If you are the custodian for sensitive information, you have no doubt been watching the inexplicable mishandling of the US military attack on Yemen by the senior members of the Trump administration and perhaps hyperventilating. As a former intelligence officer, I know I was, and I haven’t touched a piece of classified material since 2011.
I handled sensitive and classified information daily from 1976, there are processes and procedures. If a government-issued and approved classified communications channel was unavailable, encryption protocols existed to allow information to be transmitted over Telex, leased lines, radio telegraph or continuous wave.
Indeed, secure telephone units, known as “STUs,” existed to allow landlines to be used for communication. As technology advanced, secure mobile devices were created and government-controlled networks, with appropriate government encryption, were provisioned and provided.
