Mark Klein, RIP
EFF (Hacker News):
When the New York Times reported in late 2005 that the NSA was engaging in spying inside the U.S., Mark realized that he had witnessed how it was happening. He also realized that the President was not telling Americans the truth about the program. And, though newly retired, he knew that he had to do something. He showed up at EFF’s front door in early 2006 with a simple question: “Do you folks care about privacy?”
We did. And what Mark told us changed everything. Through his work, Mark had learned that the National Security Agency (NSA) had installed a secret, secure room at AT&T’s central office in San Francisco, called Room 641A. Mark was assigned to connect circuits carrying Internet data to optical “splitters” that sat just outside of the secret NSA room but were hardwired into it. Those splitters—as well as similar ones in cities around the U.S.—made a copy of all data going through those circuits and delivered it into the secret room.
The evidence he gathered and shared led to two lawsuits that exposed the extent to which US citizens were being spied on by their own government in the post-9/11 world. Klein faced legal pressure, death threats, and the constant fear of ruin, to get his story out and tell the public what was going on. But Klein regretted nothing.
[…]
He went to one newspaper, which strung him along for months promising a big front-page splash and then spiked the story. Other media outlets refused to touch it, although he did get some TV time (see below). Having heard about the EFF, which also had the bonus of being in San Francisco, he decided to drop in unannounced.
[…]
He wrote a book about his experiences, Wiring Up The Big Brother Machine And Fighting It; it’s a cracking read.
Previously:
- FBI Also Wants to Break iCloud Advanced Data Protection
- China Possibly Hacking US “Lawful Access” Backdoor
- Extending Section 702 of FISA
