Why We Shouldn't Underestimate This Spy Network

Summary

This video script uncovers the secretive world of undersea cables and their pivotal role in global communication and espionage. It delves into the history of cable tapping by powers like the U.S. and U.K., the evolution of surveillance through programs revealed by Edward Snowden, and the current geopolitical tensions as nations like China and Russia vie for control over internet infrastructure. The narrative highlights the balance between connectivity and privacy, and the emerging challenges in a bifurcated digital world.

Takeaways

• 🏠 The script describes a seemingly ordinary house in New Jersey that is actually a large building disguised as a house, serving as a landing station for AT&T's undersea cables.
• 🔍 It is revealed that the U.S. government spies on undersea cables with the help of companies like AT&T, processing the collected data in a facility potentially located in New Jersey, known as Pinecone.
• 🗺️ Leaked NSA documents and investigative reporting have uncovered the locations of several hidden buildings across the U.S. that are involved in cable surveillance, blending in as nondescript structures in major cities.
• 🌐 The script discusses the vast amount of data contained in the undersea cables that connect the world, and the seemingly impossible task for any government agency to spy on it all, yet there is proof that they do.
• 📈 The video mentions the history of undersea cables, starting with the first copper cable laid across the Atlantic in 1858, and the exponential growth in data transmission capabilities over time.
• 🛠️ The script details various ways in which cables have been used for espionage, including tapping into enemy communication during wars and the sophisticated methods used by the U.S. and UK to intercept and decode messages.
• 💡 The video highlights the importance of metadata in modern warfare and surveillance, with the ability to access and analyze vast amounts of data to identify and track targets.
• 🔑 The script introduces XKeyscore, an internal search engine used by the NSA to catalog and search metadata, making it a powerful tool for intelligence agencies.
• 🌐 The video discusses the global implications of the Snowden leaks, which led to countries seeking alternative cable routes to bypass the U.S., and the emerging competition between the U.S. and China in building out their own cable networks.
• 🛑 The script mentions the formation of Team Telecom by the U.S. to assess and regulate new cable projects to ensure they do not threaten U.S. interests, reflecting growing concerns over data security.
• 🌊 The video concludes with a discussion on the changing landscape of global cable infrastructure, with nations becoming more distrustful and seeking to control their own internet and communication systems, leading to a bifurcated world.

Q & A

What is the significance of the building disguised as a house in New Jersey?

The building disguised as a house in New Jersey is significant because it is actually a large, secretive building that serves as a landing station for AT&T, where massive undersea cables connecting the world hit the eastern seaboard. It is believed to be one of the facilities where the U.S. government spies on these cables with the help of companies like AT&T.

What is Pinecone, and what role does it play according to the leaked NSA map?

Pinecone is a code name for a facility in New Jersey where, according to a leaked NSA map, the U.S. government processes all the data they collect from spying on undersea cables. The facility is suspected to be the disguised building mentioned in the script.

How do cable spy facilities blend in with their surroundings?

Cable spy facilities blend in with their surroundings by appearing as benign, nondescript buildings such as ordinary suburban homes or fake houses. This helps them avoid undue attention in cities like New York, San Francisco, or Dallas.

What is the purpose of the undersea cables mentioned in the script?

The undersea cables mentioned in the script are crucial for global communication as they connect different parts of the world, transferring an unfathomable amount of data that includes all our communications and connections.

How did the revelations from Edward Snowden impact the understanding of cable surveillance?

The revelations from Edward Snowden exposed the extent of cable surveillance by the NSA, showing that they were tapping into every single cable that touched the United States, collecting a massive amount of global traffic including emails, text messages, and phone calls.

What is the role of Incogni as mentioned in the video script?

Incogni is a service that focuses on data privacy. It helps individuals remove their personal information from marketing lists and secure their privacy by taking them off as many lists as possible. The service also helps users to opt-out of people search sites.

What historical significance do undersea cables have in terms of communication?

Undersea cables have a significant historical role in communication. The first copper cable was laid across the Atlantic Ocean in 1858, connecting Ireland to Canada, and revolutionizing communication by enabling telegraph messages to be sent across the world.

How are undersea cables sometimes disrupted?

Undersea cables can be disrupted in various ways, including accidental damage from fishing trawlers, anchors, or natural disasters. There have also been instances of intentional sabotage, such as during times of war or political tension.

What is the significance of the USS Halibut and its role in cable tapping?

