Okay, this one you’ve probably seen mentioned in the news before. And honestly, it’s really fascinating.

Governments can send and receive some pretty intense confidential info: incoming attack orders, massive terrorist plots, potential nuclear threats, etc. With this confidential info comes the threat of prying eyes: spies from hostile countries, news outlets looking for a huge scoop, things like that. So, naturally, there is an entire industry dedicated to creating the absolute state of the art in terms of “interception prevention”, or otherwise stopping those snoops from listening in.

A SCIF is not a literal facility. Rather, it is a checklist that must be passed in order for any sort of confidential conversation to begin. For example, a SCIF must have only one entry point, and that entry point must be defended with either a bio-based lock (think thumb/eye scanner) or an armed guard with a given clearance. No outside electronics are allowed inside a SCIF, and a SCIF must be protected by a Faraday cage — if some sort of phone/internet communication is required, the devices using that connection must follow a state-of-the-art set of encryptions determined by the DoD (nothing your consumer phone would have — think $50,000 per-unit specialty equipment). And this is just a short version of the list.

A SCIF checklist is designed to be secure, obviously, but it’s also designed to be portable. If the president is, say, reading a book to a bunch of elementary schoolers when a major terrorist strike happens, he’s not going to have time to go to a SCIF-certified location like the White House or Air Force One. So it’s the job of whatever defense team is around him — Secret Service, CIA, Military, etc. — to quickly find a suitable room, set it up to follow the checklist, bring in the equipment, etc. etc.

What I found fascinating is that many senators have their own “SCIF rooms” built into their homes. There are a few pictures online of these things and they look crazy — huge vault doors leading to a small table with a single red phone, positioned right next to the kitchen. Something right out of a movie.