American Cryptology during the Cold War - The Black Vault

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After the war, the cryptologic community began the search for a reliable and efficient on-line device. For a time it appeared that one-time tapes were the answer. The British developed the 5UCO or the Secretape, which achieved limited use during the early 1950s. But tape production and handling were still a nightmare, and the volume of communications required in the 1950s dictated another solution.50 Circuit speeds were beginning to exceed the capability ofmechanical rotors to keep up. What was needed was an electronic key generator. The solution was the NSA-developed KW-26, the first on-line electronic key generator to come into wide use in the United States. First fielded in 1957, the KW-26 remained the mainstay of U.S. enciphered text communications for thirty years. According to a former NSA COMSEC official, the KW-26 made the Agency's COMSEC reputation. 61 The KW-26, because it was electronic rather than electromechanical, had no moving parts, and its speed was limited only by the speed of the associated teletypewriters, which at that time was up to 100 words per minute. Built during the transition from tubes to transistors, the KW-26 had a little ofboth. It had a simple-to-set key system using cards manufactured at NSA. When an operator pulled the card out ofthe machine, a knife sliced it in half so that it could not be reused. Its chief disadvantage was that it could be used only for point-to-point circuits, which dictated that a huge number of machines be manufactured. At one time the NSA communications center alone had 336 ofthem.62 The point-to-point modus limited the KW-26's utility in the Navy. Naval communications were marked by wide-area fleet broadcasts to large numbers of ships afloat. Naval vessels needed the capability to tune into a broadcast at any time during the day or night and just receive traffic - transmitting messages was a much smaller communications function. To solve this problem, NSA designed the KW-37, a crypto device that permitted a ship's communications operator to tune into the fleet broadcast using a cryptographic catch-up function. 63 KW·37 NOT RELEASARI,g TO FORiISU lHt'fI"NALS 219
Ib) (1) Ib) (3) -18 USC 798 Ib) (3) -P.L. 86-36 The next on-line crypto device to be widely adopted was the KG-13. Unlike the KW 26, it was a general-purpose key generator, which meant that itc::ould be used for more thanjust teletypewriter security. Fully transistorized, it was smaller and lighter and was suitable for a wide variety of uses. It could encrypt voiceaIld, with the HY-2 vocoder, became the backbone ofthe Autosevocomm voice encryption system in the 1960s. 64 From SIGSALY to Modern Voice Encryption As soon as the war was over, the paleolithic SIGSALY was scrapped. Surely the U.S. could find something smaller, lighter and cheaper. In the late 1940s AFSA developed a voice encryption device called the AJ;?5AY-816, which was used to encrypt the new secure voice system between Arlington Hall and Nebraska Avenue. Using a primitive vacuum tube key generation and pulse/code modulation, it produced good voice quality. The drawback was that it needed a 50 KHz carrier. When computers came into general use in cryptology, NSAjudged that the AFSAY-816 was cryPtographicallysuspect and replaced it with the KY-ll,I I IThe KY-ll, however, had the same drawbacks al-s-t-h-e-e-a-r-li-e-r-A-F-S-A-Y--8-1-6.....I It was a large system and was kept in the communications center. It sucked up huge swatches of bandwidth, making it appropriate for the microwave systems in the . Washington area, but hardly anywhere else. 65 Because it required communications center security, the KY-ll waS not suitable for general executive level use in Washington. To remedy the problems of size, weight, and security protection, NSA developed the KY-l. It was packaged in a single cabinet about halfas high as an ordinary safe and was secured with a three-position combination lock. It was distributed to very high-level users like the secretary of defense, secretary of state, DCI and others. It was the first voice security system installed in private residences, and one ofthe early models was placed in Eisenhower's farm in Gettysburg. To use it must have been mildly frustrating, as it was a half-duplex, push-to-talk system. Voice quality was high, but at a familiar cost - it required wideband voice circuitry. By the mid-1960s, it had been replaced by the KY_3. 66 NSA's first entry in the narrowband sweepstakes was the KO-6, a multipurpose equipment which could encrypt speech signals as well as others. It could compress and digitize speech into a narrowband transmission system, but only at considerable cost. The KO-6 weighed a ton, required three kilowatts ofpower, and, according to one NSA expert, "provided almost intelligible narrowband secure voice." As a result, it was seldom used in the voice mode. 67 IIANB15E VIA Wt15EN'f KEYIIe15E OeMIlff SeNTRe15 SYSlfEMSdeU,'f15Y NOT RELEASABI F TO i'Q~ISN NATI8I(AL3 220
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NO. 90,3 UNITED STATES CRYPTOLOGIC
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'fOP !!(:FU!T tlM81b\ UNITED STATES
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.§ Ib) (1) .~; Ib) (3) -50 USC 403
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'fap SECRIiTjJ.MB'1t4 The Reorganiz
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fepSEeRET~ Non - Responsive IOP3EeR
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T6'5ECRET~ Non - Responsive iii A ;
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TOPSEeRE~ American History, 1775-19
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'(b) (3) -P.L. 86-36 TOP SECAr, tJM
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--------------~ - - - -- - - TOp Si
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Tap SECRET~RA One other wartime acc
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TOP5iCRET~ exacted revenge over a p
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lap 5fEftf'f ~BRA order to tighten
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1'011 S!CRET~ Government offices on
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Te"S!CREI~ were to continue to trai
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:rep 'I!!!CRE I U~RA Rowlett and Wi
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:rep Sl!eREru~ cryptanalysts, Lieut
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liaison office had maintained an of
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Ib) (1) Ib) (3) -50 USC 403 Ib) (3)
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Ib) (3) -P.L. 86-36 ..tOP §EERI!T~
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~PSEeREr~ Rear Admiral Earl E. Ston
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Ib) (1) Ib) (3) -P.L. 86-36 Ib) (3)
