SECRECY NEWS
from the FAS Project on Government Secrecy
Volume 2015, Issue No. 21
March 23, 2015

Secrecy News Blog: http://fas.org/blogs/secrecy/

GROWING DATA COLLECTION INSPIRES OPENNESS AT NGA

A flood of information from the ongoing proliferation of space-based sensors and ground-based data collection devices is promoting a new era of transparency in at least one corner of the U.S. intelligence community.

The "explosion" of geospatial information "makes geospatial intelligence increasingly transparent because of the huge number and diversity of commercial and open sources of information," said Robert Cardillo, director of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA), in a speech last month.

Hundreds of small satellites are expected to be launched within the next three years -- what Mr. Cardillo called a "darkening of the skies" -- and they will provide continuous, commercially available coverage of the entire Earth's surface.

"The challenges of taking advantage of all of that data are daunting for all of us," Mr. Cardillo said.

Meanwhile, the emerging "Internet of Things" is "spreading rapidly as more people carry more handheld devices to more places" generating an abundance of geolocation data.

This is, of course, a matter of intelligence interest since "Every local, regional, and global challenge -- violent extremism in the Middle East and Africa, Russian aggression, the rise of China, Iranian and North Korean nuclear weapons, cyber security, energy resources, and many more -- has geolocation at its heart."

Consequently, "We must open up GEOINT far more toward the unclassified world," Director Cardillo said in another speech last week.

"In the past, we have excelled in our closed system. We enjoyed a monopoly on sources and methods. That monopoly has long since ended. Today and in the future, we must thrive and excel in the open."

So far, NGA has already distinguished itself in the area of disaster relief, Mr. Cardillo said.

"Consider Team NGA's response to the Ebola crisis. We are the first intelligence agency to create a World Wide Web site with access to our relevant unclassified content. It is open to everyone -- no passwords, no closed groups."

NGA provided "more than a terabyte of up-to-date commercial imagery."

"You can imagine how important it is for the Liberian government to have accurate maps of the areas hardest hit by the Ebola epidemic as well as the medical and transportation infrastructure to combat the disease," Mr. Cardillo said.

But there are caveats. Just because information is unclassified does not mean that it is freely available.

"Although 99 percent of all of our Ebola data is unclassified, most of that is restricted by our agreements [with commercial providers]," Mr. Cardillo said. "We are negotiating with many sources to release more data."

Last week, Director Cardillo announced a new project called GEOINT Pathfinder that will attempt "to answer key intelligence questions using only unclassified data."

When it comes to transparency, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence recently expressed the view that the U.S. intelligence community should make "information publicly available in a manner that enhances public understanding of intelligence activities, while continuing to protect information when disclosure would harm national security."

But some intelligence agencies have chosen a different path.

At the CIA, for example, public access to unclassified translations and analytical products of the Open Source Center was abruptly terminated at the end of 2013. Such materials from the OSC and its predecessor, the Foreign Broadcast Information Service, had provided invaluable support to generations of scholars, students, and foreign policy specialists. But that is no longer the case.

CYBERSECURITY INFO SHARING: A LEGAL MORASS, SAYS CRS

Several pending bills would promote increased sharing of cybersecurity-related information -- such as threat intelligence and system vulnerabilities -- in order to combat the perceived rise in the frequency and intensity of cyber attacks against private and government entities.

But such information sharing is easier said than done, according to a new report from the Congressional Research Service, because it involves a thicket of conflicting and perhaps incompatible laws and policy objectives.

"The legal issues surrounding cybersecurity information sharing... are complex and have few certain resolutions." A copy of the CRS report was obtained by Secrecy News. See Cybersecurity and Information Sharing: Legal Challenges and Solutions, March 16, 2015.

Cyber information sharing takes at least three different forms: the release of cyber intelligence from government to the private sector, information sharing among private entities, and the transfer of threat information from private entities to government agencies.

"While collectively these three variants on the concept of cyber-information sharing have some commonalities, each also raises separate legal challenges that may impede cyber-intelligence dissemination more generally," said the CRS report, which examines the legal ramifications of each category in turn.

Among the concerns at issue are: the potential for liability associate with disclosure of cybersecurity information, inappropriate release of private information through open government laws, loss of intellectual property, and potential compromise of personal privacy rights.

All of these create a legal morass that may be unreconcilable.

"A fundamental question lawmakers may need to contemplate is how restrictions that require close government scrutiny and control over shared cyber-information can be squared with other goals of cyber-information sharing legislation, like requirements that received information be disseminated in an almost instantaneous fashion," the CRS report said.

"Ultimately, because the goals of cyber-information legislation are often diametrically opposed, it may simply be impossible for information sharing legislation to simultaneously promote the rapid and robust collection and dissemination of cyber-intelligence by the federal government, while also ensuring that the government respects the property and privacy interests implicated by such information sharing," the report said.

Other new or newly updated CRS reports that Congress has withheld from public distribution include the following.

Cybersecurity: Authoritative Reports and Resources, by Topic, March 13, 2015:

EPA's Proposed Clean Power Plan: Conversion to Mass-Based Emission Targets, March 17, 2015:

Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR): A Primer for the 114th Congress, March 17, 2015:

Federal Research and Development Funding: FY2016, March 18, 2015:

The Federal Communications Commission: Current Structure and Its Role in the Changing Telecommunications Landscape, March 16, 2015:

Mandatory Spending Since 1962, March 18, 2015:

Jordan: Background and U.S. Relations, March 17, 2015:

Balancing Tourism against Terrorism: The Visa Waiver Program, CRS Insights, March 13, 2015:

U.S. Strategic Nuclear Forces: Background, Developments, and Issues, March 18, 2015:

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Secrecy News is written by Steven Aftergood and published by the Federation of American Scientists.

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