PLUGGING HOLES IN INFORMATION SECURITY

UNITED STATES 22/03/2001

State Department’s Cyber Defense 

According to Intelligence Newsletter sources close to the State Department, the new team under Colin Powell has contracted the iDefense [...]

UNITED STATES 16/12/1999

NSA'S PAINFUL INTERNAL AUDIT 

After coming under fire in Congress in late November during a debate on the legality of interceptions by the Echelon [...]

UNITED STATES 02/12/1999

SPECULATION ON NSA HEARINGS 

According to Intelligence Newsletter sources in Congress, NSA officials won't be heard before the House of Representative's Government Reform Committee [...]

UNITED STATES 18/11/1999

BARR WINS FIRST ROUND AGAINST ECHELON 

Legislator Bob Barr has benefited from a favorable climate in the U.S. Congress to mark an important point in his [...]

UNITED STATES 04/11/1999

CIVILIANS BUCKING CHANGE AT NSA 

National Security Agency insiders say the organization's new director, Lt.-Gen. Michael Hayden, who took up his job in March, has [...]

UNITED STATES 04/11/1999

WORK ON INFORMATION SECURITY "LARGELY FRUITLESS 

" Several leading information industry specialists and academics have concluded [...]

UNITED STATES 21/10/1999

NSA AND NIST SHOW THEIR STUFF 

Some of the leading lights in the field of information [...]

UNITED STATES 21/10/1999

HIGH TECH INTELLIGENCE SHOW 

The National Security Agency is planning to give outside experts [...]

Spotlight UNITED STATES EUROPE 21/10/1999

THE PITFALLS OF MASS-PRODUCED ENCRYPTION 

During the G8 summit meeting in Moscow this week as ministers laid plans for future cooperation in fighting cybercrime several law enforcement and intelligence officials on the sidelines were instead weighing the consequences of mass-produced encryption. [...]

UNITED STATES 07/10/1999

FRESH TWIST IN CHINA EMBASSY BOMBING 

American claims that the bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade on May 7 by US Air Force fighters was [...]

UNITED STATES 07/10/1999

NSA'S SUPER COMPUTER 

The computer manufacturer SGN based in Mountain View, California, has [...]

Spotlight UNITED STATES 07/10/1999

IBM AND MICROSOFT, THEIR SECRET ALLIANCES 

In recent months the Pentagon and NSA have undertaken secret and direct negotiations with the bosses of IBM and Microsoft to get them to install systems enabling the intelligence community to gain access to encrypted data. [...]

UNITED STATES 23/09/1999

FRESH APPROACH TO ENCRYPTION 

The hand of the U.S. Justice Department and Pentagon in shaping American policy on cryptography became ever-more evident when the [...]

UNITED STATES 26/08/1999

NSA WANTS TO WORK WITH BANKS 

The National Security Agency (NSA) recently approached the American Bankers Association (ABA) with an offer to help set up an [...]

UNITED STATES 26/08/1999

COMPANIES LINKED TO U.S. INTELLIGENCE 

A book published in the United States this month identifies American companies linked to the Pentagon and the U.S. intelligence [...]

UNITED STATES 08/07/1999

WORLD-WIDE INTERNET SECURITY SCHEME 

Washington is intent on creating a massive domestic and international Internet monitoring system, according to Intelligence Newsletter sources close to [...]

UNITED KINGDOM 08/07/1999

NEW HOME FOR GCHQ 

Cheltenham borough council has approved final details for a new center for Britain's Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ). Designed by the [...]

UNITED STATES 08/07/1999

ENCRYPTION EXPORTS TO BE LIBERALIZED? 

The President's Export Council Subcommittee on Encryption (PECSENC) met in [...]

UNITED STATES 24/06/1999

SECRET HELP FOR KOSOVARS 

According to an Intelligence Newsletter source at the Pentagon who has just returned from the Balkans, a significant number of [...]

UNITED STATES 27/05/1999

CONGRESS MOVE TO CURB ECHELON 

A Republican congressman from Georgia, Bob Barr, successfully introduced an amendment to the Intelligence Authorization Act on May 13 that [...]

UNITED STATES 27/05/1999

MONET, A NEW HIGH PERFORMANCE SYSTEM 

Three major American military facilities in the Washington region – those of the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), Defense Information Systems [...]

