The German magazine Spiegel, citing new details from the Edward Snowden files, reported Monday that the NSA program called Follow the Money tracks records of international payments, banking and credit-card transactions.NSA analysts had an internal conference to discuss tracking Visa transactions all over the world in 2010. Their stated goal was "to collect, parse and ingest transactional data for priority credit-card associations"
The NSA database Tracfin works with outside organizations such as Swift in Brussels to share bank data. Spiegal states that the NSA can access collected traffic from many banks worldwide.
Mike Fish, Swift's chief information officer, said at a conference in Dubai on Monday that the interbank group had "no evidence to point out that there has ever been any unauthorized use of our network or our data. We constantly monitor cybersecurity threats, and whenever we believe there is any risk to the security of our services, you can be sure we investigate very thoroughly," Fish said, based on a copy of his remarks furnished to Bloomberg by Swift.
Visa, based in San Francisco, said that it was "not aware of any unauthorized access into our network. Visa takes data security seriously and, in response to any attempted intrusion, we would pursue all available remedies to the fullest extent of the law. Further, it's Visa policy to only provide transaction information in response to a subpoena or other valid legal process," the statement said.
Spiegel stated that the NSA's Tracfin database in 2011 was comprised of 180 million records, of which 84 % had been credit-card transactions.
Britain's communications-intelligence agency, known as GCHQ, privately expressed concerns about the effort, the magazine said. Quoting a GCHQ report on the legal implications of collecting, storing and sharing large quantities of financial data, it said the British agency considered those actions a deep invasion of privacy involving "rich personal information," much of which "is not about our targets."
The NSA database Tracfin works with outside organizations such as Swift in Brussels to share bank data. Spiegal states that the NSA can access collected traffic from many banks worldwide.
Mike Fish, Swift's chief information officer, said at a conference in Dubai on Monday that the interbank group had "no evidence to point out that there has ever been any unauthorized use of our network or our data. We constantly monitor cybersecurity threats, and whenever we believe there is any risk to the security of our services, you can be sure we investigate very thoroughly," Fish said, based on a copy of his remarks furnished to Bloomberg by Swift.
Visa, based in San Francisco, said that it was "not aware of any unauthorized access into our network. Visa takes data security seriously and, in response to any attempted intrusion, we would pursue all available remedies to the fullest extent of the law. Further, it's Visa policy to only provide transaction information in response to a subpoena or other valid legal process," the statement said.
Spiegel stated that the NSA's Tracfin database in 2011 was comprised of 180 million records, of which 84 % had been credit-card transactions.
Britain's communications-intelligence agency, known as GCHQ, privately expressed concerns about the effort, the magazine said. Quoting a GCHQ report on the legal implications of collecting, storing and sharing large quantities of financial data, it said the British agency considered those actions a deep invasion of privacy involving "rich personal information," much of which "is not about our targets."
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