Mickey Mouse Hearts Spies

"Since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, former and current Disney officials have been advising and sometimes joining the intelligence community to help with everything from spy technology to intelligence analysis," CQ observes. And now, you can join in the fun, too. Mickey is hiring threat analysts, cyber defenders, and security managers, too.

Disney had been aiding the cloak-and-dagger set long before “synergy” became an entertainment industry buzzword: Walt Disney himself worked closely with the FBI, according to the agency’s files.

But the new relationship the Walt Disney Co. has with the intelligence world is a special one, observers say — thanks in part to the striking convergence between the conglomerate’s innovations in high-tech wizardry and the spook community’s adoption of the same kind of gadgetry.

*“You’d be astonished at the overlap,” says Eric Haseltine, a former Disney hand who specialized in virtual reality before taking on executive posts in the National Security Agency’s research and development division and the Directorate of National Intelligence’s science and technology arm.
*

Haseltine says he’s but one out of a significant (though he won’t specify) number of Disney employees who went into national security service after Sept. 11. He notes that both
Disney theme parks and American spy agencies are profoundly interested in robotics, bolstering intellectual property protections — and even encryption, since roller coasters are run by radio transmissions that must be protected. “There is almost no discipline of science and technology a theme park doesn’t touch,” Haseltine said...

There are organizational overlaps as well. In a session at [a] Chicago conference... Disney official Rodney Faraon declared that the company’s own intelligence analysts are focused on threats not all that different from those the government assesses.

“If you take a look at any of our products, they’ll probably look like what the president reads every day” in his daily intelligence briefing, said
Faraon, the company’s director of global intelligence and threat analysis (yes, that’s really a job title at the company). He also noted that his unit has grown from a small cadre of analysts to a
“world-class intelligence enterprise.”

Faraon -- who spent 14 years as an "International Affairs Officer for the U.S. government," according to his LinkedIn profile -- is looking for folks to join him.

The Walt Disney Company's online job board features a listing for an "Analyst, Global Intelligence and Threat Analysis." That person "anticipates and assesses threats that could harm, or make vulnerable TWDC, its employees, guests, or assets."

The analyst -- just like the one Mickey was looking to hire here
-- "reviews information from open/public sources, official sources, and professional contacts, and conducts timely, accurate, relevant, and creative assessments of international security issues. That includes
"monitor[ing] open source media, homeland security and law enforcement bulletins, and information from professional contacts for international, national, and local intelligence that may affect the security of TWDC."

A "demonstrated ability to thrive in a creative, innovative, and highly collaborative work environment" and "Internet fluency and knowledge of Macintosh and Microsoft-based applications" are a must.

Other Disney positions include a a Director of Information Security and a " Senior Manager, Global Security Systems,"
who "serves as the principle expert, advisor and strategist for the development, standardization, deployment, administration and management of all security systems (access control, alarms and closed circuit television) and related protocols for Disney’s non-theme parksecurity organization."

(High five: JB)