Intelligence
GSN's reporting on intelligence matters includes espionage techniques used by the CIA and its overseas adversaries, identity theft in the U.S., GPS and mapping technologies promoted by the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency and other government organizations and privacy issues surrounding innovative forms of surveillance.
DHS and the $200 million cyber security mystery
May 12th, 2008
A secretive agency designed to protect the nation from hackers and cyber terrorists is drawing the ire of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.
The National Cyber Security Center was created in February as part of the, Comprehensive National Cybersecurity Initiative (CNCI), a multi-agency, multi-year plan engendered by HSPD-23 that lays out 12 steps toward securing the federal government’s cyber networks.
Watching for snoops among the hardhats
May 2nd, 2008
The Defense Intelligence Agency plans to hire a security services firm that can watch the construction crews working at a construction site in Charlottesville, VA, to prevent the implantation of clandestine surveillance devices into the structure being built.
DHS has no formal process to add names to terrorist watchlist
May 1st, 2008
DHS is a major user of the federal government’s terrorist watchlist, but the department actually nominates fewer than one percent of the alleged terrorists who wind up on that list.
U.S.-China Commission to study China’s cyber warfare capabilities
April 29th, 2008
The U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission has scheduled a hearing on Capitol Hill on May 20 to address "China’s Proliferation Practices and the Development of its Cyber and Space Warfare Capabilities."
Border fence "Project 28" scrapped; DHS vows new effort
April 23rd, 2008
The Department of Homeland Security has decided to scrap the virtual border fence it has been developing in Arizona, known as Project 28.
The cancellation came less than two months after DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff had announced his approval of the project, being built by Boeing Co.
DHS intelligence chief assesses risk of nuke attack
April 21st, 2008
The DHS official in charge of intelligence and analysis believes that no terrorist group possesses a device at the moment that would enable it to launch a nuclear attack on the U.S.
"I do not believe that any terrorist organization currently has developed a nuclear device," Charles Allen, the department’s under secretary for intelligence and analysis, told the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs earlier this month.
InfraGard eyes cyber crime and the forensic debate
April 21st, 2008
Last week, a group of high-powered corporate lawyers, security geeks and FBI agents met to ponder how to secure sensitive corporate data. It was part of an on-going series of conferences mounted by InfraGard, the national collaboration between the FBI and the private sector. Presentations examined protection of intellectual property, the use of forensics in determining and controlling network intrusions and data theft, and an overview of emerging issues in e-discovery.
Uncle Sam must provide ongoing support to state and local fusion centers, says GAO
April 18th, 2008
When it studied the recent nationwide trend to establish state and municipal "fusion centers" to share counterterrorism and law enforcement information between federal, state and local intelligence officials, the Government Accountability Office found good and bad news.
