Chapter 14 - Intelligence

Abstract

This chapter discusses various techniques involved in intelligence gathering and interrogation. Such tactics may vary in scope and severity, depending largely on the party doing the interrogation and the setting, in both the political and geographical sense. It discusses human intelligence gathering and the types of sources. Sources are generally categorized by what they know and how cooperative they are. Cooperative sources will generally undergo the debriefing process, while noncooperative sources will face interrogation. In either case, it is important to build rapport with the source. It discusses clandestine human intelligence, commonly known as spying. While much of this type of work has application for the intelligence community, there are some tools from this field that can be used in penetration testing. It concludes with a discussion on interrogation techniques. In the penetration testing world, the use of such tools revolves largely around light psychological measures, such as good cop/bad cop. Sterner tactics, such as deception or suggestion, are commonly used by law enforcement and similar agencies. Further to the extreme are tools such as the use of drugs and physical or psychological torture. These tools are very much out of scope for the penetration tester, but were used by the ninja, and continue to be used by various governments and their militaries, intelligence organizations, and other similar groups.