At the heart of the intelligence effort lies a paradox. Intelligence is valuable only if it can be shared with consumers who need it, but, to the extent that it is more widely shared, risks of compromise are enhanced. The necessary goal is to find the best balance between adequate sharing and effective information security. The current Director of National Intelligence (DNI), James R. Clapper, has referred to the need to find the "sweet spot" between sharing and protecting information. On a daily basis, professional intelligence officers attempt to find the "sweet spot." Compromising secrecy can result in the loss of a source but restricting dissemination of information too narrowly may mean that it does not reach those who need it. The basic approach taken by the U.S. Government has been focused on establishing "need-to-know." Sensitive information is made available only to those persons with appropriate clearances and a "need-to-know" that information for the performance of their duties. The complex systems for handling classified information, especially intelligence information, require careful background investigations of persons with access to classified information, approval by their agencies, and determinations that specific individuals or offices need to use specific classified information. The contemporary U.S. Intelligence Community with its sixteen agencies is very large. The Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) alone is said to have over 16,000 employees and the National Security Agency (NSA), the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO), and the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) also employ thousands of individuals and contractors. Thousands more work for the intelligence organizations of the four military services. In many agencies an organizational culture has evolved over time that encourages a deep commitment to the agency's mission and emphasizes support to a limited number of clients. The CIA and the State Department's Bureau of Intelligence and Research (INR) focus on cabinet officials and the National Security Council (NSC) staff. Agencies in the Department of Defense (DOD) naturally focus on supporting the work of the Pentagon and the operating forces, especially those engaged in combat. In addition to the challenges involved in keeping information secure, organizational cultures and close ties to specific consumers have, however, the potential to discourage sharing information with other agencies. Some observers of bureaucratic practice have perceived a tendency for agencies to restrict dissemination of information that might provide leverage in the decisionmaking process. In the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks in 2001, a consensus emerged that information sharing, especially between intelligence offices and law enforcement officials had been deficient and had contributed to the failure to detect the plot in advance. The U.S. Intelligence Community, now concentrating on the counterterrorism mission, moved to ensure that information with any potential relevance was shared with counterterrorism analysts throughout the Federal Government. (To a much greater extent than in other areas of intelligence concern, couterterrorism requires that bits of information from widely disparate sources be pieced together in a coherent pattern.) The consensus in supporting intelligence information sharing persists. At the confirmation hearing for General Clapper as DNI in July 2010, Senator Dianne Feinstein, the Chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (SSCI), advised the nominee that "Every day of every week, month by month, the DNI must assure coordination between intelligence agencies to eliminate duplication and improve information sharing." In April 2011, President Barack Obama explained his nomination of General David Petraeus to serve as Director of the Central Intelligence Agency: "he understands that staying a step ahead of nimble adversaries requires sharing and coordinating intelligence." Better information sharing throughout the Federal Government and especially among the agencies of the Intelligence Community has become a priority for both the Executive Branch and Congress. In the aftermath of 9/11, major legislation included significant provisions to encourage and, in some cases, mandate greater sharing of information and these provisions have been implemented by both the Bush and Obama Administrations. Investigations of the September 11, 2001 attacks by the two congressional intelligence committees and the 9/11 Commission (the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States) concluded that a central obstacle to acquiring advance information on the plot was the inability to bring together all information that had been acquired about the plotters—there were many clues but they were retained in the files of different agencies. To some extent, information was not shared because of bureaucratic inertia, but in others efforts by determined analysts were quashed by officials determined to ensure that the "wall" between law enforcement and intelligence entities was not breached. Historically, the Federal Government has taken two complementary approaches to this paradox—intelligence information is provided only to those who have appropriate clearances, i.e. , they have had background investigations and been judged to be loyal, trustworthy, and capable of safeguarding classified information. Having a clearance is not, of course, sufficient to gain access to sensitive information; there must also be a "need-to-know," i.e. the individual must have a work-related requirement for access to the information