Merriam Webster's Dictionary
escrow
1 escrow \'es-,kro, es-'\ n [MF escroue scroll _ more at scroll ] (1594)
1 : a deed, a bond, money, or a piece of property held in trust by a third party to be turned over to the grantee only upon fulfillment of a condition
2 : a fund or deposit designed to serve as an escrow _ in escrow : in trust as an escrow <had $1000 in escrow to pay taxes>
2 escrow \es-'kro, 'es-,\ vt (1949) : to place in escrow
Funk & Wagnalls New Encyclopedia
ESCROW,
in law, conditional delivery of money or property, or documents evidencing or transferring rights therein, to a third person to be kept by that person until certain conditions are satisfied and then to be delivered over to the obligee or grantee. The property or documents thus conditionally held are also called the escrow, and the contract defining the conditions of the second delivery is called the escrow agreement.
The escrow is a device most frequently applied in real-estate transactions. A deed, for example, delivered in escrow does not operate as an obligation or conveyance so long as it remains in the hands of the third person. When the prescribed conditions are fulfilled, the deed generally takes effect from the second delivery. Although the term escrow was originally applied only to such conditional delivery of instruments for the conveyance of land, it is now applied to any kind of written instrument or form of property that may be deposited for later delivery on fulfillment of prescribed conditions. Examples are shares of stock, assignments for the benefit of creditors, and oil leases.
Funk & Wagnalls New Encyclopedia
JARGON,
vocabulary used by a special group or occupational class, usually only partially understood by outsiders. The special vocabularies of medicine, law, banking, science and technology, education, military affairs, sports, and the entertainment world all fall under the heading of jargon. Examples of occupational jargon include such formal technical expressions as perorbital hematoma (black eye, to the layperson), in medicine, and escrow and discount rate, in finance, and informal terms such as licorice stick (clarinet, among jazz musicians). Cant, sometimes defined as false or insincere language, also (like argot) refers to the jargon and slang (q.v.) used by thieves and beggars and the underworld. Colorful terms and phrases such as mug (either a police photograph or to attack a victim), payola (graft or blackmail), hooker (prostitute), and to rub out or to blow away (to kill) are examples of cant that eventually became commonly known to, and adopted as slang by, society in general.
Some writers reserve the term jargon for technical language. Applied to colorful occupational expressions such as licorice stick, the concepts of jargon and slang overlap greatly. In general, however, slang is more casual and acceptable to outsiders than jargon. Slang and cant are more vivid than jargon, with a greater turnover in vocabulary. The special in-group speech of young people and of members of distinct ethnic groups is generally called slang, especially when it is understood by outsiders. Some writers use the term argot in a generalized way that covers cant, in-group slang, and occupational jargon-no uniform terminology has been adopted for these common ways of using language. The term jargon, however, also pertains in general to gibberish and unintelligible language and to overinflated, needlessly technical language. In addition, it can refer to specific dialects resulting from a mix of several languages (as in Chinook Jargon, used by American Indian traders).
Web
cryptology \krip-'ta-le-je\ n (1935) : the scientific study of cryptography and cryptanalysis _ cryptological \,krip-te-'la-ji-kel\ or cryptologic \-jik\ adj _ cryptologist \krip-'ta-le-jist\ n
Funk
CRYPTOGRAPHY,
science of preparing communication intended to be intelligible only to the person possessing the key, or method of developing the hidden meaning by cryptoanalysis using apparently incoherent text. In its widest sense, cryptography includes the use of concealed messages, ciphers, and codes. Concealed messages, such as those hidden in otherwise innocent text and those written in invisible ink, depend for their success on being unsuspected; once they are discovered, they frequently offer little difficulty to decipherment. Codes, in which words and phrases are represented by predetermined words, numbers, or symbols, are usually impossible to read without the key code book.
