Information Assurance – IA – is one of those deceptively simple-looking things the military is a major proponent of; at a glance, most people would (not entirely incorrectly) think that “Information Assurance” was just a fancy way of saying “information security”, i.e. protecting computers, networks, and their contents from Bad People and their tools. Needless to say, it’s not quite that simple. Like most security-related things, IA is closely interrelated with other, similar disciplines; the glass-half-full guys might say it encompasses other things, like Operational Security, a/k/a OPSEC, and is greater than the sum of those many parts. (Most of the descriptions glass-half-empty people might use aren’t repeatable in polite company, alas.)

One of the must-visit resources for people interested in (or forced to take an interest in) IA is the Information Assurance Support Environment, or IASE. I periodically check their site for interesting tidbits, and recently stumbled across something that’s interesting on so many levels, it just had to be shared.
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Intellipedia, the Intelligence Community’s wiki-based communications platform, is the subject of a recent half-hour presentation by NGA boffin Chris Rasmussen, who has been one of the project’s biggest advocates. It makes for some fascinating listening; Rasmussen’s views on Web 2.0, intelligence sharing, and various technology matters are not necessarily revolutionary, but they’re certainly unorthodox, at least in government settings.

If you’ve got an interest in Intellipedia, or cutting-edge information and intelligence management, you really don’t want to miss this presentation. Trust me; it’s one of the more interesting, and informative, half-hours you’ll spend this week.