RSS Parrot

Trump risked a compromise of his strike against Venezuela

https://www.electrospaces.net/2026/01/trump-risked-compromise-of-his-strike.html

Published: January 8, 2026 14:05

(Updated: January 14, 2026) On January 3, 2026, the United States conducted a remarkable strike against Venezuela, during which president Maduro and his wife were captured and exfiltrated to New York. At his private residence Mar-a-Lago, US president…

AT&T's very rare Security-Plus Telephone

https://www.electrospaces.net/2025/10/an-interesting-advertisement-for-stu.html

Published: October 28, 2025 19:00

Since 1987, AT&T advertised a new secure telephone that operated according to the STU-III standard of the NSA. This was the Security-Plus Telephone, which is probably one of the rarest devices from the STU-III family. Already in 1992, AT&T replaced the…

Preventing telephone manipulation: the TSG standards

https://www.electrospaces.net/2025/08/preventing-telephone-manipulation-tsg.html

Published: August 31, 2025 20:41

(Updated: September 10, 2025) Telephone conversations can be intercepted by tapping cables, but the telephone set itself can also be manipulated in order to secretly turn it into a listening device. To prevent the latter, the US Telephone Security Group…

The American secure phone of Canadian prime minister Trudeau

https://www.electrospaces.net/2025/06/the-american-secure-phone-of-canadian.html

Published: May 31, 2025 21:50

In my series about the phones of government leaders I will now look at Canada, where former prime minister Justin Trudeau had a rarely seen telephone on his desk: the vIPer Universal Secure Phone, which is manufactured by the American defense contractor…

How US defense secretary Hegseth circumvents the official DoD communications equipment

https://www.electrospaces.net/2025/04/how-us-defense-secretary-hegseth.html

Published: April 30, 2025 21:54

(Updated: June 10, 2025) US defense secretary Pete Hegseth appears to have a private computer in his office that is linked to the public internet. He wanted this computer to use the messaging app Signal, which is the preferred method of communication…

The equipment that Trump's national security team should have used

https://www.electrospaces.net/2025/03/the-equipment-that-trumps-national.html

Published: March 30, 2025 20:38

(Updated: May 2, 2025) Recently, the editor in chief of The Atlantic found himself in a group chat on Signal, in which president Trump's national security team discussed a military operation in Yemen. This immediately became SignalGate. Here I present…

Interesting topics from the NSA's 2009 Presidential Transition Book

https://www.electrospaces.net/2025/01/interesting-topics-from-nsas-2009.html

Published: January 17, 2025 21:05

(Updated: April 8, 2025) In the period between the election and the inauguration, a new US president prepares to take over the administration and gets briefed by numerous officials and agencies, including the National Security Agency (NSA). Here I will…

Treaties on the exchange and protection of classified information

https://www.electrospaces.net/2024/12/treaties-on-exchange-and-protection-of.html

Published: December 30, 2024 22:44

(Updated: February 6, 2025) According to parliamentary records from The Netherlands, almost all western countries have signed, or plan to sign treaties on the exchange and protection of classified information. While many of them are public now, they…

The phones of the new NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte

https://www.electrospaces.net/2024/12/the-phones-of-new-nato-secretary.html

Published: November 29, 2024 15:57

(Updated: January 13, 2025) Since October 1, former Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte is the new Secretary General of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), succeeding Jens Stoltenberg from Norway, who had held this office since 2014. In his new…

Eerste Kamer bereikt iets meer duidelijkheid over de Tijdelijke wet cyberoperaties [NL]

https://www.electrospaces.net/2024/03/eerste-kamer-bereikt-iets-meer.html

Published: March 4, 2024 09:40

(Update: July 19, 2024) This time a second blog post in Dutch about a new bill that gives Dutch intelligence and security services more leeway for operations against cyber actors. A summary in English can be found here. Technische briefing in…

Safe and Free: comparing national legislation on electronic surveillance

https://www.electrospaces.net/2024/02/safe-and-free-comparing-national.html

Published: February 3, 2024 11:50

A project called Safe and Free by the University of Texas now provides an overview of the legal framework for electronic surveillance by intelligence and law enforcement agencies in 12 democratic countries. Here, I will introduce the project and discuss…

Laatste kans voor duidelijkheid over de Tijdelijke wet cyberoperaties [NL]

https://www.electrospaces.net/2023/12/laatste-kans-voor-duidelijkheid-over-de.html

Published: December 11, 2023 07:27

(Update: December 24, 2023) This time a blog post in Dutch about the temporary act that gives Dutch intelligence and security services more leeway for "operations against countries with an offensive cyber program directed against The Netherlands". …

The NSA's new organizational designators

https://www.electrospaces.net/2023/10/the-nsas-new-organizational-designators.html

