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Intelligence

Let's Not Talk Nonsense About Cyber

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August 20, 2010

A recent blog post on Wire.com “Cyberwar Against Wikileaks? Good Luck With That” was brought to my attention by a good friend. She nominally just wanted my thoughts on the provocative article, but in effect, challenged me to blog on the subject. Some have argued that the U.S. Government could levy its cyber capabilities to stop WikiLeaks from sharing the classified information leaked to the online outlet by a young U.S. soldier. That defined a target is well within the capabilities of several different parts of the government, but it would be entirely self defeating. Using cyber capabilities to silence those with whom we disagree is exactly what privacy and civil liberties advocates fear most about the development of our cyber defenses.

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Group says body scanners can store, transfer images

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August 17, 2010

Group says body scanners can store, transfer images – NextGov
The Electronic Privacy Information Center said Tuesday that documents it has obtained show that the body scanners being used at federal courthouses can store and record the images of those scanned with the devices.

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Justice Charges 14 U.S. Residents With Aiding Al Shabaab

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August 6, 2010

Justice Charges 14 U.S. Residents With Aiding Al Shabaab – CQ Homeland Security
Department of Justice officials on Thursday announced charges against 14 U.S. residents — the majority of them American citizens — for allegedly providing money and services to the Somali terrorist group al-Shabaab.

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UAE Blocks BlackBerry for the Sake of Security, at the Cost of Liberty

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August 3, 2010

By Justin Hienz
The United Arab Emirates (UAE) is home to bizarre sights, and the veneer of extreme luxury certainly impresses (or fools) most tourists. But when you pull back the curtain, the UAE is revealed as a developing country with many challenges, security among them. On Sunday, UAE officials announced that it would block BlackBerry mobile services. Clearly, the UAE is striving for security in every way, but at what cost? And are there parallels in our own country that deserve a closer look? Maintaining our individual freedoms is a never-ending struggle.

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Can Police Agencies Perform Meaningful Predictive Analysis?

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August 2, 2010

It amazes me how “good theoretical concepts” in law enforcement and the “programs derived from them” consistently get diluted as they are put in place at the operational level. They usually look nothing like what was on the drawing board. Why is this? I know improvement is possible. Law enforcement agencies can create more actionable intelligence from the stores of information they currently hold by applying advanced analytical techniques to that information.

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Senate Panel to Discuss Afghanistan Amid Leak of War Documents

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July 26, 2010

Senate Panel to Discuss Afghanistan Amid Leak of War Documents – Homeland Security CQ
The Senate Foreign Relations Committee will hold a hearing Tuesday to discuss options for bringing about political reconciliation in Afghanistan. The hearing is likely to be overshadowed, however, by a larger discussion on overall U.S. policy in Afghanistan and Pakistan following the release by WikiLeaks over the weekend of more than 92,000 pages of classified documents tracking the war in Afghanistan from January 2004 to December 2009.

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Should We Seek Cyber Attribution?

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July 26, 2010

Several news items of late have addressed the thorny issue of cyber attribution; that is, the ability to identify the sources of Web and network attacks. For cyber companies and some government agencies, attribution is the Holy Grail. However, if we develop technology that provides attribution, soon bad governments will get it too. They will surely use it against dissident elements inside their own countries to suppress free speech and abridge other civil rights of all sorts. Should we consciously forgo the possibility of deterring bad guys from cyber crime, cyber terror and cyber war because the technology could be used badly? I think the answer is clearly “no.”

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Data Mining Tools for Law Enforcement?

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July 22, 2010

Recently, there’s been a trend toward some agencies purchasing new data mining tools for their needs at fusion centers. It is great to see this investment in technology, but watch out – many of these solutions don’t have any inherent method for capturing Suspicious Activity Reports and Request for Service data, which fusion centers use to track case management activities. Here’s a review the four types of data that law enforcement officers encounter in their work and the federal guidelines that govern intelligence sharing.

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The Disturbing Value of the Washington Post’s Work

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July 21, 2010

In a series of front-page exposes entitled, “Top Secret America,” the Washington Post has essentially blown the cover off a number of classified programs and their geographic locations around the country. Using public sources and their own talents as investigative journalists, Post reporters Dana Priest and William Arkin have put together a very impressive piece of work that raises a number of important questions about the explosive growth of the intelligence community since 9/11. But by identifying the geographic locations of some of our country’s top secret facilities and surmising who does what and where at those spots, the Post reporters created an operative target list that is literally synthesized and ready for use by people whose allegiances are not in American’s best interest.

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E-passports Key to Border and Travel Security

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July 19, 2010

A top-rated lacrosse team representing the Iroquois Confederacy apparently won’t be competing in the world championship of the sport their ancestors helped invent. The United Kingdom—which is hosting the tournament—has indicated it will deny entry to the team because its members are not traveling on U.S. passports. The players are understandably upset that despite years of training and commitment, they won’t be able to compete for a championship. In addition, the team members and their supporters have made this an issue of Iroquois identity. However, the British authorities are correct that the decision is a matter of border and travel security rather than Iroquois sovereignty. Iroquois passports, which contain hand-written elements, simply aren’t as secure as the latest generation of U.S. passports.

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