Security Information Service

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Security Information Service

Bezpečnostní informační služba (BIS)
Seal of the Security Information Service
Agency overview
Formed	30 July 1994
Preceding agencies	Security Information Service of the Czech Republic (1992) (Czechoslovak) Federal Security Information Service
Jurisdiction	Government of the Czech Republic
Headquarters	Prague, Czech Republic 50°3′16.51″N 14°20′11.98″E / 50.0545861°N 14.3366611°E / 50.0545861; 14.3366611
Motto	Audi, Vide, Tace  (Hear, See, Be silent)
Employees	1,000 (2019 estimate)[1]
Annual budget	$65 million (as of 2017)[2]
Agency executive	Michal Koudelka [cs], Director
Parent agency	Government of the Czech Republic
Website	www.bis.cz

The Security Information Service (BIS, Czech: Bezpečnostní informační služba) is the primary domestic national intelligence agency of the Czech Republic.^[3] It is responsible for collecting, analyzing, reporting and disseminating intelligence on threats to Czech Republic's national security, and conducting operations, covert and overt, both domestically and abroad. It also reports to and advises the Government of the Czech Republic on national security issues and situations that threaten the security of the nation.

The BIS headquarters is located in Stodůlky, Prague 5. The Security Information Service reports directly to the Government, Prime Minister and President of the Czech Republic and is overseen by the Permanent Commission of the Chamber of Deputies.^[a] It is under the command of the Government and organized militarily.

Command, control and organization

The BIS is a statutory body under the Act No. 154/1994 Coll., on the Security Information Service and it is strictly apolitical and has limited police powers; BIS can detain, arrest or interrogate suspects only as part of its internal oversight.^[5] The service reports to the Government, Prime Minister and President of the Czech Republic and its activities are regulated and overseen by the Government, Permanent Commission of the Chamber of Deputies and its own internal audit.^[6] The service is headed by the Director who is appointed by the Prime Minister with consent of the Committee on Security of the Chamber of Deputies.^[7]

The current director is Michal Koudelka [cs], who has served since 15 August 2016, after being sworn in by Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka.^[8]

Duties

The Security Information Service performs duties associated with the analysis, democracy and constitutionality, terrorism, counter-intelligence, cybersecurity, organized crime, proliferation and use of strategically important intelligence regarding the fields of politics, economics and intelligence within the territory of the Czech Republic.^[9]

See also

• Centre Against Terrorism and Hybrid Threats

References

External links

• Official website
• Official website (in Czech)
• Security Information Service at the Wayback Machine (archive index)
• "BIS (Czech Counter-intelligence service) in transformation, 1994-2014", Yu Cheng, European Intelligence Academy, Charles University in Prague, July 2014

Notes