UNITED STATES 27/05/1999

UNIVERSITIES WIN TOP MARKS FROM NSA 

The National Security Agency has singled out seven American universities [...]

CANADA UNITED STATES 22/04/1999

QUEBEC DATAMINING FOR NSA 

The National Security Agency (NSA) plans to use Nucleus software manufactured by the small Montreal-based company Sand Technology Systems for [...]

UNITED STATES 22/04/1999

THOMAS WILSON 

After naming an Air Force general, Michael Hayden, as head of the NSA last month (IN 353/354) president Bill Clinton [...]

UNITED STATES 22/04/1999

FORMER NSA DIRECTOR TO PROMOTE EXPORTS 

President Bill Clinton announced on April 14 that he was [...]

UNITED STATES 08/04/1999

PENTAGON FAULTED FOR INADEQUATE C4I 

A committee of independent experts chaired by Jim McGroddy, who was an IBM vice president in charge of research until [...]

UNITED STATES 11/03/1999

TOO MUCH COLLECTION, LACK OF ANALYSIS 

In a speech to the Central Intelligence Retiree's Association (CIRA) last fall, John Millis, staff director of the House Permanent [...]

UNITED STATES 11/03/1999

NSA VOICES FEARS IN CRYPTOGRAPHY 

Speaking before a House judiciary sub-committee on March 4, NSA [...]

UNITED STATES 11/03/1999

NEW BOSS AT NSA 

As Intelligence Newsletter predicted in its last issue (IN 353), [...]

UNITED STATES 25/02/1999

HOW THE NSA "WEAKENS" ALGORITHMS 

In the latest of his electronic Crypto Gram publications dated Feb. 15, cryptography expert Bruce Schneier, head of the Minneapolis-based [...]

UNITED STATES 25/02/1999

REVELATIONS OF INTELLIGENCE "BIBLE" 

Intelligence expert Jeffrey Richelson is to publish the fourth edition of his "bible" of American intelligence-gathering, The US Intelligence Community [...]

UNITED STATES 25/02/1999

WHO WILL FILL NSA SLOT? 

With U.S. Air Force lt.-gen. Kenneth Minihan due to step down as director of the National Security Agency (NSA) in [...]

UNITED STATES 11/02/1999

THE DRIVE FOR AGILE INTELLIGENCE 

The recent publication of the book "Top Secret Intranet" (Prentice Hall, NJ., ISBN 0-13-080898-9) by a former top-level NSA official, [...]

UNITED STATES 28/01/1999

NSA'S POST-COLD WAR PROFILE 

Significant new details on how the National Security Agency is organized in the post-Cold War era have emerged from new [...]

UNITED STATES 14/01/1999

NSA'S HAND IN SHAPING RESEARCH 

The National Security Agency has always played a key role in the United States by spurring research – both in-house [...]

Spotlight UNITED STATES IRAQ 14/01/1999

TOUGH TEST FOR U.S. CODE-BREAKERS 

The huge electronic spying operation carried out since 1996 in Iraq by the United States, Israel, Britain and several other countries via UNSCOM raises a lot of questions. One concerns its effectiveness. The results appear to have fallen short of [. [...]

UNITED STATES 31/12/1998

DE-CLASSIFYING THE OBVIOUS AND THE LESS SO 

Over the last several years the National Security Agency has declassified a variety of facts about operational and administrative matters, [...]

UNITED STATES 31/12/1998

U.S. MOUNTS WIDER DEFENSE 

The Central Intelligence Agency is actively tracking nations that it believes to be pursuing offensive and defensive information warfare capability. [...]

UNITED STATES 10/12/1998

NSA-FBI COMPUTER SECURITY PUSH 

Authoritative sources have confirmed that the NSA and FBI are beginning to engage massively in monitoring domestic computer security "incidents." [...]

UNITED STATES 10/12/1998

INFOWAR SQUABBLES 

According to well-placed government sources, the Clinton administration is mired [...]

Spotlight UNITED STATES 26/11/1998

DEFSMAC A QUIET HERO IN ANTI-PROLIFERATION FIGHT 

A flurry of recent ballistic weapons tests highlights the importance of an obscure intelligence organization that is soon to celebrate its 35th anniversary in helping the U.S. to monitor new missile developments across the world. [...]