The USS Halibut was a spy submarine used by the U.S. during the Cold War. It had a unique capability to send divers in a pressurized chamber to tap into underwater cables and record communications, providing valuable intelligence on Soviet officials.

How has the surveillance landscape changed after the Snowden leaks?

After the Snowden leaks, there has been a shift in the surveillance landscape. Countries started looking for alternative routes for their cables that bypass the United States, and there has been an increase in the development of separate communication systems by different nations.

What is the role of Team Telecom in the context of cable surveillance?

Team Telecom is a U.S. group formed to assess new projects and cables to ensure they do not threaten or weaken U.S. interests. They have the authority to shut down projects that pose a risk, such as a cable project connecting LA to Hong Kong that was deemed too close to China.

Outlines

00:00

🏠 The Secret AT&T Building in New Jersey

This paragraph introduces a seemingly ordinary house in New Jersey that is actually a large building disguised as a residence. It serves as a landing station for AT&T, where undersea cables connecting the world reach the eastern seaboard of the U.S. The script reveals that the U.S. government spies on these cables with AT&T's help, and the data is processed in a secretive facility called Pinecone. The paragraph also mentions the existence of similar hidden buildings across the country, known through NSA leaks and investigative journalism.

05:00

🌐 The Global Web of Undersea Cables

The second paragraph delves into the extensive network of undersea cables that span 1.4 million kilometers, facilitating global communication. It discusses the speed at which these cables transmit data, the industry dedicated to their maintenance, and the various threats they face, including accidental damage and intentional sabotage. The paragraph highlights the strategic importance of these cables, as evidenced by historical incidents and the potential for espionage through cable tapping.

10:03

🔍 Historical Cable Tapping and Surveillance

This section explores the history of cable tapping for espionage, from World War I to the Cold War. It describes the British Navy's tapping of German submarine cables and the U.S. surveillance during World War II and the Cold War. The paragraph details the evolution of surveillance tactics, including the use of spy submarines like the USS Halibut, and the significant intelligence gains made through these operations, such as insights into the Soviet Union's fears regarding nuclear weapons.

15:06

📑 NSA's Digital Surveillance Post-9/11

The fourth paragraph discusses the post-9/11 era and the USA Patriot Act, which expanded surveillance capabilities. It reveals that the NSA, in cooperation with AT&T and other tech companies, tapped into fiber optic cables and collected massive amounts of data. The paragraph also covers Edward Snowden's leaks, which exposed the extent of the NSA's global surveillance network, including a list of targeted cables and the goal to 'collect it all'.

20:10

🤖 Data Processing and the Role of Metadata

This paragraph explains the process of how the NSA handles the vast amounts of collected data. It describes the central processing facility called Pinecone and the searchable database XKeyscore, which allows the agency to find patterns and track individuals. The paragraph emphasizes the transformation of metadata into a powerful tool for intelligence gathering and the potential implications of this mass surveillance.

25:10

🌍 Geopolitical Tensions and the Future of Cables

The final paragraph examines the geopolitical implications of cable surveillance and control. It discusses the shift in cable routes to bypass the U.S. after the Snowden leaks, the rise of China in building its own global cable network, and the emerging tensions between the U.S., China, and other powers. The paragraph also touches on the private sector's response to these threats and the broader implications for global internet infrastructure and security.

📚 Supporting Independent Journalism

In the closing paragraph, the script shifts focus to the importance of supporting independent journalism in an era where facts and truth are being challenged. It invites viewers to join a Patreon community called the Newsroom, which offers behind-the-scenes content and other benefits. The paragraph also mentions other ways to support the channel, such as purchasing LUTs, presets, and posters, and expresses gratitude for the viewers' engagement and support.

🌌 The Universal Language of Cables

The concluding narrative reflects on the symbolic language of cables as a means of fostering friendship and cooperation among nations. It highlights the collaborative efforts of France, West Germany, England, and the United States in developing the transcontinental cable, emphasizing the unifying potential of this technology beyond its practical applications.

Keywords

💡Surveillance

Surveillance refers to the close observation of individuals or groups, often for the purpose of gathering information. In the context of the video, it is a key concept as it discusses the U.S. government's spying activities on undersea cables with the help of companies like AT&T. The script mentions a secretive building in New Jersey, which is suspected to be a surveillance facility called Pinecone, where data collected from the cables is processed.

