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NSA to store yottabytes of surveillance data in Utah megarepository (update: not so much)
Devin Coldewey
Crunch Gear
Tuesday, Nov 3rd, 2009
There’s an interesting article in the current New York Review of books (predictably, a book review) detailing the history of the National Security Agency, that shadowy power-behind-the-power to which we surrender much of our privacy. That in itself is interesting, but I found the introduction a bit shocking: the NSA is constructing a datacenter in the Utah desert that they project will be storing yottabytes of surveillance data. And what is a yottabyte? I’m glad you asked.
There are a thousand gigabytes in a terabyte, a thousand terabytes in a petabyte, a thousand petabytes in an exabyte, a thousand exabytes in a zettabyte, and a thousand zettabytes in a yottabyte. In other words, a yottabyte is 1,000,000,000,000,000GB. Are you paranoid yet?
The more salient question is, of course, what are they storing that, by some estimates, is going take up thousands of times more space than all the world’s known computers combined? Don’t think they’re going to say; they didn’t grow to their current level of shadowy omniscience by disclosing things like that to the public. However, speculation isn’t too hard on this topic. Now more than ever, surveillance is a data game. What with millions of phones being tapped and all data duplicated, constant recording of all radio traffic, 24-hour high definition video surveillance by satellite, there’s terabytes at least of data coming in every day. And who knows when you’ll have to sift through August 2007’s overhead footage of Baghdad for heat signatures in order to confirm some other intelligence?
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28 Responses to “NSA to store yottabytes of surveillance data in Utah megarepository (update: not so much)”
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November 3rd, 2009 at 11:55 am
Actually the ability to store the data and be able to retrieve section of that data at a later date is as easy as a simple single page printout using conversion techniques so I am unimpressed with the actual number this represents (it holds no sway in my opinion) so the statement about how large the facility will be is greatly exaggerated in my humble opinion..
It’s as simple a a single attach’e case handed to the vault for storage.. if they require access to the data, that is also as simple as a dell computer with a really goos graphic card and CPU installed with a single cd-rom drive …
Folks the ability to use conversion techniques makes this a moot point about the size of any file, I think the primary issue is one of personal privacy versus the government access more then anything else..
Patriotgal Reply:
November 4th, 2009 at 10:22 am
Mmmmm… sounds like a GREAT place to try out our new EMP device. Wonder if they would get pissed about that? LOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
November 3rd, 2009 at 12:24 pm
Five years from now a petabyte will easily fit inside something smaller than a NIV bible. In less than ten an exabyte will fit inside the same volume of space. The zetta and yotta will not be far behind, and a yottabyte will, in less than 25 years, fit inside a case with an internal volume less than 36 cubic inches. No problem.
james Reply:
November 3rd, 2009 at 3:02 pm
Actually ‘DO LOGIC” the ability to have 50,000,000,000 yottabytes within a space no larger then a grain of rice is already done.. just not for general population or corporate usage as it requires entirely new and radically applied methods of technology which are still in the “black” application.. the one that is being announced is for “general” application purposes using the OTS (off the shelf) products available today.. it’s simply a “front-end” public operation that has nothing to do with the middle-ware or the aforementioned back-end storage means..
Do Logic Reply:
November 3rd, 2009 at 4:59 pm
B.S.
November 3rd, 2009 at 3:13 pm
It’s going to have to be every communication between every two computers in the Internet, indexed by IP address, keywords, E-mail address, date and time. If you have ever read the children’s book “The Big Book of Secrets”, you can send a message not simply by the text contents, but through the date and time that you sent it.
November 3rd, 2009 at 3:57 pm
Store this fags, your grip on POWER is slipping, the US is 1 big boom or financial blowout from crumbling, people will panic and grab everything of value and there will be shootouts in the streets. Cops will be unable to intervene, until there is a serious cleansing in this country then we can actually deal with both domestic and world issues. Illegal aliens, the militarized police, the breaking of posse commitatus by the fed, the ghetto fools who all want a big O handout, barry’s own youth corp civilian police force that will be larger than the military, the federal reserve banking system, and the elites who are protected by these overlapping layers will finally be removed, no amount of collecting data will matter as your collective gooses will be cooked. Coming soon to a city near you, all it needs is a spark.
gotta match? Reply:
November 3rd, 2009 at 6:46 pm
anyone got a match?
Lil Bastard Reply:
November 3rd, 2009 at 9:16 pm
Sorry. All I’ve got a blowtorch.
Mama J Reply:
November 4th, 2009 at 4:45 am
In case they missed one, BYTE ME..!!!
