ABOUT INTELLIGENCE

We have noted that many travel risk management companies make a liberal use of the word "intelligence" on their websites, which is part of advertising their numerous services for travellers abroad. We will itemize a few of many examples in this blog post and show that the use of the word intelligence is done erroneously. This will lead many readers to correctly conclude that the use of the term is indicative of a confused understanding of what exactly this important word means. When these companies do not fully grasp the basic elements of the trade while charging their clients expensive amounts of money for various services is ironic in the least...

By definition, intelligence can be outlined as "the gathering or distribution of information, especially secret information", "the collection of information of military or political value" or  most evidently " intelligence is information that has been analyzed and refined so that it is useful to policymakers in making decisions". In essence, intelligence is a finished product that must be timely in its dissemination to the user. The key item in intelligence is the presence of a predictive element (an assessment) . In order to fully appreciate what intelligence exactly is, the "intelligence cycle" is a followed process. Depending on the agency or the country, the intelligence cycle typically has four, five or even six steps. We at PAR-SEC Consulting usually use four. They are, in order:
1. Direction;
2. Collection;
3. Processing, and
4. Dissemination.
These four steps constitute transforming raw information into actionable intelligence with a predictive element and delivered in a timely manner.
Direction: This is when our clients retain our services for us to advise them by way of a vulnerability assessment on the potential risks, threats and hazards at their specific destination. Through a request for information, we are able to vet what information is required from our client.
Collection: From our direction we can now collate pertinent information of relevance. We focus entirely on meeting the needs of the client, so the research carried out is usually very extensive. We also carry out "side collection" which can be used to disprove potential assessments due to several reasons such as biases.
Processing: This is probably the most important step in intelligence production. This is the phase in which information is fully exploited and also includes a "so what" factor. Analysis is  carried out, the final stage prior to the full assessment (what is likely to occur next) to articulate the intelligence product.
Dissemination: This is when a finished product, referred to as an intelligence document is ready for our client. It must be actionable in nature and it must be timely or the intelligence provided is redundant.

So we now know the essentials about what exactly constitutes intelligence. It must be predictive in nature, its dissemination must be timely and it is the result of the transformation of raw information into an actionable product via analysis.It certainly cannot be confused for anything else! Of course, when we are talking about intelligence, we are referring to open source (OSINT) intelligence, although we generally have access to confidential sources that are on the ground. 

This is how several travel risk management or travel security companies use (most properly how they misuse) the word intelligence:

1.  "Regional Intelligence Package: Daily updates, incident alerts, regional summaries and special reports on the world’s most volatile and dynamic regions."
Our take: Updates suggest after fact information. The rest of the phrase implies reactive services. No predictive elements and no assessments are volunteered.
2.  The Executive Daily Intelligence Brief (...) this is a summary of information and open-sources concerning significant global issues.
Our take: Information summary is not intelligence.
3.  The Weekly Intelligence Summary (...) report highlighting major local events and global activity designed to address the different risk areas of your business and its operations.
Our take: This is alike regurgitating news reports tailored for clients. 
4.  Intelligence is gathered and analysed based on the travellers personal, business and operational travel itinerary to ensure....b
Our take: Intelligence is not gathered. Information is gathered.

We could keep going on this exercise however we believe that at this point, the misuse of the term intelligence has hereby been identified. We could speculate on the reasons why certain terms are bent into different purposes but we cannot avoid the fact that a certain discredit could be attributed to those who do not fully grasp basic comprehension of tools that constitute building blocs of their trade.

We carry out intelligence assessments for our clients. Those assessments are predictive in nature while we also quantify the probability for certain events to occur. We also provide clear courses of actions in order to mitigate risks, threats or hazards that are likely to occur, along with timeliness. We stand fully behind our intelligence assessments.

Every travel destination is uniquely different and requires adequate research, analysis and accurate assessments to properly advise against the possible threats and hazards. We welcome inquiries so we can determine your security needs. Your first consultation is always free.We invite you to review our past twitter posts @parsecconsult as well as this blog's entries.
We encourage feedback and questions to our e-mail: parsec.consulting@gmail.com
Our website: http://parsecconsulting.wix.com/parsecconsulting

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