The new Cyber Directorate will treat the hackers and their hacking process as a major new focus for both offense and defense. And truthfully, CIA’s fascination in hacking is not a new thing, long been integrated into the CIA’s human intelligence operations.
Brennan’s memo reads:
“Digital technology holds great promise for mission excellence, while posing serious threats to the security of our operations and information, as well as to U.S. interests more broadly,” Brennan’s memo reads. “We must place our activities and operations in the digital domain at the very center of all our mission endeavors. 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.”
Open motives of CIA’s new cyber-division
The new cyber-division has been named the Directorate of Digital Innovation, joining the current four Directorates — Support, Science and Technology, Operations ( previously called “National Clandestine Service”), and Analysis (previously called “Directorate of Intelligence). Also, Agency Director John Brennan has established 10 new mission centers, that will gather CIA officers from various Directorates to concentrate on specific targets, subjects or regions.
According to @CraigMWhitlock, who tweeted, “Brennan says that the CIA reorganizes itself so it can spy on “the entire universe.”
Ten new mission centers
The ten mission centers will be organized in two ways: (1) by regions and by (2)the type of threat. The CIA already operates two information-sharing centers that are devoted entirely to counter-intelligence and counter-terrorism.
“I know there are seams right now, but what we’ve tried to do with these mission centers is cover the entire universe, regionally and functionally, and so something that’s going on in the world falls into one of those buckets,” Brennan told reporters.
The CIA Director justifies the need for establishing a new digital directorate to counter foreign hackers throughout the world, those who are attempting to penetrate the US computer systems. The new mission would help American spies steal digital secrets on a universal basis, saving the CIA and government agencies a lot of “time, resources and energy.”
Sweeping changes will occur throughout the CIA departments, accelerating their development of cyber-espionage activities. In fact, it will be making one of the largest overhauls in its 70-year history, aimed in part at sharpening its focus on cyber operations and incorporating digital innovations.
