Confronting the security-related duty of counterintelligence, it can be overwhelming. In every organization with classified programs or information, such a point of contact is necessary. This will be the person to whom the covering agent from the federal investigative element (such as the FBI) will come for regular information about concerns that might have significance in defending your classified activities. Where do you begin in identifying your responsibilities? Students of counterintelligence always begin with the basic information to serve as a basis to develop personal professionalism over time. Counterintelligence is a diverse concept, incorporating other disciplines of security. It is best to start by understanding what it does to defend our classified programs.
Training Is Your Force Multiplier
Begin with the Center for Development of Security Excellence (CDSE) website. At this government information station, you will discover a host of training opportunities which can be built upon to accomplish your new, additional counterintelligence duty. At this location you can begin to understand how counterintelligence exists to detect, deter, and defend against adversaries who want to compromise or destroy our classified programs. The goal is to ensure employees report unusual events or people, then to have the reports investigated professionally. The first step is for staff to recognize of what those unusual events might be. You are the person who will make them aware.
An idea of the breadth of counterintelligence awareness is essential. Spies and saboteurs will try to compromise (reveal) our secrets in a host of ways. It is best to begin by knowing all aspects of their approaches. How can they attempt to infect our computers? What can they do to compromise our travelers? Suspicious emails, ‘friends’ who appear on websites, like LinkedIn or Facebook, or even insiders who seem to ask about more than they need to know are all factors.
The courses offered by CDSE address each of these in turn. We quickly discover that effective defense begins with understanding what we are defending. We’ll learn how Operations Security is critical to doing our counterintelligence job properly. We’ll discover how to best brief what we learn, not only to inform our colleagues of the threat, but also what they can do to protect themselves and their information. Cybersecurity is today’s premier way that we protect against adversaries who try to enter our cleared systems. Therefore, counterintelligence in tandem with this field of security is a critical area of study.
Insider Threats Are Real
Over time, courses offered by multiple government agencies will build a broad counterintelligence awareness for the company’s counterintelligence point of contact. It is important that your supervisor knows that you’ll require training time away from your regular responsibilities to handle this area. Fear not. The general counterintelligence awareness “…program addresses counterintelligence awareness and reporting, insider threat awareness, the integration of counterintelligence into security programs, counterintelligence concerns in personnel security and foreign travel, research and technology protection, and threats to defense industry.” Accomplishing this requires only nine hours of online training. Once versed in the basics, additional training is available for further use as needed. Say you want to make your travelers aware of threats while abroad or at conferences. There is a video which covers this. Likewise you’ll find short training segments which you can use to apprise yourself of concerns regarding AI, or what to look for if you wonder about some colleague’s disaffection with work.
When should you be concerned enough to report it? A continuing joke was that in the 1950s Army counterintelligence agents were tasked to investigate ‘disaffection’. It was said there could have been an investigation of everyone in the Army for disaffection at one time or another! And with some all the time! In reality, the insider threat as evidenced by soldiers or cleared contractors stealing information for money for example, is all too common. These are serious threats, and some of the CDSE trainings are available to counter insider threat – best are the case studies offered for use and posting. Consider the case of one contractor who planned to sell out his colleagues to a foreign agent for money. Now in federal prison for twelve years, you might use his example when your colleagues open their email in the morning. A grim but honest reminder that secrets are what defend our lives, families, and sacred honor.