💡Undersea Cables

Undersea cables are the physical infrastructure that lies beneath the ocean and facilitates global communication by transmitting data across continents. They are crucial for the internet and international communications. The video script highlights the role of these cables in connecting the world and how they have become a target for government surveillance, with the NSA and GCHQ tapping into them to collect data.

💡Mass Surveillance

Mass surveillance is the bulk collection and analysis of information about individuals or groups, often without their knowledge. The video discusses how mass surveillance was institutionalized during times of war and has continued in the digital age with agencies like the NSA collecting data from undersea cables. The script mentions the NSA's goal to 'collect it all, exploit it all,' indicating the scale of mass surveillance.

💡Data Privacy

Data privacy concerns the right of individuals to have control over their personally identifiable information. The video script introduces Incogni, a service interested in data privacy, which helps individuals remove their information from marketing lists and people search sites. This is relevant as it contrasts with the government's mass surveillance practices and highlights the commercial aspect of data collection.

💡Telecommunication Companies

Telecommunication companies are businesses that provide services related to the transmission of information by various means, including voice, data, and video. The script mentions companies like AT&T, Microsoft, and Google as being complicit in government surveillance by allowing agencies like the NSA to tap into their cables and access the data transmitted through them.

💡Pinecone

Pinecone is mentioned in the script as a facility in New Jersey where the NSA is believed to process data collected from undersea cables. It is used as an example of the secretive nature of surveillance operations and the infrastructure that supports mass data collection and analysis.

💡Cold War

The Cold War refers to the period of geopolitical tension between the Soviet Union and the United States and their respective allies, from the late 1940s to the early 1990s. The video script discusses how the Cold War intensified spying activities, with underwater cables becoming a target for espionage, leading to operations like Operation Ivy Bells.

💡National Security Agency (NSA)

The National Security Agency (NSA) is a U.S. government agency responsible for global monitoring, collection, and processing of information and data for foreign intelligence and counterintelligence purposes. The script describes the NSA's extensive surveillance activities, including its access to and monitoring of undersea cables, and its partnership with telecommunication companies.

💡Edward Snowden

Edward Snowden is a former NSA contractor who leaked thousands of classified documents to the public, revealing the extent of global surveillance programs. The video script refers to Snowden's leak as one of the biggest in American history, which exposed the NSA's surveillance activities and its access to data from various communication channels.

💡Metadata

Metadata is data that provides information about other data. In the context of the video, it refers to the digital information that can be extracted from communication, such as the time and date of a call or email, the parties involved, and the location from which the communication was made. The script explains that metadata is used by surveillance agencies to track and analyze communication patterns, turning it into a tool for intelligence gathering.

💡XKeyscore

XKeyscore is an internal NSA search engine that catalogs metadata and makes it searchable for the agency's analysts. The video script describes XKeyscore as a platform that allows the NSA to search through the vast amounts of collected data, enabling them to find information on individuals, such as their communication patterns and geolocation.

Highlights

A secretive building in New Jersey disguised as a house is actually a landing station for AT&T, part of the global undersea cable network.

The U.S. government collaborates with companies like AT&T to spy on the massive undersea cables that connect the world.

A leaked NSA map suggests the existence of a facility in New Jersey called Pinecone, where collected data is processed.

Investigative reporting and NSA leaks have revealed the locations of hidden cable spy facilities across the U.S.

Undersea cables carry an unfathomable amount of data, including all global communications, making them a prime target for surveillance.

The story of the cables that connect the planet reveals extensive surveillance activities by governments.

Incogni, a sponsor of the video, is a service focused on data privacy, helping individuals remove their information from marketing lists.

For-profit corporations are also involved in spying on individuals to sell their data for targeted marketing.

The first transatlantic copper cable was laid in 1858, revolutionizing global communication.

Today, there are 1.4 million kilometers of undersea cables transferring massive amounts of data at high speeds.

The industry of laying, monitoring, and repairing undersea cables is significant, as they can be damaged by various means.

Political tensions can lead to deliberate damage to communication cables, as seen between China and Taiwan.

During times of war, cutting enemy communication cables has been a strategic move, from the American Civil War to modern conflicts.

Access to submarine cables allows for signal duplication and eavesdropping on enemy communications.

Operation Ivy Bells was a decade-long U.S. mission to tap Soviet communication cables for intelligence.

The NSA's mass surveillance programs, revealed by Edward Snowden, included tapping into global internet and communication traffic.

Telecommunication and tech companies cooperated with the NSA, providing access to their cables for surveillance purposes.

