Intelligence in a Digital World: Inside CIA’s Directorate of Digital Innovation

The national security landscape has changed significantly in recent years. Driven by advancements in technology and the emergence of new digital and cyber threats, CIA's intelligence mission has grown exponentially more complex.

Given this new digital reality, we recognized the need for a new directorate-the first in more than 50 years-that could not only leverage the power of digital technologies but also ensure that Agency officers had the tools and techniques necessary to operate in a modern, connected world… and still be clandestine.

That's why CIA created the Directorate of Digital Innovation (DDI) on October 1, 2015.

Serving as the Agency's engine of creativity, integration, and rigor in a digital world, DDI brings together IT, data, artificial intelligence, cyber collection, cyber defense, and open-source intelligence to harness their power for the CIA. One of DDI's key functions is to connect the right subject matter, technical, and digital experts across the Agency, so that we can collaboratively and effectively adjust to emerging and future threats in the digital domain. From cybersecurity to IT infrastructure, DDI was designed to help the intelligence community remain agile and stay at the forefront of digital innovation. Although DDI was officially established in 2015, CIA has been at the leading edge of technological innovation since our founding. As technology advanced throughout the decades, offices dedicated to digital innovation formed under various directorates. It should come as no surprise that many of DDI's individual components- from open-source intelligence to data management to security-have much older, important legacies at CIA.

The Evolution of Digital Intelligence at the CIA

The CIA has always been a technical organization and, today, DDI houses the most current iteration of many former offices that separately focused on technology, HUMINT, or clandestine operations. DDI joined these offices together under one roof with the intent of fusing these once disparate disciplines into a single Agency approach for the modern digital landscape.

When our WWII-predecessor, the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), deployed 3-man paratrooper teams known as "Jedburghs " behind enemy lines, they always included a Comm-O (aka "communications officer") with a radio. DDI's modern-day Telecommunications Services Officers (TISOs) are the descendants of this skilled lineage, and like the Jedburghs, they still live by the unofficial motto, "first in, last out."

DDI's open-source intelligence (OSINT) officers-those who gather information from publicly available sources like foreign media broadcasts-have a history that dates back to before even the OSS! The earliest predecessor to the DDI's Open Source Enterprise (OSE), the Foreign Broadcast Monitoring Service (FBMS), predates CIA and OSS. It was created in February 1941 to focus on foreign print and radio, such as monitoring Nazi Germany radio broadcasts. By 1946, the FBMS became the Federal Broadcast Intelligence Service (FBIS) and became part of the newly created CIA. Now it is known as the OSE, and officers focus on monitoring foreign social and digital media, using AI to help sort through the massive amounts of data.

Cyber security and cyber operations are other areas that had a rich legacy within several CIA directorates before being integrated into the DDI as the Agency's Center for Cyber Intelligence (CCI) and Office of Cyber Security (OCS). As computers were becoming more widespread in the 1980s and 90s, the Agency kept pace, establishing components to focus on computer operations within the Directorate of Science and Technology (DS&T) and Directorate of Operations (DO). These components, which capitalize on the use of computers in clandestine operations, are now part of CCI. Today's OCS officers defend the Agency's digital ecosystems 24/7, 365 days a year, and we celebrate their constant efforts every October during Cybersecurity Awareness Month.

As you can see, the skills and expertise of our technology-focused officers have continued to evolve over the decades to meet the needs of the CIA, and today they have exploded to include things like AI, data science, digital engineering, targeting, software development, program management, technical communications, cyber threat analysis, and even digital library sciences.

Let's take a look at some of DDI's many responsibilities today.

Cyber Security and Cyber Operations:

CIA's offensive and defensive cyber operations were brought together under the DDI to enable better integration, coordination, and transparency. With the DDI, the CIA continues to be a leader in executing human and technical cyber operations globally, while also protecting the Agency from the most malicious, advanced, and hidden cyber threats.

Open Source Intelligence:

The Open Source Enterprise (OSE) has transformed since the days of FBMS-today's OSE uses an agile, scalable, and secure approach to open source collection and exploitation, while leading the U.S. Intelligence Community (IC) in Open Source Intelligence (OSINT) tradecraft, as the Functional Manager for OSINT. OSE leverages cutting-edge technology, tools, and tradecraft-such as artificial intelligence, machine language learning, and other capabilities-and continues its 80-year legacy of significant contributions to every part of the Agency's mission.

Information Technology Enterprise:

With the creation of DDI, various components of CIA's digital information technology were brought together under a single directorate. DDI now has a "Digital C-Suite" comprised of all the Agency's senior digital officers, including the Chief Information Officer (CIO), Chief Data Officer (CDO), and Chief Information Security Officer (CISO). This transition has allowed these offices to have a more direct impact on all IT work happening across the Agency.

Agency Data Ecosystem:

As part of the DDI's mission, in 2019, the Agency implemented a comprehensive approach to re-engineering the way the CIA manages intelligence data. This change ensures that intelligence data-often collected at great risk and/or great expense-is protected and secured, while also being discoverable and accessible to every Agency officer who has a valid mission need-to-know.

Digital Futures:

Digital Futures is the component of the DDI that facilitates collaboration between CIA and private sector innovators to solve critical mission needs. Digital Futures specializes in providing timely and innovative solutions by leveraging unclassified innovation, identifying emerging technologies and trends, and partnering across government, industry, and academia.

Office of Acquisition Management:

The Office of Acquisition Management (OAM) focuses on strengthening business relationships with Industry partners to drive innovation, understand mission needs, identify unique solutions, and reduce program risks through effective dialogue. OAM hosts engagements with industry partners throughout the year.

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