UNITED STATES 26/11/1998

ANNUAL RSA CONFERENCE 

For the first time, the 1999 version of the renowned [...]

UNITED KINGDOM 29/10/1998

LOOKING FOR LOST CODES 

Britain's Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) appears highly intrigued by the [...]

UNITED STATES 29/10/1998

INTERNAL ESPIONAGE? 

A former NSA and CIA legal counselor, Elizabeth Rindskopf, publicly [...]

UNITED STATES RUSSIA 29/10/1998

THE CASE AGAINST AN AMERICAN SPY 

An affidavit issued by the FBI after it proceeded with the little-noticed arrest of former Army intelligence officer David Sheldon [...]

UNITED STATES 15/10/1998

NSA'S HIGHER COMPUTER-SECURITY PROFILE 

The National Security Agency's increased role in helping industry tighten its information and computer security practices was underscored by the [...]

UNITED STATES 01/10/1998

THE FACTS AND FIGURES OF ANTI-DRUG WAR 

A recent report by the General Accounting Office stated that the U.S. currently spends over $295 million annually on gleaning [...]

UNITED STATES 17/09/1998

THE HIDDEN COST OF ASKING NSA'S HELP 

The National Security Agency is being asked increasingly by the government's civilian branches to simulate attacks on their computer systems [...]

UNITED STATES 03/09/1998

HOW THE INFOWAR GROUPS OPERATE 

Previously classified National Security Agency (NSA) briefing slides have shed light on the structure and tasks of two of the [...]

UNITED STATES 03/09/1998

SOFT LANDING FOR EX-SPIES 

The National Security Agency launched a program two years ago to pension off some of its older staff by finding [...]

UNITED STATES 30/07/1998

HOW TO PROTECT INFRASTRUCTURE 

A conference on "critical infrastructure protection" that was held in Washington on July 15 within the venerable walls of the [...]

UNITED STATES 16/07/1998

ENCRYPTION WITH A "PRIVATE DOORBELL" 

Thirteen U.S. computer companies announced on July 13 that they had made a new "breakthrough" on the encryption export front. [...]

FRANCE 16/07/1998

SCSSI TO BE BEEFED UP? 

The French government is thinking of considerably beefing up the Service Central pour la Securite des Systemes d'Information (SCSSI) to [...]

UNITED STATES 02/07/1998

THE THREATS AND TRANSPARENCY GAME 

In a hearing before a Senate panel on June 24, CIA director George Tenet and NSA boss Lt.-Gen. Kenneth Minihan [...]

Spotlight UNITED STATES EUROPE 18/06/1998

NEW PUSH FOR NETWORK SECURITY 

Not too long ago the intelligence and defense sectors were alone in worrying about the security of information systems, and the question was handled on a national level. But with the growth of the Internet the issue now involves every [. [...]

MONGOLIA 18/06/1998

HAND-IN-GLOVE WITH NSA 

The National Security Agency recently set up listening posts in Outer Monogola to intercept Chinese army communications. The advent of [...]

UNITED STATES 18/06/1998

HOW THE U.S. GOT IT WRONG 

The U.S. intelligence community's failure to provide warning of the recent Indian nuclear tests stemmed from a combination of analytical, [...]

UNITED STATES 04/06/1998

NSA PUSHES ISRAELI COMPUTER PRODUCT 

The National Security Agency, which prides itself on ensuring the use of American-made chips and printed circuit boards for its [...]

UNITED STATES 21/05/1998

AGENCIES SLAMMED FOR LOSING THEIR EDGE 

The skills of the U.S. intelligence community have "dwindled since the break-up of the Soviet Union," according to the House [...]

UNITED STATES 19/03/1998

A GLIMPSE AT AMERICAN SIGINT 

A key element in the management of the U.S. signals intelligence effort, the National SIGINT Committee, has undergone a number [...]

UNITED STATES 05/03/1998

MERGER MANIA IN ENCRYPTION TRADE 

Experts are wondering whether a current wave of mergers in the U.S. encryption business can be interpreted as a sign [...]

UNITED KINGDOM 19/02/1998

INTRANET SECURITY DEEMED UNSAFE 

The Communications Electronics Security Group (CESG), a division of Britain's SIGINT organization GCHQ that vets information technology products for government [...]

