Securing the Integrity of Intelligence: Creative Writing Essay

INTELLIGENCE COLLECTION ISSUE
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Securing the Integrity of Intelligence
Identify an intelligence collection related issue that requires closer examination.
Information security is of paramount importance to intelligence collection. Intelligence is information of high value and must be collected in secret. Confidentiality is also important at all levels of the agents who handle the intel. The intel should only be accessed by the authorized individuals with the clearance to act on it accordingly. Ensuring the information is safely relayed to the intended recipients without compromising its integrity is difficult. Suppose the information is leaked at any stage or is accessed by an unauthorized individual. In that case, it may be relayed to enemies/competitors, and the information could lead to its strategic advantage. It is important to find new ways to ensure that the information does not reach malicious people or lose its strategic advantage to the collector. Collecting, storing and transmitting digital information is increasingly becoming difficult, especially through the internet. Hackers and other malicious individuals are increasingly creating tools to access the information and either alter, delete or duplicate it. All these possible scenarios compromise the intelligence.
1 Clearly state the problem.
If intelligence reaches any unintended recipient, it can easily lose its strategic advantage to the collector. Intelligence is most vulnerable when being transmitted and or stored. If the channel or storage medium is compromised, all the information could be altered, deleted or duplicated to serve the interests of the enemy. For example, if the Taliban get intelligence that the US military was about to bomb their camp using missiles, they can either flee or create countermeasures. Therefore, the US military's efficacy to neutralize the Taliban target is highly depended on the Taliban never getting the information. This is the very reason why high-value targets of the military remain a secret and is only discussed by high-ranking officers. The world was informed about the operation that killed Osama Bin Laden after the US military had completed the mission CITATION Mar111 \l 1033 (Mazzetti, Cooper, & Baker, 2011). If the information had reached Osama before the operation, possibly he could have escaped and or deployed other defensive measures to avoid being captured or killed by the US military. Closely guarding intelligence is very important. However, even the party being spied on is also trying to get a strategic advantage over its enemy and has its intelligence network. Part of the network is to find ways to intercept the intelligence to deploy countermeasures to the intelligence.
2 Explain why this is an important issue. How will further research and solution assist with mitigating the effects of this issue?
There are several reasons why securing intelligence is important. First, it loses its strategic advantage immediately it is accessed by anyone other than the people authorized to do so. It can easily reach the enemies who find ways to counter the strategic advantage of the information. It can also be embarrassing to let the enemy know your secrets as nearl...