Plausible denial (an attempt by tracing the English plausible denial ) is a behavior in which a person who has committed an act or issued an order retains the opportunity to further deny his involvement without a great risk of being caught in a lie. In politics, a secret operation differs from open government actions precisely in the possibility of its plausible denial [1] . In cryptography, the plausible denial is the possibility of denying the fact of encryption or the possibility of presenting an encryption key that decrypts only distracting unclassified data.
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Term History
As applied to international relations, the English version of the term was widely used only during the Iran-Contras scandal, however, the phrase existed long before that. Some attribute the first public use of the term to CIA Director Allen Dulles [2] . The term was already used in 1948, when the directive of the US National Security Council NSC 5412/2 defined covert operations as a set of activities, the planning and execution of which makes US involvement unobvious for people who do not have access to classified information, and therefore the US government can plausibly deny its responsibility for these operations [3] .
Plausible denial in international relations
M. Bowman [1] connects the need for plausible denial with the requirements of diplomacy and the concept of sovereignty underlying the Westphalian system . It is believed that a clear bypass of the Westphalian system leads to instability in international relations. At the same time, states sometimes require intervention in the internal affairs of other countries; therefore, a mechanism for maintaining stability during such an intervention is necessary. Plausible denial provides a convenient opportunity for pretense from both the intervening country and the victim of the intervention. Without such pretense, states would have been forced to either retreat humiliatingly and reduce diplomatic relations, or, conversely, increase resistance - behavior that could lead to war.
In cryptography
Denied encryption allows the user to plausibly deny the fact of encryption of information or, if there is evidence of encryption, its ability to decrypt it. Moreover, such a denial does not have to be sincere, for example, a situation is possible where, despite all the suspicions, without the assistance of legitimate owners of information, it is not possible to find out precisely that the data is encrypted. The purpose of this type of encryption is to undermine the confidence of the attacker that the data is really encrypted or that a particular person is able to turn it into plain text .
Notes
- ↑ 1 2 Bowman, ME Secrets in Plain View: Covert Action the US Way Archived April 2, 2015. . // International Law Studies Series. US Naval War College 72 (1998): 1. (English)
- ↑ Carlisle, Rodney P. The Complete Idiot's Guide to Spies and Espionage. - Alpha Books, 2003. - ISBN 0-02-864418-2 . p. 213
- ↑ so planned and executed that any US Government responsibility for them is not evident to unauthorized persons and that if uncovered the US Government can plausibly disclaim any responsibility for them
Literature
- “Plausible denial" // Geyevsky I.A. Mafia, CIA, Watergate: Essays on Organized Crime and Political Morals in the United States. — M.: Politizdat , 1983. — 288 pp., Ill.