The first mission of any counterintelligence (CI) office in a company or government agency is to earn the respect of those for whom you have responsibility. After all, your job is to deter, detect, and defeat an adversary’s attempts to steal your secrets. How better than to enlist the aid of everyone on your side?
Respect is a counterintelligence tool
Common sense? Hardly. In this age of computers, most people are locked onto a screen, not only at work but nearly all day long. People seldom notice common things going on around them. Studies have shown that routines develop in almost every job-related task. Our job is to help people break out of this routine and note any anomalies. This is very hard to do. Why?
Slowly, drip by drip, we don’t notice that we give away pieces of our personal data, our job information, even our job requirements online. What is puzzling is that we do not notice we are giving it away. If we find it online, we don’t remember when we did so. Further, not only our own lapses, but similar errors in the corporate world haunt us in ways we don’t understand. For instance, AT&T was found guilty of practices that allowed millions of its customers’ information to appear on the dark web. They now owe millions of dollars in compensation, but what happened to all that data?
So we begin at a simple level. Do your employees know you? Have you introduced yourself to the senior staff and junior personnel? Depending on the scope of your responsibilities, you could have CI coverage for only a few people on a government contract, or for thousands of people across dozens of such duties. Work your way down until you’ve met or been made known to everyone. This is not an easy task. It is important, for instance, to take time from any briefings you give to introduce all your CI staff. From there, your staff can begin meeting employees individually to build familiarity and approachability. Later, you can expand on these basic introductions with actual face-to-face visits.
start at the top: secure leadership buy-in
Keep your boss aware in advance of what you are planning to accomplish your mission. This is ‘overhead cover.’ They may know nothing of the details of what you do. Never assume they do. Nothing could be worse than having to explain to a higher-up what your common practices are, why you do so, and what you hope to achieve after you’ve already visited your directorates. Keep your boss calm – and on your side – knowing what you do before you leave their office. Better to tell your bosses what your plans are ahead of time, so they can advise and help you. Show your boss respect so they’ll know to provide cover if others question your practices.
meet others in the company
When you meet the boss of a given directorate, your first mission is to tell them what you do and what you need from them to accomplish your goals. You will need one of their staff members as your regular contact. This is so you don’t interrupt them with recurring needs. This also allows you to have a trained technical member of their organization who can advise you on what they do and who’s who. Your contact is your walking organization chart for that directorate. They’ll come to know in time that they can contact you if they hear or see something. Remember, people will probably come to them first with counterintelligence information. Then the CI process can begin, because once you know the issue, you can investigate or contact those who do.
Have a place to meet
Your office should be outside the SCIF. If someone wants to tell you something they believe is a secret concern, the last place they want to go is where they have to sign in. Better to contact you at your office, by phone, or by email. Then they can meet you separately in a quiet office to discuss the matter. If, over time, the company’s employees have learned to trust you, they’ll feel all right with reporting something to you.
How has the employee reached this level of respect for you and your team? First, be sure you don’t create ‘make-work’ security-related projects for them. If a single briefing will do for overseas travel, then take the time to tailor it to their destination. Give it at the classified level so that they know their personal best interests are at the heart of your efforts. Consider taking time to ask various employees to describe, in layman’s terms, what they do. You can’t imagine how often people have commented favorably on being treated as a professional by others seeking to know what their job is. Your newly developed ‘colleagues’ will even point out flaws in their system, which you can possibly address in your security mission. They may point out possible flaws in your security system that you can correct if need be. Let them know how grateful you are for their care and advice.
Remember to keep your boss apprised of what you are doing. This is absolutely essential, this ‘overhead cover.’ Ask your company’s people for advice. This way, the bosses and their teams will feel they are on your side. So, if you advised your directorate chair of your mission, what you needed, and how to report, you are on your way to success. After all, remember you want to enlist everyone in the building in your cause. You would be well on your way by showing respect to all others all along the way.