UNITED STATES 19/02/1998

HOW NIST AND NSA POOL THEIR EFFORTS 

Speaking before the U.S. Senate subcommittee for technology and space on Feb. 10, Raymond Kammer, the new director of the [...]

UNITED STATES 05/02/1998

RICHARD WILHEM 

Retired U.S. Navy captain Richard Wilhem, who was the head of NSA's Information Warfare program in the early 1990s, has [...]

UNITED STATES 05/02/1998

NSA TAKES ON ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE 

Clinton Brooks, who had served up to now as special [...]

UNITED STATES 22/01/1998

THOMAS MCDERMOTT 

Former deputy director for information systems security at the National Security Agency (NSA), Thomas McDermott has been named senior vice [...]

UNITED STATES 22/01/1998

CROWELL LANDS AT CYLINK CORP 

In contact with several companies in the computer field since he retired in September (IN 322/323), the former deputy director [...]

UNITED STATES 08/01/1998

AIR FORCE INTELLIGENCE SNAPSHOT 

The U.S. Air Intelligence Agency (AIA), which marked its fourth anniversary in October, bears the hallmarks of two trends in [...]

SWEDEN 08/01/1998

AUTHORITIES FIND LOTUS "FLAW" 

The Swedish government has just discovered that the encryption software in the Lotus Notes (IBM) system includes a "flaw" that [...]

Spotlight UNITED STATES 18/12/1997

HOW TO MODERNIZE INTELLIGENCE? 

A top-line panel has recommended a shake-up in American intelligence that would include such revolutionary moves as uncoupling the Directorate of Intelligence from the CIA and reducing it drastically in size. The panel, chaired by former National Security Agency director [. [...]

UNITED STATES 04/12/1997

SWEEPING OVERHAUL FOR NSA 

The National Security Agency is radically overhauling the structure of its Directorate of Operations, ending the latter's 45-year-long practice of [...]

UNITED STATES 20/11/1997

WILLIAM CROWELL -- A CLARIFICATION 

William Crowell, the former deputy director of the NSA who retired in September, hasn't been hired by SRI Consulting as [...]

UNITED STATES 06/11/1997

WILLIAM CROWELL 

Less than two months after he retired as deputy director of the National Security Agency (NSA), William Crowell has been [...]

UNITED STATES 09/10/1997

CISCO WINS NSA CONTRACT 

The U.S. magazine Federal Computer Week has revealed that the [...]

Spotlight UNITED STATES 24/07/1997

LIFTING CLAMPS A KEY TO U.S. POWER 

By easing legislation on the export of sensitive equipment and goods in recent years the United States has considerably boosted its industrial, commercial, political and military might in the world. The change has been marked by fierce arguments -- such [. [...]

UNITED STATES 26/06/1997

AMERICAN SIGINT BASE TO CLOSE DOWN 

The last major American signals intelligence facility in Germany may close down in the near future. The Senate Select Committee [...]

UNITED STATES 26/06/1997

NEW WAYS TO HIT "HARD TARGETS" 

In a recent talk with newsmen, Keith Hall, director of the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO), outlined a number of new [...]

Spotlight UNITED STATES EUROPE 12/06/1997

STANDARDS A WEAPON IN INFOWAR 

Up to now, standards and norms on a national or world level traditionally emerged from a long bureaucratic process established by engineers isolated in their specific technical fields. For some time now, however, this backwater world has become a strategic [. [...]

SWEDEN 30/04/1997

WHY THE SWEDISH TREE FELL 

The American journalist Allan Francovich, reputed for his investigative documentaries on covert U.S. intelligence operations, the Gladio Stay Behind network [...]

UNITED STATES 13/03/1997

BETTER SHIELD FOR INFRASTRUCTURE 

Set up last December, the President's Commission on Critical Infrastructure Protection (PCCIP) that aims to hammer out a national strategy [...]

Spotlight UNITED STATES 13/02/1997

CRYPTOGRAPHY'S LEAP INTO COMMERCIAL ARENA 

By the end of this year cryptography will have definitely quit the intelligence and defense spheres in which it has been carefully enclosed up to now and thrown itself into the commercial era. The RSA Data Security Conference which was [. [...]

