GCHQ Follows NSA Into Paranoia -- Just As Julian Assange Predicted

from the cognitive-decline dept

One of the knock-on effects of Snowden's leaks is that the NSA is terrified there might be more whistleblowers, and has taken extreme action in an attempt to reduce the risk of that happening by stripping 100,000 people of their security clearances. In other words, it no longer trusts huge swathes of the people it works with -- hardly a healthy situation. Now it seems that GCHQ has succumbed to a similar paranoia about its employees: GCHQ is sponsoring ways of identifying disgruntled employees and those who might go on to be a security threat through their use of language in things like office emails. The article in the Gloucestershire Echo -- the English county where GCHQ is located -- explains how potential whistleblowers will be identified: "research will investigate the use of techniques from the field of natural language processing to detect the early indicators of an insider’s threat."



That means changes in the way a person communicates can give a clue that they are unhappy and perhaps prepared to do something to harm the organisation. Of course, what this also means is that people working at GCHQ will become more self-conscious, start to watch their words, and probably think much more carefully about how they share their insights and analyses. That will inevitably lead to a loss of spontaneity, and of efficiency; the more GCHQ starts hunting down potential whistleblowers, the more it is likely to diminish its own effectiveness.

What's interesting about this development on both sides of the Atlantic is that it was predicted as far back as 2006: The more secretive or unjust an organization is, the more leaks induce fear and paranoia in its leadership and planning coterie. This must result in minimization of efficient internal communications mechanisms (an increase in cognitive "secrecy tax") and consequent system-wide cognitive decline resulting in decreased ability to hold onto power as the environment demands adaption. Those words were written by a certain Julian Assange before he became (in)famous. Say what you will about him, you have to given him credit for being spot-on here -- and well ahead of his time.

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Filed Under: gchq, julian assange, nsa, paranoia, snitching