1. Foreign countries (governments, military forces and police departments).
Visitors come from 29 different countries, 16 of which are in Europe; 4 in South America; 3 in Asia; 2 in the South Pacific; 2 in the Mid-East; 1 in Africa; and 1 in North America. Most of these visitors don't return or only return a few times. The timing of these visits is significant, and perhaps indicative of the purpose of the visit itself. For example, the French military has only visited once, but on the very day that it announced that it too has uninhabited aerial vehicles, about which we (the SCP) have written because of their use as surveillance devices.
Three of these 29 countries -- Australia, Canada and England -- stand out because they are home to the small number of visitors who, unlike the others, return to our website over and over and over again. These three countries also happen to be English-speaking and allies of the United States military.
There are a total of 4 frequent visitors, each of which has visited at least 40 times: the Department of Defence (Australia), the Ministry of Management Services, Information Technology Services Division (British Columbia, Canada); unknown, using a secure government server (England); and the Hants City Council (England). From the timing and spacing of these visits, it seems likely that 1) both the Canadian Ministry of Management Services and the unknown people in England (perhaps MI6, the English counterpart of the CIA) have assigned case officers to the SCP's website, which only gets visited during the work week and between 9 am and 5 pm local time; 2) the Department of Defence (Australia) has assigned to our "case" a data-mining computer, which visits at all times of day and night; and 3) the Hants City Council -- no doubt not in possession of case officers or data-mining computers -- has someone in it who is a big fan (enemy?) of our work (visits only during working hours).
2. New York (City and State).
Visitors are either law enforcement authorities or government bodies charged with maintaining "homeland security." All visits have taken place during business hours, which suggests that people, not data-mining computers, are doing the visiting. The only visitor that has returned over and over again comes from a "place" (ccea.nyc.gov) that cannot be resolved or investigated any further. This suggests that ccea.nyc.gov is either the Intelligence Division of the NYPD or a Joint Terrorism Task Force.
3. Other state governments.
Visitors are either law enforcement authorities or government bodies charged with maintaining "homeland security." Almost all visits take place during business hours, which suggests that people, not data-mining computers, are doing the visiting. The only visitor that has returned over and over again is California's Transportation Department. Eight other states have Transportation Departments that have visited our website; like "Corrections" (6 states), "Transportation" is a thread that runs through these statistics.
4. The US federal goverment.
Visitors are either law enforcement authorities or government bodies charged with maintaining "homeland security." Almost all visits take place during business hours, which suggests that people, not data-mining computers, are doing the visiting.
The following agencies (or, rather, employees of these agencies) have visited over and over again: Federal Emergency Management Agency; Federal Aviation Administration; the Department of Justice; the Department of the Treasury; the federal judiciary (federal court system); the General Services Administration; the Social Security Administration; and the Department of State. A lot in NASA: Goddard Langley Jet Propulsion National laboratories: Lawrence Livermore Oak Ridge Sandia Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory, veterans admin wash dc Alphabetical list and speculation, if any, on specific reason for visits: Central Intelligence Agency (open source intelligence); Commerce Department (commercial exploitation of surveillance data); Energy Department (national laboratories [see below], critical infrastructures); Interior Department; Homeland Security/Miscellaneous ("anti-American" and/or "anti-Bush" political dissent in the US); law enforcement (legality of SCP maps of camera locations); National Aeronautical and Space Administration (pioneers of video-enhancement, live television broadcast and satellite technologies); National Institute of Health (surveillance in the medical sense of the word); national energy laboratories (data-mining super-computers, nuclear or satellite-guided weapons); National Ocean and Atmosphere Administration (video surveillance, broadcast and satellite technologies); President of the United States (bi-annual national security briefings on "anti-American" political dissent in the US); Transportation Department (video surveillance of public highways); Veterans Administration; and the Virgin Islands.
Each one of the five most-frequent visitors to the site is connected to the NIPRNET, which acts as an intermediary between the Department of Defense's internal computer systems and the Internet. The host that visits the most often -- the Computer and Telecommunications Area Master Station in Norfolk, Virginia (155 total visits to date) -- is part of the Navy. Two of the five most-frequent visitors are part of the Air Force: the 76th Communications Squadron, Kelly Air Force Base, San Antonio, Texas (112 total visits); and the Space Warfare Center/Ballistic Missile Defense Organization, Schriever Air Force Base, Colorado (105 total visits). The remaining two top-five visitors are part of DISA: the Defense Enterprise Computing Center in Columbus, Ohio (125 total visits), and the Defense Enterprise Computing Center in San Diego, California (94 total visits). None of the top five are part of the Army or the United States Marine Corps, both of which host a large number of infrequent visitors, rather than one or two very frequent visitors, and so together manage to account for 16 percent of all visitors.
It's clear that at least some of these visitors aren't "just screwing around," are in fact dead serious about their visits, which are not friendly in nature: for example, the Air Force Office of Special Investigations, Andrews Air Force Base, Maryland (6 total visits to date), Naval Criminal Investigations, Washington, DC (2 total visits), and the Defense Computer Investigations Training Program, Linthicum, Maryland (one visit). Or, if you prefer "security," take as your examples the National Security Agency's National Computer Security Center, Fort Meade, Maryland (20 total visits) and the US Army Security Agency, also based at Fort Meade (10 visits). Or, if "intelligence" is your game, take for example the 1st Intelligence Oversight Command (formerly "Land Information Warfare Activity"), Fort Belvoir, VA (5 visits); the Defense Intelligence Agency, Bolling Air Force Base, Washington DC (3 visits); the US Army Intelligence Center, Ft. Huachuca, Arizona (2 visits); the US Army's 485th Intelligence Division, Mainz, Germany (one visit); and Command, Control, Communications, Computers and Intelligence centers at several locations, including Fort Monmouth, NJ (5 visits), Pacific Command Headquarters in Hawaii (one visit) and the Washington DC Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense (one visit). Just imagine the suspicions that would be aroused if the tables were turned, and it was the SCP-New York visiting the web sites of all these military agencies, and not the reverse!
-- Originally posted 25 May 2003. (To be updated as needed.)
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