NSA's San Antonio Facility

Here is an article in the online edition of Der Spiegel describing the NSA's TAO (Tailored Access Operations) facility in San Antonio, Texas:

http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/the-nsa-uses-powerful-toolbox-in-effort-to-spy-on-global-networks-a-940969.html

If a target person, agency or company orders a new computer or related accessories, for example, TAO can divert the shipping delivery to its own secret workshops. The NSA calls this method interdiction. At these so-called "load stations," agents carefully open the package in order to load malware onto the electronics, or even install hardware components that can provide backdoor access for the intelligence agencies. All subsequent steps can then be conducted from the comfort of a remote computer.

These minor disruptions in the parcel shipping business rank among the "most productive operations" conducted by the NSA hackers, one top secret document relates in enthusiastic terms. This method, the presentation continues, allows TAO to obtain access to networks "around the world."

Thank you, George Orwell.

Pretty nifty if you're a geek. Pretty scary if you're a citizen subject to this crap.

I remember when they started recruiting staff for the facility. Texas in general is a pro-military, pro-war state, and San Antonio has always been a military town (Remember the Alamo!). It's the perfect place for an operation like this.

Hmmm ... I live just south of Dell's Round Rock campus. I wonder if one of the NSA's "load stations" is located inside. There is a boatload of highly paid geeks working there, but Dell does not manufacture any computers inside the USA. Those geeks must be doing something ...

Didn't Edward Snowden once work for Dell?

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/08/15/usa-security-snowden-dell-idUSL2N0GF11220130815