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XKeyscore (XKEYSCORE orXKS) is a secret computer system used by the United StatesNational Security Agency (NSA) for searching and analyzing global Internet data, which it collects in real time. The NSA has shared XKeyscore with other intelligence agencies, including theAustralian Signals Directorate, Canada'sCommunications Security Establishment, New Zealand'sGovernment Communications Security Bureau, Britain'sGovernment Communications Headquarters, Japan'sDefense Intelligence Headquarters, and Germany'sBundesnachrichtendienst.[1]
In July 2013,Edward Snowden publicly revealed the program's purpose and use by the NSA inThe Sydney Morning Herald andO Globo newspapers. The code name was already public knowledge because it was mentioned in earlier articles, and, like many other code names, it appears in job postings and onlinerésumés of employees.[2][3]
On July 3, 2014, Germanpublic broadcasterNorddeutscher Rundfunk, a member ofARD, published excerpts of XKeyscore's source code.[4][5]
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XKeyscore is a complicated system, and various authors have different interpretations of its actual capabilities.Edward Snowden andGlenn Greenwald have said that XKeyscore is a system that enables almost unlimitedsurveillance of anyone anywhere in the world, while the NSA has claimed that usage of the system is limited and restricted.[citation needed]
According toThe Washington Post and national security reporterMarc Ambinder, XKeyscore is an NSA data-retrieval system which consists of a series of user interfaces,backend databases, servers and software that selects certain types of data andmetadata that the NSA has already collected using other methods.[6][7]
On January 26, 2014, the German broadcasterNorddeutscher Rundfunk asked Edward Snowden in its TV interview: "What could you do if you would use XKeyscore?" and he answered:[1]
You could read anyone's email in the world, anybody you've got an email address for. Any website: You can watch traffic to and from it. Any computer that an individual sits at: You can watch it. Any laptop that you're tracking: you can follow it as it moves from place to place throughout the world. It's a one-stop-shop for access to the NSA's information.... You can tag individuals ... Let's say you work at a major German corporation and I want access to that network, I can track your username on a website on a forum somewhere, I can track your real name, I can track associations with your friends and I can build what's called a fingerprint, which is network activity unique to you, which means anywhere you go in the world, anywhere you try to sort of hide your online presence, your identity.
According toThe Guardian'sGlenn Greenwald, low-level NSA analysts can, via systems like XKeyscore, "listen to whatever emails they want, whatever telephone calls, browsing histories, Microsoft Word documents. And it's all done with no need to go to a court, with no need to even get supervisor approval on the part of the analyst."[8]
He added that the NSA's database of collected communications allows its analysts to listen "to the calls or read the emails of everything that the NSA has stored, or look at the browsing histories or Google search terms that you've entered, and it also alerts them to any further activity that people connected to that email address or that IP address do in the future".[8]
In an official statement from July 30, 2013, the NSA said "XKeyscore is used as a part of NSA's lawful foreignsignals intelligence collection system" to legally obtain information about "legitimate foreign intelligence targets in response to requirements that our leaders need for information necessary to protect our nation and its interests. ... to collect the information, that enables us to perform our missions successfully – to defend the nation and to protect U.S. and allied troops abroad."[9]In terms of access, an NSA press statement reads that there is no "unchecked analyst access to NSA collection data. Access to XKeyscore, as well as all of NSA's analytic tools, is limited to only those personnel who require access for their assigned tasks." and that there are "stringent oversight and compliance mechanisms built in at several levels. One feature is the system's ability to limit what an analyst can do with a tool, based on the source of the collection and each analyst's defined responsibilities."[10]
According to an NSA slide presentation about XKeyscore from 2013, it is a "DNI Exploitation System/Analytic Framework". DNI stands for Digital Network Intelligence, which means intelligence derived from internet traffic.[11]
Edward Snowden said about XKeyscore: "It's a front end search engine" in an interview with the GermanNorddeutscher Rundfunk.[12]
XKeyscore is a "piece of Linux software that is typically deployed onRed Hat servers. It uses theApache web server and stores collected data inMySQL databases".[13]
XKeyscore is considered a "passive" program, in that it listens, but does not transmit anything on the networks that it targets.[5] But it can trigger other systems, which perform "active" attacks throughTailored Access Operations which are "tipping", for example, the QUANTUM family of programs, including QUANTUMINSERT, QUANTUMHAND, QUANTUMTHEORY, QUANTUMBOT and QUANTUMCOPPER andTurbulence. These run at so-called "defensive sites" including theRamstein Air Force base in Germany,Yokota Air Base in Japan, and numerous military and non-military locations within the US. Trafficthief, a core program of Turbulence, can alert NSA analysts when their targets communicate, and trigger other software programs, so select data is "promoted" from the local XKeyscore data store to the NSA's "corporate repositories" for long term storage.[5]
XKeyscore consists of over 700 servers at approximately 150 sites where the NSA collects data, like "US and allied military and other facilities as well as US embassies and consulates" in many countries around the world.[14][15][16] Among the facilities involved in the program are four bases inAustralia and one inNew Zealand.[15]
