Is it INTELLIGENCE or INFORMATION

Back to in the office and my word do I have some reading to do. A current tasking involves a background enquiry concerning a “gentlemen” of dubious integrity.

Information in such cases is typically drawn from a multitude of sources such as court records, press archives, personal interviews, telephone interviews, business databases, credit reports, social networking sites, you name it, and if there is information available we probably use it as a source. Nah, we are not tapped in to intelligence agencies, national police computers, satellite imagery (beyond Google earth) and so on.

Anyway I now have over 180 pages of data to go through evaluate and report on.

People do not often realise that the reason WHY the information is required is often more important than WHAT information is required. Understanding the client’s intentions and goals allows us to better cater for their requirements.

This is where the difference between INTELLIGENCE and INFORMATION comes in.

INFORMATION can usually be defined as a list of straight forward definites. Who what where when and how in a glorified list format.

INTELLIGENCE is the final product after these definates have been collated, evaluated to establish their relevance, analyzed to show their relationship to each other and reanalyzed to establish significance of any information developed as a result of these relationships. This is then passed to the client in the form of ACTIONABLE INTELLIGENCE outlining the strengths, opportunities, weaknesses and threats regarding their interaction with the subject of the enquiry and so chose a way forward that best suit their needs.

In summary we:

(1) Corroborate the validity of the information,
(2) Understand its importance and linkages with other data,
(3) Develop a plan for action
(4) Use the plan to accomplish a desired goal.

Having the information is in itself insufficient. One needs to understand the implications and potential of that information.

Better get the kettle on, there is a lot of work to be done.