Luck Appears To Play A Huge Role In NSA Surveillance Operations

A National Security Agency (NSA) data gathering facility is seen in Bluffdale, about 25 miles (40 km) south of Salt Lake City, Utah May 18, 2015. © Jim Urquhart / Reuters

RT: Leaked NSA doc reveals ‘sheer luck’ needed to find useful info in sea of surveillance data

The NSA didn’t know it was already sitting on a “goldmine” of data on one of its targets until one of its analysts discovered it by “sheer luck,” according to an internal newsletter entry leaked by Edward Snowden.

The article, dated March 23, 2011, was written by a signals development analyst in SIDtoday, an NSA in-house newsletter. He explains how he discovered the contact and personal information for over 10,000 people, as well as some 900 account login details, after “a ton of hard work,” according to reports from The Intercept and teleSUR.

“By sheer luck, (and a ton of hard work) I discovered an important new access to an existing target and am working with TAO to leverage a new mission capability,” the analyst wrote to colleagues. TAO refers to Tailored Access Operations, an NSA hacking team which had collected the 900 usernames and passcodes.

The “existing target” was Petróleos de Venezuela, a Venezuelan state oil company also referred to as PDVSA.

WNU Editor: The Edward Snowden leak that revealed the importance of luck in NSA surveillance operations involved Venezuela .... Overwhelmed NSA Surprised To Discover Its Own Surveillance "Goldmine" on Venezuela's Oil Executives (The Intercept). Naturally .... the Venezuelan government is not happy on learning about these claims .... Venezuela questions U.S. ties after oil-spying claims (UPI).