What is INFO SEC?

Answer 1

INFO SEC = "Information Security." It's not just the CONTENT of the message that needs to be kept secure; the fact that ANY information is being transmitted, and who it is being sent TO, can involve "Information Security" issues.

Here's an example, drawn from some discussions at the Electronic Privacy Information Center, concerning the National Security Agency's "bulk monitoring" of telephone metadata. The NSA kept claiming that because the NSA didn't actually listen to your phone calls, that your privacy wasn't impacted by "metadata" collection. But that's not always the case.

For example, the NSA records the fact that your cell phone was used to call a bookmaker who specializes in recording bets on horse races. However, since the NSA wasn't listening to the call, they didn't know what you said. Two days later, the bookmaker called YOU. And again two days later. The day after that, you called your bank. But since the NSA wasn't actually listening to the call, they don't know what you said. The next day, you called your bank again, and then called a pawn shop. But the NSA doesn't know what the call was about.

But do YOU know what the call was about? Based just on INFOSEC concerns, you can probably make some good guesses as to how those calls get woven together.

Here's another example. The United States Navy broadcasts messages to our nuclear submarines at sea. If they only transmitted messages when there was something important to say, the fact that a message was transmitted AT ALL meant that there was something important going on. So the Navy CONTINUOUSLY transmits those messages, even when they have nothing to say. They can include news, sports scores, weather reports, and anything to keep talking, and then put the important message in the datastream with everything else. Because of that, the fact that they had something important to say didn't BECOME "The Important Thing".