NSA's Great
Power Challenge to Brazil (Folha, Brazil)
"NSA actions violate the right to
privacy, free expression and the press. It is a threat to representative
democracies which is committed, under the paradoxical argument, that it aims to
guarantee them. The espionage against Brazil is repulsive, unethical and
immoral, but is a part of the arsenal of the great powers. ... Brazil urgently
needs to invest in technologies that enable it to develop defense mechanisms
for our systems. ... The question being asked of the president is whether she
has adopted any measures to halt or eliminate these activities, or if she is
all talk."
Under
so-called "Realpolitik," the laws of power govern the world of states,
just as law of gravity govern the world of physics.
This is the rule that has always
dominated international relations, despite the creation, historically recent, of
a regulating body called the United Nations.
Espionage is used by states to gain knowledge
that will serve as a basis for advantageous decision-making. All countries have
spy agencies, euphemistically know as "intelligence."
There are five main ways to obtain HUMINT
(human intelligence), which seeks out information through the use of spies; OSINT (open source intelligence), which are open sources (newspapers, magazines, Internet
and scientific work); IMINT (image intelligence), collected images obtained with photos and video from
airplanes and satellites; MASINT (measurement and signature intelligence), obtained through seismic events
caused by, for example, the explosion of a nuclear device; and SIGINT (signal intelligence), which is the interception of communication signals.
The allegations of Edward Snowden
have denuded the National Security Agency (NSA),
the most intrusive American espionage agency, which works with SIGINT to decipher global communications networks through
satellites, telephone signals and underwater and underground cables. It is
estimated that 320 million total connections are intercepted and processed by
the NSA every day.
Software created by Narus, a company now owned by Boeing but remotely controlled
by the NSA in Fort Meade, sweeps communications
spectrums in search of addresses, telephone numbers, and network systems, capturing
key words and phrases. Any communication that raises suspicion is immediately
separated out, processed, copied and recorded for analysis.
Once somebody becomes a target, all
of their communications are evaluated, as well as any from their contacts. By
way of a process called data-mining, the information is organized into graphics
that allow for a true X-ray of their activities.
The agency is investing more than $2
billion in a new center in Bluffdale, Utah. Computers
that run at astonishing speeds measured in yottabytes
(one septillion) will decipher the intercepted data, including banking and
credit card transactions.
Such actions violate the right to
privacy, free expression and the press. It is a threat to representative
democracies which is committed, under the paradoxical argument, that it aims to
guarantee them.
The espionage against Brazil is
repulsive, unethical and immoral, but is a part of the arsenal of the great
powers, who pluck what they want from this global Web technology. Brazil
urgently needs to invest in technologies that enable it to develop defense
mechanisms for our systems and cryptography that impedes surveillance, makes it
difficult, or slows the rapid decoding of strategic data.
There is no real concern in the
public sector about Brazil's strategy to protect data, an attribute of so-called
counter-intelligence. The Brazilian Intelligence Agency and Federal Police
should coordinate with military and strategic bodies to create a culture of
data protection.
Brazil has cooperative protocols with
foreign intelligence agencies and even ongoing programs under way with American
intelligence. The question being asked of the president is whether she has
adopted any measures to halt or eliminate these activities, or if she is all talk.
*MARCELO ITAGIBA,
57, was director of Intelligence at the Federal Police (1995-99), Secretary of
Public Security of the State of Rio de Janeiro (2004-2006) and a PSDB [Brazilian Social Democracy Party] federal deputy
(2007-2011).
