An intelligence officer is a person employed by an organization to collect, compile or analyze information (known as intelligence) which is of use to that organization. The word of officer is a working title, not a rank, used in the same way a "police officer" can also be a sergeant, or in the military, in which non-commissioned personnel may serve as intelligence officers. Organizations which employ intelligence officers include armed forces, police, and customs agencies.

Sources of intelligence

Intelligence officers make use of a variety of sources of information, including

Role and responsibilities

The actual role carried out by an intelligence officer varies depending on the remit of their parent organization. Officers of foreign intelligence agencies (e.g. the United States' Central Intelligence Agency, the United Kingdom's Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) and the Australian Secret Intelligence Service (ASIS) may spend much of their careers abroad. Officers of domestic intelligence agencies (such as the United States' Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, the UK's Security Service (MI5) and the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) are responsible for counter-terrorism, counter-espionage, counter-proliferation and the detection and prevention of serious organized crime within their own countries (although, in Britain, the National Crime Agency is responsible for dealing with serious organized crime). Titles and responsibilities common among intelligence officers include:

Intelligence agents

Intelligence agents are individuals that work for or have been recruited by an Intelligence Officer, but who are not employed by the intelligence agency of the intelligence officer. Sometime around 2000, the United States Intelligence Community adopted a more "corporate" vocabulary and began referring to agents as assets. Intelligence agents can be of several types: Contrary to popular belief or what is seen in Hollywood films, professionally trained intelligence officers are never referred to as agents, secret agents or special agents (except in the case of FBI Special Agents). They are most often referred to as case officers or operations officers. Agents are the foreigners who betray their own countries to pass information to the officer; agents are also known as confidential informants or assets.