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takyon writes:

The National Security Agency has been warrantlessly sifting through Americans' international Internet traffic on behalf of the FBI in order to identify malicious hackers since 2012, according to the New York Times, ProPublica, and The Intercept:

The revelation calls into question previous statements made by senior U.S. officials about a claimed lack of ability to detect cyberattacks within the United States. During his time as director of the NSA, for instance, Keith Alexander continually lobbied for more cybersecurity powers, but did not mention the scope of those already obtained by the agency. In March 2014, the then-NSA director told a cybersecurity conference at Georgetown University: "An attack on Wall Street or an exploit going against Wall Street — NSA and Cyber Command would probably not see that. We have no capability there. Against everything that's been said, the fact is we don't have the ability to see it."

The Times report, an embargoed copy of which was shared with The Intercept because co-founder Laura Poitras contributed to it, also reveals that the FBI negotiated in 2012 to use the NSA's surveillance capabilities to monitor Internet traffic passing over "chokepoints operated by U.S. providers through which international communications enter and leave the United States." The NSA would reportedly send the intercepted traffic to a "cyberdata repository" maintained by the bureau in Quantico, Virginia.