14 October 2026, NIICE Commentary 12790
Hridoy Sarker
In the international system, states function in a condition of anarchy, where states are only responsible for maintaining their sovereignty and ensuring national security. To maintain sovereignty and ensure security in the anarchic condition, intelligence plays a highly significant role for a state. Intelligence refers to the collecting, processing, and analyzing of specific types of information that is provided to policymakers for national security. The key purpose of intelligence is to make governments aware of the ground reality with an unbiased view. It enables policymakers to make better-informed decisions and to keep the state safe from potential threats.
Before the advancement of digital technology, intelligence was mainly operated through ground-level active individuals of intelligence agencies with some manual methods. At that time, most intelligence activities involved human spies, secret meetings, diplomatic surveillance, listening devices, breaking into embassies, taking snapshots from planes, etc. These types of activities were the only available options for the intelligence agencies to collect information about their targets and take the necessary initiative based on the collected information. Thus, it created a certain boundary for the intelligence agencies in their operations, and it was also quite tough for the agencies to go beyond the boundary. But today, cyber-intelligence has brought a tremendous transformation in the field of intelligence, thanks to the advancement of digital technology. It has expanded the intelligence environment far beyond the traditional boundaries. Going beyond traditional boundaries, cyber-intelligence allows intelligence agencies to conduct intelligence operations by staying far away from the operational ground while sitting behind a digital screen.
The Revolution of Information Collection
Cyber-intelligence has brought a dramatic shift in the scale of information. Previously, intelligence agencies suffered from information scarcity as they remained confined within certain boundaries. But here, cyber-intelligence has brought a total revolution. With the advancement of digitalization, governments, militaries, institutions, enterprises, and individuals are now storing their records, documents, and plans on digital networked systems along with physical paper. As a result, it has become much easier for intelligence agencies to obtain enough information about the target with just one unauthorized intrusion, which previously had to be achieved through a lengthy process of developing a human source with manual methods. Moreover, this can be accomplished without the risk of arrest or execution in a foreign territory. The scale of information accessible through cyber intrusions illustrates how digital technology has changed intelligence collection. In 2015, the US Office of Personnel Management disclosed two related but separate data breaches. The first affected the personal information of approximately 4.2 million current and former federal employees, while the second compromised sensitive background-investigation information relating to 21.5 million individuals. The United States Director of National Intelligence, James Clapper, publicly blamed China as a leading suspect behind the cyberattack. The incidents demonstrate how a single intrusion can expose large volumes of sensitive information, creating potential national security risks far beyond those associated with the loss of an individual document. However, the scale of a breach alone does not establish which intelligence agency obtained or subsequently used the compromised information. But if the claim is valid, now think about this: a traditional intelligence individual might obtain one to three files at a time. But the cyber operation obtained millions of files at a time, which was unthinkable in the manual intelligence era. But cyber-intelligence has turned it into a reality. Now intelligence agencies do not need to suffer from the required information shortage. They can collect the required information about their targets at any time from anywhere, if they have effective cyber-intelligence technology. That is how cyber-intelligence is enriching the information scale.
From Gathering to Acting
Once, the primary responsibility of intelligence agencies was to collect information, analyze potential threats, and provide assessments to the policymakers. Decisions about how to respond to those threats were often left to policymakers. But the advancement of cyberspace has brought a shift here. It has brought intelligence and operational capabilities into closer contact, enabling intelligence assessments to inform offensive cyber operations. Although cyber-intelligence and offensive cyber operations are closely related, they are not the same. Cyber-intelligence involves collecting and analyzing information to understand an adversary, whereas offensive cyber operations use digital capabilities to disrupt, damage, or manipulate a target’s systems. Intelligence can provide the knowledge needed to plan such operations, but the operation itself goes beyond information gathering. The 2010 Stuxnet cyber operation is an excellent example of how cyber operations are empowering intelligence agencies at the operations level, along with the information-gathering level. The 2010 Stuxnet cyber operation was a sophisticated cyber operation targeting Iran’s underground uranium enrichment facility at Natanz under the codename Operation Olympic Games. It destroyed roughly 1,000 nuclear centrifuges and temporarily set back the enrichment timeline, although the precise extent of the damage remains difficult to establish. It is claimed that the cyber operation was conducted by the United States and Israel, although the full operational details have not been officially confirmed. If the claim is valid, the operation reflects how cyber operations are empowering operations-level efficiency in intelligence agencies, along with their overall work efficiency. The Stuxnet cyber operation does not simply reflect how a digital tool could damage physical equipment by intelligence agencies. Rather, it demonstrates how intelligence gathering, technical expertise, and operational planning can combine to produce effects that previously might have required direct physical access to a target by intelligence agencies. This does not mean intelligence agencies have universally replaced traditional military or security forces, nor does it mean that every cyber operation is conducted by an intelligence agency. Instead, cyber capabilities have expanded the range of options available to states and made the boundary between collecting intelligence and acting on it more complex. In this environment, intelligence is increasingly valuable not only for what it reveals to policymakers, but also for how it can inform operations in pursuit of national security objectives.
