National Foreign Intelligence Program (NFIP)

The Awareness of National Security Issues and Response (ANSIR) Program is the FBI's National Security Awareness Program. It is the public voice of the FBI for espionage, counterintelligence, counterterrorism, economic espionage, cyber and physical infrastructure protection and all national security issues.

The program is designed to provide unclassified national security threat and warning information to U.S. corporate security directors and executives, law enforcement, and other government agencies. It also focuses on the response capability unique to the FBI's jurisdiction in both law enforcement and counterintelligence investigations. Information is disseminated nationwide via the ANSIR-Email network. Each of the FBI's 56 field offices has an ANSIR coordinator and is equipped to provide national security threat and awareness information on a regular basis to corporate recipients within their jurisdiction. ANSIR-Email increases the capacity for the number of recipients to exceed 100,000 which should accommodate every U.S. corporation and government agency who wishes to receive information from the FBI.

Interested U.S. corporations and law enforcement agencies should provide their email address, position, company name and address as well as telephone and fax numbers to the national ANSIR Email address at ansir@leo.gov. Individual ANSIR Coordinators in the respective field divisions will verify contact with each prospective recipient of ANSIR Email advisories. The FBI is the lead agency for a variety of national security concerns.

With regard to foreign counterintelligence activity, theft of U.S. technology and sensitive economic information by foreign intelligence services and competitors has been estimated by the White House and others to be valued up to a hundred billion dollars annually. It is therefore prudent and necessary that we provide information to those who are the targets of this activity.

Critical infrastructure protection, both cyber and physical, is also a major focus of the FBI and the ANSIR program helps to identify these infrastructures and ensure that communication with the FBI is established. Each ANSIR coordinator in the FBI's 56 field offices is a member of the American Society for Industrial Security. This membership enhances public/private sector communication and cooperation for the mutual benefit of both.

FBI ANSIR Coordinators meet regularly with industry leaders and security directors for updates on current national security issues. The ANSIR program focuses on the techniques of espionage when relating national security awareness information to industry. Discussing techniques allows us to be very specific in giving industry representatives tangible information to help them decide their own vulnerabilities. These techniques include compromise of industry information through dumpster diving where Foreign Intelligence Services and competitors may try to obtain corporate proprietary information, or listening devices which may be as simple as using a police scanner to tune in the frequency of the wireless microphone being used in the corporate boardroom.

Through the ANSIR program and the discussion of techniques of espionage corporations are able to learn from the experiences of others enabling them to avoid adverse results. Along with awareness, the ANSIR program provides information about the FBI's unique response capability with regard to issues of national security. The FBI has primary jurisdiction for a variety of criminal and counterintelligence investigations which have an impact on national security. For instance, the recent passage of the Economic Espionage Act of 1996 opened up new areas of FBI response to the wrongful acquisition of intellectual property. It also encourages corporations to consider how best to protect their proprietary information or trade secrets from both domestic and foreign theft.

The FBI ANSIR Coordinator in the local field office is the point of contact for information about the FBI's national security programs and also to receive initial information which may result in a response by the FBI. U.S. corporations should also contact the local ANSIR Coordinator to receive ANSIR-Email information.