The Royal Australian Corps of Signals (RASIGS) is looking back into its history and reflecting on its present environment and future challenges, especially with its centenary year in 2025 (Certa Cito 100). Part of leadership through change needs to involve looking at the past. For RASIGS, its organisational history is part of a broader SIGINT and increasingly also Cyber capability and community. Revealing Secrets is a must-read for anyone interested in understanding SIGINT history and navigating future challenges.
Signals personnel understand the strategic importance of their work. Yet most Australians know little of the organisations that work in this domain and the resources at their disposal. The shroud of secrecy is being drawn back for transparency and accountability, and recognising that cyber defence involves business and individuals as well as government. Thus Revealing Secrets offers a consolidated history of Australian SIGINT and Cyber. Drawing on open access information, the project began as a history of the Australian Signals Directorate and broadened to embrace all who work in “revealing of others’ secrets and the protection of one’s own” (p.2). It offers a comprehensive overview of the battles, organisations, personnel and technology that has been utilised and developed with SIGINT.
It begins with a fascinating narrative of how cryptology has been used in statecraft and battles – from the Babington Plot that led to the execution of Mary Queen of Scots, Napolean’s defeat, and Nelson’s semaphore stations. I was curious to read a chaplain, Dr John Wallis, deciphering documents for the Parliamentary side in the English Civil War (1642-51), and afterwards alongside his duties as Royal Chaplain worked closely the Secret Office decipherers in the Royal Mail Post Office.
There are huge lessons through all the wars of the 20th Century. For example, the decryption of a German telegram – asking the Mexicans to keep American troops busy and offering New Mexico and Texas in return – brought the United States into WWI. Allied SIGINT helped locate and sink the German raider SMS Emden, identify enemy locations and decrypt codes when the enemy repeated messages in old code. Yet German SIGINT led to losing the British tactical surprise at the Battle of the Somme
In WWII Allied SIGINT weaknesses contributed to the fall of Singapore and Crete, the loss of HMAS Sydney, and Rommel’s uncanny successes. Yet SIGINT have the Allies priceless advantage in the Battles of Coral Sea and Midway, submarine attacks on Japanese ships, averting bombing runs on New Guinea and Darwin bases, and attacking the plane of Admiral Yamamoto (the architect of the Pearl Harbour attack). When Japan shelled Cocos Island cable station, the Allies sent a ruse message to let the Japanese think it was destroyed, but it was still operational. One of the most significant ongoing episodes of SIGINT source protection was when coastwatchers – though amazing HUMINT sources themselves – were also given credit for what was successful cryptology. Their stories are often inspiring examples of resilience.
For all the unsung successes, however, there were also a series of unfortunate lapses in security. For example, Operation LAGARTO inserted in Timor, despite warning their Australian base they were at risk of capture and then not using an authenticator word, were still sent intelligence messages about other Operation COBRA recon operators which led to their capture! Post-War British and Americans for a time did not trust Australia because of lapsed leaks of British military estimates through the Soviet embassy in Canberra. The defection of Vladimir and Evdokia Petrov unveiled a Society spy network in Australia. In Vietnam 547 Signal Troop was valuable but insufficiently used, as when they warned about an overwhelming force approaching Long Tan but were ignored. There is also a delicate balance of when to use SIGINT, and controversy about when it may not have been used as in East Timor before the murder of Australian journalists in 1975. Australia has also been embarrassed when their involvement was discovered in bugging the new Chinese Embassy in Canberra in the 1980s and monitoring mobile calls of the Indonesian President in 2009.
Revealing Secrets narrates this fascinating history of events alongside the evolution and interrelationships of different organisations: Central Bureau, D Special Section, Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO), Australian Secret Intelligence Service (ASIS) and others. It also narrates the significant international dependence, information exchange and navigating of relationships, especially with the UK and USA. The SIGINT relationship with America is especially significant with Pine Gap and related installations that are important in monitoring nuclear non-proliferation but also drone strikes and other targeting.
