National Security Intelligence
The United States government is always monitoring and searching for information that could pose a security threat to the citizens and critical government systems in the country. This can range from anything to foreign occurrences and military operations to climate concerns and political uprisings. Every event has a reaction, it is in the interest of national security to identify those potential harmful events, gain as much relevant information about it, and parlay that into comprehensive action for protecting the well-being of the United States.
What is National Security Intelligence?
National security intelligence is essentially the process and act of providing information to policymakers to help them make important decisions. This information, (often referred to as intelligence), is provided primarily through the joint processes of collection and analysis.
Collection, the less complex of the two, is simply the gathering of information for and through government agencies that is not easily or readily accessible to the public. This being said, there is often a need for publicly available information to perform proper analyses and fill in gaps, which is where collection can become complicated. Should public information even be collected and used for government purposes? The general consensus seems to lean towards “yes”, but only if gathering public information is not an intelligence agency’s main goal, and is more of a byproduct of the intelligence collection process.
Analysis, the process by which the information collected is analyzed and combined with information gathered from publicly-available resources, faces a similar problem, as it’s regularly debated whether information should be analyzed if it could’ve been gathered entirely through public sources. While there’s not as straight-forward of an answer for this issue, it’s usually agreed upon that the decision of whether or not to pursue analysis is unique to different situations, and should be determined by analysts and their customers.
Along with collection and analysis, however, National Security Intelligence sometimes calls for covert actions, which are used to actively influence events in other countries without directly implying the U.S. government’s involvement. These actions are usually orchestrated by the CIA, under authorization from the President.
And finally, one of the most crucial parts of National Security Intelligence lies in counterintelligence. Counterintelligence refers to protecting the U.S. from foreign intelligence agencies, and can be split into the two distinctions of offensive and defensive missions. Offensive counterintelligence missions involve recruiting or monitoring foreign intelligence agents, and defensive missions include investigating cases and preparing analyses concerning foreign intelligence threats. To accomplish these missions, all collection intelligence agencies must make sure the information they gather is true and trustworthy, which is perhaps one of the biggest challenges National Security Intelligence faces.
Why is National Security Intelligence Important?
National security intelligence not only protects the U.S. from threats like espionage and terrorist attacks, but helps U.S. government leaders gain a better view of what’s happening world-wide so they can make well-informed decisions. In essence, the overall goal of National Security Intelligence is to provide accurate, relevant information to policymakers as quickly as possible so they can make decisions in America and other allied countries’ best interests. The hope is that as government leaders receive better information, it’s reflected in better decisions on their part.
National Security in the United States:
With the release of the 2022 Annual Threat Assessment, the United States Office of the Director of National Intelligence lays out substantial intelligence based potential threats. It is crucial to understand the intelligence that these threats are founded on and how cybersecurity fits into the mitigation of these threats in our ever evolving technological world. This threat assessment reveals China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea are the countries in the forefront of national security concern, especially when it comes to potential cyber attacks and international cyber crime. Specifically within the last year, China and Russia cyber activities have been rigorously monitored due to their ability and potential for disrupting critical government infrastructure, hacking into sensitive national data, and destroying systems for fundamental industries like oil, electric, and railway companies. It is because of past attacks and current attempts at hacking government and military systems, the United States uses multiple channels of information collection through agencies like the CIA and DHS to sift through for revenant leads and report the most current and actionable intelligence. The countries of Iran and North Korea lack the sophistication of cyber expertise that China and Russia have built, but recognizing their fast growing abilities for cyber threats and attacks against the U.S. and infrastructure established within their respective areas is crucial for an offensive national security approach. According to the Identity Theft Resource Center, in the first 9 months of 2021 there were over 1,291 data breaches, a 17.9% increase from 2020, with that number set to rise over the next year.
Crest’s Role in National Security:
Understanding how to secure critical infrastructure for the United States government is Crest’s area of expertise, having worked with multiple government agencies since our founding, we understand the importance of relevant and vast intelligence. Our goal is to provide not only the most timely intelligence to officials and decision makers in all critical agencies and corporations, but to also provide actionable offensive and defensive cyber mitigation practices. Crest offers a range of services from threat hunting, vulnerability scanning and assessments, penetration testing, security architecture and engineering, and cyber threat intelligence and reporting that is sure to identify any institutions’ cyber security weaknesses and provide ample solutions for a more secure system. Intelligence is the first step in the mitigation process however, therefore Crest has worked on completing the most comprehensive information gathering application for sorting through various kinds of threats internationally. CrestVision is our dedication to securing the United States from domestic and global threats of any kind, providing the most pertinent information for intelligence collection, analysis and covert action. Visit the Services portion of our website or email info@crestassure.com for more information on how Crest can provide for your institution.
