By AJ Swartwood
Former Central Intelligence Agency Director Michael Hayden said Tuesday that one of the great intelligence challenges of our day is distinguishing enemy information in the waves of data that exist in an increasingly tech dependent world.
“The communications you want us to intercept are coexisting on a unitary global communications network with your communications,” said Hayden during a forum at the The Henry L. Stimson Center Tuesday.
Hayden, who was replaced as director shortly after President Obama took office, outlined the goals of the Central Intelligence Agency and the difficulty of dealing with a world where information comes in massive quantities. After dismissing the idea that the Intelligence Community struggles with information sharing, Hayden characterized the greater problem as finding the “right” intelligence, a task Hayden likened to finding the proverbial “needle in a haystack.”
“The fundamental issue is how do you deal with mass, how to deal with volume … that’s the next step,” said the former Director.
Hayden did not hesitate to admit that the intelligence community has to deal with the inevitability of failure and risk. More specifically, he said that while 100% success is the obvious objective, a 70% to 80% success rate in the intelligence community is more likely the community standard.
“It is an art form, it depends on human beings, its based as much on instinct as it is on discipline and science,” said Hayden.