Communications Security Establishment Canada

The Communications Security Establishment Canada ( CSEC or CSE; French: Centre de la sécurité for Telecommunications Canada, CSTC or CST ) is the government-owned Canadian Intelligence Service and cryptography authority. The Authority is subject to the Canadian Department of Defense Department of National Defence ( DND) and the Canadian military. The tasks include the acquisition of information by Signals Intelligence ( SIGINT), and protection of the government's own information and communication networks through encryption techniques. The staff strength is secret, estimates of around 1,900 people from. The budget authority is estimated about 350 million Canadian dollars.

• 3.1 Signals Intelligence
• 3.2 Code Breaking Equipment
• 3.3 IT Security

History

CSEC was established in 1946 as a communications branch of the National Research Council ( CBNRC ) and 1975 reports to the Canadian Ministry of Defense and the military. The predecessor authority goes back to the Second World War, when the then civil organization took over these duties from Canadian Signal Corps station at Rockcliffe Airport in Ottawa. The transmitting station in Leitrim was one of the first and is now one of the oldest stations of the CSEC, which is still in operation. The station was completed in 1941 and was initially named as Ottawa Wireless Station in 1949. The merger of the armed forces in 1968 was renamed the CFS Leitrim.

Organization

The Authority has several buildings one of which is the Sir Leonard Tilley Building. Another is the Edward Drake Building, which is located in the immediate vicinity of the headquarters. Due to the drastic increase in employees in the agency since the attacks of 11 September 2001, the capacity of the buildings are no longer sufficient. For this reason, the construction of a new, 72,000 -square-foot building began in the spring of 2011, located slightly to the west, but in the immediate vicinity of the Canadian Security Intelligence Services. The completion of the new building is planned for 2015.

Commissioner

The Office of the Communications Security Establishment Commissioner ( OCSEC ) in the authority was introduced on 19 June 1996. You have the oversight of the Authority.

Role

Together with the Canadian Security Intelligence Service has the authority cryptographer to protect important information through cryptography on the Internet and access by unauthorized persons. The CSEC provides important government agencies with sensitive information transmitted protected and encrypted. These include, inter alia, the Canadian Federal Police, Royal Canadian Mounted Police ( RCMP ), and their affiliated legal organizations, the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, the Canada Border Services Agency ( CBSA) and the Canadian Air Transport Security Authority.

Signals Intelligence

CSECs SIGINT program includes the acquisition of information for the Canadian government. On the military base CFS Leitrim near Ottawa, the CSEC operates a monitoring system that can be used by the Canadian government for a variety of areas. Thus, inter alia, for national security alerts and security. More SIGINT stations are located on the Canadian Forces Base Gander, New Foundland in the military restricted area, CFS Masset in British Columbia and CFS Alert in Nunavut.

The CSEC is working with the United States, United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand. The allies share the information together obtained from ( UKUSA Agreement).

During the Cold War, the core task of CSEC was the acquisition of information for the Canadian Ministry of Defence as well as the observation and analysis of the military activities of the former USSR. Since the end of the Cold War, the focus of the CSES have changed somewhat. The CSEC has a wider remit in the observation and analysis of political events, and national security of the country for different authorities. In recent years, the focus has once more focused on the core area of ​​security from terrorist organizations to ensure the protection of the country and the population.

Code Breaking Equipment

CSECs decoding systems between 1960 and 1970 were relatively outdated. This changed, however, by buying Cray X-MP/11 (modified) supercomputer, which was taken at the Sir Leonard Tilley Building in March 1985 into operation and for which several cryptographers were hired. At that time it was the most powerful computer in Canada. In the early 1990s, the Authority purchased the Floating Point Systems FPS 522- EA supercomputer for approximately 1.6 million dollars. The supercomputer was upgraded to a Cray S -MP super server after Cray, the company had floating system in December 1991 bought. Both systems were off-duty made ​​in the meantime. There are few since then to no information about the currently used supercomputers in the authority. The company has built a lot of Cray supercomputers for government agencies and other facilities since 2000. It is not considered impossible that one or the other supercomputer Cray was also used in the CSEC authority and is still used today. In early 2000 built the Cray SX -6, Cray X1 ( 2003), Cray XD1 (2004), Cray XT3, Cray XT4 (both 2006), Cray XMT (2006) and Cray CX1 (2008).

IT Security

The Authority by encryption protects the data traffic between the Canadian authorities against access by unauthorized third parties. At the network of CSECs are, inter alia, following authorities and government agencies connected: The Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade ( DFAIT ), the Canada Border Services Agency ( CBSA), the Department of National Defence ( DND) and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police ( RCMP ) and other government agencies and the Canadian military.

Echelon

Under the agreements concluded in 1948 UKUSA agreement of countries USA and the National Security Agency (NSA ), the United Kingdom and the Government Communications Headquarters ( GCHQ ), Australia, with the Australian Signals Directorate (ASD ) and New Zealand's Government Communications Security Bureau ( GCSB ) is also connected with Canada CSEC at the Echelon network. With the system telephone calls, fax, and data packets are received worldwide, analyzed and evaluated.