Secrecy in Strategy

Cyber Operations are new means to conduct intelligence operations, whose distinguishing feature is secrecy. Importantly, the architecture of information technology requires secrecy for operation that produce effects by infiltrating and manipulating computer systems. Most politically relevant cyber operations do. Secrecy bears both opportunities and constraints. It limits the costs and risks of projecting power compared to force, but also constrains the scope and scale of effects. Even though cyber operations use new technologies, they face the same fundamental types of constraints as traditional intelligence operations. These constraints limit their strategic value. However, information technologies shift the scope and scale of effects. In this chapter, CSS' Lennart Maschmeyer develops a typology of traditional intelligence operations and identifies which types cyber operations can, and cannot, substitute. It then examines the changed scope and scale of effects for each type. Despite these changes, the shared role of secrecy ultimately results in strategic continuity rather than change.