NSA Was Authorized To Conduct Internet Surveillance Without A Warrant

New York Times: Hunting for Hackers, N.S.A. Secretly Expands Internet Spying at U.S. Border

WASHINGTON — Without public notice or debate, the Obama administration has expanded the National Security Agency’s warrantless surveillance of Americans’ international Internet traffic to search for evidence of malicious computer hacking, according to classified N.S.A. documents.

In mid-2012, Justice Department lawyers wrote two secret memos permitting the spy agency to begin hunting on Internet cables, without a warrant and on American soil, for data linked to computer intrusions originating abroad — including traffic that flows to suspicious Internet addresses or contains malware, the documents show.

The Justice Department allowed the agency to monitor only addresses and “cybersignatures” — patterns associated with computer intrusions — that it could tie to foreign governments. But the documents also note that the N.S.A. sought permission to target hackers even when it could not establish any links to foreign powers.

More News On The NSA Being Authorized To Conduct Internet Surveillance Without A Warrant

Leaked documents show U.S. widened Internet spying: N.Y. Times -- Reuters
Revealed: U.S. government secretly EXPANDED NSA powers to spy on web traffic in 2012, new Snowden files show -- Daily Mail/AP
DOJ approved NSA targeting of foreign hacker ‘signatures’ under 2008 law -- Washington Post
Snowden leak: NSA uses warrantless web surveillance to watch cyberattacks -- RT
New Snowden Leak: Obama Secretly Expanded NSA Surveillance of Americans -- Sputnik
U.S. spy agency secretly expands warrantless Internet surveillance: report -- Xinhua
White House secretly expands NSA power to collect US internet data -- Endgadget
NSA's secret hunt for hackers: How widespread? -- Peter Grier, CSM
New Snowden Docs Show How The NSA and FBI Became BFFs -- Shane Harris, Daily Beast