science

Interdiction

Interdiction is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Interdiction rather than just read about it. In short: Interdiction is interception of an object prior to its arrival at the location where it is to be used in military, espionage, and law enforcement. Military In the military, interdiction is the act of delaying, disrupting, or destroying enemy forces or supplies en route to the battle area.

Key takeaways

Interdiction belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Interdiction to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Interdiction from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Interdiction is interception of an object prior to its arrival at the location where it is to be used in military, espionage, and law enforcement.

Military

In the military, interdiction is the act of delaying, disrupting, or destroying enemy forces or supplies en route to the battle area. A distinction is often made between strategic and tactical interdiction. The former refers to operations whose effects are broad and long-term; tactical operations are designed to affect events rapidly and in a localized area.

Types In different theaters of conflict:

Air: Air interdiction or Interdiction bombing Ground: No-drive zone Sea: Maritime interdiction or Blockade

Law enforcement

The term interdiction is also used in criminology and law enforcement, such as in the U.S. war on drugs and in immigration.

Scots law

In Scots law, an interdict is a court order to stop someone from breaching someone else's rights, and can be issued by the Court of Session or a Sheriff Court. They are equivalent to an injunction in other legal jurisdictions, such as English law. A temporary interdict is called an interim interdict.

Espionage

United States The term interdiction is also used by the NSA when an electronics shipment is secretly intercepted by an intelligence agency (domestic or foreign) for the purpose of implanting bugs before they reach their destination. According to Der Spiegel, the NSA's TAO group is able to divert shipping deliveries to its own "secret workshops" in a method called interdiction, where agents load malware onto the electronics or install malicious hardware that can give US intelligence agencies remote access. The report also indicates that the NSA, in collaboration with the CIA and FBI, routinely and secretly intercepts shipping deliveries for laptops or other computer accessories, such as a computer monitor or keyboard cables with hidden wireless transmitters bugs built-in for eavesdropping on video and keylogging.

China In July 2014 it was reported that handheld shipping image scanners manufactured in China were found with pre-installed, weaponized malware which was capable of exfiltrating CRM data and financial data. These scanners are of the type used by many United States retailers and warehouses, as well as delivery services such as United Parcel Service and FedEx. The scanned data was copied and sent out to an established comprehensive command and control connection (CnC) to a Chinese botnet that was terminated at the Shandong Lanxiang Vocational School located in China.

References

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Interdiction

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Interdiction claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Interdiction before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Interdiction ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Interdiction

In research: Interdiction appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Interdiction in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Interdiction is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Espionage, Military stubs, Military tactics, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Interdiction outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

Affiliate

Preply — study more efficiently by working with a personal tutor. 50% off.

How to study Interdiction in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Interdiction means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Interdiction out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Interdiction in simple terms?

Interdiction is interception of an object prior to its arrival at the location where it is to be used in military, espionage, and law enforcement. Military In the military, interdiction is the act of delaying, disrupting, or destroying enemy forces or supplies en route to the battle area.

Why does Interdiction matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Interdiction?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Interdiction.