AP Wire Story on NSA Manual (fwd)

[Jeff Davis]

Now NBC News is interested...    

> From: sfexaminer at aol.com
> Date: Wed, 13 Apr 94 20:12:26 EDT
> 
> Here's Keay's updated overnite story, which mentions your role.
> AP has lots of different feeds. Not all the regional feeds run all the stuff
> AP picks up.  This was released to all the wire services this afternoon.
> 
> NSA from A-1
> Semiconfidential
> rules circulate
> 
> By Keay Davidson
> EXAMINER SCIENCE WRITER
>    It arrived mysteriously at an Austin, Texas, post office box by ""snail
> mail'' - computerese for the Postal Service.
>    But once the National Security Agency's employee handbook was translated
> into bits and bytes, it took only minutes to circulate across the country.
>    Thus did a computer hacker in Texas display his disdain for government
> secrecy last week - by feeding into public computer networks the
> semiconfidential document, which describes an agency that, during the darkest
> days of the Cold War, didn't officially ""exist.''
>    Now, anyone with a computer, telephone, modem and basic computer skills
> can read the 36-page manual, which is stamped ""FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY'' and
> offers a glimpse of the shadowy world of U.S. intelligence - and the personal
> price its inhabitants pay.
>    New NSA employees are warned:
>    ""Your home, car pool, and public places are not authorized areas to
> conduct classified discussions - even if everyone involved in the discussion
> possesses a proper clearance and "need-to-know.' The possibility that a
> conversation could be overheard by unauthorized persons dictates the need to
> guard against classified discussions in non-secure areas.''
>    The manual includes a list of telephone numbers for NSA offices including
> the cryptically named ""Agency Anonymity'' and ""Cipher Lock Repair,'' and
> the not-so-cryptic ""Alcohol Rehabilitation Program'' and ""Disposal of
> Classified Waste.''
> "Anal retentive and paranoid'
>       The manual is ""so anal retentive and paranoid. This gives you some
> insight into how they think,'' said Chris Goggans, the Austin hacker who
> unleashed it on the computer world. His on-line nom de plume is ""Erik
> Bloodaxe'' because ""when I was about 11, I read a book on Vikings, and that
> name really struck me.''
>    NSA spokeswoman Judi Emmel said Tuesday that ""apparently this document is
> an (NSA) employee handbook, and it is not classified.''    Rather, it is an
> official NSA employee manual and falls into a twilight zone of secrecy. On
> one hand, it's ""unclassified.'' On the other hand, it's ""FOR OFFICIAL USE
> ONLY'' and can be obtained only by filing a formal request under the U.S.
> Freedom of Information Act, Emmel said.
>    ""While you may take this handbook home for further study, remember that
> it does contain "FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY' information which should be
> protected,'' the manual warns. Unauthorized release of such information could
> result in ""appropriate administrative action ... (and) corrective and/or
> disciplinary measures.''
>    Goggans, 25, runs an on-line electronic ""magazine'' for computer hackers
> called Phrack, which caters to what he calls the ""computer underground.'' He
> is also a computer engineer at an Austin firm, which he refuses to name.
>    The manual recently arrived at Goggans' post office box in a white
> envelope with no return address, save a postmark from a Silicon Valley
> location, he says. Convinced it was authentic, he typed it into his computer,
> then copied it into the latest issue of Phrack.
> Private life not private
>       Other hackers, like Grady Ward of Arcata, Humboldt County, and Jeff
> Leroy Davis of Laramie, Wyo., redistributed the electronic files to computer
> users' groups. These included one run by the Cambridge, Mass.-based
> Electronic Frontier Foundation, which fights to protect free speech on
> computer networks.
>     Ward said he helped redistribute the NSA manual ""to embarrass the NSA''
> and prove that even the U.S. government's most covert agency can't keep
> documents secret.
>    The action also was aimed at undermining a federal push for
> data-encryption regulations that would let the government tap into computer
> networks, Ward said.
>     In the NSA, one's private life ceases to be private: A ""waiver must be
> granted in advance of a marriage to or cohabitation with a foreign national
> in order to retain one's access to NSA information ...'' the manual says.
> ""The marriage or intended marriage of an immediate family member (parents,
> siblings, children) to a foreign national must also be reported. ... All
> personnel, either employed by or assigned to NSA, must advise the Office of
> Security of any changes in their marital status (either marriage or divorce),
> cohabitation arrangements, or legal name changes.''
>    There's nothing wrong with ""casual social associations with foreign
> nationals,'' but during such associations ""you are encouraged to extend the
> usual social amenities. Do not act mysteriously or draw attention to yourself
> (and possibly to NSA) by displaying an unusually wary attitude.''
>    None of the hackers thought he or she had done anything unpatriotic.
>    ""The cloak of secrecy that the intelligence communities operate behind is
> an archaic paradigm of global warfare,'' said Davis, whose business card
> identifies him as an ""Outlaw Transcendentalist.''
>    ""The Cold War's over ...'' Davis said. ""What, is a terrorist group going
> to call the National Security Agency alcoholism hot line and say, "Hey, I
> have a drinking problem, can I come in?'''

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