Example Of Counterinteligence Research Paper

Security is one of the major issues that need to be addressed in the world. There are many organizations that have been mandated to handle security with these organizations differing in different nations. However some of the organizations have gone against their nation’s boundaries to provide international class security. All these measures are put in place to make the world as safer and suitable place to live for all. Criminal activities have become so rapid and the need to develop better and quality security services has seen the rise of the new development is security operations .Counterintelligence activities have seen more modern ways of ensuring security. This kind of intelligence has also risen with the development of many nations that have emerged and wanted to gain military superiority. Most developed nations want to be on the frontline in terms of offering security to their citizens. The intelligence that is collected is used in fighting major crimes such as sabotage, treason and espionage. Counter intelligence involves the process of safeguarding intelligence of any nations from people who are viewed as threats. Any government body knows the need to safeguard information since it is the driving force of economic, political, social and even financial superiority. Lot of resources are being used by the governing organs to protect the people from any threat that a nation is exposed into. During the period of the Second World War and the cold war, many rival nations used to rely on intelligence from rival nations to strategize their attacks.
The purpose of counter intelligence is to provide the different security organs with information on how to handle security threat both from within and outside a country. Counterintelligence includes collection of substantial data that can be used to fight a security threat. This intel can be used to protect political, social and political supremacy of a nation. With all nations competing on economic development, analysts have indicated that the future political power will also be have to gain economic superiority. The intelligence information can be collected within a short or long period of time depending on the nature of the threat. Sometimes the intelligence is not from within one country and involves travelling in the effort of collecting more information. Intelligence officers are mainly spies who work for the security organs and according to the nature of the missions given. In many countries counter intelligence mainly concerns external threats. The United States was among the first nations to put into place counterintelligence measures. These measures were mainly put into place to protect military secrets. Other nations used to work with spies to reveal the military secrets and this called for the implementation of the counterintelligence measures. Any nation that cannot safeguard its information is highly prone to attacks from its enemies.
With the change in time, the counterintelligence authorities that were being used I the last decade cannot be used in the current decade. Information and technology has offered a different approach in the process of trying to develop a smooth counterintelligence sytems.The systems have to be to ensure that national security is not at any time under threat. The nature of crimes has also changes with new crime trends emerging quite often. The superiority for power and military supremacy among different nations has also seen new measures being put in place in counterintelligence. The two main processed that are involved in counterintelligence are collection and analysis of information. These two processes determine the action that is taken by the relevant authorities. A poor system of collection the information will result to security threat in a nation and failure to have a proper analysis system can result to poor response. The quality of intelligence gathered is first affected by the methods of gathering and collecting information.
Security agents collect information related to various people, places and even events that cannot be accessed publicaly.The information cannot also be available thorough a diplomatic approach if it involves a foreign citizen. In the past the collection of intelligent information was viewed by security organs as a simple process that was mainly done through the manual approaches. There are different stages involved in the collection of information. With the number of threats that a nation can be exposed to being on the rise, information collection needs to be carried out in an efficient and secretive manner. If a nation realizes that there has been intelligent information concerning its operations in another country, it can result to war. In the past there were, collection of information was simple since the number of threats were very few and mainly involved military intelligence. Public information is not very reliable in the collection of intelligent information. When a nation suspects any activity being carried out by spies in its soil, it has to ensure that this information is not leaked out. There have been cases where people suspected to be spies have been killed; others go through thorough interrogation process.
Sources of counterintelligence information have changes with time; these sources include casual sources who involve private citizens or members of an organization operating privately. Intelligent services have to ensure that these members are protected and not revealed. Some intelligent services have now even given these members protection with some getting new identities and nationality. This is done to protect their safety incase. Official sources of information include foreign and domestic government organs. This organs work together in gathering intelligence information. However the working relationship between many countries in regard to intelligent information is changing with time. Many countries are now reluctant to share intelligent information. This has seen the emergence of new techniques of collecting intelligent information. With information technology having spread widely, it is possible to access information concerning various individuals in different security databases. Most security organs dealing with intelligent information related to threats such as terrorism share the information globally. Personal information such as gender, age and even nationality of some suspected criminals is available in different security databases such as the FBI database. This makes collection of intelligent information simple and faster. Security organs have even hacked foreign databases to access private and confidential information used in counterintelligence. When dealing with crimes such as terrorism, intelligence authorities have turned to the use of drones which are used in the collection of information. In the past spies were mostly being relied on to gather intelligence information but this is changing with time. Collection of information that is used in counterintelligence has seen the emergence of even online monitoring programs. Some nations are monitoring all information that is shared on online platforms to ensure that no security intel is leaked out. This has been done due to the emergence of cybercrimes that have not been in existence in the past. Some nations have had even their security websites and databases hacked making them prone to external and internal criminal attacks. The collection of intelligence information has taken a different approach with emergence of crimes such as terrorism .Intelligence organs work with other organs such as the immigration department to ensure that any information related to counterintelligence is provided (Deady 2008).
The second most important process in counterintelligence is the collection analysis of information. Analysis involves conversion of information collected to intelligence information. The success of any intelligence information is determined by the analysis process used. Quality of quantity of intelligent information has not much effect if the analysis is poorly done. Different people working in CI such as agents, MDCI analysts and interrogators work together to ensure that there is quality analysis of data. There are different approaches used in the analysis of information and they include HUMINIT, SIINT and IMINT.All these processes are done to ensure that there is quality analysis in CI.The analysis process has been influenced by the increase demand for information. Policy makers in any nation as well as the defense organs require well analyzed counterintelligence. One key factor that has influenced analysis of CI is application of technology. It is now becoming easy to analyze information in a fast and more accurate manner (Cunningham 2004).
Intelligence organs have their databases that are used for analyzing of intelligence information .Since counterintelligence puts a nation’s interest first, the analysis has to be carried out in a secretive manner. In the past analysis was more of a human rather than technical approach which was quite slow. Analysis has to ensure that relevant information is used in counterintelligence and any redundant information is disposed. Now with analysis softwares it is easy to analyze and monitor intelligent information. Analysis has to be done with consideration of the different motives and goals of counterintelligence. Increase in the number of threats with new threats such as terrorism, cybercrimes emerging, counterintelligence analysis has to change .Public sources of information have become so common in counterintelligence, unless they are well handled, they can provide misguiding information. Analysis has to classify different intelligence collected for the purpose of ensuring proper strategizing.
Unless counterintelligence measures are well applied in a nation, the security of that nation will face many threats. In order to protect a nation from both internal and external threats, counterintelligence measures have to be in line with the changing trends. There are other processes that take place in counterintelligence but their functionality is determined by the collection and analysis of intelligence information. Information is one key weapon that can be used in even overthrowing a government and carrying out other devastating crimes, counterintelligence measures if appropriately applied can protect the safety of a nation. Security organs cannot work effectively if they do not have the knowledge on how to handle counterintelligence, there is therefore need for security organs to know the changes that have taken place in counterintelligence. Unless the change is applied, a nation’s efforts to ensure that it is able to efficiently manage counterintelligence might not be effective. When information such as that related to military operations in a nation are leaked out, there can be devastating results.
Work Cited
Cunningham, David. There's something happening here: the New Left, the Klan, and FBI counterintelligence. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2004.
Davis, James Kirkpatrick. Spying on America: the FBI's domestic counterintelligence program. New York: Praeger, 2001.
Deady, John M.. 21st century counterintelligence. New York: Nova Science, 2008.