Why Does the NSA Want to Keep Its Water Usage a Secret?

[unhappycamper]

http://www.wired.com/wiredenterprise/2014/03/nsa-water/



An aerial view of the NSA’s Utah Data Center in Bluffdale, Utah.

Why Does the NSA Want to Keep Its Water Usage a Secret?
By Robert McMillan
03.19.14 6:30 AM

The National Security Agency has many secrets, but here’s a new one: the agency is refusing to say how much water it’s pumping into the brand new data center it operates in Bluffdale, Utah. According to the NSA, its water usage is a matter of national security.

The agency made the argument in a letter sent to officials in Utah, who are considering whether or not to release the data to the Salt Lake Tribune. Back in May, Tribune reporter Nate Carlisle asked for local records relating to the data center, but when he got his files a few months later, the water usage data was redacted.

The situation shows just how important the new data center will be to the agency’s operations, including its widely discussed efforts to eavesdrop on internet communication. If it revealed how much water it’s using in Bluffdale, the agency believes, outsiders could get a good idea of the scope of NSA surveillance.

“By computing the water usage rate, one could ultimately determine the computing power and capabilities of the Utah Data Center,” wrote the NSA’s associate director for policy and records, David Sherman, in an undated letter filed with Bluffdale in response to the Tribune’s public records request. “Armed with this information, one could then deduce how much intelligence NSA is collecting and maintaining.”

[alc]

1. it's valuable metadata

It may seem insignificant/irrelevant but you can figure out a lot of other things from this type of metadata.

[Jerry442]

3. So the NSA has concentrated a big chunk of its computing power...

...in one known location, dependent on an external source of water (and probably other things too).

Makes you wonder if they were ever really worried about terrorism.

[bvar22]

7. Joe Biden agrees with you..... or he used to.

[packman]

2. Water-cooled computers

[URL=.html][IMG][/IMG][/URL]


Don't tell me you don't have one of these. Great for cooling off the over-taxed video card and processors.

If NSA depends on this type of tech (and we'll never know if they do or don't) to cool those super computers then I can see why they would want to keep it quiet.
Doubt if they do though, probably use other ways to cool them. These would "leak" too much for them to trust them.


http://www.pcworld.com/article/2028293/liquid-cooling-vs-traditional-cooling-what-you-need-to-know.html

[Thor_MN]

4. Data centers need cooling. But not like that.

The water used for cooling in a data center is usually for evaporative cooling in the air handling system. The "swamp cooler" effective is used, outside the building to remove heat from the data center. One could get a vague notion of how much cooling was being done from the amount of water consumed, thereby an inkling of how much computing was going on. But safe to say it's a metric shit-ton and a half.

While there are computer systems that use liquid to directly transfer heat away from the circuit boards, that is a closed system and doesn't consume water on a ongoing basis. The system in your picture is like a car radiator, transferring heat away from the engine to the radiator, where the heat is dissipated to the air, then the cooled water is sent back to the engine. Put thousands of those in the same room and even though you have water cooled systems, you will be melting the chips in short order.

[packman]

6. Oh, poop

You answered my post with logic and understanding.

[oldandhappy]

5. so why are they in Utah?

No water in Utah. Interesting article.