Testimony of Michael J. Waguespack, Deputy Assistant Director,
National Security Division, FBI
Before the
House Committee on Government Reform,Subcommittee on National
Security, Veterans Affairs, and International Relations
April 3, 2001
"FBI's ANSIR Program"
Mr. Chairman, I would like to
thank the members of the committee for inviting the FBI to
testify about the ANSIR Program as the committee examines
the topic of "Protecting American Interests Abroad:
US. Citizens, Businesses, and Non-governmental." While
other agencies in the government have primary responsibility
for protecting United States interests overseas, the FBI participates
with them as appropriate and contributes to the overall government
effort.
The acronym ANSIR stands for
"Awareness of National Security Issues and Response."
As part of its national security mission, the FBI has been
providing awareness information in order to reduce the vulnerabilities
of U.S. citizens, corporations and institutions to intelligence
and terrorist activities since the early 1970's. By knowing
what intelligence services and terrorist do and how to frustrate
their plans, American interests are better protected. The
initial focus of this program in the 1970's was the protection
of classified government information, property and personnel.
At that time, the program was known as "DECA" (Developing
Espionage and Counterintelligence Awareness). In the 1990's,
several changes occurred which led the FBI to decide a larger
audience should be receiving its national security message.
First, foreign intelligence services expanded their targeting
to include unclassified private sector proprietary economic
information. Second, the threat of terrorist attack on American
interests here in the United States and abroad escalated.
Additionally, the serious problem of computer intrusion and
the costly menace of the computer virus dictated the FBI awareness
message should reach a broader audience in a timely fashion
to prevent harm.
The FBI's ANSIR Program's awareness
message is principally aimed at U.S. corporations, although
other government agencies and law enforcement also benefit
from it. The principal method of disseminating FBI awareness
information is through ANSIR Email described in the following
section. The ease of replicating email communication accounts
for the global nature of the dissemination. American interests
abroad receive ANSIR awareness communications primarily from
their headquarters in the United States which relays ANSIR
Email to them, though on occasion the awareness message is
delivered directly to those overseas. In addition to making
potential targets of intelligence and terrorist activities
less vulnerable through awareness, the FBI also has a unique
capability to respond when these activities are identified
in the United States. This response capability is a key part
of the awareness message. The FBI does more than simply identify
problems; it does something about them.
ANSIR Organizational Structure,
Membership and Programs
The ANSIR Program is by any
measurement of government programs a very small one. Currently,
there is one Supervisory Special Agent (SSA) assigned as the
National ANSIR Program Manager in the National Security Division
at FBIHQ. The ANSIR Program also has at least one Special
Agent in each of the 56 FBI Field Offices assigned as the
ANSIR Program Coordinator. This is a collateral duty designed
to take no more than IO% of the Coordinator's time. The Coordinator
acts as the point of contact for requests for assistance and
inquiries generated by ANSIR. A Special Agent is assigned
this duty because decades of experience with the ANSIR audience
has shown that the private sector prefers discussing national
security issues with an individual who has operational experience.
The ANSIR Program has no membership;
rather, individuals, corporations, government agencies and
organizations which request FBI national security awareness
information may receive unclassified awareness information
via ANSIR Email or through presentations conducted by ANSIR
Coordinators and other knowledgeable individuals arranged
through the program. Presentations are given to both classified
and unclassified audiences.
What is today the ANSIR Email
Program began as the ANSIR Fax Program in 1995. After the
private sector shifted its principal means of communication
to Internet email in 1996, ANSIR Fax became ANSIR Email. The
program uses the FBI's Law Enforcement On-Line (LEO) as its
Internet Service Provider (ISP) to ensure the security and
integrity of ANSIR Email. This program was initiated to greatly
improve the efficiency of disseminating the FBI's awareness
message. While personal presentations, video tapes and mail
all have their value, nothing is as efficient as Internet
email for quickly distributing an advisory whose value diminishes
with every passing hour. Recently, the number of ANSIR Email
subscribers was reported to be over 30,000. Each ANSIR Email
advisory eventually reaches substantially well over this number
depending upon the content of the message. Key messages which
members of the Fortune 500 and large government agencies wish
to pass to all their personnel have the largest international
dissemination.
The number of ANSIR e-mails
disseminated annually vary depending upon the threat environment.
In calendar year 2000, a total of 63 advisories were disseminated.
Because ANSIR Email has asked its subscribers what advisories
within 17 infrastructures they desire to receive, not all
advisories are received by every subscriber; however, the
majority of subscribers ask to receive advisories from all
17 infrastructure categories. All ANSIR Email communications
are unclassified.
The Role of ANSIR in USG
Counterterrorism Efforts Overseas
The role of the FBI's ANSIR
Program in USG Counterterrorism efforts overseas is within
the FBI's primary mission of preventing, deterring and defeating
terrorism activities in the United States. To this end, the
ANSIR Program provides terrorism awareness information valuable
to public and private sector organizations, many which have
overseas facilities and/or personnel who travel overseas.
ANSIR Email is a component of
the government's National Threat Warning System (NTWS). The
NTWS has established a protocol for the rapid dissemination
of terrorist threat and warning information throughout the
federal government, law enforcement, and the private sector.
