They've been blamed by employers across the globe as a contributory factor of employees' declining productivity, but it can't be argued that social networking hasn't had an effect on peoples' everyday lives. From mainstream social networks for meeting friends and sharing music and videos through to business relations and even video games and pets, there's a social network for almost every conceivable topic. When you see people at the office using Facebook or MySpace during their working day, you could be forgiven for suspecting a level of slacking off on their part. However, for one soon-to-launch social network, it will form the basis of peoples' day to day work.It has now been reported by CNN that the CIA, FBI and US National Security Agency (NSA) are testing a social networking platform to be used by analysts across the sixteen US intelligence agencies in the war against terror. These analysts won't be swapping the latest YouTube video or posting their thoughts on the latest Hollywood release, however. Instead they will use the service to share information on terrorist activities and troop movements around the world.
The service - to be called A-Space - has been undergoing tests for several months and will officially launch across the entire US intelligence network on September 22nd. Its remit will be to provide all the necessary resources and information available across all intelligence services in order to better protect the US against potential dangers. Of the service, Michael Wertheimer, assistant deputy director of National Intelligence for Analysis, told CNN:
"It's a place where spies can not only meet but share data they've never been able to share before. This is going to give them, for the first time, a chance to think out loud, think in public among their peers, under the protection of an A-Space umbrella,"
The information posted on A-Space will, of course, be highly classified and will not be accessible to the public. In order to guard against the threat of current - or future - double agents, access to the information will be restricted to intelligence personnel who possess the necessary security clearance and who have a legitimate reason to be examining particular pieces of information.
It was also reported that analysts will be able to collect friends on A-Space, in a similar fashion as they might on Facebook or other social network. According to Wertheimer:
"It's every bit Facebook and YouTube for spies, but it's much, much more."
The only problem is they will also be classified, so no-one outside the intelligence network will ever know. After all, it's a secret.
