Five Eyes Intelligence-sharing Network

About Five Eyes Intelligence-sharing Network

• It is a multilateral intelligence-sharing network shared by over 20 different agencies of five English-speaking countries — Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States.
• It is both surveillance-based and signals intelligence (SIGINT).
• Its genesis lies in the post-war 1946 UKUSA Agreement, intended as a cooperative arrangement for sharing signals intelligence (SIGINT).
• Over time, this partnership has extended its reach, becoming an integral part of global intelligence and security operations.
• Intelligence documents shared between the members countries are classified as ‘Secret—AUS/CAN/NZ/UK/US Eyes Only,’ which gave the group its title ‘Five Eyes.
• Its scope was limited to “communication intelligence matters only” related to “unrestricted” exchange of intelligence products in six areas:
• Collection of traffic; acquisition of communication documents and equipment; traffic analysis; cryptanalysis; decryption and translation; and acquisition of information regarding communication organisations, practices, procedures, and equipment.
• The arrangement was later extended to ‘second party’ countries —Canada joined in 1948, while Australia and New Zealand became part of the alliance in 1956. 

Q1: What is 'Decryption?

The conversion of encrypted data into its original form is called Decryption. It is generally a reverse process of encryption. It decodes the encrypted information so that an authorized user can only decrypt the data because decryption requires a secret key or password.

Source:In the world of spycraft, why national interest trumps all