Hema , uncle sam is waitting for hema

BANGALORE: She is an Indian-American IT
professional working for the US government.
She has money troubles and her car was
repossessed recently. She speaks openly of
unhappiness with American foreign policy and
she visits her family in India twice a year.
Uncle Sam is watching her.
Or at least, Uncle Sam is asking her co-
workers to keep a watch on her. Because
Uncle Sam thinks she could be what he calls an
"insider threat".
A security training test created by a US
defence department agency warns federal
workers that they should consider the
hypothetical Indian-American woman "Hema" a
"high threat" if she meets three or more "high
risk" indicators.
"Hema" is just one of the stock characters in a
slide prepared by the Defense Information
Systems Agency (DISA) that also features
"Todd", "Jack", "Maria" and "Samuel."
The "Insider Threat" programme developed by
the Obama administration is ostensibly aimed
at stopping the next Bradley Manning or
Edward Snowden from spilling classified or
sensitive information. But what is startling is
that Hema's political dissatisfaction and her
travels to her home country are treated, with
scant reason, as "threat indicators" even while
the slide says she demonstrates "adequate
work quality". DISA's test, dubbed the
"CyberAwareness Challenge", was produced in
October 2012, a month before the Obama
administration finalized its Insider Threat
policy. Reported first by the McClatchy News
Service, the slide about "Hema" is included in
a section of the training about "insider
threats" which are defined by an accompanying
guide as "threats from people who have access
to the organization's information systems and
may cause loss of physical inventory, data, and
other security risks."
In a statement to The Huffington Post, a
Pentagon spokesman said DISA was sensitive to
any civil liberty concerns that might arise from
any portion of the curriculum, which is why it
coordinated with 26 federal agencies "to
ensure the maximum amount of input was
received before going live".
"When considering personnel for a position of
trust that requires a security clearance, there
are many potential indicators that must be
considered when evaluating for insider threat
concerns," the spokesman explained. "The
department takes these variables into
consideration based on past examples of
personnel who engaged in spying or treasonous
acts."
So "Hema", the next time you are ticked off
with US foreign policy, it may be wise not to
speak about it, and not go to your home
country even if you are a loyal citizen of the
United States. Especially if you have money
problems to boot. Evidently, just the act of
dissenting on US foreign policy is sufficient to
raise a red flag.