“棱鏡”計劃兄弟項目曝光 美監控海底光纜收集情報

"You Should Use Both," the slide said, in an apparent message to NSA personnel.

At the bottom was a description of "PRISM," the previously reported program that collects data from the servers” of tech companies such as Google, Microsoft, Facebook, Yahoo, Skype, PalTalk, AOL, YouTube and Apple.

Some of these tech companies have strongly denied being involved with the NSA's spying activities.

PRISM — which could be considered “downstream” collection because the data is already processed by tech companies

At the top was a blurb on "Upstream," which it described as "collection of communications on fiber cables and infrastructure as data flows past."

The Post article suggested the latter was part of an effort to tap into the fiber-optic cables that contain gobs of voice and Internet data.

Upstream lists "Fairview, Stormbrew, Blarney and Oakstar" as its sources.

According to The Washington Post, Blarney gathers up metadata on the Internet as part of “an ongoing collection program that leverages IC [intelligence community] and commercial partnerships to gain access and exploit foreign intelligence obtained from global networks.”

The slide contains a rough map of North America, showing the underseas cables fanning out from the West and East coasts of the United States, to the rest of the world.

These undersea cables are essential to worldwide data flows – and to the surveillance capabilities of the U.S. government and its allies.

Agreements with private companies protect U.S. access to cables’ data for surveillance

This “Network Security Agreement,” signed in September 2003 by Global Crossing, became a model for other deals over the past decade as foreign investors increasingly acquired pieces of the world’s telecommunications infrastructure.

The security agreement for Global Crossing, whose fiber-optic network connected 27 nations and four continents, required the company to have a “Network Operations Center” on U.S. soil that could be visited by government officials with 30 minutes of warning. Surveillance requests, meanwhile, had to be handled by U.S. citizens screened by the government and sworn to secrecy — in many cases prohibiting information from being shared even with the company’s executives and directors.美國《華盛頓郵報》7月10日爆料稱，除了“棱鏡”計劃外，美國情報機構還有一個名爲“上游”（Upstream）的監控項目，通過美國周邊的海底光纜蒐集情報。

***棱鏡有一個“哥哥”

這篇報道公佈了一張美國國家安全局的機密幻燈片，其中對“棱鏡”計劃、以及與之平行展開的“上游”計劃有所介紹。

在這一張最新公佈的演示圖中，上半部分藍色框內是“上游”項目，是從“海底光纜等基礎設施的收集數據”。圖片下半部分綠色框內解釋“棱鏡”計劃是通過谷歌、微軟、臉譜、雅虎、Skype、PalTalk、Youtube、蘋果、和美國在線等9家互聯網企業挖掘數據。

“棱鏡”計劃相當於“下游”項目，因爲收集的是經過科技公司加工的數據。

幻燈片還用黃色圓圈提醒國家安全局人員“應利用兩個項目”。

這張幻燈片中使用的背景是一張粗略的北美地圖，其中顯示了從美國東西海岸延伸至世界各地的深海電纜路線。海底光纜對世界範圍內的數據傳播方面極爲重要，對美國及其盟友的監控項目也有舉足輕重的影響。

***簽署協議與電信公司合作

爲保障“上游”項目的順利實施，美國國家安全局和國防部等機構在2003年與美國環球電訊公司簽署《網絡安全協議》。在過去10年中，有更多的電訊公司簽署了類似合作協議。

這項協議中規定，環球電訊公司需要在美國本土建立一個“網絡運行中心”，美國政府官員可以在發出警告後的半小時內進入查訪。據悉，環球電訊公司的海底光纜覆蓋全球4個大洲的27個國家和地區。

今年6月初，美國中情局前職員愛德華•斯諾登揭露美國“棱鏡”項目，稱美國國家安全局等機構通過互聯網企業監控民衆互聯網活動和通話記錄。目前，美國因此遭到外界指責，滯留莫斯科機場的斯諾登的下一步去向也成爲國際關心的話題。