this clothesline in Long Island New York was the U.S government's first ever system
for transmitting top secret data it was the Revolutionary War and the Americans needed
a way to get information from New York City to George Washington's headquarters in Morristown
New Jersey without the British intercepting it so they wrote down 763 words assigned each a
number between 1 and 763 and bada bing bada boom you've got the worst Cipher in military history
but whatever people's brains were too riddled with dysentery or something and somehow this seemed to
do the trick these encrypted letters would travel along this route from New York City to here in
Setauket where they would be stashed in one of five locations a local woman and a strong would
then hang up a black Petticoat on her clothesline to signal to nearby ships that the letter was
ready to be picked up with between one and five white handkerchiefs to indicate which location
the letter was hidden in from there the letter would then be secretly picked up and make the
rest of the journey to Morristown unfortunately we're no longer allowed to distribute information
about British warships and the US Department of Defense has since updated its methods for
securely transmitting government secrets today the US uses three different networks each designed for
different levels of classification to send sensitive data across the globe here's how
they work the first and least secure of the three is called necromant the non-classified Internet
Protocol router Network basically nevernet is a private interconnected network of government
computers that is attached through secure gateways to the rest of the internet technically you could
access it using the same connection you're using to watch this video but you probably wouldn't get
very far think of it like a gated community they might be connected to the wider system of roads
but if you go there without the right credentials you'll wind up in prison or shot you can't access
never Nets unless you're part of a government agency or approved government contractor that's
giving you access but it's used pretty widely and isn't monitored too closely none of the data on
nippernet is technically classified it's just stuff that the government doesn't want floating
around in public data like tax records internal schedules or these photos of Obama paddle boarding
for data that's actually classified and not just too titillating for public consumption
the Department of Defense uses a network called sipper net or with a secure Internet
Protocol router Network this is the network that deals with any information that's been labeled
confidential or secret the first two levels of DOD classification examples of confidential or secret
information might be say lists of War reserves scientific studies relevant to military Tech
information about enemy weaknesses this video of two U.S Apache helicopters firing on civilians
that got leaked when supernet was compromised in 2010. oh whoops how did that get in there oh well
you get the idea this network unlike neighbor Nets is completely disconnected from the rest
of the internet and only connects government computers to one another it does this with
a fairly standard method of data transfer called packet switching where your messages split up into
pieces all of which take different routes along the network before reaching their destination
now keeping all the classified data contained within this network separate and unsullied by
the evils of public internet is more complicated than just isolating the network itself you also
need to isolate every single device that has ever touched the network if you connect your
computer to supernet it is permanently considered classified at the secret level that means it can
only be used or stored in locations that have been approved by the government to have secret level
data in plain sight anything that's ever been plugged into that computer is now also considered
classified technically if you plug this USB rock into to separinet the Department of Defense would
be bound by federal law to protect its secrecy forever but despite all those headaches cybernet
is not even the government's most secure network now that would be the joint worldwide intelligence
Communication System the network used to transmit top secret data for some reason the government has
been a little vague about exactly how this network works but on a technical level it
functioned pretty similarly to say Burnet data is transmitted by a satellite across a closed
network of government computers with the ability to denote which packets of data are most sensitive
those then take the fastest and most secure route through the network so they spend the least amount
of time flying through space where anyone could NAB them with a really tiny butterfly net any data
on jwics can only be stored or accessed in highly specialized rooms called sensitive compartmented
information facilities there are quite a few of these around the globe that can be as small as a
closet or as large as an office building but some notable examples would be the Situation Room in
the White House or the cabin of Air Force One in order to keep the top secret data contained within
jwics both top and secret these rooms have some very very specific technical requirements that
you would think would be kept Under Wraps but are actually all written out in excruciating detail in
this seemingly not very top secret document since publicizing this is apparently not considered a
national security risk here's exactly how these facilities are constructed standard seif walls are
composed of 5 8 inch gypsum wall board buffered by three and a half inches of sound attenuated
material and sealed with acoustic sealant to ensure the secrets don't slip through the
cracks each perimeter wall is installed with radio frequency protection as well as optional speakers
that play vibrations louder than any conversations being held inside the room what doors need to
follow these specifications steel doors need to follow these specifications windows are a bad
idea monitors must be faced away from the doorways and no one from any country we've recently pissed
off is allowed to build any of this so that's how you keep top secret secret or you could just use a
clothesline because nobody cracked that either but hey you know what's not a highly sensitive
government secret the amount of absurdly Good original content that's been piling up on nebula
recently if you're out of the loop nebula is the create your own educational streaming service that
I started with my friends it's become this amazing opportunity for us to create the videos that we've
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mention all the content that you can watch early on nebula before your favorite creators bring
those videos to YouTube if you've been following our other channel just like the game you can watch
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the best way to get access to it is through the Curiosity stream never the bundle deal especially
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