Differences Between Intelligence and Counterintelligence

Intelligence vs Counterintelligence

Have you ever wondered how military agents accomplish a successful mission? We often watch a lot of movies. Though a great percentage of votes go to the romantic genre, even if we are not an avid fan of soldier or detective-themed movies, we still get hooked. We are amazed how the soldiers and detectives are able to solve mysteries or beat their enemy organizations. It’s all thanks to their intelligence and counterintelligence tactics.

The terms “intelligence” and “counterintelligence” are often associated within the military, state, and commercial organizations. Intelligence is considered as the center or foundation in the development of suggested courses of action. A special group works in the intelligence unit to be able to gather all relevant information. They assess the information which can be crucial in their process of decision making. The intelligence unit needs to be careful about their every move. They gather all current information and compare it to previously gathered information on hand. To determine the right course of action, they need to present it to an analyst.

If you ask for the help of the intelligence unit, you have to present a Request for Information. This serves as their requirement in order to get the job done. The RFI is then passed to the intelligence assessing agency and is reviewed by the Requirements Manager. The Requirements Manager will delegate the tasks to the right person to respond to the request made. The intelligence unit can collect information through imagery, open sources, human sources, electronic and communications interceptions.

Depending on the urgency and nature of the RFI, the gathering of information may take time since validation of collected data also counts in the process. The intelligence unit makes sure that all of the methods and data gathered remain highly classified.

With regards to counterintelligence, it is the exerted efforts made by the intelligence organizations to keep their enemy organizations from gathering information against them. From a normal person’s perspective, counterintelligence is said to be more efficient since one or two members of the intelligence team can be sent over to the enemy organization to act as spies. The intelligence cycle security has to shoulder the responsibility of defending their intelligence process.

The counterintelligence unit faces more risks and threats in completing their tasks or missions. Most of the government’s counterintelligence units are spread between several organizations or deployed to several locations to be able to gather substantial information. All countries pose the risk of terrorist attacks and other forms of threats which is why having counterintelligence units is very crucial.

In Canada, their intelligence and counterintelligence agencies may be divided into other subunits such as general defensive counterintelligence, security intelligence, law enforcement intelligence, and offensive counterintelligence.

The military and the state seem to be working behind the eyes of the people since they have these intelligence and counterintelligence agencies. But these agencies are important to be able to meet their purpose, and that is to protect the country from several threats.

Summary:

1. The terms “intelligence” and “counterintelligence” are often associated within the military, state, and commercial organizations.

2. Intelligence is considered as the center or foundation in the development of suggested courses of action through gathering all relevant information. Counterintelligence is the exerted efforts made by the intelligence organizations to keep their enemy organizations from gathering information against them.

3. The intelligence unit can collect information through imagery, open sources, human sources, electronic and communications interceptions. The data will then be classified by an analyst to be able to come up with the best course of action.

4. All gathered information remains highly classified or kept confidential.

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