The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, headquartered in Springfield, Virginia, today announced the launch of MagQuest, its $1.2 million global open innovation challenge, seeking advanced approaches to geomagnetic data collection.
Intelligence
March 6, 2019
As the chief information officer and an assistant director of the U.S. Marshals Service, Karl Mathias spends 75 percent to 80 percent of his time on the day-to-day information technology needs of the agency. In order to focus on developing new technologies, he would rather decrease that time, by leveraging advanced technologies that can help “keep the lights on, so to speak, the circuits alive, and the laptops running, patched and secure.”
March 5, 2019
The Office of the Director of National Intelligence’s John Sherman, chief information officer (CIO) of the intelligence community, is alarmed about the shifting geopolitical forces around the world.
In his position since September 2017, Sherman is leading the flagship integration of the Intelligence Community Information Technology Enterprise, known as IC ITE (and pronounced like eyesight), which has been a six-year effort to modernize the information technology (IT) for the 17 member agencies of the intelligence community (IC).
January 31, 2019
A new strategy for U.S. intelligence looks to improve integration of counterintelligence and security efforts, increasingly address cyber threats, and have clear guidance of civil liberties, privacy and transparency. As outlined in the U.S. National Intelligence Strategy (NIS), from Director of National Intelligence (DNI) Dan Coats, the intelligence community is facing a turbulent and complex strategic environment, and as such, the community “must do things differently.”
January 29, 2019
The United States faces a “toxic mix of threats,” Dan Coats, the director of National Intelligence, testified today before the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence while unveiling the annual Worldwide Threat Assessment of the U.S. Intelligence Community.
January 9, 2019
The Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity (IARPA) has announced two new challenges: the Credibility Assessment Standardized Evaluation (CASE) Challenge, which seeks methods for measuring the performance of credibility assessment techniques and technologies, and the Activities in Extended Video (ActEV) Prize Challenge, which aims to develop algorithms that will monitor surveillance videos for suspicious activity.
January 9, 2019
The Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity (IARPA) is seeking information on research efforts in the area of machine learning with a particular focus on deep learning and in the area of cooling systems for small mobile devices.
November 1, 2018
Data from mobile device signals such as GSM may be an untapped resource for signals intelligence on the battlefield. Although the payload of a communication system is encoded, information about the nature of the communication that is included in the GSM signal is not and should not be overlooked. This information, known as metadata, could prove to be an important tool for warfighters, experts say.
September 5, 2018
Foreign influence operations against the United States and its allies are likely to proliferate as more nations with propaganda agendas learn how to exploit social media technologies, say intelligence community experts. Russia’s attempts to interfere with the 2016 U.S. presidential election are only the tip of the iceberg, and government must learn how to work with industry to counter these efforts.
September 19, 2018
A challenge to develop an intelligence app concluded with software that uses neural networks to predict social unrest around the world. Sponsored by the AFCEA Emerging Professionals in Intelligence Committee (EPIC) and the Cyber Council of the Intelligence and National Security Alliance, the challenge awarded a total of $6,000 to three firms tasked with developing a software solution to a problem currently confronted by the intelligence community.
September 5, 2018
A resurgent Russian military that has adopted an entirely different posture than its communist predecessor is posing a major military challenge to U.S. forces worldwide, according to U.S. service intelligence chiefs. Where China is boosting its military to realize its goal of global economic supremacy, Russia is focusing its force modernization to defeat the U.S. military in any setting, the flag officers said.
September 4, 2018
Across-the-board innovation is increasing the national security threat picture, and the U.S. Defense Department is preparing to respond in kind. Technology advances such as hypersonics and artificial intelligence may join macroprojects such as a new space force as peer and near-peer adversaries gear up to overcome U.S. military superiority.
September 4, 2018
Economics, crime, terrorism and technology form the basis of four major challenges confronting the U.S. intelligence community, according to its director. Dan Coats, director of national intelligence, described the causes of these challenges to a large luncheon audience on the first day of the 2018 Intelligence and National Security Summit sponsored by AFCEA International and INSA at National Harbor, Maryland.
September 1, 2018
The next sector to benefit from commercial space technology spinoffs could be the intelligence community. Facing a growing threat to its mission capabilities in orbit, the community is weighing several options to prevent adversaries from denying the use of vital systems, including national technical assets. At the same time, plans are in the works for the next generation of space-based intelligence assets.
Among the options is a greater reliance on commercial technologies to ensure space system survivability. The intelligence community is already working to exploit private-sector innovations, and future developments offer the potential to change the U.S. national security space architecture.
September 1, 2018
In the future, voice analysis of an intercepted phone call from an international terrorist to a crony could yield the caller’s age, gender, ethnicity, height, weight, health status, emotional state, educational level and socioeconomic class. Artificial intelligence-fueled voice forensics technology also may offer clues about location; room size; wall, ceiling and floor type; amount of clutter; kind of device, down to the specific model used to make the call; and possibly even facial characteristics of the caller.
August 22, 2018
A $3,000 bounty awaits the developer who can come up with the best app to suit an intelligence community need, but time is short—the deadline for entry is Thursday, August 23, at 11:59 p.m., EDT. Known as the EPIC APP Challenge, the contest is open to schools or companies wielding a team of no more than five members.
July 23, 2018
Researchers at North Carolina (NC) State University have developed a new computational model that draws on normally incompatible data sets, such as satellite imagery and social media posts, to answer questions about what is happening in targeted locations. The model identifies violations of nuclear nonproliferation agreements.
June 6, 2018
A new information technology system from the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) is set to improve how the federal government conducts background investigations.
More than 4.08 million individuals hold a federal security clearance, according to the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (DNI), National Counterintelligence and Security Center’s Annual Report on Security Clearance Determinations. And it can take federal agencies more than 500 days to process security clearance cases, including background investigations.
March 30, 2018
The generation that remembers “duck and cover” also recalls headlines that included the words Soviet Union and impending dangers. Today, a combination of global instability, rising authoritarianism and democracies in retreat may lead to similar yet more dangerous situations, and this time, the headlines also are likely to include the words “People's Republic of China.”
April 3, 2018
The intelligence community has gone from scarcity to surfeit in terms of information, and it must adopt a new paradigm or lose the advantages it has from improved collection, according to a retired intelligence official. The best approach for achieving this is to use open-source material as core information and then supplement it with classified material.
