Intelligence officials prepare for new data-sharing policies

DENVER — Intelligence officials say that if they can safeguard information about how spies and information systems collect data, they can share that data with almost anyone in intelligence and Defense Department agencies or in the three military services.

With that prediction, the CIA's chief information officer said officials in the intelligence community have begun Phase 2 of a multiyear program to improve data sharing and communication among analysts and warfighters at all security levels.

Alan Wade, CIO for the CIA, said intelligence officials will rely on a new information technology architecture and tagging, collaboration and acquisition initiatives to take the Intelligence Community System for Information Sharing (ICSIS) to the next level.

Wade spoke recently at the Government Symposium on Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance Transformation.

Phase 2 of ICSIS gained momentum in June, when former CIA Director George Tenet issued a management directive that emphasized data sharing among intelligence analysts and other intelligence employees. Officials in the community began developing an enterprise architecture plan for data sharing, IT services and information assurance, Wade said.

Intelligence community officials also started a program that allows officials to communicate via instant messaging. "Chat has become an enormously powerful application," Wade said.

The importance of sharing intelligence information has been at the forefront of discussions on Capitol Hill. Members of the 9-11 Commission cited data overclassification as an impediment to information sharing in their report, released in July.

And in congressional testimony, public policy experts have called for better intelligence sharing. "National security classification policy today is erratic, undisciplined and prone to abuse," said Steven Aftergood, senior research intelligence analyst at the Federation of American Scientists in Washington, D.C.