WTF?
I read an interesting article, that Amazon Cloud Services made $600 million for a cloud solution covering all US security agencies.
Does anyone but me see an issue with this?
Furthermore, this setup may eventually come to bear directly on the collapsing house of cards that is the scam known as the "Russian Collusion Scandal".
What most people don't know is that in this Amazon cloud that security data have been placed into (that "outside government contractors" apparently have access to!) has a separate NSA and CIA component. The NSA component is highly auditable, access is tracked at every step with a high degree of granularity, so if someone is poking around and conducting searches, it is far easier for those with appropriate permissions to see who was looking at what data, and when they looked.
The CIA database does not have that same level of granularity in auditing, and (if I understand it correctly) the searches of audit data (who has been looking at what data) are far more tightly constrained in the CIA database, and are available to far fewer people. (I suspect the search functions in the CIA database are more oriented to a specific fewer number of people who know the structure of the CIA database and the probably arcane or more obscure language structures needed to search it.) I suspect the NSA database is easier to look through using a more user-friendly search mechanism, by more people who have simply been given permission, and the data is far more granular (detailed).
What I think all that means is, you can't search anonymously through data in the NSA database, and you are more likely to leave a trail which can more easily be found by a wider range of people, whereas, in the CIA database, once you get in the front door with the appropriate permission set, you can view a far wider range of data without leaving a footprint that it was accessed and looked at.
There are a select few number of people in the NSA and CIA who have the authority to transfer data between the two systems.
What does all this mean?
There is evidence that in 2016, there were large amounts of data moved from the NSA database (which easily exposes who looked at data) to the CIA database (which allows someone, if they get through the front door security-wise, to comb through data without leaving a trail...so you CANNOT see who looked at the data.
Interesting, no?
There was an article from Dan Bongino's website some month or two back (can't find it) that discusses it, but here is a link to the same type of information from a different article at The Citizens Outpost: Obama Administration May Have Moved Data From NSA Cloud To CIA Cloud To Avoid Audit Trail.
Here is an excerpt:
"…now some intelligence and data experts believe that the CIA cloud is how the Obama administration could have minimized its trail after unmasking US persons. “The NSA database, with its large and ongoing collection of electronic communications, can be accessed through the NSA’s cloud,” says one former senior intelligence official. The NSA can audit it and find out if analysts are violating rules. The NSA does not audit the CIA’s cloud, which is audited by the CIA’s IT people and Amazon Web Services employees who are given security clearances. Says the former official: “There are people in the CIA, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, and the National Security Council staff who can move information from the NSA cloud into the CIA cloud. That seems the likeliest scenario to explain how Obama officials first unmasked US persons and then shared information without leaving a trail that could be audited independently, or immediately, at every step. Since unmasking, by itself, is authorized for lawful purposes, it’s the processing and sharing, as with Susan Rice’s spreadsheets, that tell us if the information was being misused...”
Your information is incorrect. The audit requirements at the CIA are just as stringent. There is no one who just gets to peruse data without a trail. The Security Technical requirements on any TS database systems are insanely complex and very thorough. Trust me—I’ve worked on similar DoD systems for years.
Now accessing data is dependent upon permissions, and there are some with “god” access, but even “god” is tracked. Not a byte is unaccounted.
bttt