Intelligence

It happened again. A number of countries have been hit by what has been called the most sophisticated piece of malware seen to date.

The malware is called Flame – appropriate given the number of computers that have been burned by this latest cyber weapon. Keep reading →

The FBI’s cyber chief issued a warning last week that the agency is beginning to see increased targeting of mobile devices, including smart phones and tablet computers, by sophisticated cyber criminal organizations.

Speaking at the annual GovSec Conference in Washington, D.C., April 3, Gordon M. Snow, the FBI’s Assistant Director in charge of its Cyber Division, said the new mobile attack trend is likely to increase in the near future as the number of smart phones and tablets skyrocket. Keep reading →

When we hear that getting incentives right and letting the private sector lead or sharing more information will secure the nation, remember that we’ve spent 15 years proving this doesn’t work.

Some people say the threat is exaggerated. This is unfortunate. We are on course to repeat in cybersecurity the 9/11 error of ignoring risk. Keep reading →

The Government Printing Office has just recently released its latest edition of the CIA’s World Factbook–which marks its 50th anniversary in 2012 for the classified version and more than 40 years of publishing the public version.

The 810-page public edition of the CIA’s World Factbook provides not only a timely and valuable source of global information, it also allows us a glimpse into the times and events that necessitated its production. Keep reading →


Becoming a whistleblower is often a risky and difficult path for federal employees, and so is finding the truth and protecting those who have exposed wrongdoing from being fired, punished or harassed.

Dan Meyer, director of civilian reprisal investigations with the Office of the Inspector General at the Department of Defense (DOD), took the job of protecting whistleblowers to new and often perilous territory — the Pentagon’s intelligence and counterintelligence communities and the murky world of top secret or “black” programs. Keep reading →

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta has reiterated the military’s going-forward strategy on many occasions, saying about our military’s direction: “It must be complemented by the full range of America’s national security capabilities – strong intelligence, strong diplomacy, a strong economy, strong technology, developments in cyber capabilities.” These five areas comprise the new defense strategy.

Last week the web was all abuzz with coverage of President Obama’s press conference at the Pentagon along with Defense Secretary Panetta and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Gen. Martin Dempsey as they unveiled the administration’s new military strategy. It is clear the U.S. military will undergo dramatic changes due to budget cuts. Keep reading →

Former National Security Agency and CIA director Michael Hayden, in an open question to the nation, wonders: “The government warns Americans about health, pollution, weather and other threats. Why not cyber threats?”

In an opinion column published by Federal Computer Week Dec. 9, Hayden, and co-authors Samuel Visner and David Zolet, executives at CSC, suggest: “Washington should begin sharing cyber warnings with those responsible for America’s critical infrastructure, from hospitals to water systems to banks.” Keep reading →

After a decade of enormous budget increases the American intelligence community’s budget will probably decline by billions of dollars, Director of National Intelligence Jim Clapper said here.

Clapper told more than 3,000 people at the annual Geoint conference that the intelligence community’s budget had been handed in to the White House’s Office of Management and Budget. “We are all going to have to give at the office,” Clapper said. The bulk of the cuts will come from accounts labeled information technology, he said. Keep reading →

The Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) data mining systems need additional oversight, review and evaluation to protect privacy rights, ensure transparency to the public and enable effective counterterrorism efforts, stated the General Accountability Office (GAO) in a report released last week.

Of six component agency data mining systems evaluated, “none performed all of the key activities associated with an effective evaluation framework…Only one program office performed most of the activities related to obtaining executive review and approval,” said the report. “Until such reforms are in place, DHS and its component agencies may not be able to ensure that critical data mining systems used in support of counterterrorism are both effective and that they protect personal privacy.” Keep reading →

The White House has issued an executive order today aimed at improving the security of classified networks and preventing the release of documents to organizations such as WikiLeaks that have compromised classified and delicate intelligence information.

The so-called WikiLeaks Order issued by President Obama on Friday emphasizes the need for structural reforms by making agencies primarily responsible for the information they obtain and share. Keep reading →

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