The NSA's goal was to collect, process, and exploit all global communication data, as revealed by leaked documents.

The NSA uses central processing facilities and algorithms to analyze communication data and identify potential threats.

XKeyscore is an internal search engine used by the NSA to catalog and search metadata from global communications.

The Snowden leaks have led to a shift in global cable routes, with countries seeking alternatives to bypass the U.S. for privacy.

China is expanding its global cable network, adding a new dimension to the competition for information control.

The U.S. and China are building separate cable networks, reflecting the growing mistrust and division in global communication infrastructure.

Team Telecom, a U.S. group, assesses new cable projects to ensure they do not threaten U.S. interests or security.

Private companies are increasing security measures for undersea cables, using submarine drones to monitor and protect them.

The video concludes on the note that we are entering a new era of geopolitics with nations seeking control over their communication infrastructure.

Transcripts

(dramatic music)

- There's this house in this neighborhood in New Jersey

that actually isn't a house.

It's hard to see, because it's behind this gate,

but if you look at it from above,

you'll see that it's actually a really large building.

Kind of looks like a warehouse.

It has dozens of air conditioning units

and it's just sitting here among a sea

of ordinary suburban homes.

All of this is just a facade hiding this massive building

that is a landing station for AT&T,

the place where these massive undersea cables

that connect the world, hit the eastern seaboard.

(suspenseful music)

We now know for certain that the U.S. government

spies on those cables with the help of companies like AT&T.

And according to a leaked map from the NSA,

they process all the data that they collect

somewhere in New Jersey in a facility called Pinecone.

Lining up these maps points to this

secretive disguised building as one of the best candidates

for where this surveillance is being processed.

But there's a lot more of these hidden buildings

around the country.

Thanks to leaked NSA documents

and some thorough investigative reporting,

we now know some of their locations.

Like the fake house in New Jersey,

these other cable spy facilities blend in

as benign, nondescript buildings

avoiding any undue attention

along the streets of New York or San Francisco or Dallas.

These few hundred cables that connect our world

contain an unfathomable amount of data,

all of our communication, all of our connections,

and it would seem impossible that any government agency

would be able to spy on it all,

impossible, that is, if we didn't have solid proof

that they do.

So let me tell you the story of the cables

that connect our planet

and show you that if you can tap into them,

you can watch the world and they have,

and they've been doing it for a long time.

- [Reporter 1] 320 million records every day.

- [Reporter 2] What we're talking about here

is a total revolution

of the whole concept of war. - Collect it all,

exploit it all.

(TV static)

- Now is the moment where I say thank you to the sponsor

of today's video.

I'm very grateful for sponsors.

I wouldn't be able to do this job

and make independent journalism if we didn't have sponsors.

So thank you Incogni for sponsoring today's video.

Incogni is actually quite relevant to today's video,

because Incogni is super-interested in data privacy.

We live in a world

where there's an entire secretive industry

dedicated to collecting information about you

and no, this isn't the NSA spying on you.

This is for-profit corporations who spy on you

in any way they can, so they can sell that

to other companies who can then market to you,

who can into your phone, who can try to make you buy things.

I find this incredibly frustrating and violating

that my personal information is bought and sold

on an open market.

Luckily, we have rights to make this not happen.

The problem is the process of making it not happen

is very complicated and this gets me to Incogni.

Incogni is a service that does this for you.

You sign up for Incogni and you give them permission

to go out into the world on your behalf

and take you off as many lists as they can.

The first thing they do, and this is very satisfying,

is they scan to see all of the lists that you're on

and they show it to you on this really nice dashboard

so you can see, oh my God,

I'm on dozens if not hundreds of these marketing lists.

And then they start the process of securing your privacy,

of getting your email and your address and your phone number

off these lists.

It's a process and Incogni will keep you updated

on the progress.

They even have a tally of all of the lists

that you've been removed from,

which is insanely satisfying to keep an eye on.

Because of Incogni, I learned that here in the U.S.

there's this other massive problem,

which are these people search sites

where you can search for people and it will pull up

as much information as the site has on you.

I don't like that.

Incogni sniffed this out for me

and is taking me off of these lists.

Thank you, Incogni, I'm very grateful for it.

So there's a link in my description.

It's incogni.com/Johnny Harris and you can go over

sign up for Incogni and try it out for 30 days

and get a full refund if you don't think it's useful,

totally risk-free.

