The intelligence cycle itself consists of six steps that are constantly in motion: requirements, collection, processing and exploitation, analysis and production, dissemination and consumption, and feedback.
[2] It is common to rely on technology when performing collection, however it can fail and cause more problems than it solves.
[5] Imagery intelligence refers to information gathered by planes, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV), and satellites.
Radar imaging can see through clouds, but it is unlikely that a general satellite sweep could find something buried under a few feet of snow or in a frozen lake.
For example, the entrance to an underground bunker may be camouflaged with foliage, and it would take an arduous examination of the image to find the information that is needed.
Another potential failure is a satellite being unavailable when it is needed because it is being used for other intelligence purposes, which causes the situation or event of interest to be missed.
Open source information is derived from newspapers, journals, radio and television, and the Internet.
Reading the paper of country in which a dictator
Thirdly, the volume of data alone is often too much for an analyst to sift through causing important knowledge to slip by.
[8] Measurement and Signature Intelligence (MASINT) is scientific and technical intelligence information obtained by quantitative and qualitative analysis of data (metric, angle, spatial, wavelength, time dependence, modulation, plasma, and hydromagnetic) derived from specific technical sensors for the purpose of identifying any distinctive features associated with the source, emitter, or sender and to facilitate subsequent identification and/or measurement of the same.
It also suffers from finance issues because of the expensive nature of the items needed to do the actual collection itself.
Processing and exploitation involves converting the vast amount of information collected to a form usable by analysts.
In other words, cognitive biases result not from any emotional or intellectual predisposition toward a certain judgment but rather from subconscious mental procedures for processing information.
The need to succeed coupled with the level of competition within the community to get their analysis on the desk of a top decision maker.
[11] When the decision-maker receives a report from an analyst and reviews it, that process is referred to as dissemination and consumption.
The goal of dissemination is simple, get the information that is relevant to the decision maker in a timely fashion while being accurate.
Compartmentalization in the isolation of planners from flow of intelligence or the invocation of need to know among analysts strongly contributes to failures in dissemination.
That occurs when the decision-makers fail to get the feedback to the analyst in a timely order, which would assist in the production of the next report to them.