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Analytic section, Arlington Hall St
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lOP 5I!CREfij~RA Ib) (1) Ib) (3) -P
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Ib) (1) Ib) (3) -P.L. 86-36 Ib) (3)
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George A. Brownell The Brownell Com
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fe, 5EEREf UMBRA KOREA Ithas become
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OPSECREi tJM8itA to sink or swim on
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TOP SECRET liMBItA dramatic switch
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T9P SECRET liMBIbIc When the ROK ar
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Ib) (1) Ib) (3) -P.L. 86-36 Ib) (3)
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op SECRET l::JMBRA However, encount
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Ib) (1) Ib) (3) -P.L. 86-36 Ib) (3)
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lap SECRET l:JMBRA In early 1952 mu
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TOP SECRETtJMBItA The AFSA Factor O
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Ib) (1) Ib) (3) -50 USC 403 Ib) (3)
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Ib) (1) Ib) (3) -50 USC 403 Ib) (3)
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lOP SIiEAET l::JMBRA Ib) (3) -P.L.
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Ib) (1) Ib) (3) -50 USC 403 Ib) (3)
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and he might have failed had he com
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Ib) (1) Ib) (3) -P.L. 86-36 Table 2
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--------------- - -- In 1953 a comm
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Ib) (1) Ib) (3) -50 USC 403 Ib) (3)
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Ib) (1) Ib) (3) -P.L. 86-36 Ib) (3)
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Canine continued to strengthen the
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~RA Arlington Hall and Nebraska Ave
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itselfwas established concluded tha
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hammered out an agreement which res
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Canine thought that Navy COMINTwas
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ofhis term as DIRNSA, it was rumore
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leap SECRET tJMBkA system, oversigh
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Ib) (1) Ib) (3) OGA lOP SECRET '='M
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Ib) (1) Ib) (3) -50 USC 403 Ib) (3)
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Ib) (1) Ib) (3) -50 USC 403 (3) -P.
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(3)-50 USC 403 (3)-18 USC 798 Ii:!"
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-------- ( 1) (3)-50 USC 403 (3)-18
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-------- (b) (1) (b) (3) OGA (1) (3
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,Ib) (1) !Ib) (3) !OGA ,I' L t6~i~~
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Ib) (1) Ib) (3) OGA Just\V~atwa~ la
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Ib) (1) Ib) (3) -50 USC 403 Ib) (3)
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Dulles was interested in HUMINT and
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the theater and on to the United St
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Ib) (1) Ib) (3) -50 USC 403 Ibl(3)-
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\ \ ( 1) (3)-50 USC 403 (3) -P.L. 8
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( 1) (3)-50 USC 403 (3) -P.L. 86-36
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\ ~ ( 1) (3)-50 USC 403 3) -P.L. 86
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------- ----j
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------- /
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OGA ( 1) ( 1) (3)-50 USC 403 (3) -P
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- -------- ~-
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-------- (1) Ib) (3)
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( 1) (3)-50 USC 403 3) -P.L. 86-36
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ASA PAC in the 1940s ASA's first p(
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~U~RA rather than to support tactic
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Ib) (1) Ib) (3) -50 USC 403 Ib) (3)
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The Navy site on AdakIsland in the
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All services showed an interest in
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intelligence collection. The best k
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Ib) (1) Ib) (3) -50 USC 403 (3) -P.
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RC·130 Then disaster struck. On 2
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Dulles protested the SOviet attitud
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During the Oval Office review ofthe
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Ib) (3) -P.L. 86-36 34. Hoover Comm
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Ib) (3) -P.L. 86-36 81. David Kahn,
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Hb) (3) -P.L. 86-36 119. ~A Chronol
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Truman administration also saw the
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(b) (1) Ib) (3) -50 USC 403 Ib) (3)
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-TOP SECRET tJMBRA A second outside
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The next lead was a 1948 translatio
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Kim Philby strikes a smug pose duri
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Page 235 and 236: Ib) (1) Ib) (3) -P.L. 86-36 Thus wa
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--------------~~~~ concerns that NS
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competent authority...." Other comp
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Beginning in 1939, a series ofmagaz
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Entirely apart from the well-known
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The Petersen Case (b) (6) Joseph Sy
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Martin and Mitchell duringtheir pre
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equired considerable planning, and
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Ib) (3) -P.L. 86-36 ~U~RA 8. Davids
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64. Ibid. 65. Ibid. 66. Ibid. 67. I
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