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While social networking services like Facebook and MySpace are known for allowing users to gather friends, post likes and dislikes, enjoy video clips, and share countless software applications, one can only guess what a new network for the U.S. intelligence community will provide.
New A-Space social network rolled out for U.S. spies. Image: FBI.
More pointedly, a social networking service developed specifically for prominent intelligence organisations such as the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the National Security Agency (NSA) is scheduled to launch on September 22.
Called “A-Space,” the service has passed through many months of testing and is now ready to be made available to analysts spread throughout the 16 separate intelligence agencies housed within the United States.
And, unlike business-based perceptions often linked with employee use of conventional networks in the workplace, intelligence staff will be actively encouraged to use the new service to improve their levels of knowledge and efficiency.
Given its targeted user base, scant little is currently known about A-Space, although media speculation suggests it could be used to pass information and opinion between agencies concerning potentially sensitive issues affecting the U.S., such as ongoing terrorist movements in the Middle East.
In order to prevent A-Space from becoming an information well for future double agents, its creators have outlined the inclusion of a special pattern-based behavioural tool that will constantly monitor exactly how intelligence personnel utilise the service when logged on and provide alerts in the event of suspicious conduct.
“It's a place where not only spies can meet but share data they've never been able to share before,” commented Michael Wertheimer, assistant deputy director and chief technology officer of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence for Analysis, while talking to CNN. “This is going to give them for the first time a chance to think out loud, think in public amongst their peers, under the protection of an A-Space umbrella.”
Wertheimer also explained that the introduction of A-Space will also help intelligence agencies quell emerging terrorist plots against the country before they are put into action. For example, an FBI agent sent an e-mail prior to Sept. 11, 2001, flagging an instance of individuals learning to fly planes without actually learning to land them. The existence of A-Space will prevent such preventative communications from being lost in the ether.
Naturally, the A-Space network will not be open to members of the public and only intelligence employees with the prerequisite level of security clearance will be granted official access.
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