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Showing posts from April, 2015

Some equipment that connects NSA with its foreign partners

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(Updated: March 22, 2016) A close look at a unique photo of NSA computer equipment revealed the names of five countries: Tunisia, the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany and Italy. The devices are routers, but it's not certain what exactly they used for. The circumstances indicate that they enable the exchange of data for military operations in which these NSA partner countries participate. Presentation about Strategic Analystics at the NSA's European Cryptologic Center (ECC) (Click for the full presentation in pdf) On June 14, 2014, the German magazine Der Spiegel published 53 documents pertaining to the NSA's operations in Germany and its cooperation with German agencies. Many of them got little attention, and so they often contain interesting things which are not yet reported. One of these documents is an undated presentation about Strategic Analystics used at the NSA's European Cryptologic Center (ECC), which is located near the city of Darmstadt in Germany. This presen

Torus: the antenna to significantly increase satellite interception

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(Updated: November 24, 2015) At three satellite facilities, in Britain, Cyprus and New Zealand, there's a special antenna that allows NSA's partner agencies a significant increase in their capability to collect satellite communications. This antenna is called Torus, and while conventional parabolic dish antennas can only view one satellite at a time, one single Torus antenna is able to receive the signals from up to 35 communications satellites. These rare and expensive Torus antennas are used by some television networks, but a close look at photos of the Five Eyes satellite stations has now revealed the locations where Torus antennas are also used for gathering signals intelligence. A General Dynamics Satcom Technologies Torus antenna with the array of receiver heads clearly visible The Torus antenna is rectangular, instead of circular like the conventional satellite dishes. Its quasi-parabolic shape is actually a section of a geometrical shape called torus , which it gave its