7.20
A wonderful, subtle and multifaceted series about the war. It has good historical accuracy and excellent acting. It is very bad that now the viewer is more often slipped "black" films about May 1945, for example - "" (2008) or "" (2011).
Spring, sunny May 1945, the war is over. The soldiers are euphoric. Mentally, they are already returning home, joy and a desire to love and live on rejoice in them. Lieutenant Glushkov starts an affair with a German girl Erna... not yet knowing that they will be sent to fight Japan among the best units of the Soviet army. Soon the echelon will rush them to the other side of the world, again to war.
Echelon. 1 episode
Echelon. 2 series
Echelon. Episode 3
Echelon. Episode 4
Echelon. Episode 5
Echelon. Episode 6
Echelon. Episode 7
Echelon. Episode 8
Year: 2005
The country: Russia
Director: Nijole Adomenaite, Dmitry Dolinin
Film Genres: military
Starring: Stepan Abramov Artem Anchukov Liza Arzamasova Philip Azarov Sergey Burunov Mikhail Dorofeev Alexander Dubovitsky Alexander Fisenko Radik Galiullin Maria Golitsyna
Interesting facts about the series:
- The military drama is based on the novel of the same name by Oleg Smirnov.
- In total, by the beginning of the war with Japan, two front-line departments were transferred to the Far East - two front-line headquarters (reserve front-line department of the former Karelian Front from the reserve of the Headquarters of the Supreme High Command and front-line department of the 2nd Ukrainian Front), four army departments (army headquarters) - 5th , 39th and 53rd combined arms armies and the 6th tank army, 15 directorates (headquarters) of rifle, mechanized, artillery and tank corps, as well as 36 rifle, artillery and anti-aircraft artillery divisions, 53 brigades of the main branches of the military and two fortified area.
- The transfer of troops was carried out over a distance of 9-12 thousand kilometers. In total, by the beginning of August, a powerful grouping of Soviet troops numbering 1,669,500 people was concentrated in the Far East and on the territory of Mongolia. Enormous efforts were required to place all this huge mass of troops on the ground.
Modern "freedom of speech": Anglo-American global surveillance system "Echelon" has entangled the whole world May 31, 2012
The American intelligence agency NSA admitted that it "filters" the Internet for several hundred keywords - "China", "bird flu", "pork", "smart" and even "social network". The global surveillance system for the US and England "Echelon" has entangled the whole world.
Russia, together with continental Europe, needs to build its own electronic intelligence system as a counterbalance.
Another set of keywords that the US National Security Agency's (NSA) global monitoring service responds to became public after a request from the English public organization "Clearing Center for the Protection of Privacy in the Electronic Environment". The response to civil activists stated that the list included such words as "Yemen", "al-Qaeda", "nuclear security", "terrorism", etc. In general, the expected set. But the fact that the NSA's monitoring systems track even such words as "snow", "agriculture", "wave", etc. in e-mail correspondence bytovuhu, it was a surprise. (The full list of keywords can be found on the website of the British newspaper The Daily Mail). In general, practically every English-language e-mail anywhere in the world can theoretically fall under the cap of the special services.
NSA spokesman Matthew Chandler said the agency's search engine algorithms need to be refined, and "this is just the beginning of building a system to prevent terrorism and natural disasters."
Reports of American intelligence agencies spying on Internet users pop up from time to time. But more often than not, the media still gets information about "commercial surveillance" of the users of American hi-tech giants - such as Google, Facebook and Apple. These companies, however, justify that user data is not subject to disclosure to third parties, and the very surveillance of the movement of people, their search queries and surfing the network "better helps to take into account their interests."
But there is almost no information in open sources about the surveillance system of the American special services, not only for their citizens, but for all earthlings. If something comes across, it is immediately declared “conspiracy theory” and, on this basis, is displayed in the margins.
Nevertheless, from scraps of information about this system, you can get a brief idea. Back in 1946, a secret agreement on electronic espionage "UKUSA Agreement" was concluded between the United States and England. Also, this tracking system received the common name "Echelon". A little later they were joined by the English satellites of Australia, New Zealand and Canada. This union of five Anglo-Saxon countries exists to this day, but several Echelon stations were installed in Germany and Japan, as well as on the territory of the British military base in Cyprus. The French edition of Le Monde claims that the Echelon electronic tracking base is also in Israel.
("Parents" of the "Echelon" system are the British intelligence officers Harry Hinsley and Sir Edward Travis, as well as the American Brigadier General Tiltman)
The essence of the Echelon system is described as follows:
“The advent of geostationary communications satellites in the 1960s provided new opportunities for intercepting international communications. Later, the technology of using satellites in directional transmission of voice and other information in recent years has been almost completely replaced by fiber optic technologies for information transmission. Today, 99% of the world's long-distance telephone calls and Internet traffic were conducted via fiber optics.
One of the methods of interception of information can be the installation of equipment in the immediate vicinity of the routers of large fiber optic backbones, since most of the Internet traffic passes through them, and their number is relatively small. There is information about a similar point of interception in the United States called "Room 614A". In previous years, most internet traffic went through networks in the US and the UK, but the current situation looks different, for example, back in 2000, 95% of German domestic traffic was routed through the DE-CIX internet traffic exchange point in Frankfurt.”
