NSA Utah Data Center Cabling, Emanations and Bizarre Planning
Not much publicly available on the cabling and emanations protection of the NSA Utah Data Center. Surely highly advanced measures are being applied. Google Earth shows a couple of stages of construction, Bing Maps a couple more. AP has published a dozen or so hi-rez photos of construction. A lot of earthwork was done to create a flat site on a mountain side (preceded by a small air field). No indication of underground construction except pits and trenches under the buildngs. With none on the surface there must be trenches for power and signal cable. No antenna have appeared on the site for transceiving data like those of other of its data centers, so presumably it is done by UG fiber optic (or antenna are hidden or remote). Photos of construction progress of the two data buildings show windowless envelopes made of panels and flat roofs without various rooftop ductwork, grilles, piping and the like which appear on roofs of other NSA and TLA facilities which might emanate signal although not likely. (Some are littered with the stuff which might be decoy.) Steel structural framing is shown at Utah despite its known transmittal of inadvertent signal, compared to say, reinforced concrete, metalized fabric or synthetics. although are ample countermeasures available. The pairing of structures at Utah, two of each type, data center, generator, AC, fuel tanks, etc., show redundancy also not seen elsewhere. Not much to see of protection against missiles and aerial attack but that is the same at other NSA facilities. Wonder what supports that confidence. The odd bent shape of the site plan, with buildings not parallel to one another is intriguing. Could be aesthetic but may have another role, say to disperse richochet of inadvertent emanations. Quite a few recent government buildings avoid the traditional rectilinear site planning of buildings long considered to be most cost effective and authoritarian. Some like NGA HQ, NSA Utah and several at Ft. Meade look almost byzantine in layout, if not a shrewd design to limit echo, amplification, richochet, or best, to befuddle satellite peepers.
Dnia niedziela, 28 lipca 2013 11:44:15 John Young pisze:
Not much to see of protection against missiles and aerial attack but that is the same at other NSA facilities. Wonder what supports that confidence.
I would suppose that this site is not meant to hold crucially important (as in: crucially important to have access to at all times) data. I would guess it is just the first line, the large tank that gathers *every single bit of information* they can get their hands on. The information then gets processed and filtered, and the important -- really important -- bits are sent somewhere else. But hey, that's just my wild guess. -- Pozdr rysiek
Personally very interested on the E2E security on that UGFO line - is Utah part of DARPA quantum key distribution network? Perhaps paranoid. On Sun, Jul 28, 2013 at 4:24 PM, rysiek <rysiek@hackerspace.pl> wrote:
Dnia niedziela, 28 lipca 2013 11:44:15 John Young pisze:
Not much to see of protection against missiles and aerial attack but that is the same at other NSA facilities. Wonder what supports that confidence.
I would suppose that this site is not meant to hold crucially important (as in: crucially important to have access to at all times) data.
I would guess it is just the first line, the large tank that gathers *every single bit of information* they can get their hands on. The information then gets processed and filtered, and the important -- really important -- bits are sent somewhere else.
But hey, that's just my wild guess.
-- Pozdr rysiek
-- ————————————— Rich Jones * OpenWatch* is a global investigative network using mobile technology to build a more transparent world. Download OpenWatch for iOS<https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/openwatch-social-muckraking/id642680756?ls=1&mt=8>and for Android<https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.ale.openwatch&hl=en> !
participants (3)
-
John Young
-
Rich Jones
-
rysiek