Communications intercepted by the National Security Agency featured far more 'ordinary Web users' than targeted foreigners, according to a new report by The Washington Post based on documents provided by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden.
According to The Post, 90 percent of the account holders in the cache of intercepted messages were not foreign targets but ordinary users from the United States and abroad, whose messages had been 'caught in a net cast for somebody else.'
Along with the unintended targets, The Post reports that the documents provided information of 'considerable intelligence value,' including 'revelations about a secret overseas nuclear project, double-dealing by an ostensible ally, a military calamity that befell an unfriendly power, and the identities of aggressive intruders into U.S. computer networks.' The newspaper did not reveal the details of most of these claims so as not to interfere with ongoing operations.
For more details on the approximately 160,000 intercepted emails and instant message conversations Snowden handed over, see the full report from The Washington Post.
Entities 0 Name: The Post Count: 2 1 Name: The Washington Post Count: 2 2 Name: Snowden Count: 1 3 Name: National Security Agency Count: 1 4 Name: NSA Count: 1 5 Name: U.S. Count: 1 6 Name: United States Count: 1 7 Name: Edward Snowden Count: 1 Related 0 Url: http://ift.tt/1mWcbWm Title: Ordinary people outnumber targeted foreigners in NSA data: Washington Post Description: "Nine of 10 account holders found in a large cache of intercepted conversations, which former NSA contractor Edward Snowden provided in full to The Post, were not the intended surveillance targets but were caught in a net the agency had cast for somebody else," the Post said.
