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==Purpose==
==Purpose==
The data center is alleged to be able to process "all forms of communication, including the complete contents of private emails, cell phone calls, and Internet searches, as well as all types of personal data trails—parking receipts, travel itineraries, bookstore purchases, and other digital 'pocket litter'."<ref name="bamford1">{{cite news
The data center is alleged to be able to process "all forms of communication, including the complete contents of private emails, cell phone calls, and Internet searches, as well as all types of personal data trails—parking receipts, travel itineraries, bookstore purchases, and other digital 'pocket litter'."<ref name="bamford1">{{cite news|title=The NSA Is Building the Country's Biggest Spy Center (Watch What You Say)|first=James|last=Bamford|authorlink=James Bamford|url=http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2012/03/ff_nsadatacenter/all/1|newspaper=Wired|date=15 March 2012|accessdate=5 April 2012}}</ref> In response to claims that the data center would be used to illegally monitor email of U.S. citizens, in April 2013 an NSA spokesperson said, "Many unfounded allegations have been made about the planned activities of the Utah Data Center, ... one of the biggest misconceptions about NSA is that we are unlawfully listening in on, or reading emails of, U.S. citizens. This is simply not the case."<ref name="reuters1"/>
| title = The NSA Is Building the Country’s Biggest Spy Center (Watch What You Say)
| first = James
| last = Bamford
| authorlink = James Bamford
| url = http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2012/03/ff_nsadatacenter/all/1
| newspaper = Wired Magazine
| date = 15 March 2012
| accessdate = 5 April 2012
}}</ref> In response to claims that the data center would be used to illegally monitor email of U.S. citizens, in April 2013 an NSA spokesperson said, "Many unfounded allegations have been made about the planned activities of the Utah Data Center, ... one of the biggest misconceptions about NSA is that we are unlawfully listening in on, or reading emails of, U.S. citizens. This is simply not the case."<ref name="reuters1"/>


In April 2009, officials at the [[United States Department of Justice]] acknowledged that the NSA had engaged in large-scale overcollection of domestic communications in excess of the [[FISA court|federal intelligence court]]'s authority, but claimed that the acts were unintentional and had since been rectified.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/16/us/16nsa.html |title=Officials Say U.S. Wiretaps Exceeded Law |author=[[Eric Lichtblau]] and [[James Risen]] |publisher=The New York Times |date=April 15, 2009 |accessdate=September 5, 2012}}</ref>
In April 2009, officials at the [[United States Department of Justice]] acknowledged that the NSA had engaged in large-scale overcollection of domestic communications in excess of the [[FISA court|federal intelligence court]]'s authority, but claimed that the acts were unintentional and had since been rectified.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/16/us/16nsa.html |title=Officials Say U.S. Wiretaps Exceeded Law |author=[[Eric Lichtblau]] and [[James Risen]] |publisher=The New York Times |date=April 15, 2009 |accessdate=September 5, 2012}}</ref>


In August 2012, ''[[The New York Times]]'' published short documentaries by independent filmmakers entitled ''The Program'',<ref>Poitras, Laura, [http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/23/opinion/the-national-security-agencys-domestic-spying-program.html ''The Program''], New York Times Op-Docs, August 22, 2012</ref> based on interviews with a [[whistleblower]] named [[William Binney (U.S. intelligence official)|William Binney]]. The project had been designed for foreign [[signals intelligence]] (SIGINT) collection but, Binney alleged, after the [[September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks]], controls that limited unintentional collection of data pertaining to U.S. citizens were removed, prompting concerns by him and others that the actions were illegal and unconstitutional. Binney alleged that the Bluffdale facility was designed to store a broad range of domestic communications for [[data mining]] without warrants.<ref>Lawson, Kent, ''[http://www.privatewifi.com/what-does-the-nsa-know-about-you/''What Does the NSA Know About You?'']'', Private WiFi, August 27, 2012</ref>
In August 2012, ''[[The New York Times]]'' published short documentaries by independent filmmakers entitled ''The Program'',<ref>Poitras, Laura, [http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/23/opinion/the-national-security-agencys-domestic-spying-program.html ''The Program''], New York Times Op-Docs, August 22, 2012</ref> based on interviews with a [[whistleblower]] named [[William Binney (U.S. intelligence official)|William Binney]]. The project had been designed for foreign [[signals intelligence]] (SIGINT) collection but, Binney alleged, after the [[September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks]], controls that limited unintentional collection of data pertaining to U.S. citizens were removed, prompting concerns by him and others that the actions were illegal and unconstitutional. Binney alleged that the Bluffdale facility was designed to store a broad range of domestic communications for [[data mining]] without warrants.<ref>Lawson, Kent, [http://www.privatewifi.com/what-does-the-nsa-know-about-you/ "What Does the NSA Know About You?"], Private WiFi, August 27, 2012</ref>


