In 2011, Edward Snowden, a contractor for the National Security Agency (NSA), revealed that America and its allies were secretly collecting global communications. Snowden fled to Hong Kong and then Russia, causing intelligence agencies to fear the consequences of his disclosure. However, it turned out that the impact was not as severe as initially thought. Although agencies were no longer able to access all the data they previously could, they were still able to gather a significant amount of intelligence.
Ciaran Martin, a senior official at Britain’s signals intelligence agency, GCHQ, noted that despite the disclosure by Snowden, agencies were still able to obtain “lots” of data. This data was crucial in providing American intelligence with important insights such as intercepts revealing Russia’s plans to invade Ukraine in 2021. The evolution of signals intelligence (SIGINT) has been significant over the past two decades with the internet replacing traditional forms of communication and most internet traffic now being encrypted.
As a result of this shift, data is now stored in new locations such as the cloud and the interconnected nature of computer networks has blurred the lines between cyber-espionage and cyber-attacks. This has reshaped the identity of SIGINT agencies but they remain powerful intelligence-gathering entities. With technology becoming increasingly integrated into various aspects of daily life from cars to power grids to military systems, SIGINT agencies face new challenges as they adapt to these changes.
