NSA Snooping Domestic Crypto
John Young
jya at pipeline.com
Sat Jun 23 12:25:08 PDT 2001
Debate on whether the NSA spies domestically on US
persons appears to be "yes" according to USSID 18, dated
July 23, 1993, which was obtained by the National Security
Archive a while back, for which we offer an HTML:
http://cryptome.org/nsa-ussid18.htm
Parts previously redacted concerning domestic surveillance
are now revealed, among them these provisions for acquiring
and retaining indefinitely domestically acquired encipherments:
[Quote]
(2) Domestic communications reasonably believed to
contain technical data base information may be retained
for a period sufficient to allow a thorough exploitation and
to permit access to data that are, or are reasonably believed
likely to become, relevant to a current or future foreign
intelligence requirement. Sufficient duration may vary
with the nature of the exploitation. (S-CCO)
a. In the context of a cryptanalytic effort, maintenance of
technical data bases requires retention of all communications
that are enciphered or reasonably believed to contain secret
meaning, and sufficient duration may consist of any period of
time during which encrypted material is subject to, or of use
in, cryptanalysis. (S-CCO)
b. In the case of communications that are not enciphered or
otherwise thought to contain secret meaning, sufficient duration
is one year unless the Deputy Director for Operations, NSA,
determines in writing that retention for a longer period is
required to respond to authorized foreign intelligence or
counterintelligence requirements. (S-CCO)
[End quote]
Again, these sections were censored in versions of USSID 18
previously made public, a 1980 version here:
http://cryptome.org/nsa-ussid18-80.htm
While the quoted material is a small part of the 52-page
document, variations on it are repeated more than
once, and seems to be the one exception to the
requirement to avoid domestic interceptions and
to destroy any that are inadvertently acquired.
The classification (S-CCO) is not explained but some
think it perhaps indicates material limited to the UK/USA
agreement and/or the Echelon partners. A better answer
is welcomed.
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