MI5 AND THE OPTION OF
National Security Agency spy satellites intercept transmission
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Data can then be ‘run through’ ECHELON’s ‘dictionary’ where words and codes can be revealed
The payload it carried into space is a satellite designed, built and operated by the NRO (National Reconnaissance Office)
Data is entered into NSA and GCHQ ‘super computers’
ECHELON: A relatively simple system which requires several complex technologies The three primary methods of interception are:
The USAF launch Atlas IIAS rocket.
Information is automatically forwarded to a series of ground stations
Conclusions, assessments and observations forwarded to senior defence officials for action. Critical intelligence and advisory material then passed to leaders of respective governments with access to Echelon
All telephone calls, faxes and e-mail messages are vulnerable to ECHELON
E•C•H•E•L•O•N
or telephone switch. The device can be covertly attached to a line, or the Physical Taps intercept can be made via a Downlink Interception phone company (exchange). (Internet) Clearly the choice of intelliMicrowave Interception gence officials is to enter the phone system via companies PHYSICAL TAPS such as British Telecom. In the case of the world’s biggest Used by spies in bygone days, communications’ base, the a physical tap means connecNSA’s Menwith Hill, this is tion to a wire, fibreoptic cable achieved via the nearby BT
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mast Hunters Point or Hunter’s Stone as it is known to locals. This is the “low-tech” method. It can be either a covert tap or a tap enabled by the phone company. The switching equipment allows Menwith Hill access to three high-volume fibreoptic lines capable of carrying an astonishing 100,000 conversations simultaneously. Interestingly, all calls to France made from the UK are via Hunters Point! Until the emergence of microwave technology, most interception was achieved through physical taps. DOWNLINK INTERCEPTION A call to your partner in the next room is as likely to go via satellite as by a ground-based cable. Telephone switching equipment, in most cases, will endeavour to use an open
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Results are examined by intelligence staff
based microwave towers. Journey through the country and you are certain to see these masts laden with antennas. Microwave towers are linked to each other via route between the source and these antennas. The distance destination. Calls can be sent can vary between each tower via satellite, cable or microand is dependent on the land, wave, though in general terms though in hilly regions, they if you are calling a number can usually be found at the several hundred miles away, it highest peak. Although the will in most cases go via signal is directional, that does satellite. Once the signal hits not mean that 100% of the the satellite, it is then relayed signal is caught by the receivback to Earth. ECHELON can ing antenna. The signal usually also receive the call, as this continues its journey into huge and powerful network space and is therefore vulnerhas ‘eyes on’ most, if not all able to interception by communications’ satellites ECHELON satellites. orbiting the planet. The satellites used in the GROUND MICROWAVE ECHELON operation can INTERCEPTION monitor several hundred microwave towers, thus the A great many regional commu- implications are obvious. nications are sent via ground-
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Microwave repeater tower
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