Tactics: An Introduction

Tactics are procedures or sets of actions used to achieve a specifi c objective. In military operations, tactics defi ne a number of maneuvers designed to give the attacking or the defending force an advantage. For example, a fl anking maneuver is used to confuse and demoralize an enemy force by attacking its position from multiple directions. Confusion causes people to hesitate, and hesitation in war can be fatal. Th e military objective is to defeat the enemy; fl anking is one means to accomplish that objective. Frontal assault and Blitzkrieg are two other examples of off ensive tactics. Th ere are also a number of defensive tactics, including camoufl age, reconnaissance, and the use of specialized weapons such as surface-to-air missiles, to deal with specifi c attacks. Each of these tactics has a parallel in the enterprise security realm. Th is portion of the book covers a number of physical and information security tactics; the focus is primarily on defensive tactics because off ensive measures have liabilities associated with them that most nongovernment organizations do not want to deal with. Nonetheless, there are a couple of off ensive measures that certainly have merit and are worth studying.