The term cryptography is sometimes restricted to the use of ciphers, that is, to methods of transposing the letters of plaintext (unencrypted) messages, or to methods involving the substitution of other letters or symbols for the original letters of a message, and to various combinations of such methods, all according to prearranged systems. Ciphers of various types have been devised, but all of them fall into one or both of two categories, transposition and substitution. In transposition ciphers, the message is usually written, without word divisions, in rows of letters arranged in a rectangular block. The letters are then transposed in a prearranged order such as by vertical columns, diagonals, or spirals, or by more complicated systems, such as the knight's tour, which is based on the move of the knight in chess. The arrangement of the letters in the enciphered message depends upon the size of the block used and upon the route followed in inscribing and transposing the letters. In order to make the cipher even more secure, a key word or number may be used; as, for example, in transposing by vertical columns, the key word code would require that the columns be taken in the order 1-4-2-3, which is the alphabetical order of the letters of the code word, rather than in the normal 1-2-3-4 order. Transposition ciphers might be recognized by normal letter frequencies for the language used. Solution of such ciphers without the key is possible by rearranging the letters in various geometric designs and at the same time anagramming probable words until the method of encipherment is discovered.
Simple and Complex Ciphers.
In simple substitution ciphers, a particular letter or symbol is substituted for each letter. The letters are left in their normal order, usually with normal word divisions. Such ciphers are recognized by the occurrence of a set of normal letter frequencies attached to the wrong letters. They are solved by the use of frequency analysis and by noting the characteristics of particular letters, such as the tendency to form doubles, common word prefixes and suffixes, common word initial and terminal letters, and common combinations, such as QU, TH, ER, RE.
In multiple substitution (polyalphabetic) ciphers, a keyword or number is employed. The first message letter might be enciphered by adding to it the numerical value of the first letter of the keyword; the second message letter is enciphered similarly, using the second letter of the keyword, and so on, repeating the keyword as often as necessary to encipher the whole message. Thus, to encipher the word TODAY by the code word DIG, T becomes W, as D is the fourth letter of the alphabet; O becomes W, as I is the ninth letter of the alphabet; and D becomes J, as G is the seventh letter of the alphabet. For the rest of the message the code word is repeated, and thus TODAY is coded WWJDG. The Vigenere table system uses the same principles.
In more complicated polyalphabetic systems, the letters of the keyword may indicate which of a series of thoroughly mixed substitution alphabets is to be used to encipher each letter of the message. In autoencipherment a single key letter is used for the first letter of the message; the enciphered first letter is then used to encipher the second letter (ciphertext autokey), and so on throughout the message. Other systems may use Morse code with various transpositions or complicated tables for substituting letters in groups of two or three. Polyalphabetic ciphers using a keyword are characterized by flat or random letter frequencies. These ciphers may be solved by determining the length of the keyword, called the period, usually by means of repeated sequences in the text (Kasiski method), and then applying the method for simple substitution to each of the substitution alphabets thus discovered.
By the use of combinations of the basic types, ciphers can be created to various degrees of complexity. The key, however, should be easy to remember or reproduce, for without it, the cipher is no longer a message but a puzzle. Given sufficient time and material, most ciphers can be solved and their keys discovered, but for a particular purpose the complexity need be only so great as to obtain the security desired. Military orders that must be kept secret for only a few hours, for example, can be encrypted in a cipher that would be entirely unsuited for diplomatic reports using a cipher over an extended period of time. Messages may be sent also by automatic cipher machines. One form of teletypewriter can be set to any suitable keyword and will automatically encipher messages; a receiving machine with the same key then decodes.
Computer Ciphers.
A great deal of confidential information is now routinely sent from one computer to another by government agencies, banks, and many corporations. Such data are usually transmitted via telephone lines or other nonprivate channels. In the early 1970s LUCIFER, a cryptosystem that used both substitution and transposition, was developed. In 1976 the National Bureau of Standards (q.v.) developed a cryptographic technique called the Data Encryption Standard (DES). DES was based on LUCIFER and makes use of the computer binary code consisting of 0's and 1's ( see Computer ). Each unit is called a bit. DES transforms 64-bit message segments into 64-bit segments of ciphertext, using a 56-bit key. Each user randomly selects a key and reveals it only to those persons authorized to see the protected data. The actual message is encoded and decoded automatically by electronic devices attached to the sending and receiving computers. As there are more than 70 quadrillion possible 56-bit combinations, the chances of discovering a random key would seem remote. Nevertheless, DES has been challenged by some experts in the field as being too vulnerable to very high-power decoding methods developed for advanced computers. Alternatives such as public-key cryptosystems (PKC), which use both a public and a secret key, have been proposed. A PKC based on a mathematical "knapsack" approach eliminates a problem of key distribution but is not as computation-ally efficient as DES. In 1978, the so-called RSA algorithm was developed. Using two 100-digit prime numbers, p and q, multiplied to form n = pq, it capitalized on the inherently difficult problem of factoring prime numbers. Many variations on these ciphers have been explored since their inception, but RSA appears to remain most efficient and secure.
