Information security

DNI Clapper: Stop Combating ‘Vending Machines, Hearing Aids’

GEOINT: If you’re not an American citizen and you walk the halls of CIA headquarters and other U.S. intelligence agencies, lights flash alerting workers that a foreign national is walking by so that any secrets on their screens or desks can be protected from prying eyes.

The main reason for this is that much intelligence is classified NOFORN: No foreign national may see it. James Clapper, the long-serving Director of National Intelligence (DNI), today predicted the end of what many have long believed is an enormous barrier to more effective coalition warfare and combatting terrorism.

“When it comes to our Commonwealth nations, it’s my belief we are just going to give up on the whole NOFORN thing and extend dual citizenship and privileges, responsibilities to our Five Eyes partners, wherever we find ourselves in each other’s intelligence footprints,” Clapper told the audience of intelligence experts and industry officials. This would essentially take us back the standard set during World War II when the US and Britain shared virtually all intelligence with each other, including on nuclear matters.