Italian intelligence and security services

Italy, like most nations, has several intelligence and security services.

At the highest level is a cabinet-level Comitato interministeriale per la sicurezza della Repubblica (CISR, interministerial committee for the security of the Republic), which has both coordinating responsibilities like the U.S. Director of National Intelligence (DNI). The Dipartimento delle Informazioni per la Sicurezza (DIS, "Department of Information Security"), is the secretariat for the CISR, but also is the custodian of information and is responsible for personnel security clearances.

The foreign intelligence service, with responsibilities comparable to the Russian SVR, U.K. Secret Intelligence Service, or U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, was, until recently, known as SISME. It is now called AISE, or Agenzia Informazioni e Sicurezza Esterna.

SISMI was officially a military organization. Now, in a purely military function like the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency, there is a Reparto informazioni e sicurezza dello Stato maggiore della difesa (RIS). Agenzia informazioni e sicurezza interna (AISI) is the domestic intelligence service, formerly the Servizio per le Informazioni e la Sicurezza Democratica (SISDE) (Intelligence and Democratic Security Service),