3-40. An essential element of friendly information is a critical aspect of a friendly operation that, if known by the enemy, would subsequently compromise, lead to failure, or limit success of the operation and therefore should be protected from enemy detection (ADRP 5-0). Although EEFIs are not CCIRs, they have the same priority. EEFIs establish an element of information to protect rather than one to collect. EEFIs identify those elements of friendly force information that, if compromised, would jeopardize mission success. EEFIs help commanders protect vital friendly information. Their identification is the first step in the operations security process and central to the protection of information.