59-492: Royal Concierge is the codename of a secret GCHQ programme that watches the bookings made at select hotels worldwide. The programme was introduced in 2010 and monitored 350 hotels around the world. The system alerted GCHQ to a diplomat's travel arrangements and allowed GCHQ to bug rooms in preparation for the diplomat's arrival. This article related to government in the United Kingdom or its constituent countries
118-537: A KGB mole within it, created considerable media interest. In 1984, GCHQ was the centre of a political row when, in the wake of strikes which affected Sigint collection, the Conservative government of Margaret Thatcher prohibited its employees from belonging to a trade union, asserting that membership of a union was in conflict with national security . The government offered £1,000 to each employee who agreed to give up their right to union membership. Following
177-446: A FOX media segment. The US government formally apologised for the unfounded allegations and promised they would not be repeated. British intelligence did gather information relating to Russian contacts made by Trump's campaign team in the run-up to his election, which were passed on to US intelligence agencies. On 31 October 2018, GCHQ joined Instagram . GCHQ personnel are recognised annually by King Charles III (formerly
236-556: A US court order before disclosing data. However the head of the UK technology industry group techUK rejected these claims, stating that they understood the issues but that disclosure obligations "must be based upon a clear and transparent legal framework and effective oversight rather than, as suggested, a deal between the industry and government". In 2015, documents obtained by The Intercept from US National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden revealed that GCHQ had carried out
295-584: A conference slideshow presented by the GCHQ. Soon after becoming Director of GCHQ in 2014, Robert Hannigan wrote an article in the Financial Times on the topic of internet surveillance , stating that "however much [large US technology companies] may dislike it, they have become the command and control networks of choice for terrorists and criminals" and that GCHQ and its sister agencies "cannot tackle these challenges at scale without greater support from
354-501: A group of 14 former GCHQ employees, who had been dismissed after refusing to give up their union membership, were offered re-employment, which three of them accepted. The legal case Council of Civil Service Unions v Minister for the Civil Service is significant beyond the dispute, and even beyond trade union law, in that it held for the first time that the royal prerogative is generally subject to judicial review , although
413-454: A mass-surveillance operation, codenamed KARMA POLICE , since about 2008. The operation swept up the IP address of Internet users visiting websites, and was established with no public scrutiny or oversight. KARMA POLICE is a powerful spying tool in conjunction with other GCHQ programs because IP addresses could be cross-referenced with other data. The goal of the program, according to the documents,
472-465: A peacetime codebreaking agency should be created, a task which was given to the Director of Naval Intelligence , Hugh Sinclair . Sinclair merged staff from NID25 and MI1b into the new organisation, which initially consisted of around 25–30 officers and a similar number of clerical staff. It was titled the "Government Code and Cypher School" (GC&CS), a cover-name which was chosen by Victor Forbes of
531-472: A result of the cuts. The cuts had been mostly reversed by 2000 in the wake of threats from violent non-state actors , and risks from increased terrorism, organised crime and illegal access to nuclear, chemical and biological weapons. David Omand became the Director of GCHQ in 1996, and greatly restructured the agency in the face of new and changing targets and rapid technological change. Omand introduced
590-693: A wartime intelligence station. Sinclair was asked in December 1938 to prepare a dossier on Adolf Hitler , for the attention of Lord Halifax , the Foreign Secretary, and Neville Chamberlain , the Prime Minister. In the dossier, which was received poorly by Sir George Mounsey, the Foreign Office assistant undersecretary, who believed that it did not gel with Britain's policy of appeasement , Sinclair described Hitler as possessing
649-495: Is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Government Communications Headquarters Government Communications Headquarters ( GCHQ ) is an intelligence and security organisation responsible for providing signals intelligence (SIGINT) and information assurance (IA) to the government and armed forces of the United Kingdom . Primarily based at " The Doughnut " in the suburbs of Cheltenham , GCHQ
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#1732801046862708-471: Is co-located with GCHQ for administrative purposes. In 2013, GCHQ received considerable media attention when the former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden revealed that the agency was in the process of collecting all online and telephone data in the UK via the Tempora programme. Snowden's revelations began a spate of ongoing disclosures of global surveillance . The Guardian newspaper
