Internal, External Challenges Vex Intelligence Community
AFCEA/INSA Intelligence and National Security Summit 2014
The SIGNAL Magazine Online Show Daily
Day 1
Quote of the Day:
“We are expected to keep the nation safe by collecting intelligence in such a manner as there is no risk and no embarrassment to anyone if that is revealed, no threat to anyone’s bottom line. We call that ‘immaculate collection.’”—James R. Clapper, director of national intelligence
The United States is imposing limits on intelligence activities and funding just as global security threats are increasing. Debates continue on transparency, while leaks imperil relationships with allies and embolden enemies who are exploiting newly created holes in intelligence collection.
Addressing these and other challenges was the focal point of the AFCEA/INSA Intelligence and National Security Summit 2014, being held September 18-19 in Washington, D.C. Setting the tone for this discussion was its leadoff speaker, James R. Clapper, director of national intelligence (DNI). Clapper called out those who want the intelligence community to be squeaky clean about its collection methods.
“We are expected to keep the nation safe by collecting intelligence in such a manner as there is no risk and no embarrassment to anyone if that is revealed, no threat to anyone’s bottom line,” he said. “We call that ‘immaculate collection.’”
Several leaders of the intelligence community stated that the insider leaks have done serious harm to it. Adm. Michael Rogers, USN, commander, U.S. Cyber Command and director, National Security Agency, said that people are “sadly mistaken” if they think these revelations have had no impact.
“There should be no doubt in anyone’s mind that we have lost capability because of these revelations,” he declared. “I am watching groups change their behavior as a result of these revelations.” He added that these groups have harming the United States as their intent.
These leaders, who comprised three agency directors and one acting director, pointed out that these activities had been vetted by oversight organizations, so public criticism of both sectors has been strong. “How do you enjoy a relationship built on trust if those mechanisms that give us approval do not enjoy the same trust?” Adm. Rogers asked. He called for a broader dialogue about what the intelligence community does and why it does it, and why the citizen should not be worried about it.
Clapper did not shy away from the debate raging over the community’s activities. He emphasized that ethics is a strong element in the intelligence community, offering that the community “spends more time focused on understanding the laws that govern our work than any other sector. We’ve made mistakes, but not deliberately.”
Clapper also rolled out the 2014 National Intelligence Strategy of the United States of America. This strategy is noteworthy in that Clapper signed off on one version only—unclassified. The new strategy outlines four major components: strategic environment, mission objective, enterprise objective and implementing the strategy. It is available on the DNI website at www.dni.gov/files/documents/2014_NIS_Publication.pdf. Putting the strategy out to the public, without publishing a classified version, emphasizes the transparency approach his office is taking, he said.
Transparency was the focus of a later afternoon plenary session that evolved into a vigorous discussion of the role of technology in spurring leaks that are challenging the community. Panel moderator Bill Nolte, research director, Center for Intelligence Research and Education, University of Maryland School of Public Policy, said, “We do have a problem in managing the technology. In the old days, you only had a few news outlets. Now, a private Manning hits the send button, and millions of people get information.”
Veteran journalist Marvin Kalb, Edward R. Murrow professor of practice, emeritus, Harvard Kennedy School, said the leaks may be springing because the government is classifying too much material.
“What happens when the president of the United States gives a New York Times reporter background information that he knows will be printed the next day?” Kalb asked. “Is the president breaking the law? Leaking info sounds awful, but it is common, ordinary, routine, it happens all the time from the president down to a deputy assistant secretary of state. You are vastly overclassifying information,” he said to government officials on the panel.
I. Charles McCullough III, intelligence community inspector general, Office of the Director of National Intelligence, immediately denied that there was any overclassification of information. Nolte offered that the problem may be that information is classified for way too long—far beyond any need.
Yet Kalb did express discomfort with the current state of journalism. “We are being sound-bited to death, and we seem to be enjoying the process,” he stated.
Kalb continued that this rush of information to the general public has led to a decline in the fidelity of news, and the public bears some responsibility for that. “Do people ask if the information has any validity?” he queried. “People have a responsibility to ask this.”
The limits of technology are nowhere in sight, and the next milestone in capabilities will be the Internet of Things, in which everyday electronic devices and appliances are networked. That raises a host of security questions, some of which a panel explored.
Robert Gourley, partner, Cognitio Corporation, stated unambiguously that network managers have not been able to protect existing network nodes, and they do not seem to be protecting mobile computing devices. So, he asked, how will they protect all these devices now hooked into the Internet?
The result will be an environment that will be exploited by cybermarauders. “There are going to be really bad, bad people who will be using this Internet of things with us,” he said. “They’re going to out-innovate all of us—all of you,” Gourley told the audience.
Innovative adversaries call for innovative approaches to cyberdefense. Gourley called for creation of a corps of offbeat thinkers to defeat these cybermarauders. “Intelligence S&T should not stand for scientific and technical,” he said. “It should stand for sick and twisted. We need folks thinking about how to crack this stuff so we can penetrate adversaries and bring back data without worrying about privacy and security.”
Coming up on the second day of the Intelligence and National Security Summit 2014: Opening addresses by Congressman Mike Rogers, chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, and Congressman Dutch Ruppersberger, ranking member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence; along with eight panel discussions followed by a closing speech by James Comey, director of the FBI.
