The digital measuring of people and big data has never been easier, and it’s causing some major issues for intelligence networks around the world.
Today, governments are winding down once-expansive intelligence networks as artificial intelligence and biometric data becomes more commonplace. CIA operatives, especially, are finding it difficult to work covertly due to the rapid advancements in technology.
“The foundations of the business of espionage have been shattered,” former CIA official Duyane Norman told Yahoo News in a report published Monday.
In airports around the world, the implementation of face-scanning technology promises quicker processing, but it’s exactly the type of automation that is making it hard for spies to move across borders without being noticed.
The end of traditional intelligence gathering comes as the Pentagon warned employees in December of threats posed by using take-home DNA tests.
“These genetic tests are largely unregulated and could expose personal and genetic information, and potentially create unintended security consequences and increased risk to the joint force and mission,” the widely circulated memo in the Defense Department read.
In 2014, Chinese hackers stole the personal data of one in 10 American adults and fundamentally changed the makeup of American intelligence. Now, digital clues such as promotions, pay gaps between agents, and biometric data are used by the Kremlin and other nations to pinpoint the identity of undercover spies working for the CIA.
“Very few people, maybe shepherds in rural Afghanistan, don’t leave some form of digital trace today,” said House Intelligence subcommittee leader Rep. Jim Himes. “And that poses real opportunities in terms of identifying bad guys … but it also poses real challenges [in] keeping our people from being identified.”
