activity report_2012.pdf

an impetus to bilateral and multilateral external cooperation in the field of analysis.  from a technical perspective - implementing new technologies in day to day activities in order to improve performance along the components of the intelligence cycle, coupled with ensuring adequate security policies; 9  - continuing to implement the Strategic Vision ‘SRI in the Age of Information”, by developing new IT systems for intelligence and resource management activities, as well as by adapting the existing ones to operational requirements and current needs; - making intra-institutional flows more efficient and extending the use of IT in internal management processes, with a view to achieving rapid data and information exchanges and performing the electronic management of documents; - ensuring the management of Romania’s Integrated IT System – in its capacity as national authority in this field; - special efforts have been made within the CYBERINT National Center to improve the technical capabilities and professional competences for assessing the security of IT systems, malware analysis and the development of specific applications; - developing hardware or software products to protect electronic information through cryptographic methods;  in terms of cooperation a) at the national level: - increasing cooperation within the national security system, the Service making a substantial contribution in the formats meant to prevent and counter large-scale tax evasion; - strengthening cooperation with prosecution bodies by significantly increasing the number of briefings/notifications sent to them and implementing the necessary measures in order to document criminal activities that might generate risks/threats to national security; - improving cooperation in the management of European affairs in terms of security, as well as in reaching an agreement on the national position in the NATO format; b) at the international level - maintaining a high degree of cooperation with strategic partners, giving an impetus to the cooperation with services in neighboring countries and the extended Black Sea region, and extending the cooperation with services in other regions of strategic interest to Romania; - significantly increasing the number of messages exchanged with partner services, including as a result of SRI’s membership of European multilateral cooperation formats; - organizing high-standard multilateral activities on topical issues for the European intelligence community;  in terms of human resources management - successfully implementing the new human resources policies (filling positions in a competitive manner, job rotation, implementation of mentoring and career counseling activities, using effective criteria for 10  acknowledging and rewarding performance, for motivating and encouraging a career within the Service); - reshaping the education activities within SRI, in accordance with the needs and requirements of beneficiaries, and the integration of IT platforms in the education process; - initiating a pilot program for enhancing the cognitive skills of analysts/future analysts at “Mihai Viteazul” National Intelligence Academy;  in terms of promoting the security culture, actions have been taken to improve the dialog with the decision-makers entitled to receive briefings from SRI (present and potential beneficiaries); to this end, Guidelines for Beneficiaries have been drawn up and made available to them. At the same time, the partnership with the University of Bucharest has been strengthened by implementing a new format for the Security Studies – Information Analysis Master’s program of the Department of Sociology and Social Work. With a view to developing the security culture, the Service continued to issue specialized publications valued by the academia and decision-makers alike.  in terms of public communication, a campaign to promote the image of the institution has been launched; within this campaign, the Service configured new visual identity elements (designed to adequately reflect the values promoted by SRI), reconstructed its website, drew up documents meant to improve its interactions with decision-makers and citizens, and marked important moments for the institution (SRI’s Day, the Antiterrorist Fighter’s Day). 11 CHAPTER III PARAMETERS OF THE ACTIVITIES PERFORMED III.1. Intelligence activities In 2012, the Service acted to maintain high performance parameters, with a focus on:  adapting its capabilities to the dynamics of the operational situation and anticipating developments with a potential impact on national security;  planning and assessing the way in which objectives are met, including in terms of an efficient use of resources, in an integrated manner;  increasing the degree of flexibility and the capability to manage specific activities, according to priorities and to the characteristics of the relevant operational situation;  facilitating the access to information resources and developing the operational analysis capability, so that it was possible to make better use of the information gathered;  enhancing management effectiveness through the emphasis placed on the qualitative dimension of activities, and the increased attention paid to coordination and control;  enhancing cooperation activities by means of reinforcing teamwork within the institution, strengthening cooperation among institutions (mainly with regard to