At AFA, AFOSI protects innovation shaping future of air, space power
The Air & Space Forces Association’s Air, Space & Cyber Conference, held Sept. 14–16 this year in National Harbor, Maryland, brought together thousands of military members, government officials, defense executives, engineers and technology experts, with nearly 300 exhibits showcasing technologies and capabilities that could shape future air and space warfare.
But that concentration of technology often attracts more than partners and customers, like foreign intelligence collectors, said counterintelligence officials with the Air Force Office of Special Investigations.
“Instead of a cold call or a cold pitch, they have a relationship established,” said Special Agent Spencer Oden, supervisory special agent at AFOSI 7th Field Investigations Squadron, describing how potential foreign intelligence collectors may use conferences to establish access.
“They can go to that next level, build that relationship and start working toward their objective,” he added.
But AFOSI Special Agents do not walk into events like AFA with a blank slate, he said.
Information shared across the Intelligence Community has helped Special Agents understand the individuals, behaviors and collection methods that may warrant attention.
In fact, what Special Agents observed at AFA added to that intelligence picture and will help other organizations recognize similar activity elsewhere, Oden said.
Although Oden did not detail what Special Agents were seeing at this year’s conference, he made clear the concern is not hypothetical and added that information gathered from previous events also helped identify potential foreign intelligence collectors during the event.
For the Special Agents working behind the scenes, AFA’s focus was not only on what was being displayed, but on who was showing interest, what they were trying to learn and who they were trying to meet.
“The first objective [of a foreign intelligence collector] may be as simple as identifying the right person, starting a conversation and building a relationship they can come back to later,” Oden said.
In many ways, AFA compressed AFOSI’s broader counterintelligence and technology-protection mission into three days, he said, by bringing the technologies, companies and people that AFOSI’s Special Agents work to protect year-round under one roof.
“We’re here to protect the information, people and the resources,” Oden said.
But, with hundreds of technology exhibits and thousands of attendees, Special Agents cannot be everywhere at once. That’s why part of AFOSI’s “tech protect strategy,” Oden said, is making sure the people who know their technology best, also know what to do when something does not look right.
This approach starts before the doors open.
Before AFA, Oden said AFOSI works with the Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency to brief cleared defense contractors on potential threats and provide direct contact information. That outreach continues on the exhibition floor, where AFOSI teams stay connected with companies throughout the conference.
“If something were to arise, they would let us know,” Oden said.
The relationship works both ways, he added. Companies provide AFOSI with their own points of contact, which gave Special Agents another set of eyes across an exhibition hall too large for any one organization to monitor alone.
“No one agency can do it alone,” Oden said, adding that protecting emerging technology requires AFOSI to work across the federal government, combining the authorities, knowledge and capabilities of multiple organizations.
“Everybody brings what they’re good at,” he said. “We combine those capabilities to get after a shared threat.”
There may not always be an arrest, prosecution or other visible conclusion to a counterintelligence mission, but sometimes success means information stayed protected. By that measure, Oden said AFOSI’s role at AFA was a success.
“All the generals and senior leaders, every single one of them have seen value in everything we’ve done,” Oden said. “That, to me, is success.”
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