Intelligence Cycle

From https://www.intelligence.gov/how-the-ic-works

The intelligence cycle is for organizations or people in the intelligence community including government agencies (CIA, NSA, FBI, etc.), the military, corporate environments, academia, etc.

1. Planning
   • key figures in policymaking find out what needs to be worked on, sets priorities
2. Collection
   • includes meetings with others, surveillance, interviews, electronic means (OSINT), etc.
3. Processing
   • lots of information = need for refinement
     • processing imagery, decoding messages, preparing information, etc.
4. Analysis
   • analysts create finished intelligence to be shared in the next step
5. Dissemination
   • share information with policymakers
6. Evaluation
   • it’s an analyst’s responsibility to constantly be evaluating the information they discovered and analyzed
     • cognitive bias