Wiki-espionage

The U.S. intelligence community, perhaps inspired by fans of Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings, has joined the Wiki craze, using Wikipedia’s open-source software to create an online data-sharing system: Intellipedia. The system, which was launched in April, provides a forum for analysts from all 16 U.S. intelligence agencies to discuss and share information ...

The U.S. intelligence community, perhaps inspired by fans of Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings, has joined the Wiki craze, using Wikipedia's open-source software to create an online data-sharing system: Intellipedia. The system, which was launched in April, provides a forum for analysts from all 16 U.S. intelligence agencies to discuss and share information about global events. Officials hope that it will encourage innovative thinking and help avoid intelligence failures like those leading up to the war in Iraq. Intellipedia may even produce future National Intelligence Estimates. Its administrators have addressed security concerns by making the system private, imposing the same classification levels that exist in the offline world, and barring some information gathered from satellites and human sources. But still, something about an intel system developed with open-source software seems—how do I put this gently—extremely vulnerable to hacking.

The U.S. intelligence community, perhaps inspired by fans of Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings, has joined the Wiki craze, using Wikipedia’s open-source software to create an online data-sharing system: Intellipedia. The system, which was launched in April, provides a forum for analysts from all 16 U.S. intelligence agencies to discuss and share information about global events. Officials hope that it will encourage innovative thinking and help avoid intelligence failures like those leading up to the war in Iraq. Intellipedia may even produce future National Intelligence Estimates. Its administrators have addressed security concerns by making the system private, imposing the same classification levels that exist in the offline world, and barring some information gathered from satellites and human sources. But still, something about an intel system developed with open-source software seems—how do I put this gently—extremely vulnerable to hacking.


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