SIGINT Activity Designator

"SIGAD" redirects here. For the genetic immunodeficiency, see SIgAD.

A SIGINT Activity Designator (or SIGAD) identifies a signals intelligence (SIGINT) line of collection activity associated with a signals collection station, such as a base or a ship. For example, the SIGAD for Menwith Hill in the UK is USD1000.[1] SIGADs are used by the signals intelligence agencies of the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and New Zealand (the Five Eyes).[2]

Snapshot of Boundless Informant global heat map of data collection

There are several thousand SIGADs including the substation SIGADs denoted with a trailing alpha character. Several dozen of these are significant.[3] The leaked Boundless Informant reporting screenshot showed that it summarized 504 active SIGADs during a 30-day period in March 2013.[4]

  1. ^ "INTERCEPTION CAPABILITIES - IMPACT AND EXPLOITATION: Paper 1 - Echelon and its role in COMINT" (PDF). 2001-01-23. Retrieved 2013-06-06.
  2. ^ Top Level Telecommunications: SIGINT Activity Designators
  3. ^ "Ragtime: Code name of NSA's Secret Domestic Intelligence Program Revealed in New Book". Washingtonian. 2013-02-27. Retrieved 2013-06-11.
  4. ^ Glenn Greenwald and Ewen MacAskill (2013-06-11). "Boundless Informant: the NSA's secret tool to track global surveillance data". The Guardian. Retrieved 2013-06-11.