Awareness of National Security Issues and Response

Overview
The Awareness of National Security Issues and Response (ANSIR) is an FBI's program that provides awareness information in order to reduce the vulnerabilities of U.S. citizens, corporations and institutions to intelligence and terrorist activities. By knowing what intelligence services and terrorist do and how to frustrate their plans, American interests are better protected.

The initial focus of this program in the 1970s was the protection of classified government information, property and personnel. At that time, the program was known as DECA (Developing Espionage and Counterintelligence Awareness). In the 1990s, several changes occurred which led the FBI to decide a larger audience should be receiving its national security message. First, foreign intelligence services expanded their targeting to include unclassified private sector proprietary economic information. Second, the threat of terrorist attack on American interests here in the United States and abroad escalated. Additionally, the serious problem of computer intrusion and the costly menace of the computer virus dictated the FBI awareness message should reach a broader audience in a timely fashion to prevent harm.