The NSA Program

[coderman]

On 1/3/06, John Young <jya at cryptome.net> wrote:
> ...
> He fingers the international telecom hubs in NYC through
> which NSA grabs most of the data purposely sent through them
> to transoceanic cables worldwide. Hmm, the hubs on
> the West Coast are not mentoned. Wonder if that traffic is
> now redirected through New York too for easy watching.
> ...
> US Transpacific Cable Landings
>
>   http://eyeball-series.org//cablew-eyeball.htm

the nedonna beach landing point for the WCI cable (and others)
underwent significant physical security and facility upgrades in
recent years.  back when critical infrastructure details were
carefreely public the termination faclities a few hundred yards from
the shore even carried a promiscuous "FIBER OPTIC" sign on the door.
(the oregon fishermans undersea cable group used to provide the cable
plots with GPS coordinates a few score miles out as well.  now you
have to request these from them directly so they can limit
distribution to local area fishermen and others with a legitimate need
for the information)

initial reaction to security concerns included building a large razor
wire chain link fence around the facilities, although it appears this
was too much of an attention getter as they removed all such imposing
fencing before long and have continued to rely on extensive
cameras/alarms/highly visible boundary around the now rebuilt
facilities (aprox. 3-4 times the size of the original structure).

could more capturing equipment on site be the reason behind the
significant facilities upgrade?  they don't like to give tours of such
places unfortunately... :)

the main peering facilities located in hillsboro for the WCI cable
have not undergone any similar upgrades although the building was
already large and well secured from the start.

[it would be interesting to know what changes have been implemented at
other western landing sites; the nedonna beach point is the only one i
am directly familiar with]