body-of-secrets-anatomy-of-the-ultra-secret-national-security-agency-2002

NSA can target and intercept much electronic mail.During the discussion with the technical workforce about short-termhiring by NSA, Thompson said, "If you can see down the road two orthree or five years, and say, Well, I only need this person to do reverseengineering on Cisco routers, that's a good example for about three orfive years, because I see Cisco going away as a key manufacturer forrouters and so I don't need that expertise. But I really need somebodytoday and for the next couple of years who knows Cisco routers insideand out and can help me understand how they're being used in targetnetworks." In fact, NSA recently recruited a Cisco engineer to be the toptechnical adviser to its new transformation office, which is charged withmoving the agency forward in the new century.As communications shift from satellites to fiber optics, NSA may haveto return to tapping undersea cables—if it hasn't already done so. Butnow, instead of copper cables connecting parts of Russia, the targets maybe major commercial WDM fiber optic cables connecting continents. Andinstead of the USS Halibut, the new cable-tapping submarine may be theUSS Jimmy Carter, called the most advanced spy sub ever built, which isdue to be completed in 2004. In December 1999, Electric Boat wasawarded a $887 million contract by the Navy to extensively modify theJimmy Carter for "surveillance, mine warfare, special warfare, payloadrecovery and advanced communications." When completed, said a sourcequoted in the Los Angeles Times, the Seawolf-class sub "will be able toplace and recover top-secret 'pods' that will tap undersea fiber-opticcables for the first time."To cope with what Michael Hayden referred to as "the massive volumeof stuff" flowing into NSA every day, the agency plans to "moveprocessing more forward in our process so that you're not moving rawunprocessed stuff—so much so far."That may mean giving more responsibility to NSA's three largeRegional Sigint Operations Centers (RSOCs). The Medina RSOC, locatedat Medina Annex in Lackland, Texas, focuses on the Caribbean and onCentral and South America. The second, in an underground bunker atKunia, Hawaii, focuses on Asia. And the third, at Fort Gordon, Georgia,processes and analyzes intercepts from Europe and the Middle East.Manned jointly by NSA and its three military Sigint organizations, theRSOCs were set up to consolidate on U.S. territory much of the interceptactivity that was previously done at the scores of worldwide listeningposts. Much of the Sigint flowing into these centers comes from satellitesand remotely operated stations.Another problem created by the rapid changes in worldwidecommunications technology is how to design the newest Sigint satellitesto target these systems. The enormously expensive eavesdropping birds398