DYNAMIC PAGE -- HIGHEST POSSIBLE CLASSIFICATION IS
TOP SECRET // SI / TK // REL TO USA AUS CAN GBR NZL
(U//FOUO) Study Points Out 'Roadblocks to Change'
FROM:
, Technical SIGINT Planning (S2J51)
and
, Technical SIGINT Systems (S2J52)
Run Date: 01/10/2006
(U//FOUO) Do institutional obstacles exist that make it more difficult to incorporate new tools
into our technical SIGINT operations? According to a study, the answer is "yes"! The Emerging
Technologies (ET) Program in the Office of Weapons and Space (S2J) tasked the Johns Hopkins
University Applied Physics Laboratory (JHU/APL) to research technology trends and their
usefulness in the technical SIGINT arena. The technologies researched were: multimedia,
modeling and simulation, and three-dimensional (3D) visualization. Among other research
findings, the JHU/APL study pointed to three "roadblocks to change," largely self-imposed,
that hinder the adoption of new technologies within the technical SIGINT world:
1. (U) Resistance to Change
(U//FOUO) In researching the technical SIGINT mission, JHU/APL was surprised at the number
of analysts who were not only uninterested in improving the tools they used but were
completely opposed to the idea. When asked why, some of the most common responses were:
This has been tried before with awful results.
If no one listens to the suggestions made by analysts, why should they support these
types of studies?
There is no time to learn new software tools; there is already too much to do, with fewer
analysts to do it with.
The tools currently available are sufficient.
For whatever reason, the lack of support from the analysts who will use the technologies is a
major roadblock that must be addressed. Certainly, a 100% consensus on new technology will
be nearly impossible to achieve. However, it is recommended that an attempt be made to
understand the concerns of a representative number of the analysts before any decisions are
made that will affect the tools they might be given.
2. (U) Lacking Infrastructure
(U) Given the support of the analysts, there remains the issue of a lack of a common
infrastructure that could be used to maintain and nurture the use of new technologies. Although
there are activities under way that are attempting to levy standards and organization, there
remains the general impression that facilities, organizations, and even inter-organizational
groups act independently. Tools that are certainly useful to the community tend to remain
hidden -- if not buried -- and used only by those few who know about them.
(U) What is needed is an infrastructure capable of supporting the current mission and its
associated processes and yet flexible enough to integrate and promote newer technologies.
Although there is no panacea that can provide this right out of the box, a mentality must be
adopted that focuses on universal access to data and applications and that promotes the
fostering and care of processes by the community as a whole. As ideological as these statements
sound, their acceptance is critical in forming the backbone necessary to successfully adopt new
technologies.
3. (U) Security Concerns
(U//FOUO) Security awareness needs to be at the forefront of every list when making decisions
about adopting technology. At the same time, there must be an understanding that business-as-
usual cannot be the corporate calling card when evaluating technology adoption. Advances in
technology are providing users with ways to share information not thought possible in the past.
Along with these capabilities come obvious security concerns and threats. This, however, does
not mean that new technologies should be dismissed.
(U//FOUO) A number of times, JHU/APL was told that changes to data or reporting formats could
not change because of security considerations. To be sure, security is an issue that must be
considered and dealt with at the beginning of the technology adoption process. Although a
challenge, security should not be looked upon as the litmus test for whether or not a technology
should be adopted.
(U//FOUO) This text is extracted from the article (U) Technology Trends for Use in Technical
Signals Intelligence , published in S2J51's publication The Oracle , September 2005 edition.
"(U//FOUO) SIDtoday articles may not be republished or reposted outside NSANet
without the consent of S0121 (DL sid_comms)."
DYNAMIC PAGE -- HIGHEST POSSIBLE CLASSIFICATION IS
TOP SECRET // SI / TK // REL TO USA AUS CAN GBR NZL
DERIVED FROM: NSA/CSSM 1-52, DATED 08 JAN 2007 DECLASSIFY ON: 20320108