Joint Publication 3-13, Information Operations - The Global ...

Introduction
legal issues, as well as potentially disruptive infrastructure issues, through civil-military coordination at all
levels.
(1) IO may target human decision making or automated decision support systems
with specific actions. Technology allows automated decision making to be targeted with
increasing precision and affords more sophisticated ways to protect it. However, targeting
automated decision making, at any level, is only as effective as the human adversary’s
reliance on such decisions.
(2) The focus of IO is on the decision maker and the information environment in order
to affect decision making and thinking processes, knowledge, and understanding of the situation.
IO can affect data, information, and knowledge in three basic ways:
(a) By taking specific psychological, electronic, or physical actions that add,
modify, or remove information from the environment of various individuals or groups of decision
makers.
(b) By taking actions to affect the infrastructure that collects, communicates,
processes, and/or stores information in support of targeted decision makers.
(c) By influencing the way people receive, process, interpret, and use data,
information, and knowledge.
h. All IO capabilities may be employed in both offensive and defensive operations.
Commanders use IO capabilities in both offensive and defensive operations simultaneously to
accomplish the mission, increase their force effectiveness, and protect their organizations and
systems. Fully integrating IO capabilities for offensive and defensive operations requires planners
to treat IO as a single function. Commanders can use IO capabilities to accomplish the following:
(1) Destroy. To damage a system or entity so badly that it cannot perform any function
or be restored to a usable condition without being entirely rebuilt.
(2) Disrupt. To break or interrupt the flow of information.
(3) Degrade. To reduce the effectiveness or efficiency of adversary C2 or
communications systems, and information collection efforts or means. IO can also degrade the
morale of a unit, reduce the target’s worth or value, or reduce the quality of adversary decisions
and actions.
(4) Deny. To prevent the adversary from accessing and using critical information,
systems, and services.
(5) Deceive. To cause a person to believe what is not true. MILDEC seeks to mislead
adversary decision makers by manipulating their perception of reality.
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