Interestingly, the Frankfurt communications center (the largest in Europe) also handles traffic from the West to Russia. Historically, the penetration of the Internet from Europe to Russia went in two directions - from Frankfurt and through Copenhagen-Stockholm-Kingisepp-St. Petersburg. On the maps below you can see the main telecommunication cables in the world and in Europe-Russia, in particular (by clicking on the map, you can see it in an enlarged size).
In the Echelon system, each country has its own area of responsibility. Thus, England (British government communications center) looks after Europe and the European part of Russia, the United States watches over the Asian part of Russia (from the Urals and further East), northern China and Japan. During the Cold War, Canada was also engaged in electronic espionage of the north of the USSR, but with the surrender of the Soviet Union, the area of responsibility of this British dominion was redirected to Central and South America.
The NSA, according to rumors, has already learned how to get a "voice fingerprint", which is as unique as a fingerprint. According to the voice sample stored in the computer memory, any voice in the sound stream can be quickly identified. That is, if Echelon once registered the voice of a person, then later it can track his conversation from any telephone in the world.
The heads of the special services of the countries belonging to Echelon are already recognizing the existence of this system today. But they justify that electronic surveillance of any corner of the world, of any telephone conversation or e-mail, is aimed at combating terrorism, as well as at "transparency of international business." In particular, former CIA director James Woolsey said that the United States at one time managed to disrupt a $6 billion deal between Airbus and Saudi Arabia, when, thanks to Echelon wiretapping, the NSA found out that the Europeans were offering kickbacks to the Arabs. Also, the NSA interception helped US firm Raytheon secure a $1.4 billion contract to supply radar to Brazil rather than France's Thomson-CSF.
Continental Europe has long been weary of being under the hood of the Anglo-Saxon Echelon. In the early 2000s, first of all, France began to create its own electronic tracking system independent of the United States and England. France developed and operates the Helios space optoelectronic reconnaissance system with the participation of Spain and Italy (in the interests of the EU, such information is sent to the center of space intelligence in Torrejon), as well as its French electronic intelligence system.
(Map of Echelon electronic tracking bases)
France also insisted on the formation of a new joint planning and control body within the Military Staff, which provoked protest from NATO, and especially the United States. They argued that such a center would become an unnecessary back-up body for the long-successfully functioning International Military Headquarters of the alliance. But officials in the EU have insisted that the two unions have different missions and therefore should also have different governing and planning bodies.
(The base of the Echelon system near the Australian city of Darwin)
The new center began its work in the summer of 2007. However, in the same year, the pro-American French President Sarkozy began to sabotage the work of the new European collective security body. He was supported by other pro-American leaders of two key continental European countries - Berlusconi and Merkel. Today, Sarkozy and Berlusconi have left the political arena, and German Chancellor Merkel will soon do the same. And then nothing can prevent Russia from also participating in the new collective security body of continental Europe. And the first issue of such a structure should be to stop the development of American missile defense in Europe. By the way, the American missile defense system fits perfectly into the Echelon system, and the infrastructure of this missile defense system can be used for electronic monitoring of the Internet and other telecommunications in Russia.
(In the first photo - the base of electronic tracking Waihopai in New Zealand)
Starting from the 90s, the whole of Europe is thrown into a cold sweat from the terrible system of global interception of information "Echelon". There are a lot of rumors and gossip about the system, and often just fantastic stories, but what does it really represent?
Spy system "ECHELON"
The birth of the system falls on the period of the Cold War, namely in 1945. It was this year that the US President (Harry Truman) set the main task - to intercept all radio signals coming from the "dangerous" at that time Soviet Union.
It is rather difficult for one country to organize such a serious project. We need money and all kinds of support. The United States began to cooperate with Great Britain in this regard, then Canada, New Zealand, and Australia joined the project. The union was due to the favorable geographical position of the participating countries.
Despite the seemingly successful union, the countries that were part of it, at first, did not much trust the views of the United States. This is understandable, because after the end of the war, when Europe was going through hard times and was only licking its wounds, the United States began to try to create serious authority for itself.
Three years later, in 1948, the United States and Great Britain signed an agreement UKUSA, which established that the main rights to use the new system belonged to the US and the UK. Other countries that also took part in the project received the status of secondary users. The text of this agreement is still classified information and it is unlikely that it will ever be open to the public. Despite this, many "hardened" journalists provide the public with some alleged excerpts from this agreement, but there has been no official confirmation.
The agreement was signed, work on the interception began. The creators began to appear grandiose plans to envelop the entire globe with "control" points. A few years later (it is not known exactly), on the basis of this project, a system with a proud name - "Echelon" is born.
Echelon– system of global interception of information. The system includes the best technical and software solutions designed to intercept and analyze information. This system can easily recognize any language that is in its database, and if keywords are found, then we can assume that the specified object will fall under the supervision of special services.
Since its inception, Echelon has had a limited range of goals. The main ones are surveillance of the military and the countries of the socialist camp. The objects of listening were to be: the military, various government bodies, the most influential non-governmental organizations, etc. At that time, they didn’t think much about wiretapping mere mortals. Although this is according to official sources, in reality everything could be different.
