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(UPDATED: March 5, 2016) Today, it's exactly 50 years ago that the famous Washington-Moscow Hotline became operational. Allthough this link has always been for written communications only, many people think there are red telephones on the Hotline, as this is often depicted in popular culture. One wide-spread image is from the article about the Hotline on the online encyclopedia Wikipedia. It shows a non-dial red telephone which is on display in the Jimmy Carter Library and Museum in Atlanta, Georgia: (photo uploaded to Wikimedia by user Piotrus under CC-BY-SA) Much of the confusion about the real purpose of this phone was due to the fact that in this picture, the text on the plate below the phone wasn't readable. But now, upon request of this weblog, the curator of the Jimmy Carter Library and Museum kindly provided the text, which reads as follows: RED PHONE During Jimmy Carter’s presidency, the “red phone” was a hotline to the Kremlin in Moscow. A U.S. president could pick...

(Updated: September 16, 2013) This Friday, August 30, it's exactly 50 years ago that a direct communication link between the United States and Russia became operational. This Washington-Moscow Hotline is one of the most famous top level communications systems in modern history. Many people think the Washington-Moscow Hotline uses red phone sets, but that's a myth. The Hotline never was a telephone line as it started with teletype terminals, later replaced by facsimile equipment. Since 2008 the Hotline uses secure e-mail, as can be seen in this most recent picture of the Hotline terminal in the Pentagon: The Washington-Moscow Hotline terminal room at the Pentagon, 2013 Presidential communicator Navy Chief Petty Officer John E. Kelley (seated) and senior presidential translator Lt. Col. Charles Cox man the hotline terminal (photo: www.army.mil ) For the full history and more unique historical pictures of the Hotline, see our updated story from last year: The Washington-Moscow H...

(Updated: January 25, 2014) Last Tuesday, August 20, the Wall Street Journal came with a big story with new details about the NSA surveillance programs. The article claims that NSA has the capacity to reach roughly 75% of all US internet traffic that flows through domestic fiber-optic cables. However, this was strongly denied by the NSA The 75% claim got a lot of attention, but most media apparently oversaw a section later on in the article, which reveals a far more sensitive NSA collection method: "The NSA started setting up Internet intercepts well before 2001, former intelligence officials say. Run by NSA's secretive Special Services Office, these types of programs were at first designed to intercept communications overseas through arrangements with foreign Internet providers, the former officials say. NSA still has such arrangements in many countries, particularly in the Middle East and Europe, the former officials say." Documents which were recently leaked by Edwa...