NSA risking electrical overload

[boise1]

Officials say outage could leave Md.-based spy agency paralyzed

By Siobhan Gorman
Baltimore Sun reporter
Originally published August 6, 2006
WASHINGTON // The National Security Agency is running out of juice.

The demand for electricity to operate its expanding intelligence systems has left the high-tech eavesdropping agency on the verge of exceeding its power supply, the lifeblood of its sprawling 350-acre Fort Meade headquarters, according to current and former intelligence officials.

Agency officials anticipated the problem nearly a decade ago as they looked ahead at the technology needs of the agency, sources said, but it was never made a priority, and now the agency's ability to keep its operations going is threatened. The NSA is already unable to install some costly and sophisticated new equipment, including two new supercomputers, for fear of blowing out the electrical infrastructure, they said.

At minimum, the problem could produce disruptions leading to outages and power surges at the Fort Meade headquarters, hampering the work of intelligence analysts and damaging equipment, they said. At worst, it could force a virtual shutdown of the agency, paralyzing the intelligence operation, erasing crucial intelligence data and causing irreparable damage to computer systems -- all detrimental to the fight against terrorism.

Estimates on how long the agency has to stave off such an overload vary from just two months to less than two years. NSA officials "claim they will not be able to operate more than a month or two longer unless something is done," said a former senior NSA official familiar with the problem, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/nationworld/bal-te.nsapower06aug06,0,5137448.story?coll=bal-home-headlines

[Cronus Protagonist]

1. Gosh, is that a tear on my cheek?

Must be from happiness...

:evilgrin:



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[Nickster]

2. Typical RepubliCON planning. Good thing for us. n/t

[leveymg]

3. 75% of that usage is warrantless domestic monitoring, anyway.

Just follow the law, and there will be no problem.

[boise1]

4. Will this mean we need to send NSA a printout of each email?

[billyoc]

16. Yes, absolutely. We must *immediately* send a hard copy

of every email/usenet article/blog entry to the NSA to help the country in this time of crisis.
I'm sure that they've anticipated this eventuality and installed the specially reinforced floors
needed to hold all the railroad cars full of mail that they'll get.

Start mailing today, or the terrorists win. :evilgrin:

National Security Agency
Fort Meade, MD 20755

[formercia]

18. The longer the better

with lots of key words like bomb, assasination, highjacking yadayada. Download every freako archive you can and keep those fiber-optic backbones glowing.:evilgrin:

[stop the bleeding]

5. fuck em

boo fucking hoo

[TexasLawyer]

6. That pretty much sums up

what I was going to say.

[converted_democrat]

7. K&R... n/t

[Sven77]

8. how much power does it take

to violate american citizens right to privacy. they monitor all forms of communication to data mine info. they steal patents and give them to globalist companies. every call is monitored. all these comps are prolly for the voice to text conversion.

[valerief]

9. Guess they can now *lose* all the data they've collected before

being forced to turn it over to the new Congress.

[Richard Steele]

15. That was my first thought as well when I saw that BS claim.

We are supposed to believe that a simple power failure
will not only cause loss of data, but actually DAMAGE
their entire system?

Someone please tell me: how would that be possible
in this day and age?

Sounds to me like a pre-emtive alibi for destroying evidence;
a little CYA in case the Dems retake the Senate and start issuing subpoenas.

[BluePatriot]

28. Agreed....(nt)

[sutz12]

10. Perhaps they should have been monitoring....

some Solar Energy providers. :evilgrin:

[movonne]

11. That was my thought....should have put in solar energy and maybe

some wind power....

[loves_dulcinea]

12. anyone read vonnegut's

"Lonesome No More", i'm having images of chicken coops on famous gov't buildings.

[w4rma]

13. Shutting down the eavesdroping on Democrats should fix the problem. (nt)

[Hekate]

14. My heart bleeds for them...

This is the world's tiniest violin playing "My Heart Bleeds for You" :nopity:

:evilgrin:
Hekate

[CountAllVotes]

17. ...

