Cryptography Reference
In-Depth Information
seems to be from the same source: the topic
Secret Power
by Nicky Hager,
which appeared in New Zealand in 1996 [Hager]. It must have been shocking
for the intelligence agencies concerned to see the word 'Echelon' printed at all
(ask around who knows it in Germany). When Hager's topic appeared, intel-
ligence agencies were said to have held crisis meetings where they considered
withdrawing the topic from the market right away. Eventually, it was found
that this would have given the topic even more publicity (it was reprinted
in the same year, by the way). Figure 8.1 shows a rough overview of the
system.
The
Echelon system
is organized and realized by the NSA (National Security
Agency). It serves for worldwide surveillance of email, fax, telex, telephone, cell
phone, and other wireline and wireless communication types.
Echelon monitors primarily non-military targets: governments, organizations, firms,
and individuals. From the entire communications (including phone calls) eaves-
dropped, the system filters and sorts interesting messages automatically, which may
then be classified manually, and finally archived.
Echelon is implemented within the
UKUSA alliance
, which is an intelligence agen-
cies' alliance, and its members include the USA (NSA), Canada (CSE), Great
Britain (GCHQ), Australia (DSD), and New Zealand (GCSB). The system has
interception stations in other countries, such as Germany, Japan, South Korea,
and Turkey. There are stations even in countries like China, but they won't profit
much from the information won there. Every member country selects by the cri-
teria of the others concurrently. The five UKUSA organizations are the largest
and least known intelligence agencies in their own countries. But the NSA is
behind all of them. It is believed to be the only one that has access to all infor-
mation.
Echelon includes a large number of subsystems, which are known only in part:
•
Interception stations for international communication satellites (particularly
for the US Intelsat series).
•
Interception stations for local message satellites.
•
Relay stations for espionage satellites.
•
A system for wiretapping radio-relay paths (terrestrial and from orbit), which
concerns most phone connections.
Figure 8.1:
A few basic facts on the Echelon system.
