Communications Security Establishment Canada
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| State level | Federal level | ||
| Supervisory authority (s) | Department of National Defense (DND) | ||
| Consist | since April 1946 | ||
| Headquarters |
Ottawa , Ontario , Canada
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| Acting Chief of CSE / Chef intérimaire du CST | Shelly Bruce | ||
| Employee | 2,209 (as of March 31, 2017) | ||
| Budget volume | CAN $ 350 million | ||
| Website | www.cse-cst.gc.ca | ||
The Communications Security Establishment Canada ( English , CSEC or CSE ) or, because of the Canadian bilingualism, also the Center de la sécurité des télécommunications Canada ( French , CSTC or CST ), is the government's own Canadian intelligence service and cryptography authority. The agency reports to the Canadian Department of National Defense (DND) and the Canadian military . The tasks include obtaining information through Signals Intelligence (SIGINT) and protecting the government's own information and communication networks through encryption technology. The agency has an estimated budget of approximately 350 million Canadian dollars.
history
CSEC was founded in 1946 as the communications arm of the National Research Council (CBNRC) and in 1975 was subordinate to the Canadian Department of Defense and the military. The predecessor authority goes back to the Second World War , when the then civil organization took over these tasks from the Canadian Signal Corps station at Rockcliffe Airport in Ottawa. The transmission 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 Ottawa Wireless Station in 1949. With the merger of the armed forces in 1968, the name was changed to CFS Leitrim .
organization
The agency 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 the number of employees in the authority since the attacks of September 11, 2001, the capacities of the buildings are no longer sufficient. For this reason, the construction of a new, 72,000 square meter building a little to the west began in the spring of 2011, but in the direct vicinity of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service . The completion of the new building is planned for 2015.
Commissioner
The Office of the Communications Security Establishment Commissioner (OCSEC) was established on June 19, 1996. You are in charge of the authority.
| Surname | Period |
|---|---|
| the Honorable Claude Bisson | 1996-2003 |
| the Right Honorable Antonio Lamer | 2003-2006 |
| the Honorable Charles Gonthier | 2006-2009 |
| the Honorable Peter Cory | 2009-2010 |
| the Honorable Robert Décary, | 2010-2013 |
| the Honorable Jean-Pierre Plouffe | 2013 |
role
Together with the Canadian Security Intelligence Service , the agency employs cryptologists to protect important information through cryptography on the Internet and to protect it from unauthorized access. The CSEC provides key government agencies with sensitive information that is protected and transmitted in encrypted form. These include a. the Canadian Federal Police, Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) and its affiliated legal organizations, the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) and the Canadian Air Transport Security Authority .
Signals intelligence
CSEC's SIGINT program includes intelligence gathering for the Government of Canada. At the CFS Leitrim military base near Ottawa, the CSEC operates a wiretapping system that can be used by the Canadian government for a variety of purposes. So u. a. for national security warnings and security. Other SIGINT stations are located on Canadian Forces Base Gander in New Foundland in the military restricted area, CFS Masset in British Columbia and CFS Alert in Nunavut .
The CSEC works with the United States , United Kingdom , Australia and New Zealand . The allies distribute the jointly obtained information ( UKUSA Agreement ).
During the Cold War , the main task of the CSEC was to gather information for the Canadian Ministry of Defense and to monitor and analyze the military activities of the former USSR . The tasks of the CSES have changed somewhat since the end of the Cold War. The CSEC has a larger area of responsibility in the observation and analysis of political events, as well as national security of the country for various authorities. In recent years, the focus has concentrated more on the core area of security for terrorist organizations in order to ensure the protection of the country and the population.
Code breaking equipment
CSEC's decoding systems between 1960 and 1970 were relatively out of date. This changed, however, with the purchase of Cray X-MP / 11 (modified) supercomputer, which was put into operation in the Sir Leonard Tilley Building in March 1985 and for which several cryptologists were hired. It was the most powerful computer in Canada at the time. In the early 1990s, the agency bought the Floating Point Systems FPS 522-EA supercomputer for approximately $ 1.6 million. The supercomputer was upgraded to a Cray S-MP Superserver after Cray bought Floating Point Systems in December 1991. Both systems have since been decommissioned. There has been little to no information about the agency's current supercomputers since then. Cray has built tons of supercomputers for government and other institutions since 2000. It is not considered impossible that one or the other Cray supercomputers were and are still used by the CSEC authority. In early 2000, Cray built the SX-6, Cray X1 (2003), Cray XD1 (2004), Cray XT3, Cray XT4 (both 2006), Cray XMt (2006) and Cray CX1 (2008).
IT security
The agency uses encryption to protect data traffic between the Canadian authorities from being accessed by unauthorized third parties. To the network of the CSEC are u. a. The following authorities and government agencies are affiliated: The Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade (DFAIT) , the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) , the Department of National Defense (DND) and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) as well as other government agencies and the Canadian Military.
echelon
Under the UKUSA agreement concluded in 1948 between the USA and its National Security Agency (NSA), the United Kingdom and its Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), Australia , with the Australian Signals Directorate (ASD) and New Zealand's Government Communications Security Bureau ( GCSB) Canada is also connected to the Echelon network with CSEC . The system is used to receive, analyze and evaluate telephone calls, faxes and data packets worldwide.
Web links
- Communications Security Establishment Canada - Official Website (English, French)
- Canadian Forces Information Management Group (English)
- Canadian Cyber Incident Response Center (English)
- The Communications Security Establishment - Canada's Most Secret Intelligence Agency (English)
Individual evidence
- ^ History. Government of Canada, May 16, 2018, accessed May 16, 2018 .
- ^ Population of the Federal Public Service by Department. Government of Canada - Department of Treasury, February 20, 2018, accessed April 20, 2018 .
- ↑ - Canada.com Canada's cyber-spooks network CSEC is all grown up ( Memento from June 22, 2012 in the Internet Archive ). Retrieved July 3, 2012
- ^ National Post - Canadian spies - $ 880M Intelligence Complex, dated October 9, 2012
- ↑ CBC News - Inside Canada's top-secret billion-dollar spy palace, October 8, 2013. Retrieved March 5, 2014