Documents leaked to the media in June 2013 described [[PRISM (surveillance program)|PRISM]], a national security [[computer surveillance|electronic surveillance]] program operated by the NSA, as enabling in-depth surveillance on live internet communications and stored information.<ref name="WaPo1">{{cite news| author1-link = Barton Gellman| last1 = Gellman | first1 = Barton | author2-link = Laura Poitras| last2 = Poitras | first2 = Laura | url= http://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/us-intelligence-mining-data-from-nine-us-internet-companies-in-broad-secret-program/2013/06/06/3a0c0da8-cebf-11e2-8845-d970ccb04497_story.html | title = US Intelligence Mining Data from Nine U.S. Internet Companies in Broad Secret Program |work= [[The Washington Post]] | date =June 6, 2013 | accessdate =June 11, 2013}}</ref><ref name="guardian-snowden-reveal">{{cite news|url = http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jun/09/edward-snowden-nsa-whistleblower-surveillance?CMP=twt_gu |title = Edward Snowden: The Whistleblower Behind Revelations of NSA Surveillance| author = [[Glenn Greenwald|Greenwald, Glenn]]; MacAskill, Ewen | date= June 9, 2013|work= [[The Guardian]]| accessdate= June 9, 2013|location=[[Hong Kong]]}}</ref> Reports linked the data center to the NSA's controversial expansion of activities, which store extremely large amounts of data. Privacy and civil liberties advocates raised concerns about the unique capabilities that such a facility would give to intelligence agencies.<ref>{{cite news|title=How the U.S. Uses Technology to Mine More Data More Quickly|author=James Risen and Eric Lichtblau|date=June 8, 2013|accessdate=June 11, 2013|publisher=New York Times|url=http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/09/us/revelations-give-look-at-spy-agencys-wider-reach.html}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Amid Data Controversy, NSA Builds Its Biggest Data Farm|author=Howard Berkes|publisher=National Public Radio|url=http://www.npr.org/2013/06/10/190160772/amid-data-controversy-nsa-builds-its-biggest-data-farm|date=June 10, 2013|accessdate=June 11, 2013}}</ref> “They park stuff in storage in the hopes that they will eventually have time to get to it,” said James Lewis, a cyberexpert at the [[Center for Strategic and International Studies]], “or that they’ll find something that they need to go back and look for in the masses of data.” But, he added, “most of it sits and is never looked at by anyone.”<ref>[http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/01/us/job-title-key-to-inner-access-held-by-snowden.html?hp Job Title Key to Inner Access Held by Snowden] NY Times June 30, 2013</ref>
Documents leaked to the media in June 2013 described [[PRISM (surveillance program)|PRISM]], a national security [[computer surveillance|electronic surveillance]] program operated by the NSA, as enabling in-depth surveillance on live internet communications and stored information.<ref name="WaPo1">{{cite news|author1-link=Barton Gellman|last1=Gellman |first1=Barton |author2-link=Laura Poitras|last2=Poitras |first2=Laura |url=http://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/us-intelligence-mining-data-from-nine-us-internet-companies-in-broad-secret-program/2013/06/06/3a0c0da8-cebf-11e2-8845-d970ccb04497_story.html |title=US Intelligence Mining Data from Nine U.S. Internet Companies in Broad Secret Program |work=[[The Washington Post]] |date=June 6, 2013 |accessdate=June 11, 2013}}</ref><ref name="guardian-snowden-reveal">{{cite news|url=http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jun/09/edward-snowden-nsa-whistleblower-surveillance?CMP=twt_gu |title=Edward Snowden: The Whistleblower Behind Revelations of NSA Surveillance|author=[[Glenn Greenwald|Greenwald, Glenn]]; MacAskill, Ewen |date=June 9, 2013|work=[[The Guardian]]|accessdate=June 9, 2013|location=[[Hong Kong]]}}</ref> Reports linked the data center to the NSA's controversial expansion of activities, which store extremely large amounts of data. Privacy and civil liberties advocates raised concerns about the unique capabilities that such a facility would give to intelligence agencies.<ref>{{cite news|title=How the U.S. Uses Technology to Mine More Data More Quickly|author=James Risen and Eric Lichtblau|date=June 8, 2013|accessdate=June 11, 2013|publisher=New York Times|url=http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/09/us/revelations-give-look-at-spy-agencys-wider-reach.html}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Amid Data Controversy, NSA Builds Its Biggest Data Farm|author=Howard Berkes|publisher=National Public Radio|url=http://www.npr.org/2013/06/10/190160772/amid-data-controversy-nsa-builds-its-biggest-data-farm|date=June 10, 2013|accessdate=June 11, 2013}}</ref> "They park stuff in storage in the hopes that they will eventually have time to get to it," said James Lewis, a cyberexpert at the [[Center for Strategic and International Studies]], "or that they'll find something that they need to go back and look for in the masses of data." But, he added, "most of it sits and is never looked at by anyone."<ref>Scott Shane and David E. Sanger, [http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/01/us/job-title-key-to-inner-access-held-by-snowden.html?hp "Job Title Key to Inner Access Held by Snowden"], ''New York Times'', June 30, 2013</ref>


