Government Communications Security Service

The Government Communications Security Service (GCSB) was created in 1977 by order of Prime Minister Robert Muldoon .

Prior to this, GCSB functions were performed by three different organizations:

• The Communications Security Committee, responsible to the Prime Minister’s Office and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, was responsible for the security of government communications;
• electronic intelligence was administered by the Ministry of Defense;
• Counterintelligence of New Zealand carried out activities to counter electronic espionage.

GCSB was created to perform all of the above functions. Officially, the new organization was initially part of the Ministry of Defense, but its functions were extremely classified, even the Cabinet of Ministers was not informed about them. Information on the activities of the GCSB began to be available to the public only in the 1980s.

In 1980, the GCSB was separated from the Ministry of Defense, becoming an independent organization. In 2000, it was decided to make the GCSB one of the government units with its own powers, which were defined in the Law on the Security of Government Communications of 2003 ^[2] .

GCSB functions include electronic intelligence , communications security , information security and counteraction to electronic espionage against New Zealand. GCSB does not disclose the contents of intercepted traffic. In 2006, after the death of former Prime Minister David Longa , a report was found among his papers dating back to 1985-86, which listed a number of countries that are subject to GCSB tracking, including Japan , the Philippines , Argentina , France , Vietnam and a number of small Pacific island countries, as well as United Nations diplomatic correspondence. In his book on the GCSB, Secret Power: New Zealand's Role in the International Spy Network, independent journalist Nike Hager notes that during the Cold War, one of the main areas of activity The GCSB was tracking Soviet courts, both military and civilian ^[3] .

In 2001, the Center for the Protection of Critical Infrastructure was established in the GCSB structure to protect national critical infrastructure from cyber attacks .

GCSB is headquartered on Pippty Street in Wellington . The GCSB is led by a director who reports to the Minister of Intelligence and Security of New Zealand, who, in turn, reports to the country's prime minister. The main functions of the GCSB are: collection and processing of intelligence data, ensuring IT security of government communications. The organization has about 300 employees of various specialties, including translators, communications specialists, cryptographers, engineers, technicians, and support staff ^[4] .

The budget of the GCSB for the 2015/16 financial year is $ 89.6 million ^[5] .

GCSB and other New Zealand special services are monitored by the Inspector General. In 2013, this position was held by 79-year-old Paul Nizor, a former judge . The Office of the Inspector General consists of only one part-time employee (secretary), while his Australian counterpart, the Inspector General, has 12 employees. The Secretary of the Cabinet of New Zealand Rebecca Kitteridge in her report on the activities of the GCSB in 2013 recommended the staffing of the Inspector General at the level of Australian colleagues ^[6] .

The Prime Minister of New Zealand directly appoints the Director of the GCSB and the Inspector General. This has repeatedly caused criticism from the expert community. For example, Bill Hodge, a law professor at the University of Auckland, noted that it would be preferable for the Inspector General to be appointed by Parliament rather than the Prime Minister. With this point of view, the former Prime Minister of the country, Jeffrey Palmer, agreed: “there should be a separation of [powers] between the inspector and the agency that he oversees” ^[6] .

The GCSB electronic intelligence infrastructure includes two radio interception stations: a satellite communications interception station in Waiopai near Blenheim on the South Island and a Tangimoan radio interception station near Palmerston North on the North Island ^[7] . On March 16, 2015, former NSA officer E. Snowden stated that the GCSB also has a secret tracking station, code-named Caprica, in Honiara , the capital of the Solomon Islands . The Caprica facility is a typical NSA station designed to communicate with US embassies around the world ^[8] .

Waiopai Station

Waiopai Station located in the Waiopai Valley has been working near Blenheim since 1989 and is described in open sources as a satellite intelligence station ^{[9] [10]} . New Zealand MP from the Green Party, Kate Loke, described this station as part of the infrastructure of the Echelon system ^[11] . Waiopai Station regularly acted as a target for public protests against electronic espionage. According to data published by a former NSA employee E. Snowden in 2013, the Waiopai station is one of the operators of the secret X-Keyscore computer tracking program ^[12] .

Tangimoana Station

Tangimoan Radio Interception Station was opened in 1982, replacing the previously operating station near Vaiouro . According to the Federation of American Scientists (FAS), this object is part of the Echelon system infrastructure, its role in this capacity was first identified by pacifist activist Owen Wilkes in 1984 ^[13] , and was investigated in detail by independent journalist Nike Hedger ^[14] .

• Echelon (secret service)

• Hager, Nicky (1996). Secret Power: New Zealand's Role in the International Spy Network . Nelson, NZ: Craig Potton Publishing. ISBN 0-908802-35-8 .

• Government Communications Security Bureau
• Government Communications Security Bureau Act 2003
• Anti Bases Campaign
• New Zealand and XKEYSCORE: not much evidence for mass surveillance