the prevention and countering of tax evasion) and enhancing international cooperation both at bilateral and at multilateral level. Continuing the previous years’ trend (i.e. the level of operational performance achieved in 2010 or the 2011 performance in terms of cooperation and partnership), 2012 was characterized by the reassertion of values. The high level of operational achievements was maintained due to the strengthening of the Service’s intelligence and analytical capacities, to the enhancement of a number of preventive measures (mainly for the prevention and countering of terrorism or of cyber threats), to the development and reinforcement of the cooperation with other organizations dealing with threats and risks to national security, as well as to the intensification of international cooperation activities, both at operational and at analytical level. A number of operational achievements spanning across the entire range of activities can be highlighted in this context:  identification - corruption acts that are likely to affect the decision-making process and therefore can be detrimental to national security; - vast international arms trafficking networks (with ramifications in many other states);  prevention - adoption of a significant number of specific measures; 12  - investigation, identification and communication of the relevant information based on which the judicial bodies can declare certain foreigners as “undesirable citizens” or ban others from entering the country;  termination - the export of weapons to proliferating states; - operations by means of which classified documents regarding the copper reserves in certain mining areas of Romania are taken out of the country; - cross border organized crime networks (bank frauds, money laundering, illegal migration);  dismantling - criminal groups involved in large-scale tax evasion activities; - illegal migration networks or groups involved in the smuggling of cigarettes or oil products; - an important drug trafficking network with connections in Turkey;  notification of the competent bodies, followed by the adoption of detention /arrest measures - decision-makers supporting criminal activities; - members and coordinators of high-risk drug trafficking networks; - members and coordinators of networks specialized in cybercrime activities, i.e. illegal access to IT systems, theft of classified, confidential or private data, the disabling of the targeted systems and unlawful interception of electronic communications;  cyber protection - investigation and countering of cyber-attacks directed against Romanian public institutions. With regard to the dynamics of intelligence activities, SRI has constantly focused on the efficient use of the available information resources and on the identification of the optimal reactions to the threats within the Service’s jurisdiction. The primary goal of our organization consists in efficiently using all the identified aspects in order to:  notify the lawful beneficiaries – by being more attuned to their information needs and by identifying new beneficiaries in specialized areas of expertise;  support the activity of criminal investigation and prosecution bodies, by providing information mainly regarding large-scale organized crime, informal economy and corruption, which have an adverse impact on general welfare or the citizens’ security. The Service’s focus on priorities in the last years has resulted in a decreasing number of operational activities, while the number of complex operations has increased by 13 13% compared to the year 2011. Such operations culminated in the identification, prevention and countering of a number of risks and threats to national security. In 2012 the Service’s specific activity was centered on the following operational priorities:  economic security: - risks to social and economic stability, to regional development and to the modernization of public institutions, as well as to the convergence with certain EU objectives; - ensuring energetic security (access to resources and to the alternative transportation corridors, pricing conditions, sustainable and secure development of the nuclear component within the national energetic system, renewable energy systems); - vulnerabilities affecting the proper functioning of critical infrastructure and relevant development policies; - large-scale tax evasion and fraud, as well as customs fraud; - potential risks to the quality of environmental factors and to the achievement of relevant European standards;  protection of public order and constitutional values: - actions that are likely to have an impact on constitutional values or on the citizens’ rights and liberties; - administrative flaws, irregularities within the judicial system prone to have a negative impact on national security, as well as high-level corruption acts; - systemic dysfunctions in terms of the provision of vital services to the public, mainly in the field of health and education, as well as regarding the proper functioning of the social security system;  counterespionage: - activities carried out by foreign intelligence services from countries with divergent or conflicting interests with respect to our national interest;  cross border threats: - cross border risks, mainly the activities of organized crime networks, smuggling, illegal migration, drug trafficking, cybercrime, proliferation of CBRN weapons, clandestine programs