RAMPART-A Project Overview

Document Date: October 1, 2010
Release Date: June 18, 2014
Agency: Press
Document Type: Internal NSA Documents/Presentations
Records Collected: Telephony Metadata, Internet Metadata, Telephone Content, Internet Content

NSA slides provide overview of RAMPART-A, a NSA program started in 1992 to gain access to international communications from anywhere around the world. The special access program intercepts high-capacity international fiber-optic cables that transit at major congestion points around the world through general agreements with foreign partners. The program has many divisions to make the data collection as efficient as possible, resulting in collected data passing through multiple sites such as foreign processing centers. This program allows the NSA to collect automated, continuous, high-speed survey of circuit and packet switch traffic, dial number recognition of circuit-switched telephony, international voice and fax telephony, email, chat, VoIP, and calling card user data.