The Various Security Agencies Across the World - Case Study Example

INTELLIGENCE AND TECHNOLOGY There are numerous security challenges that face the whole world (Zuki, 113). These challenges have posed serious intelligence issues to the various security agencies across the world with many bodies establish a number of technologies to help address the challenges. The challenges that need to be addressed by intelligence vary with the agency in question as there are several issues that need to taken into account by the intelligence services in order to be able to curb planned crime activities before any serious danger is committed to the innocent public. These intelligence activities may include spy services that are undertaken by different nations in a bid to know what is happening behind the scenes that can be dangerous to the security situation either internally, within the boundaries of the state in question or internationally to their allies or partners in different fields. With rising cases of insecurity world over, there are concerns especially to the United States of America that must be addressed in a reasonable way in order to limit the risks that might be involved when such issues are not prevented (Zuki, 117). These issues and security concerns include terrorism, theft, political assassinations, territorial invasions and power struggles. Controlling the world security is always the dream of every nation. However, doing this requires serious investments into the field of technology. This would help get access to planned crimes that have not been executed. This will help nullify these activities thus preventing the execution of such malicious plans. This hence improves the security of the nation. Criminal activities can be very damaging to a nation. These damages can be of adverse effects to the economy of a nation and to its general reputation. This will therefore impact on the lives of many people who can either be direct or indirect victims of the said criminal activities. The threats are experienced globally with many attributed to the presence and internet. The internet has been exploited by many states in a bid to achieve some strategic goals and objectives. Several governments have been much shaken by these roles played by the internet in creating the political instabilities and numerous changes of regimes (Scheimer, 49). There is an escalating use of the cyber capabilities in a bid to achieve the strategic goals and objectives. This will in turn outpace the understanding of the issues thus making it difficult to solve the emerging trends in security threats. This has since aided the increase of illegal activities over the online platform. There are also challenges that come as a result of difference in ideologies between rival nations and regions like the West and East. These rivalries have lead to emergence of various international criminal activities. International terrorism and jihadism to the nuclear programs undertaken by various east nations are always a threat to the international security (Richardson, 41). This has therefore forced the United States government to take some serious measures. Whether they are tough, they are very important in combating criminal activities by enabling timely detection of crimes. This therefore makes it necessary to have relevant systems and technologies in place. These technologies can help curb such activities since those involved in planning the criminal activities are always very intelligent and conversant with the security loopholes thus making it very difficult to detect them. They keep on changing tactics depending on the situation and the loopholes detected by the criminals themselves. This thus implies that there cannot be any technology that will constantly provide intelligence services to the near perfection levels. It is therefore paramount that the technological inventions be continued in order to help cope with the growing needs of individuals. This concern has brought about rivalries in the world. The spy agencies have increased due to the increasing suspicion between the rival nations (Noah, 47). This has led to the nations deploying numerous high level technologies to help know one another’s activities. There are questions that however remain unanswered regarding the legality of intelligence information gathering. The security threats for the United States like the Arab countries in the East and the North African nations have been put on the radar that makes it possible to monitor their activities. These activities can be very harmful to the human population if they are left unchecked. Technologies and systems used in intelligence gathering Intelligence information gathering starts with collection of intelligence data that is then analyzed and processed into useful information (Kim, 91). There are several raw data products that are collected and analyzed. These are collected using the following methods; HUMINT, IMINT, SIGINIT, MASINT, OSINT. These methods results in certain data types that can then be presented to the intelligence analyst to produce meaningful information. The information that is gathered 8under HUMINT includes photographs, documents like drawings, plans, correspondence, voice recordings, data reports, digital data and interrogations. There are also numerous data products types under the IMINT methods. These are photographs, IR imagery, digital imagery, radar imagery and the multi spectral intelligence. Robotics- modern day intelligence demands creativity in terms of how one gathers the information. Robots have been used in different aspects of intelligence information gathering. Robots have been modeled to aid in the information gathering process. Some have taken the model shapes of humans while others have taken the animal looks. These robotic devices have been very instrumental in getting information especially in places that are not easily reachable by the human intelligence information gatherers. These are always tough places like the battle field where the war opponents are very smart in their dealings. In such circumstances, the there is need to get information safely and with limited exposure to the dangers. There are always programmed robots that can take spying roles (Carracilo, 43). These robots can be controlled by humans at the comfort of their offices and still be able to achieve their goals. However, these robots have existed in very many forms. Below is the form of robots that can aid intelligence services. Semi-Autonomous Wheelchair- Some of these new robotics have presented interesting research ideologies and the developments in the bio-robotics and the field of cognitive science, in which the melding of the biology with regard to robotics