The UDC was expected to store internet data as well as phone records from the controversial [[NSA call database]] when it opened in 2013.<ref>{{cite web|title=Phone records could end up at NSA’s Utah Data Center|author=Thomas Burr|publisher=Salt Lake Tribune|date=June 6, 2013|accessdate=June 11, 2013|url=http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/politics/56422716-90/americans-amyspencer-center-court.html.csp}}</ref>
The UDC was expected to store internet data as well as phone records from the controversial [[NSA call database]] when it opened in 2013.<ref>{{cite web|title=Phone records could end up at NSA’s Utah Data Center|author=Thomas Burr|work=Salt Lake Tribune|date=June 6, 2013|accessdate=June 11, 2013|url=http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/politics/56422716-90/americans-amyspencer-center-court.html.csp}}</ref>


In light of the controversy over the NSA's involvement in the practice of [[mass surveillance in the United States]], and prompted by the [[2013 mass surveillance disclosures]] by ex-NSA contractor [[Edward Snowden]], the Utah Data Center was hailed by ''[[The Wall Street Journal]]'' as a "symbol of the spy agency's surveillance prowess".<ref name=wsj-7oct13>{{cite news|last=Siobhan Gorman|title=Meltdowns Hobble NSA Data Center|url=http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304441404579119490744478398|publisher=''[[The Wall Street Journal]]''|accessdate=19 October 2013|quote=The Utah facility, one of the Pentagon's biggest U.S. construction projects, has become a symbol of the spy agency's surveillance prowess, which gained broad attention in the wake of leaks from NSA contractor Edward Snowden. |date=7 October 2013}}</ref>
In light of the controversy over the NSA's involvement in the practice of [[mass surveillance in the United States]], and prompted by the [[2013 mass surveillance disclosures]] by ex-NSA contractor [[Edward Snowden]], the Utah Data Center was hailed by ''[[The Wall Street Journal]]'' as a "symbol of the spy agency's surveillance prowess".<ref name=wsj-7oct13>{{cite news|last=Siobhan Gorman|title=Meltdowns Hobble NSA Data Center|url=http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304441404579119490744478398|work=[[The Wall Street Journal]]|accessdate=19 October 2013|quote=The Utah facility, one of the Pentagon's biggest U.S. construction projects, has become a symbol of the spy agency's surveillance prowess, which gained broad attention in the wake of leaks from NSA contractor Edward Snowden. |date=7 October 2013}}</ref>


[[William Binney (U.S. intelligence official)|William Binney]], a former NSA technical director, has said that the facility was built to store recordings and other content of communications, not only for [[metadata]].<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/government_programs-july-dec13-whistleblowers_08-01/ |title=NSA Collects 'Word for Word' Every Domestic Communication, Says Former Analyst |work=PBS NewsHour |date=1 August 2013 }}</ref>
[[William Binney (U.S. intelligence official)|William Binney]], a former NSA technical director, has said that the facility was built to store recordings and other content of communications, not only for [[metadata]].<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/government_programs-july-dec13-whistleblowers_08-01/ |title=NSA Collects 'Word for Word' Every Domestic Communication, Says Former Analyst |work=PBS NewsHour |date=1 August 2013 }}</ref>

