It has long been known that cyberspace is one of the main battlegrounds in the 21st century.
However, last week’s shocking revelations about the NSA’s surveillance
and data-gathering activities illustrate the extent to which US
intelligence seeks “full-spectrum dominance” in cyberspace.
Although there have been myriad
articles in recent days about the various aspects of the NSA
surveillance story, none seem to focus on the fact that US intelligence
effectively has access to all data transmitted, not just that on Verizon
or Google servers. Essentially, the intelligence community – a
convenient euphemism for that complex that includes private contractors
and government agencies – acts much like a filter, sifting and straining
all information through its various systems. However, it is important
to realize that the system that the government has established is an
all-encompassing one, including access to data in company servers in
addition to access to the cable and fiber-optic infrastructure that
actually transmits the data.
On the one hand, there is the PRISM system which, as the Washington Post reported,
allows “The National Security Agency and the FBI [to tap] directly into
the central servers of nine leading U.S. internet companies, extracting
audio and video chats, photographs, emails, documents, and connection
logs.” Aside from being a blatant violation of the 4th Amendment
of the US Constitution, Article 8 of the European Convention on Human
Rights, and countless other international standards, the program has
been vigorously defended by Obama Administration officials who, like
their predecessors in the Bush Administration, invoke the always
convenient “National Security” trump card to justify their illegal
actions.
