Technological innovation can be difficult to achieve in the Intelligence Community, but as increasingly sophisticated threats emerge, agencies must innovate to stay one step ahead.
As the U.S. infrastructure becomes increasingly reliant on digital solutions, citizen services have become more accessible and workflows for public servants have streamlined — but as much opportunity as this digital shift brings, it has also left the nation vulnerable to threats on a new battlefield. The shift creates an operational imperative for the Intelligence Community to innovate and implement new capabilities to protect our nation and allies from actors across the cyber, space, and physical domains.
According to Peraton experts, it is a challenge for the intelligence community to stay dominant against adversaries in the contested domains of the internet, cyber and space, where the democratization of technology has put the power to destabilize institutions and our national security into the hands of a range of threat actors.
This newfound digital dependance, while very positive in some respects, has also allowed for democratization of emerging and disruptive technology, which puts our national institutions at risk. Peraton experts have observed a substantial increase in cyberattacks and threats.
To outpace increasingly sophisticated adversaries in a complex and unpredictable digital threat landscape, the Intelligence Community must reengineer their digital foundations to allow for faster innovation and increased collaboration.
Developing a Secure Digital Foundation
While intelligence agencies may be enticed by a multitude of new and exciting technologies on the market today — artificial intelligence, internet of things, proliferation of sensors, advances in computing, 5G telecommunications—to effectively leverage those technologies, they must first take a step back and ensure they are on solid footing.
Agencies may want to gravitate toward new forms of technology, but they need to rethink their digital foundations because, without secure, solid networks and infrastructure, advanced technology becomes siloed and less effective.
Strengthening digital foundations starts with a Community-wide shift to secure cloud computing so agencies can take better advantage of the “lifeblood” of the intelligence missions: Data.
Cloud architectures allow for more efficient data processing along with more in-depth analytics and, in some architectures, greater speed and agility, which underpin today’s on-demand capabilities.
Data is the new tip of the spear for national security, because operational advantage will be determined by the speed with which the Community can sense and counter its adversaries’ moves. Using real-time sensing and data integration, the Community can collect, ingest, condition, analyze and characterize data representing the threat and act on it.
Observing, Orienting, Deciding and Acting—the notorious “OODA loop”—in many cases will now operate at machine speed.
Increasing Collaboration to Speed Up Innovation
As secure cloud networks and data services are operational, agencies can focus on integrating and innovating with more advanced technology in their environments. Even more important is accelerating the speed of innovation to compete with emerging threats. As the country moves into an era of peer adversarial competition with China and Russia, agencies must learn to operate faster in digital environments.
Creating a common data fabric is a critical step in maintaining competitive edge. It enables intelligence agencies to collaborate, share data, and bring their complementary missions together to build a more integrated Community.
Think about the Community holistically, not just in the individual silos. Further integration of intelligence agencies, their technologies and deploying capabilities against threats in an optimized environment is critical to the speed imperative.
Traditionally speed and innovation have not been top priorities in the Community, but cultivating a culture of innovation is as important as implementing new technology. The Community still has a predominant culture of executing on the day-to-day mission first then focusing on innovation or talent development when there’s time. This mindset could serve as a detriment in the face of constantly evolving threats, because moving too slowly is a strategic risk. The Community needs to embrace the imperative that a culture of rapid adaptation needs to become second-nature in day-to-day business.
Leveraging Innovation from the Private Sector
As the world evolves, technology has sprinted past the digital foundations that once provided leaders and war fighters with a decision advantage to operate at the speed of the need. Rebuilding the foundations to keep pace with emerging technology and increasing collaboration may seem daunting for already-strained intelligence agencies, which is why increased partnerships with the private sector are necessary to reimagine digital infrastructures and help drive faster innovation.
There is a great opportunity to leverage the speed of innovation in the private sector and assimilate its emerging technologies into the Community’s work. It’s imperative to make the membrane between the public and private sector more permeable. While there are nascent efforts underway in the Community, it is not at the necessary scale to propel a culture of innovation.
The experts at Peraton work to foster these relationships and have already assisted several intelligence agencies. Working with the agencies, Peraton is integrating high performance tools and capabilities into every step of their digital evolution — including foundational IT software, cloud and data services, and network solutions — as well as more advanced capabilities in the fields of communications, cyber, artificial intelligence and real-time data analytics for sensemaking, predictions and anomaly detection.
As a premier mission capability integrator, Peraton works with a very strong network of trusted partners, suppliers and laboratory capabilities to apply commercial technology to the particular needs of its customers’ missions.
Based on what Peraton experts have observed, our government is devoting more time and resources into cultivating an environment of innovation to make the Community more competitive against its peer adversaries. With more interagency collaboration and stronger industry partnerships, Peraton will maintain a solid commitment to and investment in our nation’s security.
Learn more about how Peraton can help your agency speed up innovation.
