As the 23rd Secretary of the Air Force under President Obama, one of Deborah Lee James' principal concerns was U.S. advancement in space. She believes its mission-critical for the United States to better protect its satellite communications and missile warning systems. The Cipher Brief's Fritz Lodge joined Secretary James for a discussion on the role of U.S. armed forces in space - and some of the game-changing advancements that may come soon in space-based missile defense. 

From 1985 to 1994, CIA officer Aldrich Ames was actually a spy for the Soviets. At the time of his arrest in ’94, he had compromised more CIA assets than any other mole in history. This week, The Cipher Brief’s Leone Lakhani spends 15 minutes with former CIA officer Sandy Grimes, who was instrumental in uncovering Ames. She had worked beside him as a young officer with the CIA’s Soviet bloc division. Here, she shares her personal experiences with Ames and why she believes he was such a valuable Soviet target.

There’s seldom a day that we don’t hear about cyber attacks, hacks, and how governments and the general public should protect against cyber threats or criminals. One company says its mission is to use technology to do just that: keep people safe online. The company’s called Jigsaw. It’s a technology incubator created by Google. But how do they do it? The Cipher Brief’s Leone Lakhani spends 15 minutes with Jigsaw’s Managing Director Scott Carpenter to find out.

This week, The Cipher Brief's Suzanne Kelly spends 15 Minutes with Ali Soufan. Ali is a former FBI special agent, who recently wrote The Anatomy of Terror: From the Death of Bin Laden to the Rise of the Islamic State. What's unique about the book is that he wrote it like a novel, to bring the readers into the world of Bin Laden and help them better understand it. So how did he come up with the idea?