[Infowarrior] - Top Spook: Facebookers, Gamers May Be Unfit to Spy

[Richard Forno]

(These are EXACTLY the kind of folks - in many cases - that you want  
involved in certain activities because they think unconventionally,  
are resourceful, and can socialize well with teammates while being  
able to bluff their adversaries.........rf)

Top Spook: Facebookers, Gamers May Be Unfit to Spy
By Noah Shachtman EmailJune 12, 2008 | 11:16:00 AM

http://blog.wired.com/defense/2008/06/do-you-trade-mu.html


Do you trade music with your pals? Use Facebook to keep in touch with  
far-away friends? Play World of Warcraft as a girl, when you're really  
a boy? Check your e-mail a little too often?

Well, then, you may not be trustworthy enough to become a spy.

The Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) -- which,  
in theory, oversees all of the country's intelligence services -- is  
looking to launch a series of research studies into "cyber-behavior."  
Because what wannabe spooks do on-line should play "an important part"  
in the "process for granting security clearances for personnel working  
in national security positions." Suspect activities include "social  
network usage," "compulsive internet use," "distribution of pirated  
materials," and "on-line contact with foreign nationals."

The first step is to get a "better understanding" of "which specific  
cyber-behaviors are normative, acceptable, or favorable as well as  
identifying those that may be associated with risky or problematic  
cyber behavior within the workplace."

     Areas of potential interest include, but are not limited to:  
social network usage; disclosure of information in computer-mediated  
activities; extent of on-line contact with foreign nationals; cyber  
behavior that suggests an unwillingness to abide by rules; compulsive  
internet use; involvement in computer groups (especially those allied  
to stigmatized practices); providing false information within computer- 
mediated communications about oneself or others; procurement and  
distribution of pirated materials; engaging in deviant cyber-behaviors  
with the intention of causing harm to others including “hacking” and  
sabotage.

I think that puts the entire staff of WIRED in serious jeopardy of  
blowing the top secret clearances we've all craved for so long. Ah,  
well.

Once the initial study is done, ODNI would like to see a research  
program of how these "risky IT activities or problematic cyber  
behaviors" match up with real-life "personality factors or other  
individual traits, characteristics or behaviors can serve as risk or  
resilience indicators."

The National Security Agency has used similar criteria for vetting  
potential employees. One recruit was told that file-sharing could keep  
him out of the agency.

New York University's Drew Conway, for one, is less-than-confident  
that this is going to turn out well.

     Given the [government's] "less than stellar track record in  
assessing the risk posed cyber activity, and the constant protraction  
of security clearance investigation and abysmal backlog of  
adjudications, this is a classic example of an interesting research  
opportunity being attached to the wrong research vehicle. The idea  
that belonging to a certain World of Warcraft guild makes someone less  
trustworthy is not only foolish, but would likely disqualify the exact  
people the U.S. military needs.