As time went on, the tasks of the system expanded. By the beginning of the 1990s, the system was seriously updated. Work is underway to improve the stations intended for interception in the countries participating in the project. In many parts of the world, new stations are being built and spy satellites are being launched. Usually such countries are those where the US military has its own military bases. Naturally, a complete list cannot be found, but those places that are officially known, with established stations, you can read in the sidebar.
In the 1990s, the system undergoes a colossal update, at which time a new generation of satellites was located over the Pacific and Indian Oceans. IntelSat. At the same time, the software update starts.
Beginning in 1995, the Echelon system began to take under its mother's wing the negotiations of the Europeans. It is from this year that mass espionage begins.
Echelon stations
The main equipment at Echelon stations are satellite dishes. In addition, there are mini bases with working personnel at the stations, the purpose of which is to maintain the system in constant operation. Of the technical means installed on the bases are super computers with very high performance. Even though the data is still going to the NSA (National Security Agency) headquarters, there is little analysis going on at some stations. Thus, at once it is possible to weed out a part of the left information.
Echelon stations are characterized by a kind of mobility, which consists in their temporary construction. Those. by agreement between the states - owners of the system and the states where the launch of the station is planned, an agreement is concluded, on the basis of which it becomes possible to install the station on the territory of the agreed state for a certain time. The emergence of such databases is due to the increased interest in obtaining information from a particular country. Examples of such databases include: Bamaga", which was opened in 1988. At that time, Papua New Guinea was being monitored from this base.
For the construction of new stations, the geographic location is determined in such a way that the area of control completely overlaps. If, for any reason, one of the stations stops working, then the neighboring ones must take over its functions.
In order to somehow really show the features of the geographical structure of the stations, a couple of well-known examples can be given:
Echelon secrecy
Originally " Echelon”was classified, it is understandable, only a certain circle of people should know the project of such an appointment, but the secret was not kept for long. Part of the information was shed into the light from former agents of the special services of Canada and Australia. For example, Bill Bleek told the whole world that the Australian intelligence service Defense Signals Directorate(DSD) is engaged in the analysis and interception of radio signals for the Echelon project. In addition, Bill said that all received data is transferred to the US and the UK. After a short period of time, the former American intelligence veteran could not resist and also gave a short interview to reporters, in which he spoke about a ground interception station located near the German city of Munich. As he said in his interview, "We could hear what they are talking about in Ukraine in an undertone." The US authorities declined to comment on these events.
A few years later, one of the CIA representatives, James Woolsey, gave an interview for an American magazine in which he confirmed the data regarding the existence of Echelon. In addition, Woolsey confirmed the hypotheses of many Echelon researchers that the US uses Echelon for economic intelligence.
Echelon structure
The structure of Echelon has changed several times since its inception. Expert Duncan Campbell, speaking in the European Parliament, said that the Echelon system most likely consists of three components: the first controls the Intelsat satellites, the second controls the Vortex satellites, the third is engaged in ground interception.
Operating principle
As it has already become clear, the Echelon system intercepts data through ground-based interception stations and spy satellites, of which there are more than 150 today. The intercepted data enters an extensive computer network, in which the information is analyzed. According to the intelligence of some countries, computers are used for analysis cray.
An extensive computer network is a huge number of computers scattered in different areas. Presumably, this network is called Dictionary. Each such computer contains a database of "keywords" (more on this in the sidebar). Due to the huge number of keywords, the database is divided into categories, i.e. there may be systems that are designed to analyze intercepted information about an alleged impending murder, others to analyze possible terrorist attacks, etc.
The Echelon system is serviced by several tens of thousands of employees who have to analyze several million data every minute. In order not to get lost in such a large flow of information, the first thing to do is analyze the computer. As soon as uninteresting data is analyzed and discarded through super software, everything “useful” is already distributed to employees. Of course, even after computer screening, the information received contains a lot of garbage. Why? During conversations, many use profanity, discuss presidents, jokingly threatening to blow up the white house or release the guts of the president, the program naturally classifies such conversations as “dangerous” and only then the employees decide how to respond to this. In most cases, the data is simply discarded and no one even looks at it. The only thing that the system constantly reacts to is the Arabic-speaking population. Now, if ticklish phrases with threats come up in their conversation, then the special services will become interested in such a conversation and, if possible, take additional surveillance measures.
At this time, the entire globe is divided by the system into several sections, each of which is controlled by a specific control center. From the available information, it is known that the entire Western Europe, North Africa and our country up to the Ural Mountains are controlled by the British Government Communications Center. The American continent and the eastern part of Russia are under the control of the US NSA. Under the supervision of the intelligence services of Australia and New Zealand - the Pacific and South Asian regions.
Talking about such a system, I think many people would be interested to know some specific numbers that would reflect the power of Echelon. Presumably, Echelon can intercept almost 99% of transmitted information around the world. As for intercepted data from the Internet, Echelon is rumored to be able to check 3 billion e-mail messages a day. Here are some statistics.
Echelon today
Today, the Echelon system controls the negotiations of almost all Europeans (again, this is according to available data, how things are actually unknown). There are a huge number of spy satellites floating in space Intelsat and Vortex(more improved version Intelsat).
via satellites Intelsat Today, approximately 90% of all telephone conversations from all over the world take place, international fax communication and data exchange via the Internet. Those. any information may be available to special services.
The United States is still trying to convince that the stories about Echelon are greatly embellished, but nevertheless, it is in no hurry to disclose documents related to the system.
