Tag:
Intelligence Community
Latest Headlines
Latest Headlines
Network penetrations a global threat to the United States, says Clapper
"It's hard to overemphasize its significance," Clapper said during an annual, publicly held hearing of the intelligence community's assessment of current and projected national security threats. Both state and non-state actors increasingly apply cyber techniques to achieve their objectives, through espionage and through offensive cyber actions, Clapper said.
Supreme Court rejects FISA Amendments Act challenge
In a 5-to-4 decision (.pdf) authored by Samuel Alito and joined by other conservative justices, the court majority overturned in Amnesty et al v. Clapper a Second District Court of Appeals opinion (.pdf) that plaintiffs have standing since they have "good reason to believe that their communications, in particular, will fall within the scope of the broad surveillance" permitted by the FISA Amendments Act.
INSA: intelligence community CIOs see need for information technology enterprise
Driven by budget pressures and mission requirements, including the need to more efficiently share information between agencies, there appears to be a "growing consensus" among the Intelligence Community's chief information officers that implementing an IC Information Technology Enterprise is the right thing to do, according to an Intelligence and National Security Alliance paper .
Warrantless wiretaps get 5-year extension
Federal intelligence agencies can now eavesdrop on communications inside the United States involving foreign citizens without the need of a specific warrant for each case until Dec. 31, 2017. On Dec. 30, 2012, President Obama signed the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act Amendments Act Reauthorization Act of 2012 into law, adding five more years to the U.S. surveillance and wiretapping authority under existing oversight from a special court.
DHS official attempted to block NCTC data mining effort
Justice Department-approved changes to National Counterterrorism Center guidance on data retention rolled out earlier this year were the subject of intense debate within the Obama administration, The Wall Street Journal reports. Administration opposition to the March NCTC guidelines revision was led by Mary Ellen Callahan, the then-DHS chief privacy officer.
Ozone Widget Framework to be on GitHub now by year's end
Military open source advocates say that code for a National Security Agency-led framework for lightweight application development should be posted on GitHub by the end of this calendar year. An original Sept. 30 goal to post the code for the Ozone Widget Framework got bogged down in clearance issues, said DOD's Dan Risacher. The framework still requires one last approval from NSA before it can go onto GitHub, he added.
Planning for alternative futures would speed crisis response, says Fuerth
The federal government must get ahead of world events by adopting anticipatory practices or it risks being overtaken by them, said Leon Fuerth, former national security advisor to Vice President Al Gore and is the founder and director of The Project on Forward Engagement. An anticipatory style of governing, said Fuerth, is adaptable to events that happen but also plans for multiple future possibilities. "It's not about point source statements about what is absolutely going to happen," but more about understanding how different options will impact global and domestic events.
Whistleblower protection legislation heads to White House
Just one step remains for a bill that provides strengthened whistleblower protections for more federal employees that expose fraud, waste or abuse in the government.The Senate approved the Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act ( S. 743 ) by unanimous consent Nov. 13 in a pro forma session; the bill now awaits the signature of President Obama.
Intelligence community should stress-test effects of climate change, National Academy says
The intelligence community should conduct periodic stress tests to gauge how well countries, regions and systems will respond to climate events, the National Academy of Sciences says in a new report. In the near term, only about a dozen countries would need to be monitored for potential climate events that could impact U.S. security, the report says.
In 1964, all eyes were on a nuclear China and India
The intelligence community viewed China's first nuclear test in 1964 as a potential catalyst for regional arming but was unsure of Israel's nuclear intent at the time, according to a recently declassified national intelligence estimate. The intelligence community at the time was most interested in China, India, Israel, and Sweden.
