The Cipher Brief sat down with Robert Cardillo, the Director of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency. He shared his thoughts on the public-private partnership and the future of NGA.
The Cipher Brief: In today’s complex threat environment, how does the IC stay at the technology curve? How does it manage to stay relevant in a world awash in information?
Cardillo: It’s always been a challenge. I think you’re right. I think it’s more acute today because of two things. One I actually think the threat is increasing, and I think the upside in technology is increasing, so there is greater potential. I strongly feel that—and let me just speak from the NGA’s perspective—for too long we’ve had the philosophy: “I’ll rent some expertise from the outside. But we know best.” I think we are slowly getting over that. I think we need to get more comfortable with that partnership. I think we need to allow some of that control not to go because ultimately we are still responsible for whatever that product or service is. But if anything, I told my workforce—which has a pretty internal, insular look—we are ignoring the capabilities of industry at our own peril.
TCB: How have your views changed on the public-private partnership and the role private industry can play in the Intelligence Community?
RC: This is the message that I want you to get to industry: this isn’t a one-way street. We can’t just get up on the stage and say, “hey we’re open and here are the avenues and bring us your white papers.” We need industry to step up.
TCB: What’s your vision for NGA over the next 3-5 years?
RC: My bumper sticker is—we need to succeed in the open. That doesn’t just mean do more at the unclassified open. But there is so much more potential in the open today—whether you call it unclassified, or unprotected data, or publicly available information. Two things. One, we don’t have the architecture. I mentioned we need help on IC ITE (Information Technology Enterprise). We’ll be a key enabler—a kind of core plumbing for that. But two, we don’t have the mindset. We’ve raised these young men and women with that cloistered view that if it’s not classified, it’s not valuable.
So in 3-5 years, one, I want a workforce that is very comfortable working in the open, and again, that doesn’t mean that’s an unclassified product. But for example, we were asked about monitoring the new agreement with Iran, and as a matter of fact, somebody in the news talked about crowdsourcing and treaty verification. There are more sensors in the world—we all have them in our pockets—and people use them, and they get posted and tweeted. For one, we have to be open to it, because you can’t leverage it if you aren’t open to it. And second, being open to it doesn’t just mean I saw it on Instagram. It must be true, because just as somebody who is trying to expose an illicit activity, an adversary can use it the same way. We need to know when we are being duped, deceived. So we’re trying to create some conditions and some pilots now. One of them is our GEOINT (geospatial intelligence) pathfinder, in which we are telling our analysts it’s safe to play in the open.
It’s one of the reasons why I like the Arctic as a general [problem] set, because at least today, it’s a communal problem, or challenge, or opportunity, or however you want to say it, whether it’s shortened maritime shipment so that people could save money on transportation costs. On the other hand, there’s a whole heck of a lot natural resources up there, and as the ice melts for whatever reason, those become more accessible, and resources that are finite become competitive. I have two responsibilities there, and so I should be providing classified intelligence on say somebody’s nefarious activities. I also should be ready to prepare for public diplomacy, for a State Department engagement, for a UN engagement, so that we can create a conversation about what should or shouldn’t be happening there. That’s an example about succeeding in the open. And to me the big lift in the post-Cardillo era, I hope people will look back and say, “Wow, the agency did move.” The agency is more open, more engaged, more connected to industry, academia, international partners.
