[heise-online.co.uk] A new web site, described as a "Facebook for spies" and sponsored by
the US Office of the Director of National Intelligence, has been
created. The site is intended to provide a method of information
sharing between all 16 US government intelligence agencies, according
to a report from CNN.
Called A-Space the system goes live on September the 22nd, via the US government’s classified Joint Worldwide Intelligence Communications System, although A-Space has been running in test phase for several months.
Assistant Deputy Director and Chief Technology Officer of the Office
of the Deputy Director of National Intelligence for Analysis, Michael
Wertheimer who demonstrated the program to CNN to show how analysts
will use it to collaborate, said, "It’s a place where not only spies
can meet, but share data they’ve never been able to share before,"
Wertheimer said. "This is going to give them for the first time a
chance to think out loud, think in public amongst their peers, under
the protection of an A-Space umbrella." "One perfect example is if
Osama bin Laden comes out with a new video. How is that video obtained?
Where are the very sensitive secret sources we may have to put into a
context that’s not apparent to the rest of the world?
Security of such a system is naturally a concern and a large measure
of security is provided by the fact that it is only available via a
separate US government network and not part of the internet. However
A-Space itself will be apparently be spied upon by pattern recognition
programs intended to identify when the system is being used by possible
double agents. Although how it is possible to separate such behaviour
from normal intelligence activities is hard to imagine. According to
Wertheimer "We’re building [a] mechanism to alert that behavior. We
call that, for lack of a better term, the MasterCard, where someone is
using their credit card in a way they’ve never used it before, and it
alerts so that maybe that credit card has been stolen," – "Same thing
here. We’re going to actually do patterns on the way people use
A-Space."
Initiatives such as A-Space have certainly been prompted by the
accusation that intelligence information in the US does not get
distributed to all those who might make use of it. This following the
disclosure that, pre 9/11, an FBI agent had circulated an email warning
about those learning to fly, but showing little interest in how to
land. Of course it makes little difference how well information is
disseminated if no-one takes any notice.
(Terry Relph-Knight)
Source: http://www.heise-online.co.uk/news/US-intelligence-community-launches-its-own-social-network–/111488
