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Open Source Spying
eldavojohn writes "The New York Times is running a very lengthy but amazingly interesting article on the short history of open source software and information on the inside of the intelligence community. The article discusses the transformation of the intelligence community from fighting the Cold War with traditional information exchange to fighting terrorism today utilizing things like wikis & blogs. From the end of the article, 'Today's spies exist in an age of constant information exchange, in which everyday citizens swap news, dial up satellite pictures of their houses and collaborate on distant Web sites with strangers. As John Arquilla told me, if the spies do not join the rest of the world, they risk growing to resemble the rigid, unchanging bureaucracy that they once confronted during the cold war. "Fifteen years ago we were fighting the Soviet Union," he said. "Who knew it would be replicated today in the intelligence community?"' You may recall that the CIA now has their own classified Wiki. I think it's interesting that the 9/11 Report recommended that United States agencies such as the DoD, CIA & FBI learn to share information more freely to overcome terrorism and now they're turning to internet community applications to accomplish that."
It makes you wonder whether or not people will take offense to their tools being used by such agencies and whether or not they'll develop licenses to ban them from using them. If they do, would they be enforceable (assuming the person somehow found out). And if it was enforceable, is there absolutely any way to find out legally? Whistle blower? If the government breaks license agreements and classifies that information, shouldn't that be illegal?
One thing tha was not really discussed in the Times article was whether the same type of "social software" is being used in other countries' spy agencies. And what about international groups like Interpol and NATO. How do they share information that is sensitive and/or secret in some way?
The Patriot Act was designed to address the lack of interagency communication, specifically with regards to intelligence. The FBI didn't know what the CIA didn't know what the NSA didn't know what the local police didn't know. Now that all the federal agencies are under the DHS banner, they can share information easily and openly.
All that other stuff was just a bonus!
Ironically, such people are called "Open Source Analysts" - as in the source is not classified/closed and is out in the open. Even a few years ago the CIA was still advertising such positions. They typically require a high level of language fluency and cultural literacy.
These agencies are nowhere near as competant as the conspiracy theorists think
Having been a full-time employee at the NSA, I can say that these agencies are nowhere near as competent as Hollywood often thinks, much less what the conspiracy theorists think.
Posting anonymously for obvious reasons...