9.Information collection

Wild疯狂的 Bill Donovan would have loved the Internet. The American spymaster间谍大师 who built the Office of Strategic Services战略服务 in the World War II and later laid the roots建立了基础 for the CIA中央情报局 was fascinated着迷 with information. Donovan believed in using whatever tools came to hand in the “great game”of espionage间谍活动—spying间谍行为 as a“profession”职业. These days the Net, which has already re-made重建 such everyday pastimes消遣 as buying books and sending mail, is reshaping Donovan’s vocation职业 as well.

The latest revolution革命 isn’t simply a matter事情 of gentlemen reading other gentlemen’s e-mail. That kind of electronic spying间谍 has been going on for decades数十年. In the past three or four years, the World Wide Web has given birth to a whole industry行业 of point-and-click spying. The spooks间谍们 call it “open-source intelligence开原情报”, and as the Net grows, it is becoming increasingly越来越多的 influential影响力. In 1995 the CIA held a contest比赛 to see who could compile the most data about Burundi. The winner, by a large margin巨大优势, was a tiny小的 Virginia company called Open Source Solutions解决方案, whose clear advantage明显优势 was its mastery掌握 of the electronic电子 world.

Among the firms公司 making the biggest splash引人关注 in this new world is Straitford, Inc., a private intelligence-analysis情报分析 firm based in Austin, Texas. Straitford makes money by selling the result of spying(covering nations from Chile to Russia) to corporations公司 like energy-services firm McDermott International. Many of its predictions预测 are available可用的 online at www.straitford.com

Straitford president总裁 George Friedman says he sees the online world as a kind of mutually互相 reinforcing加强 tool for both information collection and distribution分发, a spymaster’s间谍 dream. Last week his firm was busy vacuuming up收集 data bits from the far corners of the world and predicting预测 a crisis危机 in Ukraine.“As soon as that report runs, we’ll suddenly突然 get 500 new Internet sign-ups from Ukraine, ”says Friedman, a former前任 political政治 science学家 professor教授.“And we’ll hear back from some of them.”Open-source spying does have its risks风险, of course, since it can be difficult to tell good information from bad. That’s where Straitford earns赚取 its keep.

Friedman relies on依赖 a lean staff精干 of 20 in Austin. Several of his staff members have military-intelligence军事情报 backgrounds. He sees the firm’s outsider status as the key to its success. Straitford’s briefs答复、简报 don’t sound like the usual Washington back-and-forthing, whereby agencies机构 avoid避免 dramatic戏剧性的 declarations申明 on the chance they might be wrong. Straitford, says Friedman, takes pride in its independent独立的 voice.

疯狂的比尔·多诺万会喜欢互联网的。这位美国间谍头子在第二次世界大战中建立了战略服务办公室，后来为中央情报局奠定了基础，他对信息非常着迷。多诺万相信，在间谍的“大游戏”中，间谍是一种“职业”，应该使用任何可以使用的工具。如今，网络已经重塑了买书和发邮件等日常消遣，也在重塑多诺万的职业。

最近的革命不仅仅是绅士们阅读其他绅士的电子邮件。这种电子间谍活动已经持续了几十年。在过去的三四年里，万维网催生了整个点击式间谍行业。间谍们称之为“开源情报”，随着网络的发展，它的影响力也越来越大。1995年，中央情报局举办了一场比赛，看谁能收集到关于布隆迪的最多数据。以较大优势胜出的是弗吉尼亚州一家名为“开源解决方案”（Open Source Solutions）的小公司，该公司的明显优势是其对电子世界的掌控。

在这个新世界中最引人注目的公司之一是斯特雷福德公司，这是一家总部设在得克萨斯州奥斯汀的私人情报分析公司。斯特福德公司通过向能源服务公司麦克德莫特国际（McDermott International）等公司出售间谍活动（涵盖从智利到俄罗斯的国家）的结果来赚钱。d.它的许多预测都可以在www.straitforcom的网站上找到。

斯特雷福德公司总裁乔治·弗里德曼说，他将网络世界视为信息收集和传播的一种相辅相成的工具，这是间谍大师的梦想。上周，他的公司忙着从世界遥远的角落收集数据，并预测乌克兰将发生危机。“一旦报告发布，我们将突然收到500个来自乌克兰的新互联网注册，”前政治学教授弗里德曼说。“我们将收到其中一些人的回复。”当然，开源间谍活动也有风险。因为很难区分好信息和坏信息。那就是斯特雷福德赚钱的地方。

弗里德曼在奥斯汀依靠的是20名精干的员工。他的几名工作人员都有军事情报背景。他认为该公司的局外人身份是其成功的关键。斯特福德公司的简报听起来不像是华盛顿通常的反反复复，即机构避免发表戏剧性的声明，因为他们可能是错的。弗里德曼说，斯特雷福德公司以其独立的声音而自豪。