Blog Assignment 2

According to the article the CIA, the FBI, and the National Security Agency are going to take part in a new social networking site similar to Facebook or MySpace. The intent is to make communication about national security quicker and more proficient. The article used this example to explain the benefit, “Missing crucial data can have enormous implications, such as an FBI agent who sent an e-mail before September 11, 2001, warning of people learning to fly airplanes but not learning to land them.”

A lot of research has been done about signs leading up the September 11th attacks. One of several examples found in the April 18th, 2004 edition of the New York Times follows: “…In late August 2001, George J. Tenet, the director of central intelligence, learned that the F.B.I. had arrested Zacarias Moussaoui after he had enrolled in a flight school. Mr. Tenet was given a memorandum titled “Islamic Extremist Learns to Fly.” But he testified that he took no action and did not tell President Bush about the case.” With any luck the new program, A-Space, will be able to keep the lines of communication between different sections of the government flowing freely and help to prevent future acts of terrorism.

It makes sense that the agencies would want to adopt this new communication program. I use Facebook practically every day and it does a great job of keeping me updated on everything my friends are doing. I’m sure A-Space, is going to be of even better use to the Government.

One thing I do not understand is why this article exists. If this program is going to be used by spy agencies then why is the world even being told about it? Any terrorist has the capability to go to CNN.com and read this article. I think the sanctity of our national security relies in these agencies not publicizing how they do things. The article also does not mention who is developing A-Space. Is it the Government? Or a third party? Whoever develops this software is obviously going to know all of its ins and outs and be able to use it better than anyone else. If the software is being developed by someone other than one of these agencies then the things posted on it are not likely to be safe because there is the potential for it to be seen by the developer. From there it could even be leaked to the outside world. At least nothing about the program pops up when “A-Space spy agencies” is typed into a search engine, but I still do not think that information about what these agencies are doing should be public knowledge; there are a lot of bad people in the world.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/ptech/09/05/facebook.spies/index.html