"Who you're talking to often matters much more than what you're saying"

[kurth]

What spy agency might do with your telephone calls
By Brian Bergstein, The Associated Press

BOSTON — If the National Security Agency (NSA) is indeed amassing a colossal database of Americans' phone records, one way to use all that information is in "social-network analysis," a data-mining method that aims to expose previously invisible connections among people. Social-network analysis has gained prominence in business and intelligence circles under the belief that it can yield extraordinary insights, such as the fact that people in disparate organizations have common acquaintances. Companies can buy social-networking software to help determine who has the best connections for a particular sales pitch.

So it did not surprise many security analysts to learn Thursday from USA Today that the NSA is applying the technology to billions of phone records. The information enables U.S. intelligence agencies to track who calls whom, and when, but does not include the contents of conversations. "Who you're talking to often matters much more than what you're saying," said Bruce Schneier, a computer-security expert and author of "Beyond Fear: Thinking Sensibly About Security in an Uncertain World."

The NSA declined to comment. But several experts said it seemed likely the agency would want to assemble a picture from more than just landline phone records. Other forms of communication, including cellphone calls, e-mail and instant messages, likely are trackable targets as well... The Internet does present new challenges for snoops, which has led federal authorities to seek an expansion of a key surveillance law so that it applies to new kinds of Web services. But even now authorities can tap into data feeds. There is a relatively small number of major Internet backbones and junctions where networks hand information off to each other. "It's not trivial to analyze all the material, but it's trivial to get to the material," said Barry Steinhardt, director of the technology and liberty program at the American Civil Liberties Union.

There is a limit to the government's capabilities. Social-network analysis would appear to be powerless against criminals and terrorists who rely on a multitude of cellphones, pay phones, calling cards and Internet cafes. And then there are more creative ways of getting off the grid. In the Madrid train-bombings case, the plotters communicated by sharing one e-mail account and saving messages to each other as drafts that didn't traverse the Internet like regular mail messages would.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2002988722_nsadata12.html

[AndyTiedye]

1. INSIDER TRADERS Could MAKE A KILLING With That Information

The CEO of company A suddenly starts making lots of L-O-N-G phone calls to the CEO of company B, a competitor. Could a merger be in the works?
(maybe give a listen to be sure, before plunking down your money. Still way before the rubes on Wall Street hear about it).