Book Review: The Future of National Intelligence: How Emerging Technologies Reshape Intelligence Communities

Reviewed by publicfaradaycage@protonmail.com

The Future of National Intelligence: How Emerging Technologies Reshape Intelligence Communities by Shay Hershkovitz, 2022, ISBN: 978-1538160695

Anyone who has spent any serious time in the hacking community knows that it intersects with the intelligence community in too many ways to count.  It behooves any serious student of IT security to keep one eye on the IC at all times.  It was hacker vigilance such as this which found the NSA backdoor to the Clipper chip and fought for our right to cryptography.  In keeping with this august tradition I recommend The Future of National Intelligence by (((Shay Hershkovitz))).

Hershkovitz himself is a very respected longtime member of the intelligence community in Israel and his book is recommended by many professional practitioners including Michael Morell of the CIA and Stephen Marrin, the editor of Intelligence and National Security.

At 155 pages, it is short enough to be accessible to even introductory level readers, but do not let the length fool you; this is a fully cited academic study, not just an opinion piece.  It begins briefly in the past, to set the foundation for today's issues which take up the majority of the book, and culminates in Hershkovitz's "Five Cs of Intelligence Transformation: Connection, Collaboration, Critique, Creativity, and Content Expertise" as the key to the future.

There is a lot to love about this book.  In the interest of no spoilers, I will share with you my two favorite points and let you discover the rest for yourself.  The first moment of supreme amusement came in his discussion of Internet of Things (IoT) and how exactly it will be (is being) used by the IC.  Hershkovitz is very straight-forward in asserting that the global IC all view the IoT as a great big collection device.  As in the insecurity of IoT devices is a feature, not a bug.  This is no conspiracy theory, nor is it even a large point; he mentions the fact incidentally, as if everyone already knew this (and in the IC they do).  It is this ability that Hershkovitz has of making the reader feel like a member of the IC that makes this such a valuable study.

The second point is one that I have long known to be true, but have not found openly discussed very often, and when it has been it was not by accredited, informed individuals.  This point is that 70 to 80 percent of all major IC activity is conducted by corporations who work for/with the IC, not by intelligence agencies themselves.  Hershkovitz gets deeps into the weeds on this issue, becoming very specific about how this arrangement actively allows intelligence activities to take place that no government would allow because these corporations do not have to answer to Congress or the public and furthermore that the "future of national intelligence" is further integration with public companies.  In the end, the near future painted by Hershkovitz is truly frightening, with the IC pretty much everywhere and no longer able to be held accountable by anyone.  He is no doomsayer; he is just stating the cited academic and professional truth of the modern IC, which he knows intimately from personal experience.