767-679: Is led by the Director of GCHQ, Anne Keast-Butler , and a Corporate Board, made up of executive and non-executive directors. Reporting to the Corporate Board are: During the First World War, the British Army and Royal Navy had separate signals intelligence agencies, MI1b and NID25 (initially known as Room 40) respectively. In 1919, the Cabinet's Secret Service Committee, chaired by Lord Curzon , recommended that
826-732: Is that GCHQ and its US equivalent, the National Security Agency (NSA), share technologies, infrastructure and information. GCHQ ran many signals intelligence (SIGINT) monitoring stations abroad. During the early Cold War , the remnants of the British Empire provided a global network of ground stations which were a major contribution to the UKUSA Agreement; the US regarded RAF Little Sai Wan in Hong Kong as
885-665: Is the responsibility of the country's Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs (Foreign Secretary), but it is not a part of the Foreign Office and its director ranks as a Permanent Secretary . GCHQ was originally established after the First World War as the Government Code and Cypher School ( GC&CS ) and was known under that name until 1946. During the Second World War it
944-584: The British Army for GCHQ. In March 2010, GCHQ was criticised by the Intelligence and Security Committee for problems with its IT security practices and failing to meet its targets for work targeted against cyber attacks. As revealed by Edward Snowden in The Guardian , GCHQ spied on foreign politicians visiting the 2009 G-20 London Summit by eavesdropping phonecalls and emails and monitoring their computers, and in some cases even ongoing after
1003-609: The Communications-Electronic Security Department (CESD). In October 1969, CESD was merged into GCHQ and becoming Communications-Electronic Security Group ( CESG ). In 1977 CESG relocated from Eastcote to Cheltenham. CESG continued as the UK National Technical Authority for information assurance , including cryptography . CESG did not manufacture security equipment, but worked with industry to ensure
1062-528: The Foreign Office . Alastair Denniston , who had been a member of NID25, was appointed as its operational head. It was initially under the control of the Admiralty and located in Watergate House, Adelphi, London. Its public function was "to advise as to the security of codes and cyphers used by all Government departments and to assist in their provision", but also had a secret directive to "study
1121-448: The RSA algorithm had been developed (equivalent to Cocks's system) and by 1997 was extremely well established. Hugh Sinclair Admiral Sir Hugh Francis Paget Sinclair , KCB (18 August 1873 – 4 November 1939), known as Quex Sinclair , was a British intelligence officer. He was Director of British Naval Intelligence between 1919 and 1921, and he subsequently helped to set up
1180-678: The Secret Intelligence Service (SIS, commonly MI6) and GCHQ . Sinclair was educated at Stubbington House School and joined the Royal Navy as a cadet aged 13 on 15 July 1886. He was promoted to lieutenant on 31 December 1894. He entered the Naval Intelligence Division at the beginning of the First World War . He became Director of Naval Intelligence in February 1919 and Chief of
1239-733: The Suez War led to the eviction of GCHQ from several of its best foreign SIGINT collection sites, including the new Perkar, Ceylon site and RAF Habbaniya , Iraq. The staff largely moved to tented encampments on military bases in Cyprus, which later became the Sovereign Base Area . During the Cuban Missile Crisis , GCHQ Scarborough intercepted radio communications from Soviet ships reporting their positions and used that to establish where they were heading. A copy of
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#17328010468621298-606: The 1920s, GC&CS was successfully reading Soviet Union diplomatic cyphers. However, in May 1927, during a row over clandestine Soviet support for the General Strike and the distribution of subversive propaganda, Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin made details from the decrypts public. During the Second World War, GC&CS was based largely at Bletchley Park , in present-day Milton Keynes , working on understanding
1357-900: The Army and RAF codebreakers went to the Wireless Experimental Centre in Delhi, India. The Navy codebreakers in FECB went to Colombo , Ceylon, then to Kilindini , near Mombasa , Kenya. GC&CS was renamed the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) in June 1946. The organisation was at first based in Eastcote in northwest London, then in 1951 moved to the outskirts of Cheltenham , setting up two sites at Oakley and Benhall . One of
1416-621: The German Enigma machine and Lorenz ciphers . In 1940, GC&CS was working on the diplomatic codes and ciphers of 26 countries, tackling over 150 diplomatic cryptosystems. Senior staff included Alastair Denniston , Oliver Strachey , Dilly Knox , John Tiltman , Edward Travis , Ernst Fetterlein , Josh Cooper , Donald Michie , Alan Turing , Gordon Welchman , Joan Clarke , Max Newman , William Tutte , I. J. (Jack) Good , Peter Calvocoressi and Hugh Foss . The 1943 British–US Communication Intelligence Agreement, BRUSA , connected
