Criticomm

Criticomm

CRITICOM(M) is an abbreviation for "Critical Intelligence Communications [System]" q.v. National Security Agency (NSA) former flash-intelligence alert and warning system. N.B. The official intelligence-community (IC) abbreviation uses two Ms.

The Critical Intelligence Communications network, or CRITICOMM, is designed to flash to the American President and a handful of other senior officials intelligence alerts and warnings of the highest priority—an imminent coup in a Middle East sheikdom, for example, or the assassination of a world leader, or the sinking of a Soviet sub. It is the goal of NSA to have such a CRITIC message on the President's desk within ten minutes of the event.

. . . . In 1973 NSA's CRITICOM/SPINTCOM network was transformed into the Digital Network-Defense Special Security Communications System (DIN/DSCSS), which fully integrated the message traffic into the Defense Department's general service AUTODIN network (automatic digital network).

Sources

  • The Puzzle Palace, A Report on America's Most Secret Agency, by James Bamford, Houghton Mifflin 1982,p104
  • CIA Insider's Dictionary of US and Foreign Intelligence, Counterintelligence and Tradecraft, edited by Leo D. Carl, NIBC Press, Washington, DC

Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Нужен реферат?

Look at other dictionaries:

  • CRITICOMM — critical intelligence communications system …   Military dictionary

  • CRITICOMM — Critical Intelligence Communications System (Governmental » Military) …   Abbreviations dictionary

  • KW-26 — The TSEC/KW 26, code named ROMULUS, was an encryption system used by the U.S. Government and, later, by NATO countries. It was developed in the 1950s by the National Security Agency (NSA) to secure fixed teletype circuits that operated 24 hours a …   Wikipedia

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”