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(S//SI) Finding Genetic Sequences in SIGINT
FROM:
Cryptanalysis Development Program Participant
Run Date: 12/08/2004
A cryptanalysis intern describes an unusual tour in Analysis & Production (S2). (U//FOUO)
(S//SI) The Office of Tradecraft for Analysis ( S211A -- housed in the Advanced Analysis Lab)
partners with other government agencies, academia, and private corporations to develop SIGINT
analysis tradecraft and doctrine. OTA is made up of people with backgrounds ranging from
analysis to engineering (and just about everything in between), working on problems related to
how we do analysis. They address questions such as, "How can we best discover group
structures and/or hierarchies from call graph metadata?" and "How do we identify unknown
unknowns?" ... Practically speaking, what does that mean?
(S//SI) For a member of the Cryptanalysis Development Program ( CADP ), this means that OTA
provides the unique opportunity to apply cryptanalytic skills to a significantly different problem
set than that found in traditional CA tours. When I started my tour in the Lab, they were looking
for someone to take on the problem of how to detect genetic sequences in SIGINT. The ultimate
goals of this project are to gain general knowledge about genetic engineering research activity
by foreign entities and to identify laboratories and/or individuals who may be involved in
nefarious use of genetic research. As a signature of advanced laboratory activity and a strong
indicator of the kind of research being peformed, the sequences are expected to lead us to that
information.
(S//SI) I used many of the skills I learned in CA classes such as statistical analysis, and wrote
several programs to test different algorithms, much like I had in my diagnosis tour. I also grew
professionally by giving briefings to our customer and other interested groups, attending
conferences (both in-house and external), and gaining a broader sense of the SIGINT system by
partnering with another office. By teaming with the Technical Exploitation Center ( TEC, S31123
) we tested our most accurate algorithms in the front-end environment. This allowed us to
identify the strengths and weaknesses of the algorithms that should be addressed in the final
software product we implement in collection.
(U//FOUO) I thoroughly enjoyed my tour in OTA, and found it extremely rewarding to attack this
unique problem with such success. To learn more about the Advanced Analysis Lab, see their
home page , or type "go aal". For more information on the CA Development Program: "go CADP"
or
"(U//FOUO) SIDtoday articles may not be republished or reposted outside NSANet
without the consent of S0121 (DL sid_comms)."
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DERIVED FROM: NSA/CSSM 1-52, DATED 08 JAN 2007 DECLASSIFY ON: 20320108