On the other hand, the functionality of the system can indeed be greatly exaggerated. After all, if you remember, during the entire existence of the system there have been quite a few terrorist acts, the most sensational of them on September 11, 2001. Why couldn't the security services react in time? This is far from the only example. Experts involved in the study of "Echelon" give different answers on this issue, one of which is - "The tasks of Echelon are completely different than those that are known to the public." As already mentioned, most likely this is industrial and political espionage.
The Echelon problem
The Echelon system is very much needed by the Americans and the countries that participate in the project, but those countries that are in sight are not very enthusiastic about this sper system. Their motives, I think are clear. The European Union is trying in every possible way to counter the US system. For example, after lengthy negotiations with the United States, Europe secured the closure of the station near Munich, which was an important link. After its closure, the United States released a large territory from control, including part of our country.
This is not the only case of a skirmish between Europe and the United States on this issue. In 1997, the European Commission's human rights committee published a report that outlined the rights that are violated when using the echelon system. The United States did not pay much attention to this report at the time. As a result, in 1999, the first public action against the use of Echelon took place. On October 21, everyone who wished to send out letters with all sorts of "keywords" all day long. It is clear what this action should have led to - to the extra work of employees servicing the Echelon and overloading the system. Unfortunately, the result could not be found. There were no comments from the US side. The European Parliament has repeatedly tried to resolve the case through the courts, but there were no tangible results.
Many Americans also disapprove of the Echelon system. In 1999, several American human rights organizations (Electronic Privacy Information Center, American Civil Liberties Union) opened a joint project "What is Echelon", the purpose of which is to study the monitoring activities of "Echelon". In the same year, EPIC filed a lawsuit against the US National Security Agency (NSA). In which she demanded to publish documents related to the operation of the system. However, as in other cases, the NSA ignored the request. These are not the only skirmishes over Echelon's actions, see the sidebar for more information.
The future of Echelon
Since most of the information is closed, it is difficult to predict the future of the system. Echelon has a strong opponent - Europe. So far, it is clear that the problem has not been agreed upon at the legislative level, which means that there is only one chance to create a counterbalance. So far, several ideas have been proposed for this: creating your own system, using cryptography for everything you can. Senior officials (government, FSB, etc.) use secure communication channels to conduct interviews. All conversations are encrypted with a strong algorithm. It is known that these algorithms were developed by the KGB.
As for the counterbalance, the European Parliament in 2006 approved the creation of a European satellite tracking system. All EU countries will take part in the creation of the new tracking system. Perhaps this is the right decision.
Analogues "Echelon"
After reading the article, one can make the erroneous conclusion that we are under the constant control of America and there is nothing for our country to answer. This is not true. Back in the USSR, a worthy analogue of Echelon was invented. Moreover, this was done at about the same time, when Echelon began to gain momentum. The name of this system is SOUD (Combined Enemy Data Recording System).
According to official data, the agreement between the Warsaw Pact countries was signed in 1977. The system was built on the eve of the Olympic Games and its main goal was to prevent terrorist attacks against athletes and all kinds of famous guests. The USSR has always been famous for its excellent security. Naturally, it would be foolish to create an expensive system for the sake of one Olympiad, so the system had a big future planned. About everything in order.
Unlike Echelon, SOUD was well classified. Perhaps they would never have known about him (the USSR knew how to keep and create secrets) if not for the traitor colonel Oleg Gordievsky. It was thanks to him that the whole world knew that SOUD existed. Moreover, the British were the first to know about this, so it was they who recruited him.
Operating principle
As I said, the principle of operation of the SOUD is the same as that of Echelon. The stations intercepted the information, and it was analyzed by super computers. For information processing on "key words" the computers made in Bulgaria and computers from the IBM company were used. These computers contained a large database with information about the key people of that time: the military, leading businessmen, foreign politicians, and all those who could be of interest to the USSR.
SOUD had good performance for that time. It took a little more than four hours to search for an interesting candidate. A very limited number of people had access to the system, namely the highest ranks of the intelligence services of the socialist countries.
The information that was intercepted was analyzed in spirit computer centers. The first was in Moscow, and the second in the GDR. The system worked perfectly until 1989, when, as a result of the unification of the FRG and the GDR, the computer center located in the GDR became the property of the German intelligence (on its basis, Germany began to develop its own similar system). Due to this loss, SOUD was deprived of half of its capabilities.
But the story of SOUD did not end there. In the early 90s, everything that was left of the SOUD was subject to a global update, or rather, transformation. From its remnants, a new Russian intelligence system emerged. Several new stations were built, and those that remained from the former SOUD were updated.
US under control
The Americans tried to gain control over us, and we over them. One of the SOUD intercept stations is located in Cuba. This is an ideal place to intercept information from America. The agreement between Russia and Cuba, concluded in the 90s, guaranteed the possibility of using the station until the year 2000. There is no exact data, but most likely this contract was extended.
SOUD today
After its transformation in the 90s, SOUD continues to exist. Now this system is controlled by the special services of FAPSI (Federal Agency for Government Communications and Information under the President of the Russian Federation) and the GRU (Main Directorate of the General Staff of the Armed Forces). There is no new information about the system, because. everything is classified and it is unlikely when it will be available to the public.