The protocols established by the NTWS provide uniformity in
defining what constitutes a threat advisory which should be
disseminated and the language used to describe it.
As the committee is aware, U.S.
Government agencies with facilities and personnel overseas
have been hardening those facilities and routinely provide
their personnel with awareness information to make them safer.
After government targets, well known U.S. Businesses and non-government
organizations are likely terrorist targets due to their close
association with American culture and values. Upon request,
headquarters elements of these private sector organizations
receive threat and warning information via ANSIR Email which
they email in turn to their overseas operations.
Occasionally, ANSIR Program
personnel travel overseas to give presentations at the invitation
of other U.S. Government agencies or private sector organizations.
In the last several years, ANSIR presentations have been given
to U.S. Corporations and/or U.S. Government agencies in the
following overseas locations:
United Kingdom
Republic of Ireland
Czech Republic
Austria
Hungry
Slovakia
Australia
Japan
Republic of Korea
Argentina
Republic of Panama
These overseas ANSIR presentations
were sponsored in part by the U.S. Department of State (Bureau
of Diplomatic Security/Overseas Security Advisory Council),
Defense Security Service, American Society for Industrial
Security, American Chamber of Commerce, as well as U.S. Corporations
such as IBM and Coca-Cola.
Attending these overseas unclassified
ANSIR presentations are both U.S. Citizens and host country
citizens, as both are potential targets due to their association
with their U.S. employer. It is also the practice to invite
host country government officials from law enforcement agencies
or ministries with which the FBI routinely deals to be present
during unclassified briefings. Classified ANSIR presentations
are provided in appropriately secure locations to U.S. Citizens
with the necessary security clearances.
The Role of ANSIR in Countering
Economic Espionage Overseas
After the Cold War, the FBI
determined that while espionage against U.S. defense contractors
continued unabated by some traditional Cold War adversaries,
there was a broader effort underway by a surprising number
of Cold War allies to use their intelligence services to clandestinely
collect unclassified proprietary information from U.S. corporations.
These non-traditional adversaries understood that economic
information was as much a vital part of their national security
as political or military information. It also became evident
that traditional Cold War adversaries had also expanded their
collection targets to proprietary economic information to
a degree greater than previously observed. These developments
were recognized by the Congress, as evidenced by the passage
of the Economic Espionage Act of 1996, which gave the FBI
primary Jurisdiction in such matters.
Anyone can be vulnerable to
intelligence collection activities. The proprietary secrets
of the American economy are attractive targets of foreign
intelligence services because conducting economic espionage
is cheaper than research and development. Intelligence services
are extraordinarily sophisticated and have substantial resources
to carry out their missions. They train their personnel to
acquire information clandestinely so their targets do not
know it has been compromised.
A key to reducing vulnerability
to intelligence collection activity is knowing and countering
common techniques used by foreign intelligence services which
can minimize or even eliminate their opportunity for success.
If foreign intelligence services believe the effort is too
great or the risk is too high, they will look for another
target. The FBI's ANSIR Program attempts to reduce American
vulnerability by providing awareness information on the techniques
used by foreign intelligence services to collect proprietary
economic information.
The threat to computer and telecommunication
systems has also increased dramatically in recent years. This
threat takes on a variety of forms and ranges from foreign
intelligence services, to disgruntled employees, to teenage
hackers. Timely notification of the latest intrusion techniques
and the latest virus detected "in the wild" can
provide an edge in protecting systems. In concert with the
Department of Justice and FBI's National Infrastructure Protection
Center (NIPC), ANSIR Email also provides advisories on the
latest computer intrusion threats as well as timely notification
on the latest virus. For private and public sector organizations
which desire to share information about cyber intrusion incidents,
computer system vulnerabilities and physical infrastructure
threats, the NIPC's InfraGard initiative provides such a mechanism.
There are currently 518 members in the 56 InfraGard Chapters
nationwide.
Procedures for Providing
Assistance to American Businesses with Security Concerns
Business security concerns can
take a variety of forms. The FBI is not resourced to conduct
physical, personnel or information evaluations for the private
sector. There are ample sources within the federal government
which provide information and requirements for protecting
classified facilities, personnel and information and there
are reputable firms in the private sector which provide able
counsel on how to protect unclassified facilities, personnel
and information.
Notification that a business
may be the target of foreign intelligence collection or terrorist
activity allows the FBI to respond with appropriate investigative
and operational activities to resolve the matter. The procedure
is simply to notify any FBI office in the United States or
the FBI Legal Attache or U.S. State Department Regional Security
Officer in American Embassies overseas.
Conclusion
Mr. Chairman, I would like to
conclude my opening statement by advising the committee of
the cooperation that exists between government programs concerned
with the issue of "Protecting American Interests Abroad"
especially those in the awareness community. The FBI's ANSIR
Program coordinates all overseas activity in which it is requested
to engage with the U.S. Department of State. In fact, FBI
Deputy Director Thomas Pickard is a member of the Overseas
Security Advisory Council Executive Board. As noted above,
ANSIR has been sponsored by the Defense Security Service and
has conducted joint presentations both in the United States
and overseas.
We think the ANSIR Program is
a "good news" program. I hope this information has
been helpful and I look forward to answering any questions
you have.
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