Phone Hacking -> NSA -> IARPA
bill190
Posts: 769
Have I got a book for you!
"The Shadow Factory" by James Bamford 2008 - The NSA from 9/11 to the Eavesdropping on America.
http://www.amazon.com/Shadow-Factory-NSA-Eavesdropping-America/dp/0307279391
Electronics types have always been interested in phone systems. And the super secret NSA (National Security Agency) which has some of the fastest computers known. And you may have read the book "The Puzzle Palace" on the NSA also by James Bamford...
Well I recently stumbled on the book above (The Shadow Factory) in a second hand store. This is an updated book on what the NSA has been up to recently. They are of course listening in on ALL communications worldwide...
But what is interesting is that the communications of many foreign countries actually go through US networks! Many countries have poor communications connections from one country to another, however many have excellent direct connections to the US. So instead of a communication going directly from say Argentina to Brazil, those communications may be routed through the US! Same with Europe and Asia.
Also it may be less expensive to route calls from Japan to China through the US during their peak times which are our off-peak (less expensive) times.
Anyway it seems the US is the "phone exchange" for the world. And the NSA is listening.
One of the most interesting things mentioned in the above book is that there is "too much information" for them to process. And storage of all this information is mind boggling. They use the terms "terabytes", "petabytes", and "exabytes".
Then so far as super fast supercomputers, there is discussion toward the end (future) about an "exaflop computer" which would require 100 megawatts of electricity to power it, and that would require most of the electricity produced by one electric company power plant!
Actually the book mentions that the NSA is using too much electricity for all their computers. So much that the electric company can't provide any more electricity for them! So they are building new facilities elsewhere in the US.
Then it mentions for the far future perhaps there being "zettaflop" and "yotaflop" speed computers! A zettaflop being a billion trillion and a yotaflop being a trillion trillion!
The book also mentions "IARPA" (similar to DARPA), but is "Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity" - an intelligence gathering research program...
http://www.iarpa.gov/
Anyway quite an interesting book to read!
"The Shadow Factory" by James Bamford 2008 - The NSA from 9/11 to the Eavesdropping on America.
http://www.amazon.com/Shadow-Factory-NSA-Eavesdropping-America/dp/0307279391
Electronics types have always been interested in phone systems. And the super secret NSA (National Security Agency) which has some of the fastest computers known. And you may have read the book "The Puzzle Palace" on the NSA also by James Bamford...
Well I recently stumbled on the book above (The Shadow Factory) in a second hand store. This is an updated book on what the NSA has been up to recently. They are of course listening in on ALL communications worldwide...
But what is interesting is that the communications of many foreign countries actually go through US networks! Many countries have poor communications connections from one country to another, however many have excellent direct connections to the US. So instead of a communication going directly from say Argentina to Brazil, those communications may be routed through the US! Same with Europe and Asia.
Also it may be less expensive to route calls from Japan to China through the US during their peak times which are our off-peak (less expensive) times.
Anyway it seems the US is the "phone exchange" for the world. And the NSA is listening.
One of the most interesting things mentioned in the above book is that there is "too much information" for them to process. And storage of all this information is mind boggling. They use the terms "terabytes", "petabytes", and "exabytes".
Then so far as super fast supercomputers, there is discussion toward the end (future) about an "exaflop computer" which would require 100 megawatts of electricity to power it, and that would require most of the electricity produced by one electric company power plant!
Actually the book mentions that the NSA is using too much electricity for all their computers. So much that the electric company can't provide any more electricity for them! So they are building new facilities elsewhere in the US.
Then it mentions for the far future perhaps there being "zettaflop" and "yotaflop" speed computers! A zettaflop being a billion trillion and a yotaflop being a trillion trillion!
The book also mentions "IARPA" (similar to DARPA), but is "Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity" - an intelligence gathering research program...
http://www.iarpa.gov/
Anyway quite an interesting book to read!