I'm really grateful to Incogni

for sponsoring our journalism in this video,

but I'm also grateful that they exist,

because I am so tired of my inbox and my phone

and my mailbox being full of garbage.

Okay, with that we're jumping back into the video

about the government version of collecting your data.

(videotape clicks)

We laid the first copper cable

across the Atlantic Ocean in 1858.

It connected Ireland to Canada.

They sent the first telegram across this wire

and it took 18 hours to arrive,

which was like light-speed back then.

The cable broke three weeks later, but even still,

it was a huge success,

a revolution for a world whose progress hinged on

being more and more connected.

- [Narrator] Through a single cable,

only an inch and a quarter thick,

which lies on the ocean bed.

- [Johnny] The planet would be linked up

by many more of these cables

draped along the ocean floor,

allowing us to call people across the world

and eventually allowing us to access information

through webpages hosted on servers far, far away.

- An online network called internet.

- Today, there are 1.4 million kilometers worth of cables

linking us all up and they transfer a ton of data,

like the fastest cables can transfer

224 terabytes per second,

and the amount of data being sent around the world doubles

every two to three years.

Unsurprisingly, there's a whole industry

dedicated to just laying down these cables

and then monitoring them and repairing them

when they break.

Sometimes they get broken by fishing trawlers or anchors

or natural disasters.

Sometimes they even get broken by sharks,

though that's pretty rare,

but sometimes these cables are broken on purpose.

There's this island right off the coast of China,

but it technically belongs to Taiwan,

the country that China has vowed to eventually absorb

into their own.

Needless to say, there's a lot of tension here

and in the last five years,

the cables of this little island

have accidentally been broken 27 times,

which is a lot for cables.

China denies that they had any part in these 27 accidents.

They say it's just an unfortunate fishing

or anchor incident, but I'm suspicious.

- [Reporter 3] Officials fear that Matsu is just a warning

and that internet connections to the whole of Taiwan

could be under threat.

- Sometimes it's unclear who attacks these cables.

Like a few years ago when somebody ripped out

a two and a half mile piece of this cable

that connects Norway to the island of Svalbard.

Other times it's very clear who's cutting the cables.

Like when the United States was at war with Saddam Hussein

in the nineties and they cut Saddam's cable

so that he couldn't communicate.

I mean, cutting the communication cables of your enemy

is an old strategy.

They were doing that way back in the American Civil War,

but the more interesting approach to me isn't just sabotage.

There's another way that you can use cables

to your advantage if you are a great power

trying to control things.

(electronic music)

If you have access to submarine cables,

which governments and militaries do,

you can scrape through the insulation of this cable.

You can splice in another cable

and you can duplicate the signal

and hear everything your enemy is saying.

(people speaking in foreign language)

The British Navy did this to a German submarine cable

out here in the middle of the Atlantic, during World War I.

The Germans suspected that they were being listened to,

so they sent all their communication as complex codes,

but the British had very smart code breakers

and they were able to decrypt all of this

and discover a lot of Germany's secrets,

and they discovered this secret plan that Germany had

to ally with Mexico and invade the United States.

This is one reason why the U.S. ended up joining the war,

and it all happened because of submarine cable tapping.

(uptempo beat music)

World War II took cable tapping to a whole new level.

A more connected world meant more opportunities

for vital military information to leak out.

So the U.S. created a new agency

where they would tap in and monitor

hundreds of thousands of civilian telegrams and phone calls

flowing through both the mail,

but also through these submarine cables.

I mean, think about it, it was a scary time.

It was global war, it was mass destruction,

so mass surveillance on your people felt necessary

in the name of national security.

- [Reporter 4] Even the insides of envelopes are scrutinized

for hidden writing by these sensors.

- This agency was shut down after World War II,

but the seeds of mass surveillance were now planted.

(techno music)

A few years later,

President Harry Truman creates a new secret department,

the National Security Agency or NSA.

Their job was to secretly collect and analyze communication

happening in the country,

communication that was not meant for them,

spying on communication of all kinds,

all in the name of national security.

By the time the United States and the Soviet Union

are locked in a Cold War, spying becomes even more valuable,

even more of a priority for these governments,

and once again, underwater cables become a target.

The Americans built this entire spy submarine,

which had a secret space set aside for intelligence officers

and a giant computer.

They called this space the bat cave.

Of course, they did, a bunch of military dudes

on a submarine and they've got their secret computers,

like, "We're in the bat cave."

I can totally see it.

