# Lifestyles & Discussion > Bitcoin / Cryptocurrencies >  NSA Has Been Tracking Bitcoin Users Since 2013

## Swordsmyth

In a blockbuster report published Tuesday in the Intercept,  reporter Sam Biddle cited several documents included in the massive  cache of stolen NSA documents that showed that the agency has been  tracking bitcoin users since 2013, and has potentially been funneling  some of this information to other federal agencies. Or, as Biddle puts  it, maybe the conspiracy theorists were right.
 *It turns out the conspiracy theorists were onto something.*  Classified documents provided by whistleblower Edward Snowden show that  the National Security Agency indeed worked urgently to target Bitcoin  users around the world - and wielded at least one mysterious source of  information to "help track down senders and receivers of Bitcoins,"  according to a top-secret passage in an internal NSA report dating to  March 2013. The data source appears to have leveraged the NSAs ability  to harvest and analyze raw, global internet traffic while also  exploiting an unnamed software program that purported to offer anonymity  to users, according to other documents.Using its ability to siphon data directly from the fiber-optic  cables, the NSA managed to develop a system for tracing transactions  that went well beyond simple blockchain analysis. The agency relied on a  program called *MONKEYROCKET*, a sham  Internet-anonymizing service that, according to the documents, was  primarily deployed in Asia, Africa and South America with the intention  of thwarting terrorists.
 *The documents indicate that "tracking down" Bitcoin users  went well beyond closely examining Bitcoins public transaction ledger,*  known as the Blockchain, where users are typically referred to through  anonymous identifiers; the tracking may also have involved gathering  intimate details of these users computers.
*The NSA collected some Bitcoin users password information,*  internet activity, and a type of unique device identification number  known as a MAC address, a March 29, 2013 NSA memo suggested. In the same  document, analysts also discussed tracking internet users internet  addresses, network ports, and timestamps to identify "BITCOIN Targets."
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  The NSAs budding Bitcoin spy operation looks to have been *enabled  by its unparalleled ability to siphon traffic from the physical cable  connections that form the internet and ferry its traffic around the  planet.* As of 2013, the NSAs Bitcoin tracking was achieved  through program code-named OAKSTAR, a collection of covert corporate  partnerships enabling the agency to monitor communications, including by  harvesting internet data as it traveled along fiber optic cables that  undergird the internet.
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  Specifically, *the NSA targeted Bitcoin through MONKEYROCKET, a  sub-program of OAKSTAR, which tapped network equipment to gather data  from the Middle East, Europe, South America, and Asia, according to  classified descriptions. As of spring 2013, MONKEYROCKET was the sole  source of SIGDEV for the BITCOIN Targets,* the March 29, 2013  NSA report stated, using the term for signals intelligence development,  SIGDEV, to indicate the agency had no other way to surveil Bitcoin  users. The data obtained through MONKEYROCKET is described in the  documents as full take surveillance, meaning the entirety of data  passing through a network was examined and at least some entire data  sessions were stored for later analysis.Naturally, once the NSA got involved, the notion of anonymity -  whether with bitcoin, or even some of the privacy-oriented coins like  Zcash - was completely crushed.
 Emin Gun Sirer, associate professor and co-director of the Initiative  for Cryptocurrencies and Contracts at Cornell University, told The  Intercept that financial privacy is something that matters incredibly  to the Bitcoin community, and expects that people who are privacy  conscious will switch to privacy-oriented coins after learning of the  NSAs work here. Despite Bitcoins reputation for privacy, Sirer added, *when  the adversary model involves the NSA, the pseudonymity disappears.   You should really lower your expectations of privacy on this network.*
  Green, who co-founded and currently advises a privacy-focused Bitcoin competitor named Zcash, echoed those sentiments, *saying  that the NSAs techniques make privacy features in any digital  currencies like Ethereum or Ripple totally worthless for those  targeted.*While bitcoin appeared to be the NSA's top target, it wasn't the  agency's only priority. The NSA also used its unparalleled surveillance  powers to take down Liberty Reserve - a kind of proto-ICO that was  involved in money laundering. Though the company was based in Costa  Rica, the Department of Justice partnered with the IRS and Department of  Homeland Security to arrest its founder and hand him a 20-year prison  sentence.

More at: https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-...cuments-reveal

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