Code Books.
Ciphers based on keys are simpler to use than codes, which require the possession of identical code books by both sender and receiver. On the other hand, a well-constructed code can represent phrases and entire sentences by symbols, such as a five-letter group, and is often used more for economy than for secrecy. Although a properly constructed code can give a high degree of security, the difficulty of printing and distributing code books under conditions of absolute secrecy limits their use to places in which the books can be effectively guarded.
History.
Secret codes are of ancient origin. The sacred Jewish writers of ancient times sometimes concealed their meaning by reversing the alphabet, that is, using the last letter of the alphabet in place of the first, the next last for the second, and so on. This system, called atbash, is exemplified in the Bible, in Jeremiah 25:26, in which "Sheshech" is written for "Babel" (Babylon), using the second and twelfth letters from the end of the Hebrew alphabet instead of from the beginning. Spartan ephors communicated with their field generals by means of messages written across the adjoining edges of a strip of parchment wrapped spirally around a staff called a scytale. Once unrolled, the message could be read only by wrapping the strip on an identical staff. The Greek writer Polybius invented the 5 x 5 Polybius Square, widely used in various cryptographic systems. Julius Caesar used a system of advancing each letter four places, commonly called a Caesar shift. W.G.S. For further information on this topic, see ~Biblio. Cryptography .
Funk
ESPIONAGE,
the secret collection of information, or intelligence, that the source of such information wishes to protect from disclosure. Intelligence refers to evaluated and processed information needed to make decisions. The term can be used with reference to business, military, economic, or political decisions, but it most commonly relates to governmental foreign and defense policy. Intelligence generally has a national security connotation and therefore exists in an aura of secrecy.
Espionage, or spying, is illegal according to national laws; for example, see Espionage Act of 1917. Spying proceeds against the attempts of counterespionage (or counterintelligence) agencies to protect the secrecy of the information desired.
In the U.S., the Central Intelligence Agency (q.v.) , or CIA, is the main agency for gathering secret information that may bear on national security. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (q.v.), or FBI, has the primary responsibility for coun-terespionage activities within the U.S., coordinating its work with the CIA, which is responsible for such operations outside the U.S. During the cold war both the FBI and the CIA concentrated their attention primarily on the Komitet gosudarstvennoy bezopasnosti (KGB; q.v.), or Committee of State Security, of the USSR. In the wake of the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 and the breakup of the KGB into several new units, the mission of the CIA came under reexamination by both Congress and the administration. At least initially, the agency remained responsible not only for the collection and analysis of information, but also for counterintelligence overseas and for various forms of covert action (political intervention, secret propaganda, paramilitary activities) that require deep secrecy. Select committees of both the House and the Senate continued their oversight of CIA operations.
International espionage methods and operations have few boundaries. They have been romanticized in popular fiction and the mass media, but in reality, espionage exists in a secret world of deception, fraud, and sometimes violence. Espionage involves the recruiting of agents in foreign nations; efforts to encourage the disloyalty of those possessing significant information; and audio surveillance as well as the use of a full range of modern photographic, sensing, and detection devices, and other techniques of eliciting secret information.
JUSTIFICATION AND INTERNATIONAL SANCTION
In order to adopt and implement foreign policy, plan military strategy and organize armed forces, conduct diplomacy, negotiate arms control agreements, or participate in international organization activities, nations have vast information requirements. Not surprisingly, then, many governments maintain some kind of intelligence capability as a matter of survival in a world where dangers and uncertainties still exist. The cold war may have ended, but hostilities continue in parts of Eastern Europe, the former Soviet Union, the Middle East, and elsewhere.