"Echelon Intercept Stations"
"Skirmishes with Echelon"
The European Commission's Human Rights Committee published a report on the Echelon system, which published a list of rights violated by the system.
A huge scandal erupted in Europe when it became known that as a result of the interception of messages by the Echelon system, several major contracts of European and Asian concerns were disrupted.
Everyone who was against the use of the Echelon system held a protest. All day they sent out a bunch of emails with possible keywords. As a result, employees in Echelon have a lot of work to analyze leftist information.
The Electronic Privacy Information Center and the American Civil Liberties Union are filing a lawsuit against the US National Security Agency, demanding that documents relating to the functioning of the system be made public.
Geoffrey Richelson gains access to some of the Echelon documents.
The European Parliament begins its own investigation into the functioning of the system. For this purpose, a separate temporary committee is being created. Almost at the same time, the French authorities begin their independent investigation.
One of the members of the New Zealand Parliament, Rod Donald, called on the government to withdraw from the Echelon network.
A similar action, which was held in 1999.
Former Canadian intelligence agent Mike Frost said in an interview that using the Echelon system, on behalf of Margaret Thatcher, he spied on two ministers of her cabinet.
telopolis reported that former CIA director James Woolsey confirmed at a press conference in Washington that US intelligence agencies were monitoring European communications for bribery. This confirmation sparked strong indignation among the Europeans.
After completing their investigation, which lasted almost a year, a group of deputies decided to go to the United States to negotiate on resolving issues related to the illegal use of the Echelon system. However, representatives of the American State Department, CIA officials refused to meet.
At the request of the European Parliament, the Americans are beginning to turn off the ground interception station located near Munich.
The European Parliament decides to create its own tracking system.
SOUD project
This year, Russia is extending the agreement to extend the lease of the territory on which the electronic espionage center is located.
Thanks to the intercepted information by the SOUD system, a drug trafficking operation was uncovered in Kamran by former employees of the Russian special services.
On February 7, 1996, the British began to accuse Russian President Boris Yeltsin of allegedly instructing his intelligence officers to intensify their activities in buying American trade and economic secrets.
According to unofficial sources, in this Russia has modernized its base in Cuba.
Russian President Boris Yeltsin signed Decree No. 461 "On the conclusion of an agreement between the FSB of the Russian Federation and the Ministry of Revolutionary Armed Forces of the Republic of Cuba on cooperation in the field of military counterintelligence."
Almost seventy years have passed since the last volleys of the Second World War died down, and military dramas continue to excite the hearts of people. "Echelon" is a film that viewers of all generations will watch with interest online. The plot of the picture was based on the novel of the same name by the writer Oleg Smirnov. The war is coming to an end. No one doubts the victory of the Soviet troops. And mentally the soldiers are already returning to their home, to a peaceful life. The main character of the picture, Lieutenant Glushkov, reached Berlin, retaining his humanity, kindness and sense of humor. Spring does its job, blood boils, romantic moods make themselves felt. And there would be no falling in love with a Soviet nurse. But Cupid does not ask and shoots wherever he pleases - Glushkov fell in love with a German Erna. Friends are sympathetic to his feelings, but the command cannot approve of such an immoral connection. For command, the girl is the daughter of the enemy side. And ahead is the celebration of the Victory and the subsequent journey to the Far East. Still to end the war with Japan ...
1.02.2015 / 22:34 | pomnibeslan
"Take the blue pill and the story is over. You'll wake up in your bed and believe it was a dream. Take the red pill and you'll enter Wonderland. I'll show you how deep the rabbit hole goes." k/f The Matrix
SOUD and SORM: it all started with telephone wires
For more than 150 years, physicists, radio engineers, engineers and designers have worked tirelessly to improve telephone communications. The first telephone prototype was created in 1860.
Serious technical devices are serious goals: true, genuine, paramount. So it has always been and so it will be - landline phone, mobile communications, the Internet - it does not matter.
The Soviet System of Combined Accounting for Data on a Strategic Enemy "SOUD" was designed on the eve of the International Olympic Games in Moscow (1980) with the aim of quickly collecting data for counterintelligence activities. At that time, the KGB had information that the Western intelligence services intended to carry out hostile actions during the competition. The leadership of the USSR provided "SOUD" for the use of special services from friendly states of the "Warsaw Pact". But of course, only partially, hiding the true potential of the intelligence system from them.
Of course, "SOUD" did not appear out of nowhere and has a solid foundation, if I may say so - a historically established tradition of "wiretapping" of domestic penates. The beginning was laid back in 1913, when the telephone conversations of the people's deputies of the IV State Duma of St. Petersburg were tapped with special equipment. A little later, radio engineers began to "supply" each PBX with a listening module.
Once upon a time, devices with automatic caller ID (CALL) proudly bore the status of know-how and, by the way, were very expensive. And today consumers of connected communication are surprised by something else - the absence of this function in them. But another fact is interesting in this story - by whom and for what purpose the system for recognizing incoming calls was developed.
Do you think a phone equipped with caller ID was created to increase the comfort of communication? Caller ID was one of the classified functions of the PBX. It was then that the "left-handers", so to speak, craftsmen from the people, saw through its technical essence and began to actively introduce stationary models into the design. Although it is also possible that the “closed” GA system, in the early 90s, when the Soviet Union began to fall apart, was successfully sold into private hands. Legal or not - again, one can only guess.
