Summary of Amy B. Zegart's Spies, Lies, And Algorithms

Everest Media

Description

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book.
Sample Book Insights:
#1 The CIA has recently started tweeting, and the world is seeing how this agency, known for its secrecy, has a sense of humor. AI is changing both commerce and defense in ways that could destabilize social orders and alter the global distribution of power.
#2 The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the development of many new technologies, some of which are good, but others that could be used for destructive purposes. America is now simultaneously powerful and vulnerable to a wide array of dangers, all moving at the speed of networks.
#3 The second challenge of the digital age is data. Intelligence is a sense-making enterprise. Agencies like the CIA gather and analyze information to help policymakers understand the present and anticipate the future. But data is democratizing, and American spy agencies are struggling to keep up.
#4 The intelligence playing field is leveling, and not in a good way. Intelligence collectors are everywhere, and government spy agencies are drowning in data. This is a radical new world, and intelligence agencies are struggling to adapt to it.

Sujets

• Sciences formelles
• Informatique théorique
• Algorithmes
• Computer programming
• Algorithms

Informations

• Publié par: Everest Media LLC
• Date de parution: 19 mars 2022
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781669354208
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

Insights on Amy B. Zegart's Spies Lies and Algorithms
Contents Insights from Chapter 1 Insights from Chapter 2 Insights from Chapter 3 Insights from Chapter 4 Insights from Chapter 5 Insights from Chapter 6 Insights from Chapter 7 Insights from Chapter 8 Insights from Chapter 9 Insights from Chapter 10
Insights from Chapter 1

#1

The CIA has recently started tweeting, and the world is seeing how this agency, known for its secrecy, has a sense of humor. AI is changing both commerce and defense in ways that could destabilize social orders and alter the global distribution of power.

#2

The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the development of many new technologies, some of which are good, but others that could be used for destructive purposes. America is now simultaneously powerful and vulnerable to a wide array of dangers, all moving at the speed of networks.

#3

The second challenge of the digital age is data. Intelligence is a sense-making enterprise. Agencies like the CIA gather and analyze information to help policymakers understand the present and anticipate the future. But data is democratizing, and American spy agencies are struggling to keep up.

#4

The intelligence playing field is leveling, and not in a good way. Intelligence collectors are everywhere, and government spy agencies are drowning in data. This is a radical new world, and intelligence agencies are struggling to adapt to it.

#5

The third challenge posed by emerging technologies is secrecy. Until now, American spy agencies didn’t have to interact with outsiders, and they didn’t want to. But secrecy is becoming more dangerous in the digital age, because it blurs the boundaries between geopolitics and economics.

#6

The new world of intelligence is one in which agencies must find new ways to work with private sector companies to combat online threats and harness commercial technological advances.

#7

Intelligence agencies are still working to rebuild trust, as the first neither confirm nor deny tweet from the CIA went viral. While open-source information has always been important, secrets have reigned supreme inside America’s intelligence agencies.

#8

The American intelligence community is confident that the Russian government directed the recent compromises of e-mails from US persons and institutions, including from political organizations. The recent disclosures of alleged hacked e-mails on sites like DCLeaks. com and WikiLeaks and by the Guccifer 2. 0 online persona are consistent with the methods and motivations of Russian-directed efforts.

#9

Being an outsider has both advantages and disadvantages. On the one hand, I cannot examine what the classified record actually says about pivotal intelligence events. On the other hand, an outsider’s perspective can bring healthy skepticism and independence.

#10

America’s Intelligence Community is constantly being challenged by the digital age, from catching traitors to understanding nuclear threats. It’s essential that they adapt to this technological era.
Insights from Chapter 2

#1

In the past two decades, spy-themed entertainment has skyrocketed, while real-life intelligence has remained scarce. This has led to a situation where spy entertainment is standing in for adult education on the subject.

#2

Americans, even those who follow news closely, know little about intelligence agencies and how they work. There is a connection between students’ attitudes towards intelligence and their willingness to watch spy-themed television shows.

#3

Americans’ knowledge of intelligence is generally poor. I found this out by asking them some basic questions and including some questions about the mission of the National Security Agency during the Edward Snowden revelations.

#4

Only about 20 percent of intelligence in a typical intelligence report comes from classified information, or secrets. The rest is gleaned and synthesized from open sources, or publicly available information like foreign government reports and newspaper articles.

#5

The NSA, which employs about forty thousand people, is one of America’s most important organizations. It intercepts and analyzes foreign signals intelligence, including email, telephone calls, and encrypted data transmissions. However, most Americans don’t know that the NSA is responsible for making and breaking codes.

#6

The more people who watch spy-themed television shows and movies, the more they like the NSA and its surveillance programs.

#7

The relationship between spytainment and beliefs could be causal. We know that entertainment has influenced popular culture and attitudes on many other subjects, and it’s not a stretch to imagine the same thing happening in intelligence.

#8

The amount of spy-themed entertainment available today is overwhelming. fictional spies are everywhere, from television shows to video games. real spies have always had a complicated relationship with fictional ones, as intelligence agencies have been trying to get favorable portrayals in Hollywood for decades.

#9

The FBI, CIA, and Defense Department all have public affairs officers or entertainment industry liaisons who work with Hollywood writers, directors, and producers to try to favorably portray their organizations.

#10

The movie generated so much controversy about what was real and what wasn’t that CIA Acting Director Michael Morell had to issue a memo to the CIA workforce clarifying the facts. In it, he stated that the film took significant artistic license, while portraying itself as being historically accurate.

#11

While spy fiction has become ubiquitous, spy facts remain scarce. The Intelligence Community has taken steps to make more information public in recent years, but outdated classification policies and the Intelligence Community’s enduring culture of secrecy have made official information about American intelligence agencies difficult to come by.

#12

The current classification system arose during the Cold War, when government officials kept paper records and managed information by hand instead of computers. Information is now divided into three classification levels based on the degree of potential harm to U. S. national security if it is disclosed in an unauthorized manner: confidential information could reasonably be expected to cause damage, secret information could reasonably be expected to cause serious damage, and top secret information could reasonably be expected to cause exceptionally grave damage.

#13

The American classification system is absurdly outdated and in need of modernization. It is hampering good policymaking, and it is eroding trust in government.

#14

Over-classification is just as dangerous as under-classification, if not more so. It can leave the country vulnerable to enemies, as well as erode trust in government.

#15

The second barrier to understanding intelligence is the culture of secrecy embedded in the Intelligence Community.