This submarine called the USS Halibut

had a little mini-submarine-looking thing

that was actually not a mini-submarine,

but rather a pressurized chamber full of special gas

that divers would just sit in there and breathe.

It was pressurized to feel like the deep ocean

so that these divers could go out into the ocean

and be 400 feet under the surface

and their bodies were ready for the pressure.

They used this to secretly navigate to underwater cables.

The one we know about happened over here right off the coast

of Eastern Russia.

The divers would leave their pressurized gas chamber.

They would navigate this big, clunky

electric listening device onto the cable.

It's basically a giant 20' recorder

that would tap into the cable and record

everything passing through.

They somehow parsed through the dozens of different signals,

specific phone calls between Soviet officials,

but of course, this is the analog days,

so the storage on this device would fill up,

so they had to go back with their little bat cave submarine

every few months to replace the tape.

They did this for 10 years.

This was called Operation Ivy Bells,

and we talked about it a little bit in the whole deep dive

we did on submarines.

But boy, it just never ceases to blow my mind

how resource-intensive this operation was.

(water bubbles)

Anyway, through this tapping on the Soviet cable,

the Americans learned just how scared the Soviets were

by the buildup of nuclear weapons.

This helped them negotiate a slowdown

in the nuclear arms race and even helped lead to

the end of the Cold War according to one expert.

By the early nineties, the Cold War was over.

- [President Clinton] The change of centuries,

the dawning of a new millennium.

- But then came a world changing attack

into the ultraconnected internet age.

- This new law that I signed today

will allow surveillance of all communications

used by terrorists, including emails,

the internet, and cell phones.

This government will enforce this law

with all the urgency of a nation at war.

It is now my honor to sign into law

the USA Patriot Act of 2001.

(audience applauds)

- In 2006, a leaked document revealed that

in a nondescript building in San Francisco

behind this random yellow door labeled 641A,

the NSA had set up this harmless-looking box

that tapped into the fiber optic cables

that traversed the Pacific Ocean into Asia.

The phone company AT&T had agreed to let them siphon off

the traffic that was moving through their cables.

This seemed kind of nuts that the U.S. was tapping a cable

where all of our communication goes through,

but we had no idea what was coming.

In 2013, Edward Snowden,

an NSA contractor unleashed one of the biggest leaks

in American history.

- This is the greatest hemorrhaging

of a legitimate American secrets

in the history of the Republic.

- And that is what we have been looking through.

I mean, there's a lot more documents,

but we sifted through and found the documents

that show us that it wasn't just one cable

in San Francisco being tapped.

The NSA was targeting every single cable

that touched the United States,

a huge amount of global traffic, email,

text messages, phone calls.

They had cooperation from

all these telecommunication and tech companies to do this.

Microsoft, Yahoo, Google, Facebook, PalTalk?

The hell is PalTalk?

Who knows, but the NSA was tapping their cables.

YouTube, Skype, AOL, and even Apple by 2012,

and their goal in all of this,

well, according to one of these slides,

the goal was to sniff it all, know it all, collect it all,

process it all, exploit it all, partner it all.

In other words, according to another leaked slide,

to master the internet.

There's this one spreadsheet

in all of these leaked documents that really said it,

here it is.

This is a list, a spreadsheet of some of the cables

that the NSA had access to,

we literally know which ones.

I mean, we have the data of all of these cables.

We could literally map all of these

from the southern cross cable

that connects California to Australia,

to the Apollo cable that connects New York to France,

to the tiny cables that connect Puerto Rico

to the British Virgin Islands.

All in all, by 2009,

the NSA had stuck a probe in hundreds of submarine cables

all around the globe.

Oh, and they didn't do it alone.

The NSA partnered with

the OG masters of Cable-tapping, the British.

- Since the 1940s, GCHQ and its American equivalence

have had a relationship that is unique in the world.

- Okay, so there's a weird loophole thing here.

U.S. law allows the NSA to track anyone

outside of the United States,

but there are restrictions

when it comes to tracking American citizens.

So to get around that,

they turn to their British counterparts, the GCHQ.

So over the course of a couple years in the early 2010s,

the NSA is paying 100 million pounds in secret money

to gain access to all of this data,

this data that they call a gold mine to exploit,

hundreds of thousands of names, over 76,000 geocoordinates,

194 million messages collected per day.

And unlike the NSA,

the British could actually spy on American targets,

but the point is they were in it to collect it all.

- If information arrives in the UK from the United States,

it's governed by our laws.