But AON was only a trial rehearsal of total control. In 1994 state intelligence agencies are beginning to introduce internal monitoring systemSORM (system of operational-search measures). Its functions are activated from the PU (control panel) installed in the FSB, the Ministry of Internal Affairs or the FGC UES. It has a higher priority than PBX stations. And it has almost limitless subscriber tracking capabilities.
SORM's arsenal includes:
- control of incoming/outgoing calls of any value (from local to long distance);
- control of calls of subscribers using additional types of services - forwarding, abbreviated numbers, etc.;
- disconnection and blocking of incoming / outgoing calls of the subscriber from the PU;
- secret connection from PU to subscriber communication lines, including those with an established connection;
- recording telephone conversations on any lines.
SORM "opens" the state security workers a complete overview of the data:
- sequence number of the subscriber under control;
- status/level of control;
- line number with full listening;
- a mark on the semi-automatic mode of incoming communication;
- number of the called subscriber (each digit in dialing order);
- determination of the number of the called subscriber before his answer within the intercom;
- determination of the number of the called subscriber after the answer when establishing incoming communication from other stations;
- setting the number of the incoming bundle of the communication channel (when it is impossible to determine the number of the called subscriber);
- start/end time and duration of the listening conversation.
In the second half of the 90s, modified versions of SORM were created:
- SORM-1 (1996) - for listening to telephone conversations;
- SORM-2 (2000) - for logging telephone connections and user actions on the Internet.
The document of the Ministry of Information Technology and Communications, describing the set of rules and powers of SORM, is called "Order No. 6" (dated January 16, 2008)
The Americans, 5 years after the release of SORM, created its "stripped down" version. It received a double name: "Carnivore" (carnivore) and Digital Collection System (according to the FBI). It is used to track the e-mail of suspected citizens.
The evolution of intelligence technologies: the American Echelon system
Beyond the threshold of the millennium, of course, the landline phone has lost its former relevance. On the crest of the wave of scientific and technological revolution, new achievements shone as a beacon of science - cellular communications, GPS. And again, seemingly peaceful user benefits were painted in tones of militarism and information warfare: intelligence services have never been indifferent to space surveillance tools, and even more so in the 21st century.
American peacekeepers apparently caught the "wind of innovative change" before the rest and created a global espionage network Echelon ("Echelon"). An outstanding invention and at the same time terrible: the Echelon system scans many frequency bands, including mobile and relay communication protocols. Intercepts information and filters it through special software for given keywords. In other words, this is a kind of planetary ear with its own built-in search engine - an impressive tandem of a system of space satellites and powerful computing resources.
The top officials of the United States, without irony or cunning, declare that the mission of Echelon is exceptional - a merciless fight against an insidious evil: terrorists and drug dealers of international importance. Perhaps this is true - but not all. Is it only the intelligence network? Such a class, level, with such opportunities. Unlikely. Echelon can find out (to put it mildly!) the situation in any region of the Earth - in the jungle, in the mountains, and in the ocean. And, as you know, who owns the information, he owns the world. Literally so! If it is known what this or that state “breathes” and “lives”, if it is clear (heard!) What kind of debate is being held among its leaders and leaders, why not change the course of the election campaign in it (for example, for the post of president)? Quite!
Space reconnaissance is especially subtle and especially dangerous. There, in weightlessness, not everything is as calm and peaceful as it might seem within the naked eye or through the telescope of an amateur astronomer. In the planetary orbit, there is an unspoken redistribution of the "vacuum space" - America, Russia, China, the European Union.
The USA is in the lead and without hiding its "appetite" seeks to become the sole owner of the circumplanetary space. For here, at a distance of 100 to 300 km from the Earth, spy satellites, missiles, laser weapons, and God knows what technologies can be placed. Threatening, proving a strategic advantage, carrying out global surveillance of people, objects, countries, continents. Or, even worse, they control the mental and physiological state of people.
Otherworldly "charms" of mobile chatter
The scope of mobile communications reached its peak in 2007. Although even now the statistics of its, so to speak, consumption, glows with unhealthy peaks and overshoots. For all conveniences, the facts and figures are definitely unsettling:
- all the same, in 2007, young people in the age group of 5-24 years old spent more than 150 billion dollars on mobile calls;
- on average, a teenager spends 8 times more time on cell phone calls than listening to his favorite music hits.
But in the middle of the 90s, these characteristics were practically equal to zero. Why is it all? To scale! Mobile communications like a virus enveloped the planet. But how? She is useful, she is in the service of people. Certainly yes. But there is another side to it... a dark one, beyond the interests of "mere mortals."
Let's return to the Echelon system. Mobile communication for its owners is a storehouse of information. There is evidence that she necessarily monitors conversations on mobile phones in the United States, Europe, Asia and Africa. Echelon supercomputers work hard not only for the security of America and NATO partners, but also to increase the competitiveness of companies in these countries.
