NSA, DOD to Open Secret Information Network to Allies

The National Security Agency is working to open classified Defense Department communications networks to key allies, a move that the U.S. intelligence community has resisted for years.^[1] NSA and the Department of Defense plan to open a classified network known as the Secret Internet Protocol Router Network (SIPRNet), to a small group of our closest allies.^[2]

SIPRNet is a closed system with no access to the Internet, and is the primary means by which commanders communicate secret military strategies worldwide.^[3] Military and security analysts assert that the move to open the secret network to allies is a significant and necessary step to cement military partnerships with those countries, which have engaged in operations in Afghanistan and Iraq and have participated in maritime patrols in the Pacific.^[4]

These countries, along with other U.S. allies, have consistently petitioned the Department of Defense to open SIPRNet to them so that they could have access to classified information they believed would help their militaries better coordinate operations with the United States.^[5] But the changing nature of warfare is making it difficult to resist these requests much longer.^[6] "Warfare has become more coalition-centric, and more than ever we need to trust and rely on our partners," said Bernie Skoch, a consultant with Suss Consulting.^[7]

"Foreign access to SIPRNet is, quite understandably, very limited……Only America's closest allies, the British and Australians, were granted access, albeit temporary and limited, in certain joint missions…[this was necessary because] in some cases in Iraq, the British could not even see or copy intelligence data gathered by British operatives themselves, when it fused with the Americans' own data stored on the SIPRNet ...." explained a document on the NATO Parliamentary Assembly Web site that details how information technology is transforming warfare.^[8]

Allowing allies to have access to SIPRNet involves weighing the risks of cyberattacks on classified information against the military benefits of sharing the information, Skoch said.^[9] In this case, he said, the benefits are "equally significant" to the risks, and although he has his doubts he said it is an important move for the U.S.^[10]

Alan Paller, who is the director of research at the SANS Institute asserts that the biggest obstacle to opening the SIPRNet to allies, will be to "do so in a way that doesn't give away the jewels."^[11] This will be a difficult task if some of the key information is merged with that of other agencies who will claim that they have a right to that information. Again the U.S. will be forced to balance the benefits and costs of allowing our closest allies access to key information, or barring them from it, and in this increasingly hostile political climate one wonders if the U.S. can afford to deny our allies any further.

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^[1] Bob Brewin, NSA seeks to open classified network to allies, Government Executive.com, May 17, 2007, available at http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/0507/051707bb1.htm (last visited May 21, 2007).
^[2] Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom and New Zealand.
^[3] Id.
^[4] Id.
^[5] Id.
^[6] Id.
^[7] Id.
^[8] Id.
^[9] Id.
^[10] Id.
^[11] Id.