US intelligence agencies plan to launch a communications tool for spies called “A-Space” modelled on popular social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace.

A-Space will be designed to improve the way security agencies and their intelligence agents communicate, use and swap information to better combat terrorism, the Financial Times reports

According to Mike Wertheimer, of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (DNI), A-Space will be equipped with web-based email, a collaborative document creation facility, software that recommends areas of interest to the user, and access to a national intelligence library.

The Office of the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) oversees the intelligence community in the US.

A-Space will be open to the entire intelligence community in December. Initially, its membership is optional for agents, amid some concerns it could lead to sensitive information being leaked.

While some operatives were reserved about sharing information, Wertheimer pointed out that the 9/11 attacks had showed that not pooling data could also cost lives.

“We are willing to experiment in ways that we have never experimented before,” he said.

It appears also that the US would like some foreign intelligence agencies to log on to A-Space.

Since, by its nature,  A-Spave will contain valuable security and intelligence information, it will no doubt turn out to be a  favorite target for hackers.

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Entry was posted on Thursday, August 23rd, 2007 at 12:20 am under Uncategorized.  Print This Post

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