SIPRNet

Last updated
SIPRNet
Part of The United States Department of Defense Computer Networks
Based in United States
Site information
OperatorMultiple Operators
Controlled byThe United States Department of Defense
Open to
the public
No
Header of an unclassified Department of State telegram with the "SIPDIS" tag marked in red USDoS 136760 header.png
Header of an unclassified Department of State telegram with the "SIPDIS" tag marked in red

The Secret Internet Protocol Router Network (SIPRNet) is "a system of interconnected computer networks used by the U.S. Department of Defense and the U.S. Department of State to transmit classified information (up to and including information classified SECRET) by packet switching over the 'completely secure' environment". [1] It also provides services such as hypertext document access and electronic mail. As such, SIPRNet is the DoD's classified version of the civilian Internet.

Contents

SIPRNet is the secret component of the Defense Information Systems Network. [2] Other components handle communications with other security needs, such as the NIPRNet, which is used for nonsecure communications, and the Joint Worldwide Intelligence Communications System (JWICS), which is used for Top Secret communications.

Access

Behind the Green Door secure communications center with SIPRNET, GWAN, NSANET, and JWICS access Intel GreenDoor.jpg
Behind the Green Door secure communications center with SIPRNET, GWAN, NSANET, and JWICS access

According to the U.S. Department of State Web Development Handbook, domain structure and naming conventions are the same as for the open internet, except for the addition of a second-level domain, like, e.g., "sgov" between state and gov: openforum.state.sgov.gov. [3] Files originating from SIPRNet are marked by a header tag "SIPDIS" (SIPrnet DIStribution). [4] A corresponding second-level domain smil.mil exists for DoD users. [5]

Access is also available to a "...small pool of trusted allies, including Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom and New Zealand...". [6] This group (including the US) is known as the Five Eyes.

SIPRNet was one of the networks accessed by Chelsea Manning, convicted of leaking the video used in WikiLeaks' "Collateral Murder" release [7] as well as the source of the US diplomatic cables published by WikiLeaks in November 2010. [8]

Alternate names

SIPRNet and NIPRNet are referred to colloquially as SIPPERnet and NIPPERnet (or simply sipper and nipper), respectively. [9] [10]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Defense Information Systems Agency</span> US Department of Defense combat support agency

The Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA), known as the Defense Communications Agency (DCA) until 1991, is a United States Department of Defense (DoD) combat support agency composed of military, federal civilians, and contractors. DISA provides information technology (IT) and communications support to the President, Vice President, Secretary of Defense, the military services, the combatant commands, and any individual or system contributing to the defense of the United States.

This page provides an index of articles thought to be Internet or Web related topics.

The Defense Switched Network (DSN) is a primary information transfer network for the Defense Information Systems Network (DISN) of the United States Department of Defense. The DSN provides the worldwide non-secure voice, secure voice, data, facsimile, and video teleconferencing services for DOD Command and Control (C2) elements, their supporting activities engaged in logistics, personnel, engineering, and intelligence, as well as other Federal agencies.

The National Security Agency took over responsibility for all U.S. Government encryption systems when it was formed in 1952. The technical details of most NSA-approved systems are still classified, but much more about its early systems have become known and its most modern systems share at least some features with commercial products.

The Non-classified Internet Protocol (IP) Router Network (NIPRNet) is an IP network used to exchange unclassified information, including information subject to controls on distribution, among the private network's users. The NIPRNet also provides its users access to the Internet.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Intelink</span>

Intelink is a group of secure intranets used by the United States Intelligence Community. The first Intelink network was established in 1994 to take advantage of Internet technologies and services to promote intelligence dissemination and business workflow. Since then it has become an essential capability for the US intelligence community and its partners to share information, collaborate across agencies, and conduct business. Intelink refers to the web environment on protected top secret, secret, and unclassified networks. One of the key features of Intelink is Intellipedia, an online system for collaborative data sharing based on MediaWiki. Intelink uses WordPress as the basis of its blogging service.

The Defense Information System Network (DISN) has been the United States Department of Defense's enterprise telecommunications network for providing data, video, and voice services for 40 years.

The United States government classification system is established under Executive Order 13526, the latest in a long series of executive orders on the topic of classified information beginning in 1951. Issued by President Barack Obama in 2009, Executive Order 13526 replaced earlier executive orders on the topic and modified the regulations codified to 32 C.F.R. 2001. It lays out the system of classification, declassification, and handling of national security information generated by the U.S. government and its employees and contractors, as well as information received from other governments.

The Defense Data Network (DDN) was a computer networking effort of the United States Department of Defense from 1983 through 1995. It was based on ARPANET technology.

The Joint Worldwide Intelligence Communication System is the United States Department of Defense's secure intranet system that houses top secret and sensitive compartmented information. JWICS superseded the earlier DSNET2 and DSNET3, the Top Secret and SCI levels of the Defense Data Network based on ARPANET technology.

