Joint Worldwide Intelligence Communications System
JWICS superseded the earlier DSNET2 and DSNET3, the Top Secret and SCI levels of the Defense Data Network based on ARPANET technology.
[1][2] The system deals primarily with intelligence information and was one of the networks accessed by Chelsea Manning, in the leaking of sensitive footage and intelligence during the Afghanistan and Iraq wars to whistleblower organization WikiLeaks in 2010,[3] primarily the video used in WikiLeaks' Collateral Murder prior to leaking a trove of US diplomatic cables.
Because of the information it houses, JWICS is subject to discussion around cybersecurity and the United States' vulnerability to cyber threats.
The Joint Worldwide Intelligence Communications System (JWICS) is a secure intranet system utilized by the United States Department of Defense to house "Top Secret/Sensitive Compartmented Information"[5] In day-to-day usage, the JWICS is used primarily by members of the Intelligence Community, such as the DIA within the DoD, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation under the Justice Department.
Conversely, SIPRNet and NIPRNet account for the overwhelming bulk of usage within DoD and non-intelligence government agencies and departments.
[5][6][8]The vulnerability of secure networks such as JWICS to insider threats was revealed with the leak of hundreds of thousands of secret US intelligence documents, the largest in US history at the time.
While serving in Iraq in 2010, Manning accessed JWICS, along with its lower-level counterpart SIPRNET, to leak documents to WikiLeaks, a non-profit platform for whistleblowers headed by Julian Assange.
[9] It is believed that Manning's decision to supply the files to WikiLeaks began partly as a result of directly experiencing "war porn", graphic videos watched by analysts for entertainment.
A notable video viewed by Manning that would later also capture public attention involved a US Apache helicopter firing on civilians.
[9][7] All of this information was contained in secure networks such as JWICS, causing their legitimacy as a form of a protection, rather than censorship, to be widely scrutinized in media and academic discourse.
Training and monitoring is now in place to identify risk factors in analysts to prevent them using their position to leak documents from secure networks.
[8] Cybersecurity concerns are often discussed with a focus on hacking and external threats, but Mark Ambidner of The Atlantic highlighted the susceptibility of defense networks to trusted actors: All it took was one disaffected young man [Sic] with a rudimentary knowledge of computer systems to bring down an entire edifice of code names, secret networks, compartmented channels, and protected information.
[8]Some argue from a pro-public interest perspective that JWICS allows government to manipulate releases of information (as occurred in "Collateral Murder") to shirk accountability for wrongdoings.
[12] Others, who take a more conservative approach to information release, cite the importance of protecting troops on the ground and deny the idea that full transparency is essential for democracy.
Thus, the advent of the World Wide Web in 1991 was viewed as a triumph of public interest, allowing individuals to "freely share what they knew."
[14] In several of WikiLeaks' leaks involving JWICS in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, they worked alongside publications such as the New York Times.
[6] An example of this threat came to reality in 2008 when Russian malware made its way into the SIPRNET system by way of a thumb-drive which was plugged into classified-level computers accessing the network.
The virus, once gaining access to these networks, acted as a 'beachhead' which allowed the transfer of data to foreign computers[17][6] The hack was, at the time, the largest compromise of US cybersecurity in history, and initially led to a ban on the use of thumb-drives.
[16] Since then the Department of Defense has rolled out and continually developed 'Einstein' software aimed at detecting and preventing intrusion into federal government networks.
