Reference no: EM132363990

One terrorist tactic, and its not limited to terrorists, but something that all factions utilize. That is knowing your enemy. Just like we use counter-intelligence to thwart the adversary before they can act, they too are utilizing intelligence operations to understand our, or whomever their target is, vulnerabilities (Hoffman, 2006). You could say this is step one of any terrorist plot, but it's just as important as the end result. If we look at early war on terror tactics involving road side IEDs (improvised explosive devices), they were crude but effective until we learned and adapted. We learned about the types of threats we expected to encounter but even though we gained ground on terrorist forces they did not take it as a complete loss. The longer we are in a position of superiority the easier it is for us to be observed and tactics adapted. They adapted by making IEDs take the shape of discarded ammunition magazines or "forgotten equipment". We are trained to not reveal privileged information lightly because we don't know who may be observing and terrorist elements will observe when the opportunity presents itself. Information gathering does not require high tech equipment, simply the use of their five senses and enough patience to use our rules of engagement against us. They document our movement, prompting us to change routes; they learn our standard operating procedures to anticipate our reactions. We have to shred documents because dumpster diving is a reliable source of information for the dedicated.

Social media is an important part of our lives, and it is a valuable source of information from the adversary (Makhutov & Baecher, 2012). They don't need to hack our computers when they can use rapport building and social engineering to illicit out information. We have seen the effects of home-grown terrorists and we know they can come from anywhere, they may already be on your friends list. When we upload pictures of our workplaces, we unintentionally give floor plans, population information, and sometimes even security. I think this is going to grow and become a significant source for terrorists to study us, they already do, but I don't see the usefulness of the information slowing down or becoming less helpful to their cause in the future.

REFERENCES

Hoffman, B. (2006). Inside terrorism. Retrieved from https://ebookcentral.proquest.com

Makhutov, N. A., & Baecher, G. B. (Eds.). (2012). Comparative analysis of technological and intelligent terrorism impacts on complex technical systems. Amsterdam: IOS Press.