INFORMATION SYSTEMS BOARD

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90G00993R000300390014-7
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: C
• Document Page Count: 6
• Document Creation Date: December 27, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 23, 2012
• Sequence Number: 14
• Publication Date: January 15, 1987
• Content Type: MISC

Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/08/23: CIA-RDP90G00993R000300390014-7
INFORMATION SYSTEMS BOARD
Thursday, 15 January 1987
1400 - 1530
Place: 7D64 HQ
Agenda
25X1 I. Briefing by Director, DCI COMPUSEC Project on
"The Security Threat to Intelligence Community ADP Systems"
II. Approval of Information Technology Policy (attached)
Next Meeting: Monday, 2 February 1987
1400 - 1530, Rm 7D64 HQ
Topic: FY 89-90 New ADP and Communications Initiatives
CONFII IAL
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/08/23: CIA-RDP90G00993R000300390014-7
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/08/23: CIA-RDP90G00993R000300390014-7
UNCLASSIFIED
Statement of the Information Systems Board on the
Information Technology Strategy for CIA
At an offsite conference in November, the Information Systems
Board -- chaired by the Executive Director with the ADDS&T, D/OIT,
D/OC, D/OIR, C/IMS, and Deputy Comptroller as members -- met to
discuss pressing information technology issues. At its December
meeting, the Board adopted a broad set of principles to guide the
Agency's automated information systems and communications networks,
and agreed that these would be shared widely with employees. Those
principles appear at the end of this memo, and all employees are
invited to contribute their thoughts and suggestions on any aspect
of this policy and how we can best achieve these goals. You
STAT can do this by writing to AIM
or to the Executive
Secretary, ISB, room 7E12 Hqs. We may not be able to respond to
all your thoughts individually, but the Board will read everything
you send.
Also at the November meeting, the Board made explicit the
logic and assumptions it used to derive this policy and agreed
that this context should also be shared. The following then is a
brief statement of the Board's general appreciation of the
information technology Issues confronting the Agency and the
principles that will guide our search for solutions.
UNCLASSIFIED
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/08/23: CIA-RDP90G00993R000300390014-7
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/08/23: CIA-RDP90G00993R000300390014-7
UNCLASSIFIED
Background
It is obvious that we are confronted with an extended and expanded
information "explosion." Automated information technology is becoming
increasingly central to our ability to function effectively as we
create more impressive ways to collect information, find new sources
of valuable unclassified information, and seek to serve a policy-making
community with a seemingly bottom-less appetite for intelligence on a
rapidly changing and growing number of issues.
Although the technology that is helping to create the "explosion"
can also help us manage it, we need to more effectively integrate that
technology into our systems and networks. In particular, the rapidly
Increasing capability (at rapidly decreasing cost) of personal
computers is already encouraging the acquisition of small systems
for specific problems or functional areas -- without considering the
eventual need to integrate these into the total network.
Integration is an essential goal if we want to communicate
electronically with each other. It is essential if we are to
master the security challenge presented by these new capabilities.
It is essential if we want to avoid the high cost of maintaining an
_
excessively diverse array of equipment. And it is essential to insure
that our training efforts are not overwhelmed by the demand for
training on dozens of different systems, and to avoid a situation in
which each of us has to learn how to use a new system with each new
assignment.
UNCLASSIFIED
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/08/23: CIA-RDP90G00993R000300390014-7
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/08/23: CIA-RDP90G00993R000300390014-7
UNCLASSIFIED
We want to exploit the solutions to our problems that American
enterprise offers, but we must also get maximum benefit for the money
invested._ Too many different solutions can be as costly and
cumbersome as too few.
Nor can we afford to dawdle in coming to grips with these
issues. Young people entering our workforce are more and more
accustomed to working with computers, and current employees are rapidly
becoming "computer literate." Our sense is we must challenge them and
give them a voice in determining what tools they will use if we want to
keep them and effectively harness their energy and creativity.
The following statement of principles is intended to guide all
Agency employees -- both customers and suppliers of information
technology services. Although the language of this statement is
necessarily general and broad in scope, many specific supporting
actions and programs are underway in each directorate. Because we
all have a stake in the best information systems we can afford, the
Board will monitor these various activities and will report to Agency
employees regularly on the progress made toward achieving these goals.
UNCLASSIFIED
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/08/23: CIA-RDP90G00993R000300390014-7
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/08/23: CIA-RDP90G00993R000300390014-7
UNCLASSIFIED
The Information Technology Policy
of the Central Intelligence Agency
?
-- We are dedicated to improving the quality and efficiency of our
work and solving intractable substantive problems. We will exploit
information technology whenever possible to achieve these goals
beginning with a workstation for every employee who requires one as
soon as possible.
-- We are committed to a stable and continuous program to ensure
secure data processing and telecommunications with well-publicized
and well-enforced security standards governing our systems and rules
governing system use.
-- We intend to create an information technology environment in which
individual creativity thrives but where corporate requirements, not
personal preferences, form the basis for decisions.
-- We are committed to a "federal system" of information technology
management in which corporate services are centrally controlled and
managed, customer-specific services are the responsibility of
individual components and all responsibilities are clearly
defined.
-- We will establish an integrated and internally compatible
network based on cooperatively determined and centrally enforced
technical standards and solutions for acquisition.
-- We intend to introduce advanced technology and innovative
UNCLASSIFIED
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/08/23: CIA-RDP90G00993R000300390014-7
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/08/23: CIA-RDP90G00993R000300390014-7
UNCLASSIFIED
solutions to our information handling problems systematically
and cooperatively and to avoid the extremes of becoming wedded to
outmoded technology on the one hand or constant change and
disruption to our systems on the other.
-- We are committed to the development of a career management system
that will attract, hold and motivate the best information technology
specialists available.
-- We intend to develop techniques for better understanding the costs
and requirements of changes to our systems, managing our resources, and
making more informed investment decisions.
UNCLASSIFIED
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/08/23: CIA-RDP90G00993R000300390014-7