not just generalized curiosity. In theory everyone obtaining access to a given piece of classified information has (a) a clearance indicating that he or she is loyal and trustworthy and (b) a need for the information to perform his or her professional responsibilities. In actuality, of course, as with any human system, there can be mistakes. The number of genuine "secret agents," foreign agents who have been successfully deceptive during their background investigations are very few but not non-existent. Much more numerous are individuals who can be bribed or who become disenchanted with their supervisors, or with a current U.S. policy, and proceed to illegally provide classified information to foreign governments or organizations. Also very damaging are individuals (or whole organizations) that become careless in handling classified information. Even as information sharing was being made a statutory imperative, it was widely understood that any effort to share more information among intelligence agencies increased the risks of information being stolen or compromised. Various types of technical approaches were identified to maintain the security of shared information. Considerable attention to these approaches was reflected in the 2003 report of the Markle Foundation's Task Force on National Security in the Information Age which has had an important influence on approaches to information sharing issues. The Task Force maintained that There are no smart cards or tokens that cannot be cracked, biometrics are not 100 percent reliable, and high-quality passwords are difficult to remember, manage, and enforce. With all of these technologies there are also people and process issues (such as enrollment procedures and audit trails) that can undermine their integrity. Therefore, a multifactored system is a preferable approach. Multifactor authentication typically combines a password with a token or smart cart and can include other forms of authentication including biometrics, challenge codes and questions, and profile access matching. Authentication is strongest when a part of the information resides with the user, a part with the token or smart card, and a part in the network. Credit card companies, good users of multifactor authentication, rely on tokens (credit cards), passwords (PIN), challenge questions ("What's your mother's maiden name? ), and profile matching ("Is this a typical charge for this individual?"). Counterterrorism requires wide varieties of disparate types of information, e.g. visa applications, flight manifests, ties to hostile organizations, conversations with known terrorists, efforts to obtain restricted materials, etc. In counterterrorism and other intelligence missions the intelligence analyst may be involved in piecing together stray bits of information. This greatly complicates establishing need-to-know standards. The WMD Commission argued: If rigidly applied, the 'need-to-know rule is incompatible with a networked environment. In a networked environment, providers of information cannot know for sure when a user 'needs' a particular piece of information. Instead . . . users of this service must be given access to all information broadly available on the network within the clearance levels of the individual user, and consistent with applicable privacy and civil liberties guidelines. As the Bush Administration's 2007 National Strategy for Information Sharing stated: Information acquired for one purpose, or under one set of authorities, might provide unique insights when combined, in accordance with applicable law, with seemingly unrelated information from other sources, and therefore we must foster a culture of awareness in which people at all levels of government remain cognizant of the functions and needs of others and use knowledge and information from all sources to support counterterrorism efforts. A particular complication of using information sharing to support counterterrorism efforts is the difficulty in maintaining separate procedures for handling information regarding U.S. persons. Many types of information including phone or email traffic may involve U.S. persons even if the particular target is a foreign national. Congress and the executive branch continue to address these and related issues in regard to provisions of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) and related legislation. Information sharing has proven to be essential for the counterterrorism mission and it is likely to be vital in other areas such as cybersecurity and in counterintelligence efforts aimed at preventing foreign exploitation of sensitive U.S. defense technologies. Other missions, such as gathering intelligence on the military plans and capabilities of foreign countries, may require less information from law enforcement agencies. A major result of the 9/11 investigations was the USA Patriot Act ( P.L. 107-56 ) and other legislation that removed most of the "wall." Subsequently, the Justice Department modified the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure to permit release of information relating to counterintelligence or foreign intelligence from grand jury investigations to other government agencies with strict protections against misuse. It was recognized, however, that removing restrictions on information sharing was by itself inadequate; there was a need to establish an organizational structure to ensure that information sharing was not just legally possibly but institutionalized in routine agency practice. The Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004 ( P.L. 108-458 ) established the position of the DNI with statutory authorities to foster information sharing.