Revision as of 05:00, 17 December 2015

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The Utah Data Center, also known as the Intelligence Community Comprehensive National Cybersecurity Initiative Data Center,[1] is a data storage facility for the United States Intelligence Community that is designed to store data estimated to be on the order of exabytes or larger.[2] Its purpose is to support the Comprehensive National Cybersecurity Initiative (CNCI), though its precise mission is classified.[3] The National Security Agency (NSA) leads operations at the facility as the executive agent for the Director of National Intelligence.[4] It is located at Camp Williams near Bluffdale, Utah, between Utah Lake and Great Salt Lake and was completed in May 2014 at a cost of $1.5 billion.[5]

According to an interview with Edward Snowden, the project was initially known as the Massive Data Repository within NSA, but was renamed to Mission Data Repository due to the former sounding too "creepy".[6]

Purpose

The data center is alleged to be able to process "all forms of communication, including the complete contents of private emails, cell phone calls, and Internet searches, as well as all types of personal data trails—parking receipts, travel itineraries, bookstore purchases, and other digital 'pocket litter'."[7] In response to claims that the data center would be used to illegally monitor email of U.S. citizens, in April 2013 an NSA spokesperson said, "Many unfounded allegations have been made about the planned activities of the Utah Data Center, ... one of the biggest misconceptions about NSA is that we are unlawfully listening in on, or reading emails of, U.S. citizens. This is simply not the case."[4]

In April 2009, officials at the United States Department of Justice acknowledged that the NSA had engaged in large-scale overcollection of domestic communications in excess of the federal intelligence court's authority, but claimed that the acts were unintentional and had since been rectified.[8]

In August 2012, The New York Times published short documentaries by independent filmmakers entitled The Program,[9] based on interviews with a whistleblower named William Binney. The project had been designed for foreign signals intelligence (SIGINT) collection but, Binney alleged, after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, controls that limited unintentional collection of data pertaining to U.S. citizens were removed, prompting concerns by him and others that the actions were illegal and unconstitutional. Binney alleged that the Bluffdale facility was designed to store a broad range of domestic communications for data mining without warrants.[10]

Documents leaked to the media in June 2013 described PRISM, a national security electronic surveillance program operated by the NSA, as enabling in-depth surveillance on live internet communications and stored information.[11][12] Reports linked the data center to the NSA's controversial expansion of activities, which store extremely large amounts of data. Privacy and civil liberties advocates raised concerns about the unique capabilities that such a facility would give to intelligence agencies.[13][14] "They park stuff in storage in the hopes that they will eventually have time to get to it," said James Lewis, a cyberexpert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, "or that they'll find something that they need to go back and look for in the masses of data." But, he added, "most of it sits and is never looked at by anyone."[15]

The UDC was expected to store internet data as well as phone records from the controversial NSA call database when it opened in 2013.[16]

In light of the controversy over the NSA's involvement in the practice of mass surveillance in the United States, and prompted by the 2013 mass surveillance disclosures by ex-NSA contractor Edward Snowden, the Utah Data Center was hailed by The Wall Street Journal as a "symbol of the spy agency's surveillance prowess".[17]

William Binney, a former NSA technical director, has said that the facility was built to store recordings and other content of communications, not only for metadata.[18]

Structure

Utah Data Center, Bluffdale, Utah (United States)

The planned structure provides 1 to 1.5 million square feet (90,000 - 140,000 m2),[19][20][21] with 100,000 square feet (9,000 m2) of data center space and more than 900,000 square feet (84,000 m2) of technical support and administrative space.[7][19] It is projected to cost $1.5-2 billion.[3][7][19][22][23] A report suggested that it will cost another $2 billion for hardware, software, and maintenance.[19] The completed facility is expected to require 65 megawatts of electricity, costing about $40 million per year.[7][19] The facility is expected to use 1.7 million gallons (6435 m3) of water per day.[24] An article by Forbes estimates the storage capacity as between 3 and 12 exabytes in the near term, based on analysis of unclassified blueprints, but mentions Moore's Law, meaning that advances in technology could be expected to increase the capacity by orders of magnitude in the coming years.[2]

Toward the end of the project's construction it was plagued by electrical problems in the form of "massive power surges"[25] that damaged equipment.[17] This delayed its opening by a year.[25]

See also

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Utah Data Center.

