science

Stateroom (surveillance program)

Stateroom (surveillance program) is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Stateroom (surveillance program) rather than just read about it. In short: STATEROOM is the code name of a highly secretive signals intelligence collection program involving the interception of international radio, telecommunications and Internet traffic. It is operated out of the diplomatic missions of the signatories to the UKUSA Agreement and the members of the ECHELON network including Australia, New Zealand, United Kingdom, Canada and the United States.

Key takeaways

Stateroom (surveillance program) belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Stateroom (surveillance program) to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Stateroom (surveillance program) from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

STATEROOM is the code name of a highly secretive signals intelligence collection program involving the interception of international radio, telecommunications and Internet traffic. It is operated out of the diplomatic missions of the signatories to the UKUSA Agreement and the members of the ECHELON network including Australia, New Zealand, United Kingdom, Canada and the United States. In almost 100 U.S. embassies and consulates worldwide, Stateroom operations are conducted by the Special Collection Service (SCS), a unit that is jointly operated by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the National Security Agency (NSA). According to documents leaked by Edward Snowden, the true mission of Stateroom personnel is generally not revealed to the rest of the diplomatic staff at the facilities where they are assigned.

Members

– Australian Signals Directorate (ASD), formerly known as the Defence Signals Directorate (DSD) – Communications Security Establishment (CSE) – Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) – Special Collection Service (SCS) – Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB)

Operations Note: The list of locations in the following section is non-exhaustive, and only includes publicly disclosed information.

Australia The collection of signals intelligence by Australian embassies and high commissions occurs in capital cities across East Asia and Southeast Asia, namely: Bangkok (Thailand), Beijing (China), Dili (East Timor), Hanoi (Vietnam), Jakarta (Indonesia), Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia), Port Moresby (Papua New Guinea)

Canada In the 1980s, surveys were conducted by Canada's CSE agency to pick out Canadian embassies suitable to function as surveillance posts.

New Zealand As of 16 March 2015, New Zealand's GCSB agency had a secret listening post, codenamed "Caprica", at the New Zealand High Commission in Honiara, the capital of the Solomon Islands. The "Caprica" outpost was reportedly modeled after the NSA's Stateroom outposts at selected United States embassies across the world.

United Kingdom

As of 2013, British embassies and consulates in the following capital cities are known to contain clandestine surveillance facilities:

Berlin (Germany) Data collected by Britain is sent to a relay facility at RAF Croughton in Northamptonshire, England, before being transmitted to a data center jointly operated by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency and the U.S. National Security Agency in College Park, Maryland.

United States

In the United States, the U.S. Special Collection Service (SCS) contributes to Stateroom. The SCS is jointly operated by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the National Security Agency (NSA). On 23 November 2013, the Dutch newspaper NRC Handelsblad released a top secret NSA presentation leaked by Edward Snowden, which shows the presence of SCS operations in numerous U.S. diplomatic missions located in the following cities: Athens (Greece), Bangkok (Thailand), Berlin (Germany), Brasília (Brazil), Budapest (Hungary), Frankfurt (Germany), Geneva (Switzerland), Lagos (Nigeria), Milan (Italy), New Delhi (India), Paris (France), Prague (Czech Republic), Vienna (Austria), Zagreb (Croatia). In October 2013, reports by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden led to the revelation of the SCS having systematically wiretapped Chancellor of Germany Angela Merkel's private cell phone over a period of over 10 years, among other activities to wiretap and systematically record large amounts of European and South American leaders' and citizens' communications. Other SCS locations include Baku (Azerbaijan), Kyiv (Ukraine), Madrid (Spain), Moscow (Russia), Pristina (Serbia), Rome (Italy), Sarajevo (Bosnia), Tbilisi (Georgia), and Tirana (Albania).

Disclosure by Edward Snowden The existence of Stateroom was revealed in October 2013 by the former NSA contractor Edward Snowden, who initiated the global surveillance disclosure.

...These sites are small in size and in number of personnel staffing them. They are covert, and their true mission is not known by the majority of the diplomatic staff at the facility where they are assigned.

Reactions

New Zealand Damien Rogers, former senior adviser to the New Zealand intelligence agency Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB) said he was surprised to hear that the "Stateroom" codeword and location of associated sites are being published in the media, because such revelations would cause "anxiety and concern" for the directors of the five intelligence agencies of the UKUSA Agreement. Nicky Hager, a New Zealand investigative journalist who exposed the ECHELON surveillance system, confirmed that such surveillance operations have been conducted by the intelligence agencies of the Five Eyes for quite some time.

Australia A spokesman for Australia's Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade said: "It is the long-standing practice of Australian governments not to comment on intelligence matters." Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott told reporters that "Every Australian governmental agency, every Australian official at home and abroad operates in accordance with the law, and that's the assurance that I can give people at home and abroad".

Canada Government representatives at CSE declined to comment directly on the leak. A spokeswoman for Canada's Defence Minister Rob Nicholson declined to comment.

China Hua Chunying, a spokeswoman for China's Foreign Ministry, reacted angrily and demanded that foreign entities and personnel in China "strictly abide" by the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations and other international treaties.

Germany

German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle summoned Britain's Ambassador to Germany, Simon McDonald, to explain and to clarify the presence of Britain's eavesdropping centre in Berlin.

Indonesia Indonesian Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa protested against the surveillance program, and told the media that "such action is not only a breach of security, but also a serious violation of diplomatic norms and ethics, and certainly not in tune with the spirit of friendly relations between nations."

Malaysia Malaysia's Minister of Home Affairs, Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, said that Snowden's revelation is a "sensitive issue since it involves several countries".

… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Stateroom (surveillance program)

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Stateroom (surveillance program) claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Stateroom (surveillance program) before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Stateroom (surveillance program) ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Stateroom (surveillance program)

In research: Stateroom (surveillance program) appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Stateroom (surveillance program) in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Stateroom (surveillance program) is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Anglosphere, Central Intelligence Agency operations, GCHQ operations, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Stateroom (surveillance program) outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Stateroom (surveillance program) in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Stateroom (surveillance program) means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Stateroom (surveillance program) out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Stateroom (surveillance program) in simple terms?

Why does Stateroom (surveillance program) matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Stateroom (surveillance program)?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Stateroom (surveillance program).