Server on MIT campus targeted by NSA

Source code from the NSA's XKeyscore program, published today by German public broadcasters NDR and WDR, shows the US intelligence services specifically monitoring connections to a server on the premises of the internationally renowned Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

The monitoring of connections to an MIT graduate’s server on the university campus is part of the intelligence services’ attempt to particularly focus on users of privacy software on the internet. The computer server is owned by US citizen Roger Dingledine, the creator of the Tor anonymity software. The IP address of the server operated by Dingledine is clearly defined in the source code as targeted object.

The goal: to specifically mark and trace the connections of users - hundreds of thousands every day - accessing the server provided by Dingledine. According to NDR’s and WDR’s research the connections are stored in a special NSA database. Besides the Tor server, Roger Dingledine said "That computer hosts many websites, ranging from open source gaming libraries to the Privacy Enhancing Technologies Symposium website."

Upon request, NSA replied that they strictly obey the law. Furthermore, the “communication between people who are not foreign targets is without any benefit to the NSA”. However, it remains open why US infrastructure is marked as a surveillance objective at all.