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Friday 13 January 2023

U.S. spies lag rivals in seizing on data hiding in plain sight

Continued from Front Three people familiar with
Open Source Enterprise say
That echoes what many the center had cut its bud-
current and former intelli- get for multiple years run-
gence officials are increas- ning prior to last year. They
ingly warning: The $90 billion argue that’s a sign that
U.S. spy apparatus is fall- open-source work has not
ing behind because it has always been prioritized at a
not embraced collecting consistent level.
open-source intelligence The CIA recently appoint-
as adversaries including ed new leadership for the
China ramp up their efforts. Open Source Enterprise
This doesn’t diminish the and in 2021 created a “mis-
importance of traditional sion center” dedicated to
intelligence. Spy agen- technology.
cies have unique powers “We recognize the impor-
to penetrate global com- tance of open source is
munications and cultivate only growing as the sheer
agents. They scored a high- volume of data openly
profile success when the available increases,” the
Biden administration pub- agency said in a state-
licized ultimately correct ment. “CIA is working not
intelligence findings that just to keep pace with this
Russian President Vladimir George Barros, left, a Geospatial Analyst on the Russia Team, Kateryna Stepanenko, a Russia trend, but to get ahead of
Putin intended to invade Analyst, and Karolina Hird, a Russia Analyst, pose for a photograph at the Institute for the Study of it — and ahead of our ad-
Ukraine. War, Wednesday, Jan. 11, 2023, in Washington. versaries who also utilize
But officials and experts Associated Press open-source information.”
worry that the U.S. hasn’t concerns about civil lib- published by the Institute information and work that There’s no consensus on
invested enough people erties and protecting First for the Study of War — are could be taken advantage whether the U.S. should
or money in analyzing Amendment rights. widely read by lawmakers of.” create a new open-source
publicly available data or But some experts also ques- and intelligence officials. The Open Source Enterprise agency or center. Support-
taking advantage of ad- tion whether agencies are “There is a lot of open- headquartered at the CIA ers say a new organization
vanced technologies that held back by a reflexive source capability that the is the successor to the For- could focus on adopting
can yield critical insights. belief that top-secret infor- U.S. intelligence commu- eign Broadcast Information advanced technologies
Commercial satellite imag- mation is more valuable. nity can pretty much rely Service, where for genera- and creating more useful
ery, social media and other Rep. Jim Himes, a Con- on to be there,” said Fred- tions employees monitored products, while opponents
online data have given necticut Democrat and erick Kagan, a senior fellow broadcasts to translate question whether it would
private companies and in- longtime Intelligence Com- at the American Enterprise them for analysts. be unnecessary bloat and
dependent analysts new mittee member, said he Institute who oversees the Much of that work was take away resources from
powers to reveal official se- believed there needed to creation of those reports. transformed in the last de- other agencies.
crets. And China is known be “some cultural change “What it needs to do is fig- cade. Where people once Carmen Medina, a retired
to have stolen or acquired inside places like the CIA ure out how to leverage had to travel long distanc- CIA deputy director of in-
control over huge amounts where people are doing that ecosystem instead of es to pick up tapes of radio telligence, now studies how
of data on Americans, with what they’re doing for the trying to buy it.” broadcasts in remote plac- spy agencies can incorpo-
growing concerns in Wash- excitement of stealing criti- Most of the 18 U.S. spy agen- es or areas where Ameri- rate outside ideas and en-
ington about Beijing’s in- cal secrets as opposed to cies have open-source cans weren’t welcome, courage employees to be
fluence over widely used reviewing social media programs, from the CIA’s sensors now transmit more more creative and intuitive.
apps like TikTok. pages.” Open Source Enterprise to signals automatically. And She suggests a pilot pro-
“Open source is really a In one 2017 test held by the a 10-person program in the machine translation has gram in which a cell of
bellwether for whether the National Geospatial-Intel- Department of Homeland largely taken the place of open-source analysts
intelligence community ligence Agency, a human Security’s intelligence arm. people who had to listen would compete for a num-
can protect the country,” team competed against But top officials acknowl- to the tapes and transcribe ber of years against the
said Kristin Wood, a former a computer programmed edge there isn’t consisten- them. regular output of people
senior official at the CIA with algorithms to identify cy across those programs But officials acknowledge with top-secret clearances.
who is now chief executive Chinese surface-to-air mis- in how they analyze open- they have to do more. Medina and others who
at the Grist Mill Exchange, sile sites using commercial source information or how Haines has begun multiple have worked in top posi-
a commercial data plat- imagery. they use and share it. open-source reviews since tions and briefed White
form. “We collectively as Both the humans and the “We’re not paying enough becoming director of na- House officials think that on
a nation aren’t preparing computer identified 90% of attention to each other tional intelligence and is most days, an open-source
a defense for the ammu- the sites, Stanford University and so we’re not learning expected to finalize recom- group would be competi-
nition that our adversaries professor Amy Zegart wrote the lessons that different mendations this year. Some tive and might even pro-
are stockpiling.” in the book “Spies, Lies, and parts of the (intelligence people involved in those re- duce better analysis using
Intelligence agencies face Algorithms,” but the com- community) are learning, views have suggested that information that’s broadly
several obstacles to using puter needed just 42 min- and we’re not scaling so- the Open Source Enterprise available.
open source intelligence. utes — and it took the hu- lutions,” said Avril Haines, no longer be designated as “You can’t make sense
Some are technological. man team 80 times longer. the U.S. director of national leading OSINT efforts across of the world today by just
Officers working on clas- Reports created using intelligence, at an industry the spy agencies, said peo- packaging tidbits,” she
sified networks are often commercial satellites, on- event last year sponsored ple familiar with the reviews said. “I’ve come to be-
not able to easily access line posts and other open by the Potomac Officers who spoke on condition of lieve that almost all of the
the unclassified internet sources — like the daily Club. “And we’re not tak- anonymity to discuss inter- time, the open source
or open data sources, for analyses on Russian and ing advantage of some of nal government delibera- way of thinking about it is
example. There are also Ukrainian military tactics the outside expertise and tions. correct.”q