CIA restructure will lead to digital directorate

Changes to the internal structure of the CIA will result in a specialist digital directorate being formed, which is expected to improve spying operations internationally.

The reorganisation will include a  Directorate of Digital Innovation with a mandate to utilise the latest in technology to advance the intelligence agency’s spying activities and enhance security, employees were told in a letter by John Brennan, the current director of the CIA.

Brennan recognised that digital technology could encourage “mission excellence”. However, he also noticed that security of the agency would be vulnerable.

He wrote in the letter:

“We must place our activities and operations in the digital domain at the very centre of all our mission endeavours. To that end, we will establish a senior leadership position to oversee the acceleration of digital and cyber-integration across all of our mission areas.”

The directorate will gather intelligence from various mobile devices, improve covert operations so that the organisation is able to carry on their duties abroad unrecognised, and make the CIA’s email more secure.

The agency’s Open Source Centre, which analyses social media websites, will be a part of the digital directorate.

The division will oversee the professional development of its experts, in addition to enhancing the standards of their digital tradecraft.

The CIA needs to concern itself with security more than any other organisation in the world. However, we live in an age where SMEs need to take more caution and do everything they can to maintain their own security. Unless they begin to pay more attention to their IT security recruitment policies, they may live to see some dire consequences unfold.