The NSA Selector

In NSA parlance, a "selector" primarily is a string that semi-uniquely identifies and addresses a persons intercepted data, such as

- an IP address,

- an email address,

- a phone number,

- a SIM card's MSIN

- a person's social security number,

- a national ID card number,

- a passport number,

- a social media handle etc.

(elsewhere also known as "accessor", "key", "handle" or "index")

They are interesting because combining and updating them is a non-trivial problem, as I've realized today while implementing a user ban system.

There's a certain system I work with where random unauthenticated visitors on the internet end up supplying data like name/phone/email, with no validation... And of course, the business wants to somehow convert that into a list of "real people" and start correlating it to other records.

I've been trying to stop anything too terrible from happening by asking them to clarify their business requirements, e.g. what should happen when there is malicious impersonation, or the expected result should be when inconsistencies and overlaps exist.

It's not like there's no value to the data... but I'm afraid they don't really understand the problem are are hoping the magic computer can somehow *poof* garbage into fine cuisine.