1475-772: The Hong Kong stations operations were moved to Australian Defence Satellite Communications Station in Geraldton in Western Australia . Operations that used GCHQ's intelligence-gathering capabilities in the 1990s included the monitoring of communications of Iraqi soldiers in the Gulf War , of dissident republican terrorists and the Real IRA , of the various factions involved in the Yugoslav Wars , and of
1534-607: The House of Lords ruled in favour of the Crown in this instance. The Intelligence Services Act 1994 formalised the activities of the intelligence agencies for the first time, defining their purpose, and the British Parliament's Intelligence and Security Committee was given a remit to examine the expenditure, administration and policy of the three intelligence agencies. The objectives of GCHQ were defined as working as "in
1593-582: The Prince of Wales) at the Prince of Wales's Intelligence Community Awards at St James's Palace or Clarence House alongside members of the Security Service (MI5), and Secret Intelligence Service (MI6). Awards and citations are given to teams within the agencies as well as individuals. As well as a mission to gather intelligence, GCHQ has for a long time had a corresponding mission to assist in
1652-547: The Security Service and SIS (MI5 and MI6). In December 1994 the businessman Roger Hurn was commissioned to begin a review of GCHQ, which was concluded in March 1995. Hurn's report recommended a cut of £100 million in GCHQ's budget; such a large reduction had not been suffered by any British intelligence agency since the end of World War II. The J Division of GCHQ, which had collected SIGINT on Russia, disappeared as
1711-587: The Submarine Service in 1921. He became the second director of SIS in 1923. He was promoted vice-admiral on 3 March 1926 and full admiral on 15 May 1930. Sinclair also founded GC&CS , later to be known as GCHQ in 1919. Beginning in 1919 he attempted to absorb the counterintelligence service MI5 into the SIS to strengthen Britain's efforts against Bolshevism , an idea that was finally rejected in 1925. The SIS remained small and underfunded during
1770-622: The availability of suitable products and services, while GCHQ itself funded research into such areas, for example to the Centre for Quantum Computation at Oxford University and the Heilbronn Institute for Mathematical Research at the University of Bristol . In the 21st century, CESG ran a number of assurance schemes such as CHECK, CLAS , Commercial Product Assurance (CPA) and CESG Assisted Products Service (CAPS). In 1970
1829-560: The breakdown of talks and the failure to negotiate a no-strike agreement, a number of mass national one-day strikes were held to protest against this decision, believed by some to be the first step to wider bans on trade unions. Appeals to British courts and the European Commission of Human Rights were unsuccessful. An appeal to the International Labour Organization resulted in a decision that
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1888-441: The characteristics of "fanaticism, mysticism, ruthlessness, cunning, vanity, moods of exaltation and depression, fits of bitter and self-righteous resentment; and what can only be termed a streak of madness; but with it all there is a great tenacity of purpose, which has often been combined with extraordinary clarity of vision". Sinclair became seriously ill with cancer, causing Alexander Cadogan to note on 19 October 1939, that he
1947-693: The concept for public-key encryption ( public key infrastructure ) was developed and proven by GCHQ's James H. Ellis . Ellis lacked the number theory skills required to build a workable system. In 1974 GCHQ mathematician Clifford Cocks had developed a workable public key cryptography algorithm and a workable PKI system. Cocks's system was not available in the public domain until it was declassified in 1997. By 1997 broader public key cryptography commercial technologies had been independently developed and had become well established, in areas such as email security , digital signatures , and TLS (a fundamental TCP/IP security component) etc. Most notably in 1977
2006-486: The concept of "Sinews" (or "SIGINT New Systems") which allowed more flexible working methods, avoiding overlaps in work by creating fourteen domains, each with a well-defined working scope. The tenure of Omand also saw the construction of a modern new headquarters, intended to consolidate the two old sites at Oakley and Benhall into a single, more open-plan work environment. Located on a 176-acre site in Benhall, it would be
2065-522: The criminal Kenneth Noye . In the mid-1990s GCHQ began to assist in the investigation of cybercrime . At the end of 2003, GCHQ moved in to its new building. Built on a circular plan around a large central courtyard, it quickly became known as the Doughnut . At the time, it was one of the largest public-sector building projects in Europe, with an estimated cost of £337 million. The new building, which