All nations have laws against espionage, but most sponsor spies in other lands. Because of the clandestine nature of espionage, no reliable count exists of how many intelligence officers-only a small percentage of whom are actually spies-there are in the world. A common estimate is that the U.S. today still employs some 200,000 intelligence personnel. The number that was generally ascribed to the Soviet intelligence establishment in the 1980s was 400,000, a figure that undoubtedly included border guards and internal security police.
THE GATHERING OF INTELLIGENCE
Intelligence work, including spying, proceeds in a five-step process. Initially, what the decision makers need to know is considered, and requirements are set. The second step is collecting the desired information, which requires knowing where the information is located and who can best obtain it. The information may be available in a foreign newspaper, radiobroadcast, or other open source; or it may be obtained only by the most sophisticated electronic means, or by planting an agent within the decision-making system of the target area. The third step is intelligence production, in which the collected raw data are assembled, evaluated, and collated into the best possible answer to the question initially asked. The fourth step is communicating the processed information to the decision maker. To be useful, information must be presented in a timely, accurate, and understandable form. The fifth and crucial step is the use of intelligence. The decision maker may choose to ignore the information conveyed, thus possibly courting disaster; on the other hand, a judgment may be made on the ba-sis of information that proves inaccurate. The point is that the decision maker must make the final crucial judgment about whether, or how, to use the information supplied. The intelligence process can fail at each or any of these five basic steps.
Recruitment of Agents.
Today, scores of developed nations have efficient intelligence organizations with systematic programs for recruiting new agents. Agents come from three main sources: the university world, where students are sought and trained for intelligence careers; the armed services and police forces, where some degree of intelligence proficiency may already have been attained; and the underground world of espionage, which produces an assortment of persons, including criminal informers, with relevant experience.
Those who do the actual spying, which may involve stealing information or performing disloyal acts of disclosure, are led to this work by various motivations. Greed or financial need is a leading incentive in many cases, but other motivations, such as ambition, political ideology, or nationalistic idealism, can figure importantly: Oleg Vladimirovich Penkovsky (1919-63), a highly placed Soviet officer, provided valuable information to Western intelligence services in the belief that the West must be warned of danger. H. A. R. ("Kim") Philby (1912-88), the notorious English spy, worked for the Soviet Union on ideological grounds.
Some spies must be carefully recruited and enticed into cooperation; others volunteer and are termed "walk-ins." The latter must be handled with extreme caution, as it is common for double agents to be among the volunteers. Double agents are spies who pretend to be defecting, but in reality maintain their original loyalty. Counterintelligence staffs are always skeptical of walk-ins or defectors and restrict their use for positive espionage purposes. In some cases, the most valuable spy of all is the "agent-in-place," the person who remains in a position of trust with access to highly secret information, but who has been recruited by a foreign intelligence service; such a spy is known as a "mole." A high-priority espionage target is the penetration of the various international terrorist organizations. If the leadership of such units can be infiltrated by spies, advance knowledge can be obtained of the location and identity of intended victims, the nature of the disguises being used by the hit team, and the secret sources of weapons. Such information could be used to foil terrorist operations. International drug traffic, it has been asserted, can similarly be thwarted by effective epionage, but the problem is complex, and only limited success has been achieved.
Espionage Agencies and Networks.
The world's intelligence, espionage, counterintelligence, and covert action programs may be said to follow three distinct organizational patterns: the American, the totalitarian (exemplified by the Communist regimes), and the British (parliamentary) systems. Similarities exist among them, yet distinctions are sharp.
