ECHELON Has Been Watching You All Your Life

It is claimed that the XKeyscore program covers 'nearly everything a typical user does on the internet'

Domestic digital surveillance has often seemed to be a threat endured mostly by the social media generation, but details have continued to emerge that remind us of decades of sophisticated, automated spying from the NSA and others.

Before the government was peering through our webcams, tracking our steps through GPS, feeling every keystroke we typed and listening and watching as we built up complex datasets of our entire personhood online, there was still rudimentary data to be collected. Over the last fifty years, Project ECHELON has given the UK and United States (as well as other members of the Five Eyes) the capacity to track enemies and allies alike within and outside their states. The scope has evolved in that time period from keyword lifts in intercepted faxes to its current all-encompassing data harvesting.

In a piece published in The Intercept, life-long privacy advocate Duncan Campbell describes his past few decades tracking down the elusive Project ECHELON, “the first-ever automated global mass surveillance system.

Until Snowden placed the full capacities of the NSA and other government spying agencies in plain sight, ECHELON was largely just another codename in the conspiracy-theorist’s notebook.
Campbell made the first references to the program in his 1988 piece, titled Somebody’s Listening, where he detailed a program capable of tapping into “a billion calls a year in the UK alone.”

Campbell described his conversations with a source, preceding that piece’s publication. The scale of the operation she described took my breath away (this was 1988, remember). The NSA and its partners had arranged for everything we communicated to be grabbed and potentially analyzed.

The program reportedly utilized massive ground-based radio antennas to intercept satellite transmissions containing the digital communications of millions. It then relied on its content-sensitive dictionaries of keywords and phrases to scour the communications for relevant information.

In February of 2000, tye 60 Minutes TV documnentary published a report detailing the existence and scope of ECHELON. Mike Frost, a former spy for Canada’s NSA-equivalent, CSE, told the host just how large the program’s reach really was, “Echelon covers everything that’s radiated worldwide at any given instant.”

Frost also recounted a tale of how exactly the program was being used. While I was at CSE, a classic example: A lady had been to a school play the night before, and her son was in the school play and she thought he did a–a lousy job. Next morning, she was talking on the telephone to her friend, and she said to her friend something like this, ‘Oh, Danny really bombed last night,’ just like that. The computer spit that conversation out. The analyst that was looking at it was not too sure about what the conversation w–was referring to, so erring on the side of caution, he listed that lady and her phone number in the database as a possible terrorist.

Details of ECHELON outraged Europeans in the months following the reports from Campbell and 60 Minutes. In the summer of 2000, European Parliament appointed a special ad-hoc committee to spend a year investigating ECHELON, with some arguing that by spying on European communications, the U.S. was breaching the European Convention on Human Rights. Little materialized from the committee, other than a vote recognizing the program’s mere existence.
 
Following the 2005 discovery that the Bush Administration had been tapping Americans’ phones without warrants, some speculatively pointed to ECHELON as a tool that the government may have been using. Since then, the program has largely been presented to the public only through posts on government surveillance/conspiracy forums with limited references in declassified documents to guide those questioning the program’s full potential.

It has largely faded from public consciousness, especially as details of its far more powerful offspring have been exposed, but it’s important to frame automated government surveillance as an issue of our lifetimes rather than short sightedly confining its influence to the advent of the mainstream internet.

It is now abundantly clear, thanks to internal documents leaked by Snowden, that the program exists, but what is unclear is what that means. PRISM and XKeyscore certainly represent a more shocking invasion of the information we have digitally presented, but ECHELON shows us that the privacy of our communications have indeed always been under attack.

These instances of government surveillance have been justified by decades of disparate “threats” under multiple administrations that have repeatedly made promises to “prioritize privacy without compromising security,” while we all have been led by the current narratives.

As the broken record continues to play, further examining ECHELON suggests the importance of looking to the past to remember what sounds familiar.

Techcrunch

 

« Global Spy System ECHELON Confirmed by Snowden Leak
Cyber Extortion: A Growth Industry »

CyberSecurity Jobsite
Check Point

Directory of Suppliers

Practice Labs

Practice Labs

Practice Labs is an IT competency hub, where live-lab environments give access to real equipment for hands-on practice of essential cybersecurity skills.

Authentic8

Authentic8

Authentic8 transforms how organizations secure and control the use of the web with Silo, its patented cloud browser.

XYPRO Technology

XYPRO Technology

XYPRO is the market leader in HPE Non-Stop Security, Risk Management and Compliance.

Alvacomm

Alvacomm

Alvacomm offers holistic VIP cybersecurity services, providing comprehensive protection against cyber threats. Our solutions include risk assessment, threat detection, incident response.

The PC Support Group

The PC Support Group

A partnership with The PC Support Group delivers improved productivity, reduced costs and protects your business through exceptional IT, telecoms and cybersecurity services.

Radiant Logic

Radiant Logic

Radiant Logic is a market-leading provider of federated identity solutions based on virtualization, and delivers simple, logical, and standards-based access to all identities within an organization.

Fasoo

Fasoo

Fasoo provides data-centric security to protect data within the organizational perimeter and beyond by limiting access to sensitive data according to policies that cover both users and activities.

MixMode

MixMode

MixMode's PacketSled platform delivers network monitoring, deep forensic analysis and incident response.

Infosequre

Infosequre

Infosequre builds up your security awareness culture and turns your employees into the first line of defense against cyber risks.

Secuvant

Secuvant

Secuvant is an independent IT Security firm providing enterprise-grade IT security services to mid-market organizations.

Thoma Bravo

Thoma Bravo

Thoma Bravo is a leading private equity firm with a 40+ year history and a focus on investing in software and technology companies.

Presidio

Presidio

Presidio is a leading North American IT solutions provider focused on Digital Infrastructure, Business Analytics, Cloud, Security & Emerging solutions.

X Technologies

X Technologies

X Technologies provide world-class engineering, information technology, information security, program management and repair services to Federal, State and commercial customers.

NVISIONx

NVISIONx

NVISIONx data risk governance platform enables companies to gain control of their enterprise data to reduce data risks, compliance scopes and storage costs.

Data Protection Commission (DPC) - Ireland

Data Protection Commission (DPC) - Ireland

The Data Protection Commission (DPC) is the national independent authority responsible for upholding the fundamental right of individuals in the EU to have their personal data protected.

Cerby

Cerby

Your team uses unmanageable applications that put you, your company, and your data at risk. Protect, secure, and accelerate your business automatically with Cerby.

Zally

Zally

Using advanced behavioural biometrics and AI, Zally is the world's answer to next-generation security.

ThreatDown

ThreatDown

ThreatDown, powered by Malwarebytes, is on a mission to overpower threats and empower IT by removing the complexity of detecting and stopping today’s most advanced threats.

CERT.ar

CERT.ar

CERT.ar is the national Computer Emergency Response Team for the technical-administrative management of computer security incidents in the National Public Sector of Argentina.

Alpha Echo

Alpha Echo

Specialising in security advice and enterprise-wide Cyberworthiness, Alpha Echo helps Australia deliver on cyber outcomes at a military grade level.

SECUREU

SECUREU

At SECUREU, we protect growing businesses against cyberattacks by proactively implementing best security practices, fixing existing security vulnerabilities, and increasing cyber awareness.