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US Charges Contractor With Leaking NSA Document on Russian Hacking Wall Street Journal (subscription) A 25-year-old government contractor was arrested over the weekend and charged with leaking a secret report to a news organization that described some of Russia's election-related hacking activities, according to court papers and U.S. officials briefed ...

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US Charges Contractor With Leaking NSA Document on Russian Hacking - Wall Street Journal (subscription)

Documents received by The Washington Post indicate the National Security Agency is collecting billions of records a day to track the location of mobile phone users around the world. This bulk collection, performed under the NSAs international surveillance authority, taps into the telephony links of major telecommunications providers including some here in the United States. The NSA collects this location and travel habit data in order to do target development -- to find unknown associates of targets it already knows about. To accomplish this the NSA compiles a vast database of devices and their locations. Most of those collected, by definition, are suspected of no wrongdoing. Officials say they do not purposely collect U.S. phone locations in bulk, but a large number are swept up incidentally. Using these vast location databases, the NSA applies sophisticated analytics techniques to identify what it calls co-travelers unknown associates who might be traveling with, or meeting up with a known target. HERE IS HOW IT WORKS NSA collects 5 billion records a day on cellphones

SOURCE: The National Security Agency, OpenSignal and MIT Media Lab . GRAPHIC: The Washington Post.

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How the NSA is tracking people right now

by LINDSAY WHITEHURST, Associated Press

NSA officials deny mass surveillance during Utah Olympics (Photo: MGN)

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) A former top spy agency official who was the target of a government leak investigation says the National Security Agency conducted blanket surveillance in Salt Lake City during the 2002 Winter Olympics in Utah, according to court documents.

Ex-NSA official Thomas Drake wrote in a declaration released Friday that the NSA collected and stored virtually all electronic communications going into or out of the Salt Lake City area, including the contents of emails and text messages.

"Officials in the NSA and FBI viewed the Salt Lake Olympics Field Op as a golden opportunity to bring together resources from both agencies to experiment with and fine tune a new scale of mass surveillance," Drake wrote.

It comes as part of a lawsuit filed by attorney Rocky Anderson, who was the mayor of Salt Lake City during the games held a few months after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. Anderson said the document was disclosed to the U.S. Department of Justice on Wednesday.

Former CIA and National Security Agency director Michael Hayden has denied in court documents that such a program existed. Hayden was NSA director from 1999 to 2005.

Current NSA operations director Wayne Murphy said in court documents that NSA surveillance in Salt Lake City was limited to international communications in which at least one participant was reasonably believed to be associated with foreign terrorist groups.

Drake disputed that statement, writing that he spoke with colleagues who worked on the operation and were concerned about its legality. He said he also saw documents showing surveillance equipment being directed to the Utah program.

His declaration was written in support of the former mayor's lawsuit. Anderson said the lawsuit is designed to get more information about what he calls covert, illegal operations.

The NSA has argued the lawsuit's claims are far-fetched speculation about a program that may never have existed. A judge, though, refused a Justice Department push to dismiss the lawsuit in January.

Drake started working for the NSA in 2001 and blew the whistle on what he saw as a wasteful and invasive program. He was later prosecuted for keeping classified information. Most of the charges were dropped before trial in 2011, and he was sentenced to one year of probation.

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Ex-spy says NSA did mass surveillance during Utah Olympics - KUTV 2News

Brooks Kraft LLC/Corbis via Getty Images

Russian hackers attacked a voting software company and election officials across the country right before Election Day, according to a top secret National Security Agency report.

In the NSA's classified report from May 5, the agency detailed how Russian government hackers tried to phish US officials and VR Systems, a technology company that creates election software for eight states: California, Florida, Illinois, New York, North Carolina, Indiana, Virginia and West Virginia.

The timing of the attack happened right before the Election Day, with multiple hacking attempts centered around late October.

The report had been leaked to The Intercept on Monday, and confirmed by CBS News. Russia's cyberattacks and influence on the 2016 presidential election continue to plague the White House, as President Donald Trump sits embroiled with investigations of ties to the Kremlin. Trump has continued to deny reports of any Russian hackers meddling on his behalf, even as the FBI launched a formal investigation into any ties between his campaign and foreign cyberattacks.

The leaked report comes just three days before fired FBI director James Comey is expected to testify to the Senate Intelligence Committee about the investigation. Russian President Vladimir Putin continues to deny any nation-state hackers on the country's behalf, insisting that it could have been the work of patriotic Russians, and most recently, a child.

The NSA's report detailed that hackers on behalf of the Russian government posed as an e-voting company to fool government workers into opening emails packed with hidden malware in Microsoft Word documents.

The Russian hackers also pretended to be Google by using the email "noreplyautomaticservice@gmail.com," which they registered on August 24, 2016, according to the report. It would send emails to victims asking them to click on a link that would ultimately phish them. The NSA's report identified seven potential victims so far.

On October 27, 2016, just 12 days before the election, the hackers pretended to be VR Systems with the email address vr.elections@gmail.com, and sent fake user guides to customers on how configure their Windows machines meant for voting. Of course, those were also filled with viruses.

"It is unknown whether the aforementioned spear-phishing deployment successsfully compromised the intended victims, and what potential data could have been accessed," the NSA wrote in its report.

VR Systems didn't respond to requests for comment.

That cyberattack went out to more than 120 different local government organizations, according to the report.

Days before the report leaked, the Department of Justice filed charges against Reality Leigh Winner, a federal contractor working in Georgia, for providing classified materials to a news outlet. She was arrested at her home on Saturday, and appeared in court on Monday afternoon.

According to court documents, the classified report she had leaked was also from May 5. Winner worked for Pluribus International Corporation, an analytical and engineering company that provides services to the NSA, as well as other agencies in the intelligence community.

The NSA didn't respond to requests for comment.

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NSA report discloses Russian hacking days before US election - CNET

Atlanticmagazine writer Steve Clemons said during a Saturday panel on MSNBCs The Point with Ari Melber that National Security Administration (NSA) Director Michael Rogers may have a bomb to drop on the Trump administration.

Rogers will testify Wednesday before theSenate Intelligence Committee, which is currently investigating whether President Donald Trumps campaign colluded with Russian officials to sway the results of the 2016 election.

We now know for certain that Vladimir Putin waged political warfare against Americas democracy with the election last year, saidMother Jonesmagazines David Corn. While thats going on, Donald Trump is saying, No, its not happening. Its like a guy in front of a bank robbery saying, Nothing is going on here. He was helping.

He made it easier for Putin to pull this off, Corn said. That in itself should be a big scandal.

While a lot of people have focused on James Comey and thats obviously a huge anchor in this, Clemons said at the end of the segment, watch the Senate Intelligence Committee hearings on Wednesday. National Security Agency Director Mike Rogers may have a bomb to drop in this, as well as Dan Coates. I have been tipped off that Mike Rogers has a story to tell as well that goes right along the lines that our friend David Corn has shared.

Watch the video, embedded below:

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NSA Director Mike Rogers Poised to 'Drop a Bomb' on Trump Admin During Wednesday Testimony: MSNBC - AlterNet