The Evolution of Cyber Trust in Intelligence Agencies

Bringing together leaders, lawmakers and lawbreakers. Host Luke Fox explores how innovations in business and technology are redefining our trust in security measures.

The idea of trust is much different than it was in the previous centuries. It’s no longer just about people; it includes technology as well. The Trust Revolution tackles this subject with a wide-ranging interview with Maj. General Jim Poss. Poss is a 30-year U.S. Air Force Veteran with combat experience as well as being a part of the intelligence community. He’s now CEO of ISR Ideas, an intelligence and drone consulting firm.

“The internet was created to be something unkillable, not something that was trustworthy. All the security has been strapped onto it. It’s a system that wasn’t designed with trust as a core operating principle.” -Maj. General Jim Poss

Host Luke Fox first asked Poss about the idea of trust in the military, intelligence, and government applications. “Trust is transient and has to be earned. In the military, the biggest trust revolution was revealing everything to allies in WW II, which lead to NATO. NATO is a military body, but it also has the role of maintaining trust between western militaries.”

The conversation shifted to intelligence agency trust and cyber trust. “Access is a concern. Agencies are hard on the outside, squishy on the inside. Before there wasn’t enough auditing or the firm ‘need to know’ system we have now,” Poss said.

In diving deeper into technology, Poss spoke about trust with the internet. “The internet was created to be something unkillable, not something that was trustworthy. All the security has been strapped onto it. It’s a system that wasn’t designed with trust as a core operating principle.”

In the early days of the internet, the boundaries were blurred around access and security. Poss said there was an “Alamo” approach to cybersecurity with physical segregation. It wasn’t effective, as there were unsecure portals to the outside world. “We’ll never be able to make the whole thing secure, but part of it should be, and banks are a good example,” he added.

The focus now is on layered trust; trust but verify and audit. Trust between technology and humans will continue to evolve. However, technology is only as trustworthy as the intent behind by humans.