The great need for qualified computer security personnel is now forcing the government to rethink rigid hiring guidelines. At the Defcon computer security convention in Las Vegas, more than a dozen federal agents told attendees that traditional requirements like college degrees and polygraph tests were no longer strictly required for government employment. They also said…

A top level security probe is under way after a 12-year-old boy walked on to a plane unchecked with no documents at the height of the terror scare. The boy boarded a plane at Gatwick on Monday despite airport security being on red-alert.   Want more data points that support the idea that – mechanical…

The director of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service said Tuesday that the spy agency avoids racial profiling because it is “fundamentally stupid” and does not knowingly use information gleaned under torture offshore because the practice is “morally repugnant.” James Judd told a gathering of Canadian judges on Tuesday that he is “acutely aware” of complaints…

In my embargoed contribution to a pending book on reform, I argue that going the networked/wiki-ed/blogged route is both a nice way to cut out a lot of the overhead associated with the intel process. As it works now it is very hierarchical, with gatekeepers at every turn and operating at a pace that makes tortoises look…

So controversial is the forthcoming National Intelligence Estimate on Iraq, say officials and observers, that even the terms of reference are likely to be the subject of intense, but highly secret, discussion and debate. Somewhere in a conference room in Northern Virginia, roughly two-dozen seniors and their backups are sitting around a table and bickering…

The plot has also revealed the indispensability of good counterterrorism intelligence. A defense against terrorists, as against other enemies of the nation, must be multilayered to have a reasonable chance of being effective. One of the outer defenses is intelligence, designed to detect plots in advance so that they can be thwarted. One of the…

The [UK] Government is discussing with airport operators plans to introduce a screening system that allows security staff to focus on those passengers who pose the greatest risk. The passenger-profiling technique involves selecting people who are behaving suspiciously, have an unusual travel pattern or, most controversially, have a certain ethnic or religious background. The system…

. . . execpt for the tactic. Incredible: The FBI said Monday it had no information to indicate that the three Texas men arrested in Michigan with about 1,000 cell phones in their van had any direct connection to known terrorist groups. Also, a prosecutor in a separate Ohio case said he can¹t prove a…

This is what passes for CT analysis at Time. Acceptance that this is less an AQ issue than it is a terrorism issue is a nice change of pace from the class that loves to poo-poo any disrupted plot that doesn’t reveal the perps had wallets full of AQ business cards. Note however the quick…

As a friend from one of the Commonwealth nations points out, “Nice job by the domestic intelligence service,” which is his subtle but well-meaning dig at both our FBI and larger intelligence apparatus. Domestic tip-off; foreign intelligence supplement; and allied intel cooperation all operationalized for the door-kickers inside of a year. Were this a US…