The system works as intended.

(suspenseful music)

- Okay, okay, yeah, it's a lot of data,

but what can you do with 600 million phone events

worth of data?

That's way too much for any human to actually process,

and this is where it gets kind of nuts to me.

We've got this slide, which by the way,

I know that we're dealing with really top secret documents,

but they all have clip-art and these templatized

Windows 95-looking titles, freaking love it.

(jazzy drum music)

This slide, this complicated, wonky, wonky slide

with this flow chart is the answer to what they do

with all of this data, but here's basically how it works.

So the NSA gets all of this data

of all of our communication,

either from cables or from phone companies.

They funnel it through

this central processing facility called Pinecone.

This is presumably where they're processing

a lot of this data and trying to find patterns.

The NSA says that their job is to find suspected terrorists

or other people who want to do harm to national security.

And to do this, they use computers and algorithms

to make links between suspected terrorists

and their immediate network, the people they call,

the people they talk to, where they are.

They say they only hold on to those records

and they throw out everything else.

We don't know if that's true, but let's just assume it is.

And then once it's all processed and sorted,

it goes into a little searchable database called XKeyscore,

which is a very clunky name,

but hey, great graphic design once again.

This is basically like a internal search engine

that catalogs all of the metadata

that has been assigned to

all of this call message geolocation information

and makes it searchable.

So you could pull up a person, a suspected terrorist,

and you could find everything you need to know about

who they talk to, where they are, what their emails say,

or in their words, anything you wish to extract.

It's all searchable on this convenient platform.

This allows them to do searches like

let's look for an Arabic font,

Google query coming out of the tribal areas of Pakistan,

and boom, they're linked in.

It's all right here in XKeyscore the database.

Because of the globally connected world,

the NSA now has access to this person.

They can see what messages they're sending.

They can see where they are right now,

assuming they have their phone,

all searchable in this convenient database,

accessible to agencies from other countries

and all over the world.

The whole assumption here is that in order

to find your target, the terrorist, the spy, whatever,

you need to access all of the information,

this turns metadata into a weapon of modern warfare.

- We kill people based on metadata,

but that's not what we do with this metadata.

(suspenseful music)

- This revelation, all of these documents,

this whole Snowden drama was a big deal

for a lot of reasons.

One of the things it did

is it made the location of cables really important.

Most of the cables were going through the United States,

but after this leak,

countries started to look for alternative routes

that bypassed the United States,

like this one that connects Brazil to South Africa

and then goes on to Asia.

So over the last decade since these leaks,

the U.S. has become less and less the epicenter

of cable connection, and you guessed it,

there's another player in town

who wants access to cables, China.

(suspenseful music)

China is rapidly building out

their worldwide network of cables,

and they're doing this through

Chinese state-owned companies like Huawei.

And this is adding yet another front

in this emerging Cold War tension between great powers

that want to lead the global system.

It turns out that controlling and spying on cables

is a requirement for global leadership in 2023, who knew?

But unlike the U.S. who purports to protect privacy

and civil liberties, but secretly violates them,

China doesn't even pretend.

China has built a society off of mass surveillance

and control of information.

Like here's actual footage of how China tracks the movement

of its population through visual recognition,

through cataloging every face, every car.

Information is power in this day and age,

and just a couple years ago,

the U.S. formed a new special unit with intelligence

and regulation officials.

It's a group called Team Telecom,

and their job is to assess any new projects, any new cables,

and make sure that they aren't going to

threaten or weaken U.S. interests.

For example, there was this one cable

that was supposed to connect LA to Hong Kong.

It was being built by Google and Facebook,

and they were into the project,

hundreds of millions of dollars into the project,

and this Team Telecoms shut it down, too risky.

We can't have our fiber optic cables

going too close to China less they spy on us.

This is making the map look really weird.

You used to only have to have

one major set of cables connecting countries,

but now you're starting to see duplicates.

The Chinese lines and the American lines,

each building out their own network,

not connecting to each other.

It's like the perfect symbol of the tension

that is rising between these two superpowers.

The bifurcated world that we're moving into.

China is connecting these small remote islands

laying down cables.

And these islanders are happy to have fast internet,

even if it comes from China and is probably being tapped.

The continent of Africa,

the U.S. and China are both laying down competing lines.

The country's caught in the middle of this

understand what's going on.

Two, aspiring hegemons vying for power,

each involved in spying and sucking up information

in their own way,

but I guess it's worth it, because it means faster internet,

it means connection to the world.