has often exposed new areas of insights into the functionality of mammalian brains, their perception and their pathways to the functionalities of muscles and the overall perception. This has thus resulted in a leading way towards evolution of the new prosthetic devices for the perceptive and mechanical demands. Whereas the biological and the cognitive scientists have often used robotic mentality and notions in helping them to develop new models with physiological functionalities, they have always met many challenges. They also test them using the robotic experimental methods (Zuki, 143). These robots have also been motivated and inspired by the in-depth knowledge and deeper understandings of these medical and biological processes during the design of the said robots. This makes it possible to develop future robot models with numerous aspects of autonomy in their daily undertakings. There are more exciting challenges which will be at the levels where robots and humans work cooperatively as a unit (Richardson, 116). There is always the need to have reliable communication systems that also incorporates the aspects of reliability and safety. This has impacted on the production process. However, the costs of these robots are very exorbitant. There is hope that with increasing quantities of production, the cost of locally produced robots are bound to be cheap and affordable to the majority of the population in a similar manner as has been the automobiles. This will in turn trigger the growth of an affordable computational power thus replicating the capability of processing. Bipedal Gait Humanoid- Several robotics have been employed to provide human services. This is due to the distribution of the computational and the communications resources which is always deemed to be a matter of what is given the preference in terms of urgency, speed, the reliability of the systems in question, convenience and the costs involved. The actual function that a robot is supposed to offer is therefore left without clearly being defined during the system modeling and design. Therefore robots are often neglected during and in the process of designing a navigation system. This is done regardless of what the machine is destined to do. Whether this machine is to be used to put out fires, carry out assassinations, rescue people, do a security check-point, discover buried bodies in the mines or carry the tree trunks should of course be considered early on not just when everything else has been decided. In the last 12 years, Honda announced the development of its P2 machine, a bipedal walking humanoid robot. There has been a magnificent deal in the field of research and also but into this particular type of machine (Mulholland et al, 37). The humanoid form has been much in the forefront of robotics research partly because of the technical challenge it represents, partly because that form can accommodate to human activities in a human centered environment and partly because of the romanticised notion that the human form is worth emulating in its own right and the fascination that is associated with a possibility of building some truly autonomous and human-like creatures. The considerable effort in constructing a bipedal gait machine capable of very rough terrain navigation, climbing and flexing may, in the longer term, be considered unjustified, but the challenge itself is real, like the mid-twentieth century putting of man on to the moon. In this way, a number of considerable spin-offs are bound to be predicted. This robot can mimic human being thus perform the duties of any human being. They can act in the capacity of the human in question. Wakamaru Service Robots- In the modern days and times the functionality of speeches, gaze and the gesture in the user intent disambiguation helps in instructing an assistant robot has become of particular research interest (Noah, 89). The robots in question need the spatial intelligence to help navigate its environment and try to find things. It also needs transactional intelligence to understand and refine the user’s requests and negotiate an action within the realms of any probability of it happening. Some of the most notable examples might be in a case where a machine user has requested a red-mug be brought from the kitchen table but only a blue one can be found there. Perhaps the blue one will do or the red one may be elsewhere and needs to be found. Face recognition may also be important to identify the user and accommodate personal attributes and traits, in order to identify the visitor or even know whom a requested item should be brought if that person has moved since the request was made. Another area of robotics gaining interest of the late is the deployment of swarms of cooperating robotic agents with various collective intelligence strategies, to carry out certain tasks more effectively than possible with one, perhaps more intelligent but cumbersome machine (Bouthillier, 13). Many a times, such studies are motivated and inspired by some known behaviors of social insects and the graceful degradation of functionally possible with an appropriate swarm design. Work Cited Bouthillier, France, and Kathleen Shearer. Assessing competitive intelligence software a guide to evaluating CI technology. Medford, N.J.: Information Today, 2010. Print. Caraccilo, Dominic J.. Military intelligence technology of the future. New York: Rosen Pub. Group, 2009. Print. Kim, Jong. Robot intelligence technology and applications 2012 an edition of the presented papers from the 1st International Conference on Robot Intelligence Technology and Applications. Berlin: Springer, 2013. Print. Mulholland, Ian, and Zoran Kahric. Demonstration of artificial intelligence technology for transit railcar diagnostics. Washington, D.C.: National Academy Press, 2011. Print. Noah, Shahrul Azman. Soft computing applications and intelligent systems: Second International Multi-Conference on Artificial Intelligence Technology, M-CAIT 2013, Shah Alam, August 28-29, 2013 : proceedings. New York: Sage Publications, 2009. Print. Richardson, J. Jeffrey. Artificial intelligence technology for the maintainer's associate. Brooks Air Force Base, Tex.: Air Force Human Resources Laboratory, Air Force Systems Command, 2012. Print. Scheimer, John. Review of the National Defense Intelligence College's master's degress in science and technology intelligence. Washington, D.C.: National Academies Press, 2011. Print. Zuki, Yaniki. TECOM Artificial Intelligence Technology Symposium proceedings : AI Technology from the Laboratory into the Workplace, Holiday Inn, Howard Johnson Conference Center, Aberdeen, Maryland. Aberdeen, Md.: U.S. Army Test and Evaluation Command, 2010. Print. Read More