Burgess made it clear that the value of sharing information, such as the intelligence-gathering that led to the killing of Osama bin Laden at the hands of U.S. troops, far outweighs the pitfalls, such as the WikiLeaks fiasco.

The key to spurring more information sharing, he said, is good relationships - both between intelligence agencies and between the intelligence community and the military.

In addition, the Internet and social media have helped get information to the right people as quickly as possible, which is critical for security, he said. Burgess made his remarks during a seminar on Transatlantic civil security at the Marshall European Center for Security Studies.

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