Strategic Assessment

The problem of information security – or field security, to use the traditional term – is as old as war itself. The need to protect information about one’s strengths, vulnerabilities, and intentions is elementary, and some would argue as critical as intelligence gathering. The Winograd Commission devoted fifty pages, some twelve per cent of its findings on the Second Lebanon War to the issue of information security, and states categorically that in this essential area there was a serious failure that endangered human lives and impeded the IDF’s room to maneuver.[ii] It cites the head of the Information Security division acknowledging at a meeting in the office of the chief of staff on November 26, 2006 that the exposure of Israeli forces was ג”extremely high” during the war, with the result that the IDF’s freedom in conducting the war was compromised and Israel’s intelligence advantage placed in jeopardy.