2124-594: The government's actions were in violation of Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organise Convention . A no-strike agreement was eventually negotiated and the ban lifted by the incoming Labour government in 1997, with the Government Communications Group of the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) being formed to represent interested employees at all grades. In 2000,
2183-564: The handling of this issue was becoming essential to their credibility as an organisation. The Internet had become a "cyber commons", with its dominance creating a "second age of Sigint". GCHQ transformed itself accordingly, including greatly expanded Public Relations and Legal departments, and adopting public education in cyber security as an important part of its remit. In February 2014, The Guardian , based on documents provided by Snowden, revealed that GCHQ had indiscriminately collected 1.8 million private Yahoo webcam images from users across
2242-501: The intelligence agencies should "investigate whether all the functions that GCHQ carries out today are still necessary." In late 1993 civil servant Michael Quinlan advised a deep review of the work of GCHQ following the conclusion of his "Review of Intelligence Requirements and Resources", which had imposed a 3% cut on the agency. The Chief Secretary to the Treasury , Jonathan Aitken , subsequently held face to face discussions with
2301-460: The intelligence agency directors to assess further savings in the wake of Quinlan's review. Aldrich (2010) suggests that Sir John Adye , the then Director of GCHQ performed badly in meetings with Aitken, leading Aitken to conclude that GCHQ was "suffering from out-of-date methods of management and out-of-date methods for assessing priorities". GCHQ's budget was £850 million in 1993, (£2.19 billion as of 2023) compared to £125 million for
2360-558: The interests of national security, with particular reference to the defence and foreign policies of His Majesty's government; in the interests of the economic wellbeing of the United Kingdom; and in support of the prevention and the detection of serious crime". During the introduction of the Intelligence Agency Act in late 1993, the former Prime Minister Jim Callaghan had described GCHQ as a "full-blown bureaucracy", adding that future bodies created to provide oversight of
2419-526: The interwar years. By 1936, Sinclair realised that the Gestapo had penetrated several SIS stations and Claude Dansey , who had been removed from his station in Rome, set up Z Organization , intended to work independently of the compromised SIS. In 1938, with a second war looming, Sinclair set up Section D, dedicated to sabotage . In spring 1938, using £6,000 of his own money, he bought Bletchley Park to be
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2478-577: The largest building constructed for secret intelligence operations outside the United States. Operations at GCHQ's Chung Hom Kok listening station in Hong Kong ended in 1994. GCHQ's Hong Kong operations were extremely important to their relationship with the NSA, who contributed investment and equipment to the station. In anticipation of the transfer of Hong Kong to the Chinese government in 1997,
2537-701: The major reasons for selecting Cheltenham was that the town had been the location of the headquarters of the United States Army Services of Supply for the European Theater during the War, which built up a telecommunications infrastructure in the region to carry out its logistics tasks. Following the Second World War , US and British intelligence have shared information as part of the UKUSA Agreement . The principal aspect of this
2596-413: The methods of cypher communications used by foreign powers". GC&CS officially formed on 1 November 1919, and produced its first decrypt prior to that date, on 19 October. Before the Second World War, GC&CS was a relatively small department. By 1922, the main focus of GC&CS was on diplomatic traffic, with "no service traffic ever worth circulating" and so, at the initiative of Lord Curzon, it
2655-541: The most valuable of these. The monitoring stations were largely run by inexpensive National Service recruits, but when this ended in the early 1960s, the increased cost of civilian employees caused budgetary problems. In 1965 a Foreign Office review found that 11,500 staff were involved in SIGINT collection (8,000 GCHQ staff and 3,500 military personnel), exceeding the size of the Diplomatic Service . Reaction to
2714-702: The organisation at Eastcote later that year. From 1952 to 1954, the intelligence mission of GCHQ relocated to Cheltenham; the Security section remained at Eastcote, and in March 1954 became a separate, independent organisation: the London Communications Security Agency (LCSA), which in 1958 was renamed to the London Communications-Electronic Security Agency (LCESA). In April 1965, GPO and MOD units merged with LCESA to become
2773-399: The private sector", arguing that most internet users "would be comfortable with a better and more sustainable relationship between the [intelligence] agencies and the tech companies". Since the 2013 global surveillance disclosures , large US technology companies have improved security and become less co-operative with foreign intelligence agencies, including those of the UK, generally requiring