Crisis Response Operations in NATO Operating Systems (CRONOS) is a system of interconnected computer networks used by NATO to transmit classified information. It provides NATO Secret level operations, with access to NATO intelligence applications and databases. As of 1999, a wide area network of NT computers used in NATO in Europe. CRONOS provides e-mail, the Microsoft Office Suite, etc. It provides informal messaging (e-mail) and information sharing within the NATO community. There is no connectivity between CRONOS and any US network or with the coalition wide area network.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">WikiLeaks</span> News leak publishing organisation

WikiLeaks is a media organisation and publisher that operates as a non-profit and is funded by donations and media partnerships. It has published classified documents and other media provided by anonymous sources. It was founded in 2006 by Julian Assange, an Australian editor, publisher, and activist, who is currently challenging extradition to the United States over his work with WikiLeaks. Since September 2018, Kristinn Hrafnsson has served as its editor-in-chief. Its website states that it has released more than ten million documents and associated analyses. WikiLeaks' most recent publication of original documents was in 2019 and its most recent publication was in 2021. Beginning in November 2022, many of the documents on the organisation's website could not be accessed. In 2023, Assange said that WikiLeaks was no longer able to publish due to his imprisonment and the effect that US government surveillance and WikiLeaks' funding restrictions were having on potential whistleblowers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Defense Technical Information Center</span> US Department of Defense repository for research and engineering information

The Defense Technical Information Center is the repository for research and engineering information for the United States Department of Defense (DoD). DTIC's services are available to DoD personnel, federal government personnel, federal contractors and selected academic institutions. The general public can access unclassified information through its public website.

The RIPRNet is a TCP/IP based computer network for joint South Korea–US access, analogous to the SIPRNet.

The United States diplomatic cables leak, widely known as Cablegate, began on Sunday, 28 November 2010 when WikiLeaks began releasing classified cables that had been sent to the U.S. State Department by 274 of its consulates, embassies, and diplomatic missions around the world. Dated between December 1966 and February 2010, the cables contain diplomatic analysis from world leaders, and the diplomats' assessment of host countries and their officials.

This is a list of notable content from the United States diplomatic cables leak that reveals the United States' political opinion towards a variety of international affairs. Beginning on November 28, 2010, WikiLeaks had been publishing classified documents of detailed correspondence—diplomatic cables—between the United States Department of State and its diplomatic missions around the world. On 1 September 2011, it released all of the Cablegate documents in its possession without redaction.

A variety of networks operating in special security domains handle classified information in the United States or sensitive but unclassified information, while other specialized networks are reserved specifically for unclassified use by the same agencies. Some sites accessed from these networks have been referred to as "classified websites" in official communications, such as the American embassy "Amman's Classified Web Site at http://www.state.sgov.gov/pinea/amman/" and "Mexico City's Classified Web Site at http://www.state.sgov.gov/p/wha/mexicocity" Some of these trace back to the Defense Data Network which split from the Internet in 1983.

The Critical Foreign Dependencies Initiative (CFDI) is a strategy and list, maintained by the United States Department of Homeland Security, of foreign infrastructure which "if attacked or destroyed would critically impact the U.S." A copy of the 2008 list was redacted and leaked by WikiLeaks on 5 December 2010 as part of the website's leak of US diplomatic cables; no details on the exact location of the assets was included in the list. In September 2011, WikiLeaks published the unredacted copy of the list. The list's release was met with strong criticism from the US and British governments, while media and other countries have reacted less strongly saying that the entries are not secret and easily identified.

Host Based Security System (HBSS) is the official name given to the United States Department of Defense (DOD) commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) suite of software applications used within the DOD to monitor, detect, and defend the DOD computer networks and systems. The Enterprise-wide Information Assurance and computer Network Defense Solutions Steering Group (ESSG) sponsored the acquisition of the HBSS System for use within the DOD Enterprise Network. HBSS is deployed on both the Non-Classified Internet Protocol Routed Network (NIPRNet) and Secret Internet Protocol Routed Network (SIPRNet) networks, with priority given to installing it on the NIPRNet. HBSS is based on McAfee, Inc's ePolicy Orchestrator (ePO) and other McAfee point product security applications such as Host Intrusion Prevention System (HIPS).

References

  1. Us defense information systems agency handbook. [Place of publication not identified]: Intl Business Pubns Usa. 2007. ISBN   1-4330-5548-1. OCLC   946756401.
  2. "Secret Internet Protocol Router Network (SIPRNET)". Federation of American Scientists' Intelligence Resource Program. Retrieved 12 December 2010.[ dead link ]
  3. "U.S. Department of State Foreign Affairs Handbook Volume 5 Handbook 8 - Web Development Handbook: 5 FAH-8 H-342.2 ClassNet Standards". U.S. Department of State. 29 September 2005. Retrieved 12 Jan 2016.
  4. "Siprnet: Where the leaked cables came from". BBC. 29 November 2010. Retrieved 19 December 2010.
  5. Grimes, John G. (14 April 2008). "Internet Domain Name Use and Approval" (PDF). Department of Defense. Archived from the original (PDF) on August 21, 2010.
  6. Field, Michael (2 December 2010). "NZ way down the WikiLeaks queue". Fairfax New Zealand . Retrieved 17 December 2010.
  7. Poulsen, Kevin; Zetter, Kim (6 June 2010). "U.S. Intelligence Analyst Arrested in Wikileaks Video Probe". Wired . Retrieved 15 June 2010.
  8. Leigh, David (28 November 2010). "US embassy cables leak sparks global diplomacy crisis". The Guardian . Retrieved 28 November 2010.
  9. "Definition of NIPRNet". PCMag. n.d. Retrieved 18 August 2021.
  10. Harold F. Tipton; Micki Krause Nozaki (2010). Information Security Management Handbook, Volume 4 (6th ed.). CRC Press. p. 67. ISBN   9781439819036.