It is important to consider history especially as exponentially changing technology brings whole new strategic and ethical challenges. The book describes the developments of telegraphy (and its tapping and cyphering), wireless (and its interception and triangulation), and machines such as Enigma and radar. Each technology opens up new confidence in secrecy that can lead to complacency and related vulnerabilities. The UKUSA Echelon satellite surveillance network gave new capabilities but also controversy over its possible use for commercial interests and privacy breaches, raising the need for transparency and oversight.
Now the world of Cyber is bringing new threats to privacy, espionage and security. It brings new offensive capabilities, as when ASD cyber operators quickly degraded Daesh communications. It also significantly blurs the threshold of war – as when the US engages in offensive cyberspace operations supporting Ukraine. The authors note that good governance of cyberspace is a complex challenge for all. It took two decades after nuclear bombs were first used for ethical agreements such as the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty to be reached. But we urgently need ethical “rules of the road” for Cyber, given its use for intellectual theft, propaganda, election influence, financial fraud, as well as espionage and military offensive operations.
Cyber is all the more challenging with cloud technology, AI, robotics, autonomous systems and quantum computing, combined with an accelerating tempo of change and an uncertain future. The domain is still evolving. Australia’s response includes the establishment of the Australian Cyber Security Centre and Defence’s Information Warfare Division. The REDSPICE blueprint announced in 2022 has a $9.9 billion budget over ten years to increase capability across Defence, Cyber and Space spheres including tripling offensive capabilities. But the challenges show Australia needs honest debate, our best minds and highest integrity in the domain. It is heartening to read the 2020 Cyber Security Strategy stating “we deny and deter while balancing the risk of escalation. Our actions are lawful and aligned with the values we seek to uphold and will therefore be proportionate.” (p.326) Yet we need ethical operators and appropriate oversight systems to ensure resilience as well as ethics, as former head of MI6 Alex Younger said, “You can tell a lot about the soul of a country from its intelligence services.” (p.333)
Aside from political, military and technological history, a highlight of the book is featuring the heroes of signallers themselves. I loved reading about signalman John Varcoe on HMAS Parramatta and Jack Ryan on HMAS Sydney; the academics who brought their different mathematical or classics skills to the cryptographical challenges; the mainly female team in Geelong who decrypted compromised codes in WWI; Australian linguist and codebreaker Captain Eric Nave who early decoded Japan’s intentions for war; Florence McKenzie or “Mrs Mac” trainer of wartime women signallers for WWII; and the Electronic Warfare Operators or “Bears” who supported Special Forces operations in the Middle East.
The whole book gave me fresh appreciation for these soldiers, sailors, aviators, cyber operators and public servants who have served, are serving and are preparing to serve in Australia’s defence. British PM David Cameron gave commemorative badges with the words “We also served” inscribed on the back to WWII Siginters in recognition of their unsung work and oath of secrecy. Echoing that esteem, Revealing Secrets urges me to express “Thank you for your service”, and indeed thank you for your ethics, resourcefulness and even larrikinism, to Australian Siginters whose stories cannot always be publicly told and on whom Australia is increasingly reliant.
Notes:
Publisher details: Revealing Secrets: An unofficial history of Australian Signals intelligence & the advent of cyber, by Clare Birgin and John Blaxland. (Sydney: UNSW Press, 2023). An earlier version of this review was originally published in 2023 Articles – The Signaller (rasigs.org).
The views expressed in this review are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the position of the Australian Army, the Department of Defence or the Australian Government.
About the Reviewer
Darren Cronshaw is a Chaplain who has served at Army School of Transport, Puckapunyal, 1st Recruit Training Battalion, Kapooka and Defence Force School of Signals. He is also Professor of Practical and Intercultural Theology with the Australian College of Ministries (Sydney College of Divinity). His hobby is pushing the boundaries of resilience in Ironman triathlons.