2832-586: The protection of the British government's own communications. When the Government Code and Cypher School (GC&CS) was created in 1919, its overt task was providing security advice. GC&CS's Security section was located in Mansfield College, Oxford during the Second World War. In April 1946, GC&CS became GCHQ, and the now GCHQ Security section moved from Oxford to join the rest of
2891-410: The report was sent directly to the White House Situation Room, providing initial indications of Soviet intentions with regards the US naval blockade of Cuba. Duncan Campbell and Mark Hosenball revealed the existence of GCHQ in 1976 in an article for Time Out ; as a result, Hosenball was deported from the UK. GCHQ had a very low profile in the media until 1983 when the trial of Geoffrey Prime ,
2950-403: The run-up to the 2003 Iraq war . GCHQ gains its intelligence by monitoring a wide variety of communications and other electronic signals. For this, a number of stations have been established in the UK and overseas. The listening stations are at Cheltenham itself, Bude , Scarborough , Ascension Island , and with the United States at Menwith Hill . Ayios Nikolaos Station in Cyprus is run by
3009-407: The signal intercept networks of the GC&CS and the US National Security Agency (NSA). Equipment used to break enemy codes included the Colossus computer . Colossus consisted of ten networked computers. An outstation in the Far East, the Far East Combined Bureau , was set up in Hong Kong in 1935 and moved to Singapore in 1939. Subsequently, with the Japanese advance down the Malay Peninsula,
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#17328010468623068-402: The summit via keyloggers that had been installed during the summit. According to Edward Snowden, at that time GCHQ had two principal umbrella programs for collecting communications: GCHQ has also had access to the US internet monitoring programme PRISM from at least as far back as June 2010. PRISM is said to give the National Security Agency and FBI easy access to the systems of nine of
3127-457: The world's top internet companies, including Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Apple, Yahoo, and Skype. From 2013, GCHQ realised that public attitudes to Sigint had changed and its former unquestioned secrecy was no longer appropriate or acceptable. The growing use of the Internet, together with its inherent insecurities, meant that the communications traffic of private citizens were becoming inextricably mixed with those of their targets and openness in
3186-411: The world. In the same month NBC and The Intercept , based on documents released by Snowden, revealed the Joint Threat Research Intelligence Group and the Computer Network Exploitation units within GCHQ. Their mission was cyber operations based on "dirty tricks" to shut down enemy communications, discredit, and plant misinformation on enemies. These operations were 5% of all GCHQ operations according to
3245-444: Was "either (a) a web browsing profile for every visible user on the internet, or (b) a user profile for every visible website on the internet." In 2015, GCHQ admitted for the first time in court that it conducts computer hacking. In 2017, US Press Secretary Sean Spicer made allegations that GCHQ had conducted surveillance on US President Donald Trump . These unfounded claims were based on statements made during an opinion piece in
3304-409: Was designed by Gensler and constructed by Carillion , became the base for all of GCHQ's Cheltenham operations. The public spotlight fell on GCHQ in late 2003 and early 2004 following the sacking of Katharine Gun after she leaked to The Observer a confidential email from agents at the United States' National Security Agency addressed to GCHQ officers about the wiretapping of UN delegates in
3363-480: Was forced to destroy computer hard drives with the files Snowden had given them because of the threats of a lawsuit under the Official Secrets Act. In June 2014, The Register reported that the information the government sought to suppress by destroying the hard drives related to the location of a "beyond top secret" GCHQ internet monitoring base in Seeb , Oman, and the close involvement of BT and Cable & Wireless in intercepting internet communications. GCHQ
3422-560: Was located at Bletchley Park , where it was responsible for breaking the German Enigma codes . There are two main components of GCHQ, the Composite Signals Organisation (CSO), which is responsible for gathering information, and the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), which is responsible for securing the UK's own communications. The Joint Technical Language Service (JTLS) is a small department and cross-government resource responsible for mainly technical language support and translation and interpreting services across government departments. It
3481-406: Was transferred from the Admiralty to the Foreign Office . GC&CS came under the supervision of Hugh Sinclair , who by 1923 was both the Chief of SIS and Director of GC&CS. In 1925, both organisations were co-located on different floors of Broadway Buildings, opposite St. James's Park . Messages decrypted by GC&CS were distributed in blue-jacketed files that became known as "BJs". In
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