Badan Intelijen AS Sadap 200 Juta SMS per Hari
NSA Accused of Collecting 200 Million Text Messages Per Day
Editor : Ismail Gani
Translator : Novita Cahyadi
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London (B2B) - Badan Keamanan Nasional AS (NSA) mengumpulkan hampir 200 juta pesan singkat (SMS) setiap hari dari seluruh dunia, lapor surat kabar The Guardian dan Channel 4 News Inggris, mengutip dokumen bocor terbaru yang dipublikasikan dari file-file Edward Snowden.
Kedua media Inggris itu melaporkan bahwa NSA menggunakan SMS untuk mengekstrak data di lokasi, jejaring kontak, dan detail kartu kredit si pemilik ponsel.
Dinas mata-mata Inggris diberi akses oleh NSA untuk mencari metadata warga Inggris yang sudah terkoleksikan oleh mereka. Metadata adalah informasi mengenai pesan teks, bukan konten yang sebenarnya, seperti dilansir IB Times.
Dokumen rahasia yang bocor itu menyebutkan program bersandi Dishfire tersebut mengumpulkan apa pun yang diinginkan NSA, lapor Guardian dan Channel 4 News.
Dishfire bekerja dengan mengumpulkan dan menganalisis pesan teks otomatis seperti pemberitahuan "missed call" atau "texts sent" (teks sudah terkirim) untuk menginformasikan pengguna mengenai biaya roaming internasional, lapor kedua media.
Program ini juga mampu menjejak nomor kartu kredit pengguna ponsel dengan menggunakan sms dari bank.
Dokumen ini ditarik dari presentasi internal NSA mengenai program ini pada 2011 dan makalah-makalah fasilitas spionase elektronik GCHQ milik Inggris.
NSA tak mengomentari kabar ini, namun GCHQ menegaskan bahwa pihaknya bekerja di bawah hukum Inggris.
NSA menyatakan pengumpulan sms ini dilakukan berdasarkan ketentuan hukum yang ketat dan sudah terseleksi. "DISHFIRE adalah sistem yang memproses dan menyimpan data SMS yang dikumpulkan secara sah," kata NSA.
"Mengingat beberapa data SMS warga AS mungkin pada suatu waktu secara kebetulan terkumpul dalam misi intelijen luar negeri sah NSA, maka perlindungan privasi untuk warga AS berada dalam seluruh cakupan proses dengan mempertimbangkan penggunaan, penanganan, penyimpanan dan penyebarluasan data SMS dalam DISHFIRE," kata NSA.
Menurut lembaga ini setiap data mengenai warga asing tak berdosa segera dihapus.
London - The US National Security Agency (NSA) collected about 200 million text messages per day across the globe as part of its surveillance measures, according to a joint investigation report by the Guardian and Britain´s Channel 4 News.
The disclosure, based on material provided by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, shows that the spy agency used the collection and storage of SMS messages to extract information on people´s travel plans, contact books, financial transactions and credit card details.
The NSA used a programme, codenamed Dishfire, to collect text messages. It also collected messages of individuals under no suspicion of illegal activity.
The investigation also found the UK spy agency GCHQ making use of the NSA database to search the metadata of communications by Britons.
GCHQ documents said that Dishfire collects "pretty much everything it can", rather than merely storing the communications of existing surveillance targets, according to the report.
The fresh revelation is likely to intensify international pressure on President Barack Obama, at a time when he is due to give his response on the NSA´s activities to a review panel.
On 3 January, the US Foreign Intelligence Surveillance (FISA) court renewed the NSA phone collection programme, following a periodic request by the US government. This was the 36th time the court approved the NSA´s bulk collection of telephone metadata.
Administration´s Continued Defence
The Obama administration faced severe criticism across the globe as documents leaked by Snowden revealed that the NSA tapped telephone conversations and spied on the internet activities of prominent people, including German chancellor Angela Merkel and Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff.
Snowden is currently a fugitive in Russia.
The administration and the intelligence office have defended the NSA´s controversial surveillance programmes, saying they are required to ensure national security.
Obama is considering recommending a presidential advisory group for "transitioning the programme to one in which the data is held by telecommunications companies or a third party".
The advisory group presented 46 recommendations to change the NSA programmes in December. The recommendations included banning the NSA from collecting and storing phone records without obtaining separate court approval for each search.
Obama noted that he would review the recommendations and make necessary reforms in the NSA surveillance programmes.
