Top Secret

War Plan Chat Includes Journalist

Journalists aren’t usually invited to online chats about US war plans. This seemed obvious until yesterday,…
SCI//HCS-P/SI/TK at Mar-a-Lago

This is a brief explanation of the weird acronyms on the cover sheets that appeared in…
The Mar-a-Lago Mess

Update: Former President Trump has been indicted under federal laws for unlawfully retaining government documents and…
Update: Tweeting Top Secret

Back in the dark ages of the Trump presidency, the President tweeted this photograph. An earlier…
“Eyes Only” Revisited

I was poking around declassified documents from the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) and found a reference…
“Eyes Only” Security Marking

[This post has been UPDATED three times since first published, most recently on Nov 14, 2019]…
Comparing Leaks: Trump vs. Hillary

As I said in an earlier post, no crime is committed if the appropriate official leaks…
A Yank at Bletchley Park

A friend and colleague introduced me to a 94-year-old gentleman with a rare tale to tell. John…
Clinton’s Email Server Isn’t Her Scandal

Early last month, Edward Snowden criticized former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for obviously and intentionally mishandling classified…
Security Design Principles

This is an extended, less-edited version of an article appearing in IEEE Security and Privacy in December 2012. This…
Boak’s Puzzle: Disposing of Classified Trash

Recently I was skimming through the NSA’s “classified history of COMSEC” (Volume 1 and Volume 2). This…