Report of the National Commission for the Review of the Research and Development Programs of the United States Intelligence Community, Unclassified Version, released November 2013

“The global spread of scientific and technical knowledge challenges U.S. national security. It threatens to erode essential capabilities of the U.S. Intelligence Community (IC) and the strength of the U.S. R&D base. The IC has played a vital role in maintaining the United States‘ global preeminence. Over the years, its successes have been underpinned by R&D achievements in the private and public sectors, some of which were directly supported by research programs sponsored by the federal government. From the first mass data storage and retrieval systems to satellites to the mathematics of modern cryptography, public – and private -sector R&D has been crucial to the ability of the IC to perform and succeed in its missions. But today U.S. technological superiority is diminishing in important areas, and our adversaries‘ investments in S&T – along with their theft of our intellectual property, made possible in part by insufficient cyber protection and policies – are giving them new, asymmetric advantages. The United States faces increasing risk from threats against which the IC could have severely limited warning, deterrence, or agility to develop effective countermeasures.”