Learn more about the capabilities of the Echelon system
The first prototype of the Echelon system was created in the era of the Cold War, in 1945. The then President of America, Harry Truman, perfectly understood how important it was to know, see and hear what their main political and economic opponent, the Soviet Union, was doing. In the context of a strategic task, he instructed the special services to create a system for intercepting radio signals "penetrating" from the territory of the USSR. 3 years after the creation of the system, in 1948, the United States signs an agreement with Great Britain called "UKUSA" on uniform rights to use the system. Since the project was collaborative, scientists from several countries took part in it. Other countries, whose share of efforts in the creation of the Echelon system was smaller, received the status of restricted use.
After the fall of the Iron Curtain, the intelligence system did not stop working, but was only refocused on other tasks - no less global in terms of information security:
- tracking bank transfers;
- collection of political compromising materials;
- identification of large shadow transactions (conclusion of contracts, money laundering);
- replenishment/updating of databases of security services (objects, people, industrial complexes), etc.
Global Electronic Intelligence System Echelon sifts through the bits of data it seeks in a turbulent flow of information, like a whale trapping plankton in the ocean. Its spy satellites use masked, so-called "outlets" from switching communication lines to carry out radio interception. To achieve the goal of obtaining data - listening - all means are involved (radio reconnaissance bases, commercial satellites, radio networks, including those of strategic importance). Is it worth talking about the secrecy of such a procedure?
Telephone conversations, telegraph messages, data packets sent by fax, web traffic (e-mail) and other telecommunication channels are within the field of view/hearing of the Echelon system. Or rather, its owners. But that's not all! The tornado of "global informational curiosity" is only gaining momentum. American manufacturers of telecommunications equipment are politely instructed from above: so, they say, and so, you need to add our code to the software of your system / station / gadget; just a few kilobytes, to ensure state security. Many independent technical experts tend to think that it is thanks to such "instructions" and "modifications" that the US intelligence agencies obtain up to 85% of intelligence.
Echelon is a spy pipeline, an information vacuum cleaner with the highest IQ score. And this is neither praise nor praise. Not at all. Rather, it is an expression of a feeling of horror: a decentralized network of super-powerful computers of the system is capable of receiving and analyzing more than 1 billion “extracted” messages within 24 hours. Is it a lot or a little? Enough to keep abreast of all the events of the planet Earth. And not abstractly, but in details - secret, piquant - whatever.
Information trophies of "Echelon" are carefully laid out on the shelves of a huge database. In terms of its functions and capabilities, it is in no way inferior to the Internet, except that it has a smaller size. It is served by a huge staff of programmers (and certainly very talented ones). The same “comrades”, according to intelligence directives, provide from the database all the necessary data on the object of interest - phone numbers, addresses, last names, etc. If you have aroused suspicion among state security agents, they can easily put you “on a pencil” through Echelon. There are at least three reasons for assigning this status:
- Number "in development" - obtained by agents during the detention of a suspect, seizure of documents, from "informants".
- The number that attracted the attention of Echelon, according to certain keywords, inspires fear / threat to the state, company or any person.
- A number of potential strategic interest (for example, located in the area of the terrorist base).
The web space is not left without attention. Data processing centers (DPC), transit channels in Europe and the United States have been actively “worked out” by the spy machine since the beginning of the globalization of the Internet, in the early 90s. And most importantly - officially, exclusively on a legal basis: in accordance with the provisions of the IUR protocol and the document "International Interception Requirements". The results and methods of traffic scanning are published in the Enfopol document. Its new version comes out about once every year and a half.
The confidentiality of MasterCard, Visa, Diners Club and other popular payment systems, by analogy with telecommunications, is also very symbolic. Albeit at the level of state structures, but still. Transactions and transfers are checked for unreasonable movements within the state, payments - regarding "strange purchases". In a special focus of the special services is the cashing out of large sums. So it turns out that plastic cards are not only a convenient means for financial transactions, but also a tool for tracking the commercial activity of a particular entity, legal entity. The unique number of "plastic", its electronic trace is not so easy to hide. It is payment cards that “tell” federal agents what kind of “sponsored” contributions and from whom criminal structures receive.
"Man in the middle" - a new generation of espionage strategy
The hour is not even when the characteristics of Google will be measured by the eponymous mathematical number "googol" - 10 to the 100th degree. Income, users, gigabytes of space on servers - yes, everything that is possible. The titan of IT-technologies already now can afford almost everything. Yes, even friendship with the American NSA (National Security Agency). By the way, it's a fact: the NSA and Google still have certain sympathies for each other. Part of their "relationship", of course, is open: the protection of cyberspace, the all-night and all-night vigil of privacy - in general, almost an anti-hacker coalition. But the fact of the matter is that only a part of it. After all, they do not advertise their methods of conducting “defense” in the media. Although everything is clear anyway: when someone climbs with a crowbar, as a rule, another crowbar is substituted towards him. Spy tricks, reconnaissance, surveillance are probably in the arsenal of this company. And, of course, in large quantities! Otherwise, it wouldn't be solid. Another argument supporting this theory is the classified documents on the partnership between the NSA and Google: we will show the results, but we will not tell what behind the scenes.
In the spring of 2012, a witty essay flashed through the pages of IT World, in which the activities of such giants of the web industry as Facebook and Google, for clarity, were compared to a hacker attack "man in the middle" (MITM). The author of the post took the context “the same methods” from reality.
