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What the NSA provides to its foreign partners, and vice versa
The cooperation between (signals) intelligence agencies of different countries is strictly quid pro quo, which means what you get is equivalent to what you give. This is perfectly illustrated by a...
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Edward Snowden and the targeted drone killing campaign
Two weeks ago, on October 22, a new document from the Snowden files was published for the first time in over two years. It's an entry from Intellipedia about the American drone killing campaign that...
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About Intellipedia and other intelligence wikis from the Snowden trove
For years, the NSA and other US intelligence agencies have their own internal versions of the collaboration tools that most of us are using day-to-day. Documents from some of these tools have been...
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From the Hotline to the first video call between presidents Biden and Putin
Among the most special telecommunication links are those between the presidents of the United States and Russia. The first and most famous one is the Hotline from 1963, but contrary to popular belief...
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Head of Danish military intelligence arrested but independent inquiry finds...
Unprecedented developments in Denmark: a former defense minister as well as the head of the military intelligence service FE have been charged for disclosing highly classified information, for which...
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The phones of Ukrainian president Zelensky
Ever since Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, Ukrainian president Zelensky bravely leads his country in the fight against the Russian armed forces. As in any war, communications are of vital...
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The highly classified documents found at Trump's residence Mar-a-Lago
This weblog is not only about signals intelligence, communications security and top level telecommunications equipment, but also about the US Classification System, which is equally fascinating in all...
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Jareh Dalke arrested for offering NSA documents to the Russians
On September 28, the FBI arrested Jareh S. Dalke, who attempted to sell the Russians some highly classified documents which he exfiltrated within less than a month after he started working at the NSA....
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A new secure red telephone for German chancellor Scholz
(Updated: October 30, 2022)In December last year, Olaf Scholz succeeded Angela Merkel as chancellor of Germany. Since about half a year ago, he has a remarkably large red telephone at his desk, which...
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About the legality of the NSA's testing and SIGINT Development projects
On November 1, 2022, Bloomberg published a remarkable story about an NSA analyst who in 2013 developed and tested a new collection method that resulted in the unauthorized collection of American...
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The National Security Operations Center (NSOC): 50 years in photos
(Updated: March 6, 2023)On February 21, the NSA's National Security Operations Center (NSOC) celebrated its 50-year anniversary. For this occasion, I will take a close look at a range of unique...
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Everything you want to know about the Pentagon/Discord Leak
(Updated: April 22, 2023) Two weeks ago, a few highly classified military maps from Pentagon appeared on social media. As more and more of such documents surfaced, this became the most significant leak...
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New details about the Pentagon Leak
Last month it became clear that junior airman Jack Teixeira had posted highly classified military intelligence information on the Discord platform, which became known as the Pentagon or Discord Leak....
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On the 10th anniversary of the Snowden revelations
To mark the 10-year anniversary of the start of the Snowden revelations I will discuss some of the most notable aspects, based upon the numerous blog posts which I have written here. Still, it should...
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Some new snippets from the Snowden documents
(Updated: September 15, 2023) It's been more than four years since the last regular publication of documents from the Snowden trove. Last year, however, some new snippets of information from the...
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The NSA's new organizational designators
For decades, the organizational structure of the NSA was classified, but since 2013 the Snowden documents provided hundreds of designators of internal divisions, branches and units, which allowed me...
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Laatste kans voor duidelijkheid over de Tijdelijke wet cyberoperaties [NL]
This time a blog post in Dutch about the temporary act that gives Dutch intelligence and security services more leeway for "operations against countries with an offensive cyber program directed against...
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Safe and Free: comparing national legislation on electronic surveillance
A project called Safe and Free by the University of Texas now provides an overview of the legal framework for electronic surveillance by intelligence and law enforcement agencies in 12 democratic...
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Eerste Kamer bereikt iets meer duidelijkheid over de Tijdelijke wet...
This time a second blog post in Dutch about a new bill that gives Dutch intelligence and security services more leeway for operations against cyber actors. A summary of this case in English can be...
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The phones of the new NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte
(Updated: December 2, 2024) Since October 1, former Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte is the new Secretary General of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), succeeding Jens Stoltenberg from...
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Treaties on the exchange and protection of classified information
(Updated: January 1, 2025) According to parliamentary records from The Netherlands, almost all western countries have signed, or plan to sign treaties on the exchange and protection of classified...
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Interesting topics from the NSA's 2009 Presidential Transition Book
(Updated: January 21, 2025) In the period between the election and the inauguration, a new US president prepares to take over the administration and gets briefed by numerous officials and agencies,...
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The equipment that Trump's national security team should have used
(Updated: April 3, 2025) Recently, the editor in chief of The Atlanticfound himself in a group chat on Signal, in which president Trump's national security team discussed a military operation in Yemen....
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How US defense secretary Hegseth circumvents the official DoD communications...
(Updated: May 2, 2025) US defense secretary Pete Hegseth appears to have a private computer in his office that is linked to the public internet. He wanted this computer to use the messaging app Signal,...
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The American secure phone of Canadian prime minister Trudeau
In my series about the phones of government leaders I will now look at Canada, where former prime minister Justin Trudeau had a rarely seen telephone on his desk: the vIPer Universal Secure Phone,...
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