How the US Sends Top Secret Information Around The World

Video written by Ben Doyle

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[RonnyBRL]

lol based on the audio quality you can totally tell he’s got a portable microphone and is totally recording this from his parents spare bedroom he’s visiting for the holidays.

[babygates]

2:58 This is not quite accurate. Only items with non-volatile (storage) memory can inherit classification if plugged into a classified information system. Things like dumb USB mice, analog headphones, cables, etc. are unable to store data after being unplugged and therefore do not inherit this classification. Your rock does not have volatile or non-volatile memory and therefore would not become classified.
Edit: Also, during the classification process, a "declassify by <date>" needs to be specified on the media so there is no burden to protect the classification "forever"
Edit 2: Didn't expect this comment to blow up. For people who are interested, equipment manufactures publish a Certificate of Volatility which guarantees/proves any data written to the device cannot be stored after it is powered off. Equipment with this certificate can be plugged into a classified IS with no issues.

[moonman]

My guess as to why the details of SCIFs are not classified:
1) The government is extremely confident this information can't be used in a successful breach. Think of what it would take to breach an SCIF. My guess is, if you have the knowledge, willingness, and ability to actually break into this facility, chances are you're a foreign nation at war with us.
2) It gives outside researchers the ability to find flaws that the DoD's own security researchers don't see.

[bufordhighwater]

When I woke up today, I had no idea that I'd be reminded of so many hours explaining to lieutenants that their thumb drive no longer really belonged to them after they used it to upload a briefing they were supposed to type and email.

[michaelwasiljov]

I feel old. I was a Yeoman in the navy in the early 90's and everything confidential and secret were sent registered mail and we had to use double envelopes and seal them with thick tape.

[roberteltze]

I once did some networking work in a building that had SIPRNET. We didn't touch it as we were only working on a less secure network. But the security around it was pretty cool. The cables were run through conduit that had lower air pressure inside so that if someone tried to tap into a cable in the middle it would detect the change in pressure and set off alarms.

[KeyboardWarriorst]

We had a SCIF on our compound and the amount of security was crazy. It was behind 3 layers of armed dudes. The main gate, the gate onto our compound and then surrounded by T walls.

[mrmimeisfunny]

I assume the reason the SCIF's specification is freely available is because.
A. It requires contractors to build, and not all contractors can be trusted with Confidential information.
B. It allows other world governments to find and fix security faults and also proves these facilities are legit. Considering "Security through obscurity" is considered bad practice.
C. I can't think of a way to complete the rule of thirds. I guess it is just good for some non-governmental organizations. Same reason why GPS was made public.

[skywz]

I'd like to point out that the original military cipher was not actually a cipher, but instead a code, as codes are words represented in an obfuscated form, while ciphers are letters represented in an obfuscated form. Both of them can be referred to as encryption.

[ayazamikanz]

Do you think the U.S. sends top secret bricks around the world too?

[texabot]

Audio is amazing as per usual! Keep up the good work guys

[Breigner]

Quick correction about packet switching.
It doesn't actually necessarily send packets across different paths, it just sends a packet on a free path so let's say the time one packet reached the next node, one packet has been sent then the 3rd packet could be sent on the same path as the first one.

[SeanA]

Don’t forget the flashing purple lights to let people know if there are visitors so they don’t accidentally talk about something they’re not supposed to

[byrondavison]

Because this is HAI, and pedantry is expected…we absolutely still distribute information on British warship movements. The difference now is that: 1. The British told us and 2. We are likely distributing the information to other British.

[frankiethefish]

I was given a tour of a DOJ SCIF in the late 90's and here is what I remember. The door had a combination lock that randomized the number layout after each turn of the dial. All the computers had removeable hard drives that were kept in a safe within the SCIF. Also, the surrounding walls, floor and ceiling did form a faraday cage.

[alexanderbateman]

Just FYI people generally don't use the acronyms when referring to SCIFS and JWICS. It's said like "Skiff" and "Jay Wicks"

[barrybrevik]

You could have also mentioned a few additional SCIF features, which applies to facilities located in the U.S.:

o. Man Traps (that is what they call them.) Man traps are barriers that begin just above ceiling, and extend all the way up to the underside of the roof. In the horizontal, they run along the entire perimeter of the SCIF. The barriers are sometimes a solid wall, but are more often a steel grid; picture chain link fencing, but with much heavier material, and a tighter open space pattern. Sometimes the man trap material will also be embedded within the walls, ceiling, and floors. The purpose of this feature is pretty much contained in the name; you don't want outsiders dropping into your secure room from ceiling.

o. Shielding. You talked about wall construction, and it should be mentioned that the entire room is shielded to prevent the escape of electromagnetic signals. This means that the walls and ceiling have a continuous surface of copper, or some other conductive material, which is usually a fine mesh, rather than solid material. The floor of the SCIF is usually elevated to allow the shielding material to run under the floor without interruption. In this case, the door is approached from outside by a small ramp.

There is only one door, which is shielded in the same manner as the walls, except that there are a great number of flat "fingers" made from a conductive material that can be heat treated to have a spring temper, such as beryllium copper. These fingers run along all 4 edges of the door, and are connected electrically to the shielding inside the door. The door opening has a continuous piece of rubberized conductive material that is connected electrically with the wall shielding; picture the rubber around your refrigerator door, but with a wrapping of fine metal mesh. When the door is closed, the fingers on the door press up against the flexible material, thereby making the door a part of the wall, electrically. Access to the SCIF is usually controlled by a cipher lock.

Because of the shielding, cell phones do not work inside the SCIF. If you need to communicate with anyone outside the SCIF, there is a "red line" available; yes the phone is often red in color. This is because all electronic data inside the SCIF is separated into "red" and "black"; the black data is the secret stuff. If black data needs to leave the SCIF, the data will be encrypted, and the data cable will be run through a shielded and armored conduit, which must be certified to reject X number of minutes of chainsaw/grinder attack, as well as fire; at least that was a requirement for one of SCIFs that I worked in.

The SCIF is usually a self contained room inside a larger building, but obviously, the outer facility's air conditioning vents cannot be allowed to penetrate the protected barrier of the SCIF, so it can get hot in there. Usually, the SCIF will have its own isolated air conditioner.

o. One must hold some level of government issued security clearance before one can enter a SCIF.

If you have read this far, you probably noticed that the customer specification requirements for a SCIF can vary, depending on "how secret" the project needs to be. Usually, these rooms for government projects; the government will flow their requirements down to the subcontractor, who will flow them down to sub-subcontracors, if any.

I am no expert on this topic, and there are more considerations for secure rooms than what I have written here.

I did not realize that I had written so much until I went back to proof-read it, so I hope that I have not inadvertently bored the hell out of anyone who read this.

[romulusnr]

Technically the public internet is packet switched as well. It's just that with the consolidation of backhaul providers, more stable connections, and modern routing logic, not to mention lack of redundant connections for most people, it's unlikely that your packets will go different routes. But they *could.*

[maltava]

This is great! And here I was thinking we stored these highly classified documents in the closet at Mar-a-Lago.

[Ttarler]

Worth pointing out that most government agencies have separate classification systems that are analogous to DoD but don’t directly correspond (e.g. Energy, Treasury, etc.). Often the systems are compatible enough to inter-connect but occasionally it creates other issues since security vs. resIliency often DO differ between agencies.