According to an NSA presentation from 2008, these XKeyscore servers are fed with data from the following collection systems:[17]
In a single, undated slide published by Swedish media in December 2013, the following additional data sources for XKeyscore are mentioned:[18]
From these sources, XKeyscore stores "full-take data", which is scanned by plug-ins that extract certain types of metadata (like phone numbers, e-mail addresses, log-ins, and user activity) and indexs them in metadata tables, which can be queried by analysts. XKeyscore has been integrated withMARINA, which is NSA's database for internet metadata.[11]
However, the system continuously gets so much Internet data that it can be stored only for short periods of time. Content data remains on the system for only three to five days, while metadata is stored for up to thirty days.[19] A detailed commentary on an NSA presentation published inThe Guardian in July 2013 cites a document published in 2008 declaring that "At some sites, the amount of data we receive per day (20+ terabytes) can only be stored for as little as 24 hours."[20]
According to a document from an internal GCHQ website which was disclosed by the German magazineDer Spiegel in June 2014, there are three different types of the XKeyscore system:[21]
For analysts, XKeyscore provides a "series of viewers for common data types", which allows them to query terabytes of raw data gathered at the aforementioned collection sites. This enables them to find targets that cannot be found by searching only the metadata, and also to do this against data sets that otherwise would have been dropped by the front-end data processing systems. According to a slide from an XKeyscore presentation, NSA collection sites select and forward less than 5% of the internet traffic to thePINWALE database for internet content.[19]
Because XKeyscore holds raw and unselected communications traffic, analysts can not only perform queries using "strong selectors" like e-mail addresses, but also using "soft selectors", like keywords, against the body texts of e-mail and chat messages and digital documents and spreadsheets in English, Arabic and Chinese.[11]
This is useful because "a large amount of time spent on the web is performing actions that are anonymous" and therefore those activities can't be found by just looking for e-mail addresses of a target. When content has been found, the analyst might be able to find new intelligence or a strong selector, which can then be used for starting a traditional search.[11]
Besides using soft selectors, analysts can also use the following other XKeyscore capabilities:[11][23]
The Guardian revealed in 2013 that most of these things cannot be detected by other NSA tools, because they operate with strong selectors (like e-mail and IP addresses and phone numbers) and the raw data volumes are too high to be forwarded to other NSA databases.[11]
In 2008, NSA planned to add a number of new capabilities in the future including access toVoIP and other, unspecified network protocols and additional forms of metadata such asExif tags, which often includegeolocation (GPS) data.[11]
The NSA slides published inThe Guardian during 2013 claimed that XKeyscore had played a role in capturing 300 terrorists by 2008,[11] which could not be substantiated as the redacted documents do not cite instances of terrorist interventions.
A 2011 report from the NSA unit in theDagger Complex (close toGriesheim in Germany) said that XKeyscore made it easier and more efficient to target surveillance. Previously, analysis often accessed data NSA was not interested in. XKeyscore allowed them to focus on the intended topics, while ignoring unrelated data. XKeyscore also proved to be outstanding for tracking active groups associated with theAnonymous movement in Germany, because it allows for searching on patterns, rather than particular individuals. An analyst is able to determine when targets research new topics, or develop new behaviors.[26]
To create additional motivation, the NSA incorporated variousgamification features. For instance, analysts who were especially good at using XKeyscore could acquire "skilz" points and "unlock achievements." The training units in Griesheim were apparently successful and analysts there had achieved the "highest average of skilz points" compared with all other NSA departments participating in the training program.[26]
According to documentsDer Spiegel acquired from Snowden, the German intelligence agenciesBND (foreign intelligence) andBfV (domestic intelligence) were also allowed to use the XKeyscore system. In those documents the BND agency was described as the NSA's most prolific partner in information gathering.[27] This led to political confrontations, after which the directors of the German intelligence agencies briefed members of the German parliamentary intelligence oversight committee on July 25, 2013. They declared that XKeyscore has been used by the BND since 2007 and that the BfV has been using a test version since 2012. The directors also explained that the program is not for collecting data, but rather only for the analysis of collected data.[28]
As part of theUKUSA Agreement, a secret treaty was signed in 1954 by Sweden with the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and New Zealand (called theFive Eyes) for the purpose of intelligence collaboration anddata sharing.[29] According to documents leaked by Snowden, theNational Defence Radio Establishment (FRA) has been granted access to XKeyscore.[30]
In an ongoing scandal, where it has been revealed that NSA helped FE (Danish Defence Intelligence Service) build a new Spy datacenter at Sandagergård, Amager, XKeyscore has been made available for FE to use on the collected data.[31]
The classified documents leaked by Snowden also indicate that in April 2013, NSA had secretly provided the XKeyscore system to theJapanese government.[32]
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