In the U.S. the CIA continues to sit at the corner of an elaborate complex of some dozen separate intelligence organizations. Each has a specific role and a carefully guarded area of operations. The director of central intelligence is both head of the CIA and the president's principal intelligence adviser. In the latter job the director theoretically coordinates all the separate intelligence units, setting their requirements, budgets, and operational assignments. In reality, many of the major units in the system-such as the Defense Intelligence Agency and the huge National Security Agency/Central Security Service, both part of the Department of Defense-operate in quasi independence. The National Security Agency, which engages in code making and code breaking ( see Cryptography ), is much larger in staff size and budget than the CIA. The military also maintains a major tactical intelligence capability to assist field commanders in making on-the-spot decisions. Other major units in the U.S. intelligence system include the State Department's Bureau of Intelligence and Research, the Department of the Treasury, the FBI, and the Drug Enforcement Administration of the Department of Justice. The U.S. model influenced the intelligence structures of those countries where the U.S. was dominant at the end of World War II, such as West Germany, Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan.
In contrast to the federated American intelligence structure, the typical totalitarian setup is highly centralized. In the Soviet Union, the power of the KGB pervaded every aspect of national life. Its director was generally a powerful member of the Politburo (the governing political committee of the USSR). The KGB had two chief directorates. The most important was the First Directorate, which was responsible for foreign intelligence gathering. The Second Directorate s principal responsibilities involved providing counterespionage protection to the regime and recruiting foreign agents within the Soviet Union. Its targets included diplomats and journalists stationed in the USSR, foreign students, business persons, tourists, and visiting delegations. Most Eastern European governments followed the KGB model in their intelligence operations. China, Cuba, and other Communist nations still do.
The third model of intelligence systems is the British, a confederation of agencies coordinated by a cabinet subcommittee and accountable to the cabinet and prime minister. The two principal units are the Secret Intelligence Service (often called MI-6, signifying "military intelligence") and the Security Service (popularly called MI-5). These labels reflect the military origins of these services, which are now in the civilian sector. MI-6 is similar to the CIA and the KGB in that it carries out espionage, counterespionage, and covert action overseas. MI-5 is charged with domestic counterintelligence and internal security. Scotland Yard (q.v.) maintains a "special branch," which operates as the overt arm of the security service; it makes arrests and offers evidence in espionage cases while MI-5 agents remain in the background. A number of specialized units also operate within the British intelligence community. These include the Government Communications Center (for code making and breaking), the Ministry of Defense intelligence sections, and various Foreign Office intelligence groups. With some national variations, the intelligence services of France, Italy, Israel, and the British Commonwealth countries follow the general British pattern of organization.
HISTORY OF ESPIONAGE
Intelligence was early recognized as a vital tool of statecraft-of diplomacy or war. Writing almost 2500 years ago, the Chinese military theorist Sun Tzu (fl. 6th cent. bc ) stressed the importance of intelligence. His book The Art of War (c. 500 bc) gave detailed instructions for organizing an espionage system that would include double agents and defectors. Intelligence, however, was haphazardly organized by rulers and military chiefs until the rise of nationalism in the 18th century and the growth of standing armies and diplomatic establishments.
19th Century.
Political espionage is thought to have first been used systematically by Joseph Fouche, duc d'Otrante, minister of police during the French Revolution and the reign of Napoleon. Under Fouche's direction, a network of police agents and professional spies uncovered conspiracies to seize power organized by the Jacobins and by Bourbon Royalist emigres. The Austrian statesman Prince von Metternich also established an efficient organization of political and military spies early in the 19th century.
Better known than either of these organizations was the dreaded Okhrana (Department for Defense of Public Security and Order) of the Russian czars, created in 1825 to uncover opposition to the regime.
During the mid-19th century the secret police of Prussia was reorganized and invested with the duty of safeguarding the external as well as the internal security of the country. The Prussian espionage system played an important part in preparations to unify the German states in the German Empire. It also covered France with a network of about 30,000 agents whose work contributed to the German victory in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71. Not until the latter part of the 19th century, however, were permanent intelligence bureaus created by modern states.
Early 20th Century.
Systematic espionage aided the Japanese in defeating the Russians in the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-5. In preparing for World War I the Germans again flooded France with a host of espionage agents, some of whom were disguised as trade representatives, teachers, agricultural laborers, or domestics. The most famous of these agents was Mata Hari, who posed as an Indian dancer in Paris. German agents also engaged in attempts to sabotage American national defense both before and after the U.S. entry into World War I.
