Information in a Post Wikileaks World

I’ve been reading some very interesting things about a writer named Brad Meltzer. He writes thrillers and you can only imagine the feeling he had when one day he got a call from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

I learned about Brad (I’ll take the liberty to call him Brad since we are now fellow authors) through this New York Daily News article:

http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/2011/01/11/2011-01-11_author_brad_meltzer_was_recruited_in_government_agency_horrified_at_how_easy_it_.html

He was asked to join the government’s Red Cell Program. A “Red Cell” (also known by other names) is a group of hand selected people gathered together to look at problems in their own way and come up with alternative solutions. The awesome thing about this is the people they select are citizens, chosen for their out-of-the-box thinking. Brad says CIA and FBI were present but… “there were far more professors and transportation employees, musicians and software programmers - regular people whose names will never be known and whom you'll never hear about.”

This group of about 20 people would be presented with a scenario such as…how would a terrorist attack some publicly held meeting. (Think U.N. or G8 Summit) They would be provided details of location and attendees and then see what they came up with.

I think this whole thing is a great idea.

So what’s my worry? So far they have completed ten reports and another six are in work. I hope they take great care to secure the information contained in those reports. Terrorists aren’t smart but they are like the Borg on Star Trek. They adapt quickly. They don’t need us to do their thinking for them. So – into my story idea file goes the question of how potentially valuable and dangerous are these reports? What if terrorists hacked the system they were stored in and stole them? What if they were leaked or sold to the highest bidder? It will make an interesting story…I just hope it stays in the realm of fiction.