U.S. government officials sometimes look back on Cold War days almost nostalgically when they consider the battle of the '90s: regional conflicts and the burgeoning information war.
From American consulates in Russia to military headquarters in Central America, the remembrance generally follows this analogy: During the Soviet era, we knew who and where the enemy was. The Soviet "dragon" may be gone, but the world is now infested with venomous snakes.Some are regional terrorists or political extremists, but many have left the Cold War and are now engaged in the battle over technology and information.
"The unclassified definition of information warfare is the actions taken to preserve the integrity of one's own information systems" while working to corrupt or destroy an adversary's information systems, thereby achieving an advantage in the application of force against the enemy, said Frank B. Horton III, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Command, Control, Communications and Intelligence.
The Air Force was the first to create an information warfare center. The Navy is following with the Army closely behind it, Horton said. At this point, details of the Defense Department's information warfare policies remain classified.
Horton is in Salt Lake City this week for the annual meeting of the National Classification Management Society, which is discussing the diverse new threats to national security and teaching government contractors how to ensure security among their ranks.
"We are in the throes of redefining almost everything for which we are responsible in the security business," Horton said. The shift includes moving to a "risk management" philosophy for keeping secrets. That includes streamlining what, how and how long the government guards secrets.
Cutting costs, developing identical policies for the nation's secret-keeping agencies, enabling them to better communicate with each other and meeting the challenges of the changing world are driving the development of new policies.
"We know there are ways to increase public disclosure, reduce costs and still protect national security," Horton said.
Defense contractors say they could cut production costs by one-third if their customers, such as the Army, Navy and Air Force, want work done secretly.
Ray Sernco, counterintelligence special agent for the Department of Energy, helped demonstrate the need for changes in the intelligence community by leading a workshop on counterespionage dressed in mirrored sunglasses and a black trench coat.
The world's spies wear the cloak of anonymity yet American agents carry the coat-and-glasses stereotype. "In the intelligence community, it's about time we get rid of this get-up, don't you think?"
America's national security has taken on a number of regional challenges now that the Soviet threat is gone. And even though the former Soviet Cold War enemy is gone, the espionage business is booming.
"Are we saying free democratic societies don't create espionage? Thank goodness nobody does it better than we do," Sernco said.