UNITED STATES 16/01/1997

STEELE TESTS WATER FOR GORE 

Robert Steele, pioneer in the use of open sources by U.S. intelligence, has angrily protested over two decisions taken by [...]

UNITED STATES 14/11/1996

BALANCING ACT BETWEEN DCI AND SENATE 

The 1997 Intelligence Authorization Act signed by President Bill Clinton in October will lift U.S. spending on intelligence to a [...]

UNITED STATES 14/11/1996

LIFTING THE VEIL ON NRO 

The US National Reconnaissance Office has released further details about its budget, personnel, organization and future plans. Among the details [...]

UNITED STATES 17/10/1996

THE LAST OF VENONA'S SECRETS 

The final batch of Venona documents that provide information on Americans, Britons, Australians and others who gave the Soviet Union [...]

UNITED STATES 19/09/1996

LATEST ADVANCES IN TRANSLATION MACHINES 

Thomas Pedtke, who holds the job of Associate Chief Scientist at the National Air Intelligence Center (NAIC), gave an interesting [...]

RUSSIA 01/08/1996

MOSCOW'S COMPUTER SECURITY SCARE 

"Informational security" has become one of the major concerns of Russian intelligence in recent times. The FSB is presently negotiating [...]

UNITED STATES 18/07/1996

A "LOCKBOX" TO KEEP CODES 

The U S company Trusted Information Services (TIS) was one of the first to criticize the Clipper Chip when it [...]

Spotlight EUROPE 18/07/1996

KEYS OF THE SECURITY KINGDOM 

European legislation on encryption is widely varied. For instance, Dirk Heuze, head of BSI, the German information security agency, strongly recommends that companies encrypt their messages on the Internet. His French counterpart, gen. Jean-Louis Desvignes, head of the Service Central [. [...]

SAUDI ARABIA 26/06/1996

TRAINING STINTS FOR AGENTS FROM 12 ARAB COUNTRIES 

Around 80 intelligence specialists from 12 Arab countries began a [...]

UNITED STATES 26/06/1996

704TH'S WORK FOR NSA 

Recent leaks in the U.S. indicate that the 704th Military Intelligence Brigade based at Fort Meade, Maryland, provides major support [...]

Spotlight UNITED STATES 09/05/1996

DEUTCH FORGES A REAL "COMMUNITY" 

John Deutch's plan to overhaul American intelligence that was presented to Congress in late April aims to meld a profusion of agencies with often overlapping powers into a genuine, unified and more effective "intelligence community" with a much smaller workforce. [...]

UNITED STATES 18/04/1996

FIXING AGENDA FOR TCA 

The Technical Collection Agency that the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence said in its IC21 report (IN --) should [...]

UNITED KINGDOM 18/04/1996

A CIA TRAITOR'S IMPACT 

The United States still hasn't told the British government exactly how much damage CIA traitor Aldrich Ames inflicted on British [...]

Spotlight UNITED STATES 07/03/1996

DRAWING NEW MAP FOR U.S. INTELLIGENCE 

The high-level panel set up under former defence secretary Harold Brown to assess the performance of the American intelligence community has rejected any massive overhaul of U.S. intelligence. The panel, named the Commission on the Roles and Capabilities of the [. [...]

UNITED STATES 07/03/1996

WILLIAM STUDEMAN 

Admiral William Studeman who stood in the forefront of the fight against Infowar threats when he served in leading positions [...]

UNITED STATES 09/11/1995

AUDITING NRO'S BOOKS 

In response to a barrage of fire against the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO), CIA director John Deutch has told the [...]

UNITED STATES 09/11/1995

GROWING THREAT FROM HACKERS 

Hackers are continuing to sow deep concern among American officials, as two meetings in Washington this week amply illustrated. During [...]

Spotlight UNITED STATES 26/10/1995

NEW BLUEPRINT FOR U.S. SIGINT 

The National Security Agency has undertaken a major rehaul of its signals intelligence operations which reflects the collapse of the Soviet threat, budget reductions and personnel cutbacks in the U.S. intelligence community and an increased commitment to collecting SIGINT to [. [...]

UNITED KINGDOM 12/10/1995

NEW BOSS AT GCHQ 

David Omand, a 48-year-old leading official at Britain's Ministry of Defence (MoD), is strongly tipped to become the new head [...]