Editing tips from the NSA (retro to the point of funny. Our Gov't at work)

[Tom Yossarian Joad]

Hiding confidential information with black marks works on printed copy, but not with electronic documents, the National Security Agency has warned government officials.

The agency makes the point in a guidance paper on editing documents for release, published last month following several embarrassing incidents in which sensitive data was unintentionally included in computer documents and exposed. The 13-page paper (click here for PDF) is called: "Redacting with confidence: How to safely publish sanitized reports converted from Word to PDF."

Instead of covering up digital text with black boxes, it is better to delete any information you don't want to share, the NSA suggested.

"The key concept for understanding the issues that lead to...inadvertent exposure is that information hidden or covered in a computer document can almost always be recovered," the NSA wrote in the Information Assurance Division paper, dated Dec. 13 but only recently posted to the Web. "The way to avoid exposure is to ensure that sensitive information is not just visually hidden or made illegible, but is actually removed."

The unintended disclosure of metadata, resulting in high-profile leaks of secrets, has led to red faces at businesses and government bodies in the past. In March 2004, a gaffe by the SCO Group revealed which companies it had considered targeting in its legal campaign against Linux users.

More: http://news.zdnet.com/2100-1009_22-6030745.html

[Robb]

1. I handled a lot of redacted material in 2001-2004

Mostly fairly non-sensitive stuff from the AFSC. But the "redaction" was, frankly, piss-poor.

I clearly received cheap photocopies of photocopies of reports that had been blacked-out. I could hold them at an angle to the light and read evverything. :eyes:

Fortunately it was usually names of contractors or other things I wasn't interested in. Hopefully things have gotten better.

I doubt it.

[Tom Yossarian Joad]

7. If the American bureaucracy is in charge of it, you know that the system

is...

Never mind.

[byronius]

2. This is totally funny. Oh my God. This should be in a movie.

[megatherium]

3. This is the agency that measures its supercomputers by the acre,

and is the largest employer of PhD mathematicians in the country. Pretty funny indeed!

[murphymom]

4. reminds me of a joke

How do you know when your boss has been doing his own typing?

When there's white-out on his computer screen.

[kineneb]

6. nah, that is a blond joke

I have it in my collection...add to that permanent marker on the screen to black out text...

[Psephos]

5. This is an absolute stitch

it also shows how attuned we are to the illusions of what we're doing on a computer screen versus what's actually taking place under the surface.

Peace.

[Edward Copeland]

8. Speaking of the NSA...

The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times and Knight Ridder have all picked up on Glenn Greenwald's excellent work exposing the Bush Administration's hypocrisy about FISA.

I've got links to all three versions on my site:

http://edwardcopeland.blogspot.com

[EFerrari]

9. Welcome to DU, Edward.

:)