US President George W. Bush has approved a new strategy to combat foreign spies or extremists attempting to steal US secrets and influence US policy, officials said on Monday.
The new counter-intelligence strategy also aims to "ensure a level economic playing field" by protecting US trade secrets and technology from foreign spies, according to a summary which was made public on Monday.
"This strategy is the first of its kind and will require substantial changes in the conduct of US counterintelligence," said Michelle Van Cleave, the national counterintelligence executive in charge of the new effort.
"These changes include a renewed intelligence focus on hostile services and intelligence capabilities, including those of terrorist groups, and proactive efforts to defeat them," she said in a statement.
Counterintelligence operations that traditionally have been scattered across a variety of agencies would be brought under the direction of Van Cleave, who reports to the new national intelligence director, John Negroponte, the former US ambassador to Iraq.
"US counterintelligence will shift from a reactive posture to a proactive strategy of seizing advantage," the summary said.
Rather than pursue spy cases piecemeal, US counter-intelligence would be conducted as a concerted government-wide effort driven by assessments of an adversary's presence, capabilities and intentions, the summary said.
"This requires looking beyond customary targets, such as known intelligence officers, to a larger population of foreign visitors and others whose activities suggest they might be involved in intelligence collection activities against the United States," it said.
The new strategy also calls for greater efforts to protect US technology, including closer cooperation with the US private sector.
It said more than 90 countries target sensitive US technologies, using visiting businessmen, scientists, students and trade shows to gather information.
In addition, the summary noted the danger posed by intrusion and manipulation of US cyber systems by foreign intelligence.
Counterintelligence should become "an inherent part of the mission at research laboratories, defense establishments and with partners in industry," it said.
"We will reach out to the private sector, especially those in the science and technology community, to increase intelligence threat awareness by providing threat information, and educating these audiences to the variety of ways our adversaries acquire and steal information," it said.
US counterintelligence "will seek to identify foreign intelligence operations conducted against US business and industry and we will provide the appropriate threat information to enable them to take such risk mitigation measures as they deem prudent," it said.
PHISHING: The con might appear convincing, as the scam e-mails can coincide with genuine messages from Apple saying you have run out of storage For a while you have been getting messages from Apple saying “your iCloud storage is full.” They say you have exceeded your storage plan, so documents are no longer being backed up, and photos you take are not being uploaded. You have been resisting Apple’s efforts to get you to pay a minimum of ￡0.99 (US$1.33) a month for more storage, but it seems that you cannot keep putting off the inevitable: You have received an e-mail which says your iCloud account has been blocked, and your photos and videos would be deleted very soon. To keep them you need
The Israeli military has demolished entire villages as part of its invasion of south Lebanon, rigging homes with explosives and razing them to the ground in massive remote detonations. The Guardian reviewed three videos posted by the Israeli military and on social media, which showed Israel carrying out mass detonations in the villages of Taybeh, Naqoura and Deir Seryan along the Israel-Lebanon border. Lebanese media has reported more mass detonations in other border villages, but satellite imagery was not readily available to verify these claims. The demolitions came after Israeli Minister of Defense Israel Katz called for the destruction of
A US YouTuber who caused outrage for filming himself kissing a statue commemorating Korean wartime sex slaves has been sentenced to six months in prison, a court in Seoul said yesterday. Johnny Somali, 25, gained notoriety several years ago for recording himself doing a series of provocative stunts in South Korea and Japan, and streaming them on platforms such as YouTube and Twitch. South Korean authorities indicted Somali — whose real name is Ramsey Khalid Ismael — in 2024 on public order violations and obstruction of business, and banned him from leaving the country. “The court has sentenced him to six months in
The death toll from a shooting in western Afghanistan rose to 11 on Saturday, after gunmen targeted civilians at a picnic spot in Herat, the provincial authority said. Bullet marks were visible on a wall of the Sayed Mohammad Agha Shia shrine, while bloodstains marked a blanket abandoned at the scene. “Eleven people have been recorded dead and eight others wounded from Friday’s incident, with the condition of two of the wounded reported as critical,” Herat’s information office said in a statement. The update raises a toll of seven killed provided on Friday by the Afghan Ministry of Interior Affairs
RSS