An Introduction to Counterintelligence
CI is defined as the effort made by intelligence agencies to stop their hostile counterparts from successfully gaining and collecting useful intelligence. It is the task of intelligence cycle security to protect 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.
Many governments make CounterIntel agencies separate and very distinct from their intelligence collection agencies. In the majority of countries, the counterintelligence is spread across several organizations and there is usually a domestic CI service which is perhaps part of a larger law enforcement organization.
The UK uses this model well with their separate service known as MI5. While MI5 does not have any direct police powers, it works alongside a limb of the police known as Special Branch, they can carry out arrests and conduct warranted searches.
Military organizations will normally have their own CI forces, capable of conducting offensive, protective and counter-espionage operations. The term ‘counter-espionage’ is generally specific to countering human intel, but, since virtually all offensive CI involves exploiting human intel, the term ‘offensive counterintelligence’ is used often to avoid confusion.
In contemporary practice models, a number of missions are associated with counterintelligence. Firstly, ‘defensive analysis’ or looking for vulnerabilities in one’s own organization , and, exercising regard for risk versus benefit, bridging any discovered gaps.
Secondly, ‘offensive counterespionage’ is the set of techniques that neutralizes discovered foreign intelligence service (FIS) personnel and arrests them or, in the case of ambassadors, expels them. Alternatively, it exploits FIS personnel to obtain intelligence for the home side and or actively manipulates 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. However, ‘FIS’ remains the usual term for describing the threat faced by counterintelligence agencies.
Finally, ‘counterintelligence force protection source operations’ (CFSO) are human source operations conducted abroad and are designed to bridge the existing gap in national level coverage in protecting a field station or force from terrorism and espionage.