| Summary/Abstract |
Almost every human activity now creates, or is in some way informed or affected by, digital information. The methods by which commerce, communication, socialization, and learning are conducted have all been digitized. The world's second-oldest profession—espionage—is no exception. Digital information's ubiquity has had a profound and indelible impact on intelligence collection methods. The last century has witnessed both the emergence of intelligence collection disciplines rooted in technology and the impact of technological change upon the original discipline of human intelligence. A visit to Washington, DC's National Spy Museum will reveal the hundreds of devices designed and used to both support and thwart U.S. intelligence operations. While, previously, technological innovation had an incremental impact on intelligence, today's emerging digital environment has the potential to wholly transform the foundation upon which intelligence rests: secrecy.
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