Patriotgal Reply:
November 4th, 2009 at 10:24 am
Yeah, sounds about right….
November 3rd, 2009 at 4:16 pm
If I eat a yottabyte do you think it will help me remember to pick up eggs and milk at the Circle-K that my bitch wife bugs me about?
November 3rd, 2009 at 5:17 pm
info storage in the desert, noah style seed hoarding in deep ice caverns. Hey something big is going to happen. i guess if this this video is for government eyes only its probably all porn.
Father of Lies Reply:
November 3rd, 2009 at 6:41 pm
Don’t be to proud of your technoligcal terror
The ability to store information in that type of
Storage system is in comprehendable only next to the power of Satan !
Patriotgal Reply:
November 4th, 2009 at 10:25 am
Come on, even I can see plagerizing that thin! Actually, it IS pretty funny!
November 3rd, 2009 at 5:29 pm
What happened to the ballyhooed cubes of silicon each one inch on a
side that could be scanned by layers with two lasers, horizontal and vertical,
flipping polarity on molecule thick areas for a storage capacity
of all human knowledge, as described 15yrs ago, using
three of these, like the space shuttle uses three computers for error checking;
you could have moved all the worlds financial and computerized records and audio and video
to a central location or locations 15yrs ago and still had capacity to spare. This was theroized to be how the world financial system would have been globalised with the capturing of all
financial trusts assets in one electronic clearing house system grid that all transactions would ultimately have to use. Sounds like the credit card transaction system on steroids.
I heard of it in 1994 I think on Chuck Harder’s For the People Radio Network, if I remember right.
Patriotgal Reply:
November 4th, 2009 at 10:31 am
Yeah, that concept was invented by Dr. Alan Wong, working at Bell Labs in NJ. He is an OLD friend of mine. The concept just NEVER worked-out. LOTS of technical problems. At least for the civilians- the “black budget” types may have debugged it.
Google him- in one month, back then, he was on the cover of about 10 magazines. Time, USNewz&WorldReport, etc.. BRILLIANT MAN.
November 3rd, 2009 at 8:54 pm
Congratulations! You idiots are paying for this! The man broke into your house and said, “Can I please have a knife so that I can murder and rape your wife, then kill you too?” You responded, “Certainly, there’s a selection of knives in the kitchen.”
Even if you morons wake up to the issue of enslavement it’s too late. There is no way out other than by expatriation. Vote with your feet. I did.
Running Man Reply:
November 3rd, 2009 at 9:23 pm
Nowhere to run, Mac.
It’s a small world after all…
Jim Lunsford Reply:
November 3rd, 2009 at 10:54 pm
Why in the hell would I run? If I did that, I wouldn’t be able to hit the targets I want to hit.
Patriotgal Reply:
November 4th, 2009 at 10:33 am
Good answer, Jim! I’ll be damned if I’ll run. This is MY country. I want it back!!
JesuitNWO Reply:
November 4th, 2009 at 6:49 am
This unfortunately is the only way to avoid the coming “deluge” of tyranny soon to crash on the shores of America. It will be felt the hardest on East and West coasts first, in the major cities. The best route is to get a medium to large boat and plan on living on it, which would be my plan. Those with families may need to consider another route, but as a young man i see no better option. Boats nowadays can be equipped with solar panels and deep-cell battery systems that can sustain small freezer/refrigerators and communication equipment; along with a diesel engine/alternator.
No property taxes, no late night knocks on the door with police goons, no battening up the house when the riots hit…you just sail, sail away (styx). There are many friendly ports of call that will be sufficient to sustain. You will of course have cashed out into gold and silver that will be in the safe on the boat.
Patriotgal Reply:
November 4th, 2009 at 10:36 am
Until the friendly USNavy pays you a visit. A friend of mine was harrassed when she was moving her 65′ sailboat from San Francisco to Seattle. Luckily, she had already stored her firearms with me. They even tried to give her grief over a M1911 she had aboard.
November 3rd, 2009 at 10:15 pm
GET YOUR GUNS AND PASS THE AMMO!
Patriotgal Reply:
November 4th, 2009 at 10:37 am
Hoooahh!!!
November 4th, 2009 at 1:04 am
Imagine all the porn I could store on that.
November 4th, 2009 at 6:19 am
Now, let’s wait and see how long it takes for Kal-e-fornia to complain that they have run out of electricity again.
November 4th, 2009 at 6:28 am
The more date stored, the better chance of corruption of that data after which it will be yotta yotta useless. These morons will eventually corrupt it all. Corruption is in their very nature.