Forced curiosity or virtuoso espionage
Remember Plyushkin from Gogol's Dead Souls? So, Google is strikingly similar to this "collector". Only he collects not objects and utensils, but data. All user data, some only exist, some can only be fished out: IP, ID, PC configuration, display diagonal, browser version, Flash - all this “curious barbarian” needs to “drop” into its database. Maybe it'll come in handy.
Thanks to an independent investigation by Noah Schachtman, author of the blog "Danger Room", dedicated to the activities of intelligence and the US military, new facts about Google's early cooperation with intelligence agencies have surfaced. So, according to Shakhtemna, the company with the meaningful name "Recorded Future" deserves special attention. These guys openly and clearly state that they own a fundamentally new technology for surveillance and intelligence gathering. And in parallel, they give figures and options for their potential: real-time scanning of up to 100 thousand websites, blogs, Twitter accounts; identifying relationships between users, identifying events, patterns. And then, after the list of "services", Recorded Future sort of sums up: "based on the data we receive, we can predict the future."
In the summer of 2010, the authoritative "Washington Post" told its readers about the scale of the US intelligence community over the past decade. The information was presented in the format of journalistic investigations. The name "Google" appeared in the stream of disclosed materials. In their reports, reporters, citing authoritative sources, pointed out that Google develops mapping and search software for the US military and intelligence, and that some of the company's employees have an increased priority for access to state secrets labeled "Top Secret".
Canons of Democratic wiretapping
Ilya Sachkov, director of Group-IB, in an interview with Vedomosti, said that Russian intelligence services have been listening and locating users in the Skype program for several years now. He summed it up unambiguously: "That's why our employees don't discuss company affairs on Skype."
Yevgeny Chichvarkin, the founder of Euroset, also recommends being extra careful with the popular communicator. In addition, he notes that in 2009 the level of Skype confidentiality was much higher (Evgeny used this program during the search of Euroset). The most popular "talker" of the Internet received greater accessibility and democracy in terms of confidentiality a little later ...
Maxim Emm, expert and CEO of Peak System, says: “In May 2011, Skype was bought by Microsoft and provided the program with tracking technology. At the request of special services or a court decision of any state, the suspected user's communication channel switches to wiretapping mode. Moreover, its encryption keys are not generated in a personal PC / phone, but on a Microsoft server. Moreover, N. Pryanishnikov, the head of the Russian branch of Microsoft, reports: "If necessary, the company can provide the source code of the Skype communicator to the FSB service in order to quickly decrypt the transmitted data." Although the special services from China may not need such a service. And it's not that they're incurious and careless...
Jeffrey Knockel, a programmer from the University of New Mexico, having examined the Chinese distribution of Skype, found that it is equipped with nothing less than a keylogger - spyware that registers the keys pressed by the user. The agile "assistant" of the state security of the PRC painstakingly analyzes the "scribble" of users and, having found suspicious words in the correspondence, merges the recorded logs (message text) to the appropriate authorities. Having disassembled the keylogger algorithm into dowels and screws, Nokel also managed to find a list of forbidden words. Among them: BBC News, Reporters Without Borders, Tiananmen Square, where a protest was brutally suppressed in 1989.
Hackers versus intelligence
The community of "free artists" of cyberspace, as it turned out, may well wipe its nose and intelligence, and counterintelligence, and other "mechanisms" of state security. And how: the famous German hacker StarBug (Jan Krissler) and his colleague Tobias Fiebig on December 27, 2014 at the Chaos Computer Club conference in Hamburg clearly demonstrated the failure of biometric identification (a user authorization mechanism based on fingerprints and iris). They managed to clone the prints of Ursula von der Leyen, the German Minister of Defense, from ordinary photographs. Yang and Tobias processed different projection angles of the minister's fingers in the pictures using the commercial technology VeriFinger and, as a result, received "potential keys" for access to military secrets and classified objects of the country.
At the end of his report, Crissler jokingly summed up his achievements: “Soon, prominent politicians will have to wear gloves at public meetings. By the way, we wanted to get Angela Merkel's prints, but nothing came of it. And all because of her habit of keeping her fingers crossed.
Postscript of the present to the future - a "transparent" world
Computers, satellites, communications networks, the global web... what's next? Will it be possible for one person to say something to another in secret, in secret, far from other people's ears? No, not virtually on the Internet - after all, today, in the 21st century, the era of ubiquitous virtual surveillance, this can no longer be done. And so, simply, tete-a-tete - in a cafe for a cup of tea, on the edge of the forest, in the wilds of the country wilderness. And what difference does it make with whom and about what: is it possible or not? In the second decade of the millennium, this question, unfortunately, can no longer be answered unambiguously.
Amazing! But if you move 100, what is there, 50-30 years back in time and tell some inhabitant of the past this problem, how would he react? He laughed, would have twisted his finger at his temple and advised to go to the doctor - to be checked for the syndrome of "persecution mania". Surely, his answer would have looked exactly like that. Nonsense and regularity rolled into one.
And what will information security be like in the future, in the allegorical "tomorrow" and "the day after tomorrow"? Implantation of an electronic chip in the first minutes of birth, access to social benefits by ID on the hand, a matrix? Harsh conjectures and hypotheses come to mind for a reason, not without reason. And I don’t want to remember the “brand of the beast” from the revelations of John the Theologian. So, the ruins of the "information war", the victims of the "information weapon" are people, rational beings, consisting of a body and a soul...
