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Utah Data Center

Coordinates: 40°25′54″N 111°55′59″W / 40.431530°N 111.933092°W / 40.431530; -111.933092
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The Utah Data Center will gather data from intercepted satellite communications and underwater ocean cables. Analysts will decipher, analyse and store the information in order to spot potential national security threats. The facility will be heavily fortified with backup generators and powerful equipment to keep the vast computer network cool.

The Utah Data Center, also known as the Intelligence Community Comprehensive National Cybersecurity Initiative Data Center,[1] is a data storage facility for the United States Intelligence Community that is designed to store extremely large amounts of data, on the scale of yottabytes..[2][3][4] Its purpose is to support the Comprehensive National Cybersecurity Initiative (CNCI), though its precise mission is classified.[5] The National Security Agency (NSA), which will lead operations at the facility, is the executive agent for the Director of National Intelligence.[6] It is located at Camp Williams, near Bluffdale, Utah, between Utah Lake and Great Salt Lake.

Purpose

Utah Data Center, Bluffdale, Utah

The data center is alleged to be able to process "all forms of communication, including the complete contents of private emails, cell phone calls, and Internet searches, as well as all sorts of personal data trails—parking receipts, travel itineraries, bookstore purchases, and other digital 'pocket litter'.

In April 2009, officials at the United States Department of Justice acknowledged that the NSA had engaged in large-scale "overcollection" of domestic communications in excess of the federal intelligence court's authority, but claimed that the acts were unintentional and had since been rectified.[7]

In August 2012, The New York Times published short documentaries by independent filmmakers entitled The Program,[8] based on interviews with a whistleblower named William Binney, a designer of the NSA's Stellar Wind project. The project had been designed for foreign signals intelligence (SIGINT) collection but, Binney alleged, after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, controls that limited unintentional collection of data pertaining to U.S. citizens were removed, prompting concerns by him and others that the actions were illegal and unconstitutional. Binney alleged that the Bluffdale facility was designed to store a broad range of domestic communications for data mining without warrants.[9]

Documents leaked to the media in June 2013 described PRISM, a national security electronic surveillance program operated by the NSA, as enabling in-depth surveillance on live Internet communications and stored information.[10][11] Reports linked the data center to the NSA's controversial expansion of activities, which store extremely large amounts of data. Privacy and civil liberties advocates raised concerns about the unique capabilities that such a facility would give to intelligence agencies.[12][13] “They park stuff in storage in the hopes that they will eventually have time to get to it,” said James Lewis, a cyberexpert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, “or that they’ll find something that they need to go back and look for in the masses of data.” But, he added, “most of it sits and is never looked at by anyone.” [14]

The UDC is expected to store Internet data as well as phone records from the controversial NSA call database when it opens in 2013.[15]

Structure

The planned structure is 1 million or 1.5 million square feet,[4][2][16] 100,000 square feet of data center space and greater than 900,000 square feet of technical support and administrative space,[3][4] and it is projected to cost from $1.5 billion[17][18][5] to $2 billion when finished in September 2013.[3][4] One report suggested that it will cost another $2 billion for hardware, software, and maintenance.[4] The completed facility is expected to require 65 megawatts, costing about $40 million per year.[3][4]

See also

References

  1. ^ "NSA Utah Data Center". Facilities Magazine. 14 September 2011. Retrieved 24 April 2013.
  2. ^ a b "NSA to store yottabytes in Utah data centre". CNET Networks. Retrieved 11 August 2011. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |1= (help)
  3. ^ a b c d Bamford, James (15 March 2012). "The NSA Is Building the Country's Biggest Spy Center (Watch What You Say)". Wired Magazine. Retrieved 5 April 2012.
  4. ^ a b c d e f Kenyon, Henry (Jan 07, 2011). "New NSA data center breaks ground on construction -- Defense Systems". Defense Systems. Retrieved 11 August 2011. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  5. ^ a b Fidel, Steve (6 Jane 2011). "Utah's $1.5 billion cyber-security center under way". Deseret News. Retrieved 29 March 2013. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  6. ^ "U.S. agency denies data center to monitor citizens' emails". Reuters. 15 April 2013. Retrieved 16 April 2013.
  7. ^ Eric Lichtblau and James Risen (April 15, 2009). "Officials Say U.S. Wiretaps Exceeded Law". The New York Times. Retrieved September 5, 2012.
  8. ^ Poitras, Laura, The Program, New York Times Op-Docs, August 22, 2012
  9. ^ Lawson, Kent, What Does the NSA Know About You?, Private WiFi, August 27, 2012
  10. ^ Gellman, Barton; Poitras, Laura (June 6, 2013). "US Intelligence Mining Data from Nine U.S. Internet Companies in Broad Secret Program". The Washington Post. Retrieved June 11, 2013.
  11. ^ Greenwald, Glenn; MacAskill, Ewen (June 9, 2013). "Edward Snowden: The Whistleblower Behind Revelations of NSA Surveillance". The Guardian. Hong Kong. Retrieved June 9, 2013. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |1= (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  12. ^ James Risen and Eric Lichtblau (June 8, 2013). "How the U.S. Uses Technology to Mine More Data More Quickly". New York Times. Retrieved June 11, 2013.
  13. ^ Howard Berkes (June 10, 2013). "Amid Data Controversy, NSA Builds Its Biggest Data Farm". National Public Radio. Retrieved June 11, 2013.
  14. ^ Job Title Key to Inner Access Held by Snowden NY Times June 30, 2013
  15. ^ Thomas Burr (June 6, 2013). "Phone records could end up at NSA's Utah Data Center". Salt Lake Tribune. Retrieved June 11, 2013.
  16. ^ Bamford, James. "Who's in Big Brother's Database? by James Bamford". The New York Review of Books. Retrieved 11 August 2011. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |1= (help)
  17. ^ LaPlante, Matthew D. (July 2, 2009). "New NSA center unveiled in budget documents". Salt Lake Tribune. MediaNews Group. Retrieved 2009-07-05.
  18. ^ LaPlante, Matthew D. (July 2, 2009). "Spies like us: NSA to build huge facility in Utah". Salt Lake Tribune. MediaNews Group. Retrieved 2009-07-05.

40°25′54″N 111°55′59″W / 40.431530°N 111.933092°W / 40.431530; -111.933092

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