:nopity: :nopity: :nopity:

[IowaGuy]

19. This only makes sense if....

they continue to expand their need (demand) for higher peak KW, and do nothing....something well within their control and easily identifiable as to what their future needs would be....besides how difficult is it to just set up some more generators on site and wire up some more feeder lines and set up an ATS (Autonatic Transfer Switch) ....this could be done within a few hours with their resources...regardless of what any civilian power company was doing (or not).

One "expert" states that no single backup system could handle it....so what? You don't need a single one - multiple ones can do it just fine. The so-called "experts" are worried about if "the substation" that they depend on goes down they would be toast...that just strains credulity. The grid has significant redundancy built into it and one substation going down won't be any more than a blip...their ATS's and and UPS's will handle it just fine.

"At minimum, the problem could produce disruptions leading to outages and power surges"...

Since when does demand "cause" a power surge...demand does not create power...it consumes power...

This story sounds like complete BS to me...

While I believe they are facing infrastructure issues with their current system, it is not that big of a deal. Every major IT center in the world is routinely facing and dealing with these same issues all the time. The sky is not falling folks...

[jmowreader]

20. NSA has a dedicated substation

There's lots of redundancy built into the electrical grid, that's true...but the substation that feeds NSA is dedicated to the task. The cables that come out the back of it go right straight to NSA and nowhere else. If it goes down, they really ARE toast.

[IowaGuy]

23. Highly unlikely.....

only one substation (or power source), available....I work on electrical design for lots of medium size facilities (water plants - agri-business facilities, ethanol production facilities, etc...) and these facilities routinely have redundant power sourcing available to them, either through multiple backup generators or multiple substation feeds or a combination. Just hard to believe a facility like this does not have that available or would be designed not to. My guess is what is going on here is that some middle manager got a little creative in his chicken-little routine to try and get funding for needed upgrades to handle future power demands and it was gotten a hold of by media and they started hyper-ventilating.

Hey, our marketing guys use the same tactic too, to try and get attention for the jobs we want to do - paint the direst picture possible - and present in immediate danger terms just to get people to focus on the issue. It does not mean it will happen though.

I guess the clue to me that this was written by somebody that could easily be snowed was the statement that the extra demand could cause power surges....

[jmowreader]

26. Believe it

Acquiring infrastructure, in this case power, is the hardest thing NSA does.

The problem is the eight-balls who run the place.

They can understand computers. Receivers. All the equipment you hang off a receiver.

But try to explain to them you need air conditioning, rack space, floor space or more electricity, and they'll think you're nuts. I needed a 40-amp breaker upped to a 50-amp breaker once. There was enough spare capacity in the panel. The wire was big enough. All they needed to do was to order a circuit breaker, pull the old one, insert the new one and flip two switches--the main and the branch. We're talking what, ten minutes work and fifty dollars in parts? After six months of runaround, I went to an electrical supply store in Steglitz, bought a breaker with my own money, handed it to my Facilities Engineering guy and said "make it happen."

No, some asshole at Facilities Engineering at Fort Meade just decided that his electrical plant is plenty big enough, fuck you very much, and he's not going to increase its size for anyone.

[karlrschneider]

21. Oh, dear...where did I put my

:nopity:

LOL

[Anakin Skywalker]

22. Oh No! The Terrorists

will surely win now!

[Canuckistanian]

24. Guess they'll have to cut back

Cut back to only LEGAL activities.

OOps, just caused them to waste another Watt of power.

[Stargazer99]

25. Capitalism.....the problem

Instead of spending profits on improving and expanding service....the CEOs and stockholders must be paid instead. Oh how this nation worships mammon!

[Rex]

27. Indicative of our massive intelligence failure, should be criminal.

Known for 10 year they needed to upgrade their powergrid. Did nothing about it. Just like Osama Bin Laden. Should have known he was a danger to America. Did nothing about it.

What a pathetic disgrace our intelligence agencies are. I was in Military Intelligence in the Army and I can personally say we knew what the fuck was up at all times. I hope it is still that way, but somehow I doubt it.