for the provision of conventional or mass destruction weapons and carrier vectors;  cyber intelligence: - cyber-attacks against national IT&C infrastructures;  prevention and countering of terrorism: - terrorist risks generated by the presence in Romania of extremist groups or individuals and amplified by the ongoing developments in countries where the terrorist threat is tangible; 14 From the point of view of specific threats to national security, economic matters were still placed at the top of the Service’s agenda in 2012, due to the lingering effects of the economic crisis and to the need to promote national interests in certain areas of expertise. At the same time, given the dynamics of the security environment, there has been an increase in the number of information related to cyber threats, the prevention and countering of terrorism, cross border organized crime and counterespionage. The distribution of the information gathered by the Service – with regards to specific national security threats – had the following structure:  economic security – 27.34%;  protection of public order and constitutional values – 24.81%;  cross border threats – 17.25%;  counterespionage and promotion of certain security interests – 13.40%;  prevention and countering of terrorism – 11.26%;  protection of classified information – 3.25%;  risks and threats to IT&C – 2.69%. III.2. The Efficient Use of Intelligence III.2.1. Notification of the decision-makers During the specified period, SRI’s reports submitted to the decision-makers were aimed at providing an accurate and comprehensive view of a complex and dynamic environment. The relevance and timeliness of such information – as the feedback received by the Service clearly demonstrates – facilitated the decision-making process. In 2012 one of the Service’s main concerns was managing the dissemination of information given the numerous changes in the government, so as to avoid any drawbacks in terms of ensuring a proper understanding of relevant developments. The activities carried out along these lines had in view:  the priorities established in accordance with the social and economic agenda and with the main concerns in terms of foreign policy (based on the Intelligence Assessment and the Intelligence Priorities National Plan);  the lawful beneficiaries’ competences and information needs (directly stated or derived from strategic orientation documents /statements). This approach enabled the implementation of timely actions and therefore the gathering and dissemination of useful information to support the decision-making process. From the viewpoint of the quality of the reports submitted to the Service’s lawful beneficiaries the main objectives were:  to enhance the relevance, usefulness and comprehensiveness of the intelligence products;  to strengthen the elements of prediction embedded in the reports, so as to provide better support to the decision-making process; 15   to reflect SRI’s direct experience in certain areas of expertise and /or to enhance the assessment angle of information products;  to optimize the use of the relevant aspects resulting from the Service’s external cooperation activities;  to identify new potential beneficiaries with legal competences in specialized areas of expertise, thus lending pragmatism to the reporting process;  to submit complex evaluative documents, revealing – by means of multisource and cross-sector approaches – significant developments with regard to certain security threats and particularly to the implications of such threats to Romania’s national security. Such reports were also submitted to local beneficiaries, in order to give them a comprehensive view of the relevant security developments falling within their purview. In 2012, SRI submitted to central decision-makers 4,807 reports (38.29% more than in 2011), consisting of 2,468 integrated documents. The significant increase in the number of documents submitted to central decision- makers was mainly due to the numerous changes operated within the government. In this context, the Service focused its attention on providing relevant information to the new beneficiaries with regard to a number of issues within their area of expertise. To this purpose, the Service even submitted new reports on the same issues. Apart from this approach, enhancing the degree of complexity and integration of the informative documents by focusing on major security issues remained one of the Service’s priorities. The main national security problems recorded in the reports were:  economic security – 44.08%;  protection of constitutional values – 24.27%;  promotion of Romania’s foreign policy goals – 21.76%;  organized crime and terrorism-related vulnerabilities /risks – 9.89%. In conjunction with the significant increase in the number of informative documents, the central decision-makers’ feedback on SRI’s analyses also increased (by 110.52% - from 513 in 2011 to 1,080 in 2012), demonstrating the government’s interest in the adequate orientation of SRI’s specific activities. The upward trend in terms of the positive feedback on the quality and timeliness of SRI’s reports was also maintained (99.06% of the total feedback, compared to 96.3% in 2011). With regard to the categories of central beneficiaries, the Government and the Presidential Administration are still the main beneficiaries (66.74% - more than in 2011 and 18.45% - less than in 2011 resp