An Intro to Counterintelligence
Counterintelligence is defined as the effort made by intelligence agencies to prevent their enemy counterparts from successfully gathering and collecting useful intelligence. It is the task of intelligence cycle security to preserve the process embodied in the intelligence cycle by combining a variety of disciplines which often have to take account of a wide range of potential threats, making complete threat assessment a very complex task.
The majority of governments make CI services separate and very distinct from their intelligence collection services. In many countries, the counterIntel is spread across several organizations and there is usually a domestic counterintelligence service which is often just a branch of a larger law enforcement organization.
Great Britain uses this model successfully with their separate internal intel service known as MI5. While MI5 does not have any direct police powers, it works closely with a limb of the police known as Special Branch, they can carry out arrests and conduct warranted searches.
Military organizations usually have their own CI forces, capable of conducting offensive, protective and counter-espionage operations. ‘Counter-espionage’ is generally specific to countering human intel, but, since virtually all offensive counterintelligence involves exploiting human intel, the term ‘offensive counterintelligence’ is used often to avoid confusion.
In current models of practice, a number of operations are associated with counterintelligence. Firstly, ‘defensive analysis’ or the practice of looking for vulnerabilities in one’s own organization, and, exercising regard for risk versus benefit, bridging the discovered gaps.
Secondly, ‘offensive counterespionage’ is the set of tactics that neutralizes discovered foreign intelligence service (FIS) personnel and arrests them or, in the case of diplomats, expels them. Alternatively, it exploits FIS personnel to get intelligence for the home side and or actively exploits the FIS personnel to damage the hostile FIS.
Current counterintelligence missions have broadened somewhat exponentially now that threat is no longer limited to the FIS. Threats have multiplied to include threats from non-national or trans-national groups, including internal enemies, organized crime and transnational based groups. Still, ‘FIS’ remains the general term for defining the threat faced by counterintelligence agencies.
Finally, ‘counterintelligence force protection source operations’ (CFSO) are human source operations conducted abroad and are planned to fill the existing gap in national level coverage in protecting a field station or force from terrorism and espionage.
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