ABSTRACT
Cyberspace – and the physical, logical and social layers that comprise it – presents significant challenges and opportunities for intelligence organisations. Thanks to rapid advances in technology, capabilities that were once the sole domain of nation-states are now widely available to individual actors. In addition, the relative anonymity offered by cyberspace means that these capabilities can be employed with few restraints. This has resulted in an environment in which the classic intelligence descriptive ‘wilderness of mirrors’ is particularly apt.1 Cyberspace also presents opportunities for many stages of the intelligence cycle.2 Collection in cyberspace is particularly desirable given the low risks and potentially high rewards. There is no physical danger because collectors sit behind computers in secure government buildings, probing target networks on the other side of the globe. This reduces the political risk associated with intelligence and increases the attractiveness of cyberspace for intelligence customers.
