LETTER TO(Sanitized) FROM FRED ASSELIN

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP78M02660R000300020011-2
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 3
• Document Creation Date: December 16, 2016
• Document Release Date: January 25, 2005
• Sequence Number: 11
• Publication Date: August 4, 1976
• Content Type: LETTER

ABRAHAM RIB149tT5}SP~sve'dP 5t Release 2005/02/10: CIA-RDP78MO266OR0003000
JOHN L. MC CLELLAN, ARK. CHARLES H. PERCY, ILL.
HENRY M. JACKSON, WASH. JACOB K. JAVITS, N.Y.
EDMUND S. MUSKIE, MAINE WILLIAM V. ROTH, JR., DEL.
LEE METCALF, MONT. BILL BROCK, TENN.
JAMES B. ALLEN, ALA. LOWELL P. WEICKER, JR., CONN. ryyy
LAW TON CHILES. FLA. C? Vi$e~ .~$a$e~ .~e~r~ca$e
SAM NUNN, GA.
JOHN GLENN. OHIO
RICHARD A. WEGMAN
CHIEF COUNSEL AND STAFF DIRECTOR
COMMITTEE ON
GOVERNMENT OPERATIONS
WASHINGTON, D.C. 20510
August 4, 1976
Assistant Legislative Counsel
Central Intelligence Agency
Washington, D.C. 20505
This is in connection with the preliminary staff
investigation of the Senate Government Operations Committee
concerning problems associated with computer technology
in federal programs and private industry.
In addition to the supplemental information I requested
be incorporated into the final Agency presentation to be
made a part of the Committee hearing record -- supplemental
information requested in my letter of August 3, 1976 -- I
am hopeful that another point may also be included in that
final statement.
I have reference to testimony given by the late Dean
Acheson on January 14, 1949 before the Senate Foreign
Relations Committee. This testimony, received in executive
session, was made public in July of 1976 and it has just
now come to the attention of the staff of the Senate
Government Operations Committee. The document is entitled
"Executive Sessions of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee
(Historical Series)," Volume II, Eighty-First Congress
First and Second Sessions, 1949-1950.
Testifying in connection with his association with
Alger Hiss, Mr. Acheson discussed overall security problems
within the executive branch. On pages 10 and 11 of the
hearing volume, Mr. Acheson made observations which relate
to this Committee's inquiry into computer security.
During the war, documents of the greatest
security, which were prepared in the War Department
and were sent over to the War Production Board,
we now discover in the captured files of the
German Secret Service. How they got there --
every single effort of the FBI and everying else
has been put on this, and no results have come up
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Security is an extremely difficult thing. My
own suspicion of it is that people who are really
conducting spy work for foreign governments do
not fool with exposed people like high officers
of the government. I think what they do is to work
through much more minor characters -- stenographers,
or janitors, or char women, or somebody who can get
hold of something of that sort. I don't say they
never approach high officers of the government, be-
cause they apparently have, as you have seen in these
records, but I imagine that their real paydirt comes
at a lower level.
But, as I say, the efforts have not been very
rewarding in finding out how this thing happens.
Security measures are being taken. This has been
a problem which we have had for a very long time
and it is a very worrisome problem.
At the staff level it has been generally agreed that
it will be appropriate for the Agency's presentation to
this Committee's hearing record to be submitted in written
form, as opposed to an oral recitation. For that reason,
we have worked together to arrive at an Agency presentation
that will be as complete as possible in the area of computer
security, in light of national security considerations
which your Agency must function under.
Therefore, the final statement to be submitted by
the CIA for this Committee's hearings will be enhanced, in
the staff's view, if you could include in that final pre-
sentation some commentary on the statement by Mr. Acheson
that it is often lower level personnel who are frequently
the targets of security penetration efforts.
In this regard, Senators, of course, may wish to know,
first, if you concur in Mr. Acheson's basic assertion con-
cerning the targeting of lower level personnel, and,
second, what steps you would propose for other agencies
within the executive branch, and in private industry as
well, to seek to control this problem as described by
Mr. Acheson.
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Independent inquiry by the Committee staff has
indicated that the CIA is acutely aware of the computer
security problem associated with lower level personnel.
But the hearing record will be more persuasive on this
point, the staff believes, if your final presentation
addresses itself to this issue directly. It is the staff's
hope that your experience in coping with this problem
will be of value to other agencies within the executive
branch.
It will also be the staff's recommendation that
Senators question spokesmen from these other executive
branch agencies as to their views, within the framework
of computer security, in response to Mr. Acheson's
comments and what steps they take to respond to the issue.
Your assistance in this is very much appreciated.
Sincerely,
Fred Asselin
Investigator
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