Case study 2
Suhan Kim
Professor Nwatu
CIS 502 – Theories of Security Management
Strayer University
February 1, 2014
Abstract
WikiLeaks put the many secret U.S. military documents from the Iraq War and Afghan War Logs into a public web site. These documents included descriptions of attacks on Iraqi security forces and U.S. forces, detainee abuse, civilian casualty incidents, and so on. Social engineering and counterintelligence gave potential implications to national security. This paper describes what social engineering and counterintelligence and examines the importance of forming a sound information security workforce. Then, this paper predicts how the documents could influence organizations in regard to their security policies and risk management procedures. Last, this paper propose two methods to thwart intelligence leak in the future and explains why each would be effective.
Describe what social engineering and counterintelligence are and their potential implications to our national security in regard to the leaked Afghan War Diary and the Iraq War Logs
Social engineering is an attack on the personnel in an organization. The purpose of this attack is to gain secret from individuals that can later be used to gain unauthorized access to the organization’s systems. The social engineer uses a technique known as pretexting in an effort to pretend that they are someone else (Gregory, 2010).
Counterintelligence is a branch of the intelligence hierarchy which is connected with keeping information out of the hands of foreign and domestic enemies. Keeping potentially sensitive information out of enemy eye is the most important goal of counterintelligence, and many counterintelligence agents work closely with security agents to ensure that information is secured and protected (Wisegeek.com).
WikiLeaks published more than 70,000 similar documents from the Afghanistan War in March, and released 400,000 classified US military files in October. The information which released from social engineering and counterintelligence threatened people and military operation in danger because of revealing the secret information. WikiLeaks is a public website and anyone can access information anytime and anywhere. The Iraqi war documents were initially thought likely to contain the names of Iraqis who cooperated with U.S forces. The Afghanistan documents contained the names of local who cooperated with U.S forces, and it was expected the Iraqi war documents likely would contain such names, as well. In addition to, the documents give the enemy information of military capabilities and operations. All 50,000 remaining U.S troops in the Iraq are expected to leave by the end of that next year. The Pentagon has continued to express concerns about WikiLeaks releasing information containing such names because of the potential harm the individuals might face from insurgents (Goldman R. & Martinez L.).
Examine the importance of forming a sound information security workforce and describe the challenges faced by organizations in doing this as evidenced by the articles about the Afghan War Diary and the Iraq War Logs that were released in WikiLeaks According to the article, after WikiLeaks released 70,000 documents in July relating to the war in Afghanistan, the Pentagon quickly set up a 120-person task force to review the documents for potential damage. The same task force has spent the past few weeks previewing a database of 400,000 significant acts from the war in Iraq (Goldman R. & Martinez L.). Even if WikiLeaks deleted individual names on the documents, the task force found many vulnerabilities. The team found names of individuals, and the found thing that could give U.S. enemies information about U.S. capabilities and U.S. operations that would be damaging (Pessin A.). As seen, an information security workforce is important to find vulnerabilities
Predict how the Afghan War Diary and the Iraq War Logs that were released in