Most nations, however, entered World War I with inadequate espionage staffs, and the war was frequently fought on the ba-sis of poor intelligence. The lessons of that war, along with rapid advances in technology, especially in communications and aviation, spurred a major growth in intelligence agencies. This was further stimulated by the advent of Fascist governments in Europe and a military dictatorship in Japan, all of which had expansionist foreign policies, and the creation of counterespionage agencies such as the Gestapo (q.v.) in Nazi Germany. These developments led other, democratic countries to establish counterespionage systems as well.
World War II.
World War II was the great stimulus to intelligence services worldwide. Modern military and communications technology put a premium on accurate and quick information, as well as on efforts to protect the security of sensitive information. Some of the great battles of World War II were actually intelligence and counterintelligence battles. Only in recent years have some of the exploits, and failures, in this secret war been disclosed. Notable is Operation Double Cross, in which the British captured practically all the German spies in Great Britain during the war and turned them into double agents who sent false information back to Germany. Also, the British and their allies were able to break the German secret code, providing access to many of the enemy's secret transmissions.
The surprise attack by Japan on the American naval base at Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941, was a great intelligence success for the Japanese and an intelligence failure for the Americans. That failure stimulated the postwar growth of a massive intelligence apparatus in the U.S. Before World War II the U.S. had virtually no intelligence system; after the war the CIA became world famous for its pervasive international surveillance, joining the MI-6, the KGB, the Service de Documentation Exterieure et de Contre-Espionage of France, Israel's foreign intelligence agency, China's Social Affairs Department, and numerous other intelligence agencies in a massive network of espionage and counterespionage efforts.
Late 20th Century.
In the mid-1970s, as a result of disillusionment with the Vietnam War, the Watergate scandal, and the policies of detente, many Americans began to question the role of the CIA. Mass-media disclosures of intelligence agency abuses and failures were followed by investigations by presidential commissions and congressional committees, which resulted in new guidelines for secret operations and a new structure for executive and legislative supervision. Controversy over the CIA's role and control remains, however. One result is an ever-increasing amount of public information about intelligence services around the world.
Espionage in Politics and Industry.
Intelligence and espionage are terms most commonly associated with national foreign policies, yet secret information is needed to make decisions in politics, commerce, and industry. Political parties have always been interested in the strategic plans of their opponents or in any information that might discredit them.
Most large corporate enterprises today have divisions for strategic planning that require intelligence reports. Competitive enterprises are undeniably interested in the plans of their competitors; despite laws against such practices, industrial espionage is difficult to detect and control and is known to be an active tool for gaining such foreknowledge. Many of the tools of government intelligence work are used, including electronic surveillance and aerial photographic reconnaissance, and attempts are even made to recruit defectors.
Implications of Modern Technology.
All forms and techniques of intelligence are now aided by an accelerating technology of communications and a variety of computing and measuring devices. Miniaturized cameras and microfilm have made it easier for persons engaged in all forms of espionage to photograph secret documents and conceal the films. Artificial satellites also have an espionage function-that of aerial photography for such purposes as detecting secret military in stallations. The vanguard of these developments is highly secret, but it is known that telephones can be tapped without wires, rooms can be bugged (planted with electronic listening and recording devices) without entry, and photographs can be made in the dark. Of course this same technology is used in countermeasures, and the competition escalates between those seeking secret information and those trying to protect it.
In foreign embassies in sensitive areas, confidential discussions routinely take place in plastic bubbles encasing secure rooms, to protect the confidentiality of information. Intelligence agencies have long been known to be staffed with expert lip readers. Privacy of communications remains under constant assault by technological developments that offer threats to, but perhaps also promises for, human progress. H.H. R. For further information on this topic, see ~Biblio. Espionage , ~Biblio. Executive branch, U.S. , ~Biblio. Cryptography .
World Almanach
clipper chip: the nickname for the controversial microprocessor that uses the Data Encryption Standard designed by the National Security Agency (NSA). Using a powerful algorithm, the chip offers advanced data encryption; however, one of the keys would be held by the federal government. NSA has recommended that it become the universal standard.