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The obscure Investigations and Threat Management Service (ITMS) used tactics, including broad keyword searches on employee emails and scouring Americans’ social media for criticism of the census, to gather information on hundreds of people inside and outside the department, documents and interviews show.
Commerce Department security unit evolved into counterintelligence-like operation, Washington Post examination found Shawn Boburg An American flag flies outside the Commerce Department headquarters in Washington. (Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg News) An obscure security unit tasked with protecting the Commerce Department’s officials and facilities has evolved into something more akin to a counterintelligence operation that collected information on hundreds of people inside and outside the department, a Washington Post examination found. The Investigations and Threat Management Service (ITMS) covertly searched employees’ offices at night, ran broad keyword searches of their emails trying to surface signs of foreign influence and scoured Americans’ social media for critical comments about the census, according to documents and interviews with five former investigators.
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Commerce Department security unit evolved into counter-intelligence-like operation
An obscure security unit tasked with protecting the Commerce Department s officials and facilities has evolved into something more akin to a counterintelligence operation.
By Shawn BoburgThe Washington Post
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An obscure security unit tasked with protecting the Commerce Department’s officials and facilities has evolved into something more akin to a counterintelligence operation that collected information on hundreds of people inside and outside the department, a Washington Post examination found.
The Investigations and Threat Management Service (ITMS) covertly searched employees’ offices at night, ran broad keyword searches of their emails trying to surface signs of foreign influence and scoured Americans’ social media for critical comments about the census, according to documents and interviews with five former investigators.
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The US Department of Commerce building in Washington, DC, pictured in 2019. A security unit within the department has been accused of illegally spying on employees and private citizens (Getty)
A security unit for the US commerce department has been accused of spying on Asian-American employees and critics of the census as part of an undercover bid to root out “foreign influence”.
The Investigations and Threat Management Service (ITMS), whose job it is to protect employees, allegedly over-stepped legal limits by instead behaving like a counterintelligence agency and collecting information on hundreds of staff and private citizens, including searching their desks and reading their emails and social media, according to