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(U//FOUO) The Prestigious Gold Nugget Award Goes To...
FROM:
Ass't Director, Intelligence Analysis Skill Community (EL3)
Run Date: 10/30/2006
(TS//SI//REL) As noted in today's NSA Daily article ,
is the Gold Nugget Award
winner for 2005, for his work in helping to fill many of the intelligence gaps created when NSA
lost its ability to read Iranian Naval communications in 1999. The Gold Nugget is awarded
annually for outstanding achievement in the field of Traffic Analysis.
(U//FOUO)
Commander of NSA/CSS Georgia, presents Gold Nugget Award to
(TS//SI//REL) The following are just some of
Iranian Naval (IRIN) communications externals:
's key achievements in recovering the
(TS//SI//REL) He was personally responsible for the recovery of more than 120
Iranian Navy call-signs. This breakthrough allowed the operators to report on traffic
that for years had been considered useless.
(TS//SI//REL) He recovered more than 30 IRIN units' unique HF modem terminal
identification (id) numbers based on analysis of external modem protocol and
unencrypted modem "chatter."
(TS//SI//REL) He recovered and exploited several IRIN voice communication
codes:
Iranian Maritime Patrol (MARPAT) codes, used when IRIN MARPAT aircraft report
on the identification and location of coalition vessels in the Persian Gulf;
1 st Naval District Operational Codes, used to pass messages between ships and
shore stations via voice communications;
; and
the Peykar Khold Navigation Cipher, a means for IRIN vessels to pass enciphered
position reports.
(TS//SI//REL) He produced seven cryptologic information reports detailing his
findings on IRIN communications procedures and capabilities, to include the first
intelligence product detailing the use of HF modem communications by the high-interest
IRIN Yono-Class Midget Submarine "Ghadir-941." To date, this is the only
communication device that has been proven to be positively in use by that unit.
(TS//SI//REL) In addition to
traffic analysis achievements, he devoted a great deal
of time to training linguists and reporters on traffic analysis methods relevant to IRIN
communications, thus allowing them to make call-sign and code recoveries in real time as
mission required.
(TS//SI//REL)
also took the initiative to coordinate with the Navy Information
Operations Command Georgia's Fleet Operations Information Center to provide this training to
linguists and cryptologists who were preparing to deploy to the Persian Gulf, so that they too
could perform traffic analysis on intercepted IRIN communications and provide units they were
assigned to this I&W and force protection capability.
(TS//SI//REL) Finally,
continues to document, develop, and refine his traffic analysis
techniques and share them with his co-workers with the goal of finding further avenues of
exploitation. Armed with the knowledge of how crippling communication mode changes can be to
intelligence collection,
strives to anticipate these changes and proactively develop
techniques to exploit new communications modes through traffic analysis while they are still in
the testing phases, effectively keeping one step ahead of our adversaries.
(U) Congratulations,
"(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