BlogPrivacy Professionals Should Share the Wealth Legislating Social Privacy When Privileged Access is no longer a Privilege |
RSS Feed
RSS Feed
When Privileged Access is no longer a PrivilegeJuly 19, 2010I just read an interesting multi-part investigative report in the Washington Post about how intelligence gathering – and the bureaucracy that has risen since September 11, 2001 to facilitate the harvest and analysis of that information – has spun beyond the federal government’s control, not to mention its ability to make use of the sheer abundance of information. The report, Top Secret America, is frightening to a certain degree. In a country that reveres personal liberty, domestic intelligence (and surveillance) accounts for a large portion of the growth described by the Post.
I won’t regale you with details from the report, which is worth reading in its entirety, but one fact jumped out at me that I want to share and think about.
According to the Post, there are currently more than 854,000 people – military and civilian – who hold a Top Secret security clearance.
Think about that figure for a moment. About one third of one percent of our nation’s population – more people than live in San Francisco – have access to America’s most closely guarded secrets. When that many people are granted access to sensitive information, how much confidence can you have that the integrity of the information is intact? That the methods by which the information is gathered are lawful and ethical? That the information is being used in accordance with its intended purpose?
Top Secret America reveals that the bureaucrats and politicians with management and oversight responsibility all but admit that they cannot fully control the full scope of our nation’s intelligence gathering and analysis operations. It’s too big, too complex, and too often redundant.
Ironically, before this story was published I was considering writing a blog post that held the U.S. intelligence services as a model for corporate information security programs. As a former U.S. Naval Intelligence Specialist, I cut my teeth on the military’s approach to information security, which was based on strict need-to-know access, personal responsibility, multiple layers of accountability, constant education and awareness, and clear and severe penalties for any failure to maintain security.
Now I’m not so sure.
Based on what I’ve read, I have my doubts that our national secrets are truly secret anymore. How can they be? We’ve cheapened the value of privileged access by granting it to so many people that a security clearance is no longer a privilege – it’s an administrative necessity.
Posted by Mike Spinney at 2:59 pmAdd Comment (1 comments) Comments |
A very interesting post indeed, but I think you may have moved your decimal point a little too far to the right; I think it would be about .3%, unless 30 million people live in America. However, the sheer number does indeed seem a bit high. ** Thanks for that catch and for not busting my chops too hard, Kevin! I'll correct my offense but keep your comment here as a reminder of my need to improve my math skills. Or perhaps obtain some in the first place. Mike **