Russia is even trying to get in on this

with their aptly named Polar Express cable.

And even though the old school tapping into cables

in the middle of the ocean to spy on your neighbor

is kind of outdated now,

there's some evidence that Russia might be still doing this.

They've got this one ship called the Yantar.

It's a surface ship that is generally understood

to be a spy vessel,

and it's been spotted on the surface above

where we know submarine cables are near Ireland

or near Syria.

Some think that they're just tapping into them

like the old days,

maybe using one of these mini-submarines.

But even if they're not tapping into them,

they're very presence above the cable is kind of a threat.

They could cut this cable at any moment.

The U.S. who is very good at submarines

has its own spy vessels,

the most secretive one being the USS Jimmy Carter,

and we have no idea what it's up to.

Security experts speculate

that it's probably tapping into cables for some reason,

somewhere at the bottom of the ocean.

But a lot of people in the industry are like,

"No, that's so old days, why bother?"

It's so much easier to just tap into them on land.

You get way more data and you don't have to

go to the bottom of the ocean.

Meanwhile, the private companies in charge of these cables

have started to up their own defenses.

They're taking all these extra precautions,

including sending out these submarine drones

that just spend their time

tracing along the bottom of the ocean,

babysitting these cables and making sure

that there's no damage or tampering going on.

So I feel like I'm gonna say what I've said

a bunch on the channel lately,

which is we are entering a new chapter in geopolitics.

A globalized world is hyperconnected,

but suddenly and unexpectedly,

we're seeing a new set of divisions,

countries not trusting each other anymore.

Nations wanting to create their own separate systems,

both economically, militarily,

but also with the infrastructure of the internet.

A chapter where countries now are more skeptical than ever,

especially great powers,

great powers that are building their own infrastructure

so that they can communicate and control information,

not trusting the other half of the world

to handle their data.

We see Navies with secret ships that cost close to

a $1 billion a piece,

and then we see everyone else caught in the middle.

And in the end, most of us just want fast internet

connection with friends around the world

and a feeling that we're safe.

(suspenseful music)

All right, thanks for watching today's video.

Just a little nugget here.

We did this video,

because we did the deep dive on submarines

a few months ago.

I don't know if anyone saw that,

but it was in that reporting that we came across

the spying element of all of this.

And I remember I asked all of you,

do you want me to do this video?

And you all said, yes.

I got like so many comments that were like, "Yes."

And so, we did it.

And that is one thing I love about YouTube

and being an independent journalist on YouTube

is that I get to just ask you,

I'm talking to you and be like,

"Hey, do you want this?"

And you're like, "Yes."

And I go, "Okay," and I make it.

And there's no corporate middleman who decides

what we make.

We make what you guys wanna see.

So as always, you can pitch us ideas

and we will hear them.

For those who want to support more fully in our kind of

more intimate community,

we have a Patreon called the Newsroom.

The Newsroom is a place where you can support

what we do here, but you also get in on a few benefits,

including an extra behind the scenes video every month

where you get to see all of the people and the processes

and the shenanigans that happen here in the studio.

We have a big team and you get to meet them,

if you are a member of the newsroom.

You get access to my scripts,

you get access to Tom Fox music.

But really you get access to the warm fuzzy feeling

that you're supporting a YouTube channel

that is trying to make rigorous journalism

in a time where facts and truth are kind of eroding.

So if that floats your boat, we would love your support.

We also have luts and presets,

which are like the thing we use to color our videos

and our photos.

You could buy those and they help support the channel.

We have a poster that I designed.

I'm super into map projections,

all the different ways you can show a map shape,

and I made a beautiful poster that has it.

If you have that poster,

I think a lot of you have purchased that poster,

we actually sold out and we're reprinting a new batch,

so they should be in there.

Don't quote me on that because they could be sold out again.

But anyway, if you have that poster, tag me or something,

I wanna see what it looks like out in the wild.

I looked at it on a screen for months

and now I have some here,

but I don't know what it looks like out in the wild,

so share it with me.

I think that's it.

Anyway, that's all I've got.

Thank you all for being here,

and I'll see you in the next video, bye-bye.

- [Narrator] Although the calls through the cable

will be from many nations, in many tongues,

the cable itself speaks a single language to all

that is the language of friendship and cooperation

between the men and women of France, West Germany, England,

and the United States

who conceived and brought to completion

the cable to the continent.