclusively the reports, of which exclusively a handful were produced at Bad Aibling. This depression publish was also due to the fact that exclusively a pocket-size business office of the collected communications was genuinely translated.
XKeyscore was kickoff used yesteryear BND inwards 2007, but dorsum thence this tool wasn't yesteryear far every bit sophisticated every bit inwards 2013.
- After but a brusque while, this hearing was ended later on it became clear that the witness had read internal BND documents that had non yet been fully handed over to the committee.
Links as well as Sources
- Offical page of the committee: 1. Untersuchungsausschuss ("NSA")
- Internal NSA presentation: Structure of the BND (pdf)
- Spiegel.de: Spying Together: Germany's Deep Cooperation alongside the NSA
> See also: BND Codewords as well as Abbreviations
Tidak ada komentar:
Posting Komentar