Published: October 6, 2023 21:11

(Updated: September 20, 2025) For decades, the organizational structure of the NSA was classified, but since 2013 the Snowden documents provided hundreds of designators of internal divisions, branches and units, which allowed me to reconstruct the…

Some new snippets from the Snowden documents

https://www.electrospaces.net/2023/09/some-new-snippets-from-snowden-documents.html

Published: September 14, 2023 09:08

(Updated: September 20, 2023) It's been more than four years since the last regular publication of documents from the Snowden trove. Last year, however, some new snippets of information from the Snowden documents appeared in the PhD thesis of hacktivist…

On the 10th anniversary of the Snowden revelations

https://www.electrospaces.net/2023/06/on-10th-anniversary-of-snowden.html

Published: June 6, 2023 08:16

(Updated: April 7, 2025) To mark the 10-year anniversary of the start of the Snowden revelations I will look back at some of the most notable disclosures and how they developed, based upon the most recent books and the numerous blog posts I have written…

New details about the Pentagon Leak

https://www.electrospaces.net/2023/05/new-details-about-pentagon-leak.html

Published: May 18, 2023 09:16

(Updated: November 14, 2024) Last month it became clear that junior airman Jack Teixeira had posted highly classified military intelligence information on a Discord server, which became known as the Discord or Pentagon Leak. Here I will discuss some…

Everything you want to know about the Pentagon/Discord Leak

https://www.electrospaces.net/2023/04/everything-you-want-to-know-about.html

Published: April 21, 2023 08:33

(Updated: November 14, 2024) Two weeks ago, a few highly classified military maps from Pentagon appeared on social media. As more and more of such documents surfaced, this became the most significant leak since the exposure of NSA and CIA hacking tools in…

The National Security Operations Center (NSOC): 50 years in photos

https://www.electrospaces.net/2023/03/the-national-security-operations-center.html

Published: March 2, 2023 11:52

(Updated: October 30, 2023) On February 21, the NSA's National Security Operations Center (NSOC) celebrated its 50-year anniversary. For this occasion, I will take a close look at a range of unique historic photos from inside this "Nerve Center of NSA". …

About the legality of the NSA's testing and SIGINT Development projects

https://www.electrospaces.net/2023/01/about-legality-of-nsas-testing-and.html

Published: January 5, 2023 10:37

(Updated: January 11, 2023) On November 1, 2022, Bloomberg published a remarkable story about an NSA analyst who in 2013 developed and tested a new collection method that resulted in the unauthorized collection of American telephone data. Here I will…

A new secure red telephone for German chancellor Scholz

https://www.electrospaces.net/2022/10/a-new-secure-red-telephone-for-german.html

Published: October 26, 2022 07:03

(Updated: August 21, 2023) In December last year, Olaf Scholz succeeded Angela Merkel as chancellor of Germany. Since about half a year ago, he has a remarkably large red telephone at his desk, which appears to be the SINA Communicator H. This is a brand…

Jareh Dalke arrested for offering NSA documents to the Russians

https://www.electrospaces.net/2022/10/jareh-dalke-arrested-for-offering-nsa.html

Published: October 12, 2022 05:46

(Updated: May 2, 2024) On September 28, the FBI arrested Jareh S. Dalke, who attempted to sell the Russians some highly classified documents which he exfiltrated within less than a month after he started working at the NSA. Court records provide a lot of…

The highly classified documents found at Trump's residence Mar-a-Lago

https://www.electrospaces.net/2022/09/the-highly-classified-documents-found.html

Published: September 21, 2022 06:49

(Updated: July 21, 2023) This weblog is not only about signals intelligence, communications security and top level telecommunications equipment, but also about the US Classification System, which is equally fascinating in all its complexities. Recently,…

The phones of Ukrainian president Zelensky

https://www.electrospaces.net/2022/03/the-phones-of-ukrainian-president.html

Published: March 28, 2022 19:32

Ever since Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, Ukrainian president Zelensky bravely leads his country in the fight against the Russian armed forces. As in any war, communications are of vital importance here too. Among Zelensky's communication systems…

Head of Danish military intelligence arrested but independent inquiry finds no wrongdoing

https://www.electrospaces.net/2022/02/head-of-danish-military-intelligence.html

Published: February 2, 2022 11:45

(Updated: November 13, 2023) Unprecedented developments in Denmark: a former defense minister as well as the head of the military intelligence service FE have been charged for disclosing highly classified information, for which the latter has even been…

From the Hotline to the first video call between presidents Biden and Putin

https://www.electrospaces.net/2021/12/from-hotline-to-first-video-call.html

Published: December 21, 2021 10:52

(Updated: March 19, 2022) Among the most special telecommunication links are those between the presidents of the United States and Russia. The first and most famous one is the Hotline from 1963, but contrary to popular belief it never had red telephone…