The Open-Source Surprise
For the collection of information and for surveillance, historically, intelligence agencies were extremely reliant on human intelligence (HUMINT) or signals intelligence (SIGINT). Over the decades, the greater the level of secrecy, the higher the report’s value was deemed to be. But in the digital age, one of the surprising facts is that some of the best intelligence does not need to be secretive. The internet has generated an enormous volume of publicly available information, all of which is easily accessible and which intelligence agencies can use, as well as the information resources they have traditionally relied on to gather information. Social media, commercial satellite imagery, shipping and flight data, online databases, government publications, and news archives can collectively provide essential information that once required far more costly and specialized collection for the intelligence agencies. Open-source intelligence (OSINT) can offer early indications, supply leads, and provide verification for classified reporting and complement traditional intelligence disciplines when they don’t have a complete picture. In this context, OSINT is serving as a force multiplier for intelligence agencies. The best part of OSINT for intelligence agencies is its ability to deliver real-time, wide-area, and objective visibility into an adversary’s capabilities, intent, and movements from a distance without physical insertion.
Engaging Ties with Private Sector
The growing relationship between intelligence agencies and private technology companies is another significant transformation in the age of cyber-intelligence. The key driving force behind this growing relationship is that much of today’s digital infrastructure is developed and controlled by private companies. Cloud computing, telecommunications, cybersecurity products, commercial satellite imagery, and digital platforms are frequently developed and operated by private companies on which both state actors and non-state actors largely depend. Cybersecurity companies can track malicious activities, research malware, recognize new threats, and maintain technical information that proves highly valuable for intelligence agencies to ensure national security. Apart from that, cybersecurity companies support intelligence agencies by detecting suspicious activity across networks, identifying previously unknown attack patterns, and sharing technical indicators. In May 2026, NATO announced that it will broaden its collaboration with Microsoft, Palo Alto Networks, and ESET to enhance cyber resilience and cooperation against emerging threats. This is a very significant institutional transformation. This development illustrates the growing importance of collaboration between security institutions and private technology companies. Intelligence agencies are now operating within an increasingly interconnected environment in which private companies hold substantial technical expertise and control important parts of the digital infrastructure on which governments depend. However, such reliance also raises questions about data ownership, privacy, commercial interests, and accountability, as there always remains a chance of secrecy compromise. Because private companies cannot ensure complete guarantees of secrecy like governments.
Conclusion
In the anarchic international system where states remain the only responsible actors for ensuring their national security and sovereignty, intelligence agencies continue to serve as the first line of defense against potential threats. However, the means through which intelligence agencies fulfil their responsibilities have transformed significantly with the advancement of cyber-intelligence. Cyber intelligence has transformed the traditional mode of intelligence on a large scale. The expansion of digital collection has eliminated traditional information scarcity. Cyber operations have empowered intelligence agencies to move beyond information gathering and become actively involved at operational levels. At the same time, the growing engagement with open-source information and private enterprises has also reshaped the scope and organization of intelligence agencies. However, the transformation from spies to screens does not mean that traditional modes of intelligence and their significance will completely disappear. They will hold their core position in intelligence agencies as before. Cyber-intelligence will essentially make their assignments much easier and more efficient in less time.
Hridoy Sarker is a postgraduate student in Security Studies at the Department of International Relations, University of Dhaka, Bangladesh.
