The New Counterintelligence Response to the Cyberthreat

摘要

U.S. Counterintelligence (CI) elements must refocus to defend against the rapidly expanding cyber-intelligence collection threat. The cyber-revolution in military affairs has already started, before even a consensus on its definition has been reached. Earlier policies of risk-avoidance and placing too much emphasis on personal privacy at the expense of national security have degraded intelligence potency and hampered traditional Cl efforts. After 11 September 2001, however, U.S. citizens now seem more willing to concede that privacy matters less than an aggressive and effective intelligence collection capability (including CI activities) to combat the new face of terrorism. If the cultural and legal trend of returning to a national security focus continues, aggressive human intelligence (HUMINT) collection that goes after real secrets, and CI operations that genuinely exploit foreign intel-ligence and security services (FISS) may return.