ABSTRACT
The Communications Security Establishment (CSE) is Canada‘s largest and costliest intelligence organization and the main provider of foreign intelligence to the Canadian government. 1 It is, arguably, also the most secretive component of the Government of Canada. For decades the very existence of CSE was unconfirmed, it has no statutory mandate, and virtually all details of its resources, objectives and operations are still shrouded in official secrecy. 2 What is known is that CSE collects, analyses and reports on signals intelligence (referred to as Sigint) derived from interceptions of foreign electronic communications, radio, radar, telemetry, and other electromagnetic emissions. In fulfilment of these foreign intelligence functions, CSE participates in international collaboration and exchanges as part of a special Sigint sharing arrangement with the United States, United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand. CSE is also responsible for providing technical advice and guidance for protecting Canadian government communications and electronic data security.