References

  1. ^ "NSA Utah Data Center". Facilities Magazine. 14 September 2011. Retrieved 24 April 2013.
  2. ^ a b Kashmir Hill (July 24, 2013). "Blueprints Of NSA's Ridiculously Expensive Data Center In Utah Suggest It Holds Less Info Than Thought". Forbes. Retrieved 2013-07-29.
  3. ^ a b Fidel, Steve (6 January 2011). "Utah's $1.5 billion cyber-security center under way". Deseret News. Retrieved 29 March 2013.
  4. ^ a b Shalal-Esa, Andrea (15 April 2013). "U.S. agency denies data center to monitor citizens' emails". Reuters. Retrieved 16 April 2013.
  5. ^ Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics (September 17, 2014). "MilCon Status Report - August, 2014 - Under Secretary of Defense for AT&L".
  6. ^ James Bamford (August 2014). "Edward Snowden: The Untold Story". Wired.
  7. ^ a b c d Bamford, James (15 March 2012). "The NSA Is Building the Country's Biggest Spy Center (Watch What You Say)". Wired. Retrieved 5 April 2012.
  8. ^ Eric Lichtblau and James Risen (April 15, 2009). "Officials Say U.S. Wiretaps Exceeded Law". The New York Times. Retrieved September 5, 2012.
  9. ^ Poitras, Laura, The Program, New York Times Op-Docs, August 22, 2012
  10. ^ Lawson, Kent, "What Does the NSA Know About You?", Private WiFi, August 27, 2012
  11. ^ Gellman, Barton; Poitras, Laura (June 6, 2013). "US Intelligence Mining Data from Nine U.S. Internet Companies in Broad Secret Program". The Washington Post. Retrieved June 11, 2013.
  12. ^ Greenwald, Glenn; MacAskill, Ewen (June 9, 2013). "Edward Snowden: The Whistleblower Behind Revelations of NSA Surveillance". The Guardian. Hong Kong. Retrieved June 9, 2013.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  13. ^ James Risen and Eric Lichtblau (June 8, 2013). "How the U.S. Uses Technology to Mine More Data More Quickly". New York Times. Retrieved June 11, 2013.
  14. ^ Howard Berkes (June 10, 2013). "Amid Data Controversy, NSA Builds Its Biggest Data Farm". National Public Radio. Retrieved June 11, 2013.
  15. ^ Scott Shane and David E. Sanger, "Job Title Key to Inner Access Held by Snowden", New York Times, June 30, 2013
  16. ^ Thomas Burr (June 6, 2013). "Phone records could end up at NSA's Utah Data Center". Salt Lake Tribune. Retrieved June 11, 2013.
  17. ^ a b Siobhan Gorman (7 October 2013). "Meltdowns Hobble NSA Data Center". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 19 October 2013. The Utah facility, one of the Pentagon's biggest U.S. construction projects, has become a symbol of the spy agency's surveillance prowess, which gained broad attention in the wake of leaks from NSA contractor Edward Snowden.
  18. ^ "NSA Collects 'Word for Word' Every Domestic Communication, Says Former Analyst". PBS NewsHour. 1 August 2013.
  19. ^ a b c d e Kenyon, Henry (Jan 7, 2011). "New NSA data center breaks ground on construction -- Defense Systems". Defense Systems. Retrieved 11 August 2011.
  20. ^ "NSA to store yottabytes in Utah data centre". CNET Networks. Retrieved 11 August 2011.
  21. ^ Bamford, James. "Who's in Big Brother's Database? by James Bamford". The New York Review of Books. Retrieved 11 August 2011.
  22. ^ LaPlante, Matthew D. (July 2, 2009). "New NSA center unveiled in budget documents". Salt Lake Tribune. MediaNews Group. Retrieved 2009-07-05.
  23. ^ LaPlante, Matthew D. (July 2, 2009). "Spies like us: NSA to build huge facility in Utah". Salt Lake Tribune. MediaNews Group. Retrieved 2009-07-05.
  24. ^ Adams, Andrew (July 12, 2013). "New Utah NSA center requires 1.7M gallons of water daily to operate". Retrieved 2013-07-25.
  25. ^ a b "NSA data center 'crippled' by huge power surges". DatacenterDynamics. October 8, 2013. Retrieved April 27, 2014.
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Utah Data Center.

40°25′54″N 111°55′59″W / 40.431530°N 111.933092°W / 40.431530; -111.933092

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