Former Classified Presidential Directive to anticipate foreign cyber and tech developments

On January 9, 2008, President Bush signed National Security Presidential Directive (NSPD) 54 / Homeland Security Presidential Directive (HSPD) 23 which back then was classified TOP SECRET. That document was declassified with some redacted material by the NSA on June 5, 2014 thanks to an FOIA request. The purpose of NSPD 54 was to enhance U.S. defensive capabilities in cyberspace.

"Actions taken pursuant to this directive will improve the Nation's security against the full spectrum of cyber threats and, in particular, the capability of the United States to deter, prevent, detect, characterize, attribute, monitor, interdict, and otherwise protect against unauthorized access to National Security Systems, Federal systems, and private-sector critical infrastructure systems."

While the document doesn't contain too many surprises, it does contain an important paragraph which directly relates to Taia Global's REDACT search engine.

"The Secretary of Defense, the Attorney General, the Secretary of Homeland Security, the DNI, and other heads of Federal agencies as appropriate shall increase predictive, behavioral, information, and trend analyses to better understand and anticipate foreign cyber and technology developments." (Paragraph 47 (c))

Assuming that steps were taken to comply with this directive, the findings of the National Commission for the Review of the Research and Development Programs of the U.S. Intelligence Community found the IC's work in this area insufficient:

"Finding 1: The Commission found a limited effort by the IC to discern and exploit the strategic R&D—especially non-military R&D—intentions and capabilities of our adversaries, and to counter our adversaries‘ theft or purchase of U.S. technology." (p.5)

That finding and others from the Commission's report have been inserted into the Intelligence Authorization Act for 2014. The ability to look forward and see what technological innovations in computer network operations are being developed by rival or adversary states is critical, not just for nation states but for multinational companies as well.

That level of insight cannot be achieved simply by reading China's Five Year Plan (i.e., CrowdStrike and Mandiant); a document that matches many other nations' R&D priorities.  For more information on how Taia Global's REDACT search engine can inform government and corporate clients about thousands of foreign R&D projects in a half-dozen different verticals, contact us today.

NOTE: This article has been cross-posted from TaiaGlobal.com.