What types of spies are there

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Your email address will not be published. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. Skip to content. Posted by Amanda Penn Nov 19, Read the rest of the world's best summary of "The Art of War" at Shortform. Learn the book's critical concepts in 20 minutes or less. Here's what you'll find in our full The Art of War summary : How to mislead your enemies to win the war Classic examples from Chinese history to illustrate Sun Tzu's strategies How to use spies to gather information and defeat your opponents Get the world's best book summaries now.

Burn it, purge it from the record, amend the documents. Keep yourself and your sources safe. Most safehouses look as ordinary as possible.

As a sleeper agent, you live in a foreign country as an ordinary citizen. You will only act if a hostile situation develops. You build up your legend every day, adding new layers, acquaintances, and experiences. You might live it for years. Slang for intelligence officer. The primary meaning of spook is a ghost. Like them, intelligence officers operate in the shadows. Getting caught could mean a life sentence. Two targets are about to meet in a public park.

Your surveillance team performs a stakeout of the area - spreading out, assessing the dangers, covering exit routes. All without drawing any attention. Your station is where you carry out your espionage work, maybe for a few hours, a day, or long-term. In any case, keep it under your hat. Like a Russian doll for data. Steganography is hiding a message, image or file in another message, image or file. It may look ordinary but not if you look much closer.

For an example of steganography, see Microdot. The most literal form of spying is surveillance: secret observation. Or complex: a team on foot and in vehicles, tracking targets via camera and satellites.

They know. You know they know. You can see it from their behavior. Intelligence about weapons and equipment used by foreign armed services. If you know what your adversaries are capable of you can plan accordingly. An officer who gathers intelligence by tapping phones, breaking into buildings, planting cameras, and other means.

Has anyone been sneaking around while you were away? A hair along a drawer that will drop invisibly if someone disturbs it, perhaps. Or a microscope slide under the carpet that will shatter inaudibly if someone walks on it. The array of methods and tools used in covert intelligence operation. Get the tradecraft right and you give an operation the best chance of success. Traffic analysis means gathering intelligence by recognizing particular patterns or discrepancies in intercepted messages.

It allows you to infer things without needing to read the messages themselves. Meanwhile the others stay back to avoid spooking the target. So you launch TSCMs or bug sweeps to detect, and frustrate any electronic surveillance. Operations conducted using a false identity. Your cover identity might last a few hours or several years, depending on the operation. It can be very tough to find a suitable agent. Suddenly, hope: a walk-in appears, a spy looking to betray their country and provide you with vital information.

If your fake wallet's going to look like a real one, it needs wallet litter - receipts, travel documents, event tickets -to add convincing detail to your cover. Click here for more We also have an exceptional range of rare spy books, including many signed first editions.

We all have valuable spy skills - your mission is to discover yours. By John Hunt. The language of espionage: get this spy lingo right and you might even pass for an intelligence officer yourself Top intelligence officers have helped SPYSCAPE create this glossary to share the tricks of their tradecraft.

Agent As an agent, you work secretly for an intelligence service, offering secrets or operational support. Agent handler Your job is to manage or run an agent operation, which might include recruiting, instructing, paying, debriefing, or advising your agent.

An agent whom a service will permit to be detected and arrested so as to protect more valuable agents. The practice of spying or using spies to obtain secret or confidential information about the plans and activities of a foreign government or a competing company. A clandestine rescue operation designed to bring a defector, refugee, or an operative and his or her family out of harm's way.

Federal Bureau of Investigation ; U. The tradecraft involved when making surreptitious openings and closings of envelopes, seals, and secure pouches. General slang for members of an intelligence service; specifically British slang for members of the Secret Intelligence Service. The secret movement of an operative into a target area with the intent that his or her presence will go undetected. A postcard with an innocuous message sent to an address in a neutral country to verify the continued security of an undercover operative.

Intelligence officers are professionals trained by their governments. Called case officers, operational officers, or handlers, they run operations and recruit and manage the actual spies. The British domestic counterintelligence service ; officially known as the Security Service. The British foreign intelligence service; officially known as the Secret Intelligence Service.

An agent of one organization sent to penetrate a specific intelligence agency by gaining employment; a term popularized by John Le Carre. National Security Agency ; branch of the U. Department of Defense responsible for ensuring the security of American communications and for breaking into the communications of other countries; "No Such Agency".

British term for the bait money, political asylum, sex, or career opportunity offered to a potential defector. Russian term for the security service officer who accompanies delegations to other countries to prevent anyone from defecting. Strings of random numbers for singular use as a key in enciphering messages; the proper use of a one-time pad renders a message mathematically unbreakable.

Open source intelligence ; intelligence information derived from publicly available sources. Office of Strategic Services; U. Photographic intelligence, usually involving high-altitude reconnaissance using spy satellites or aircraft. Items in a spy's pocket receipts, coins, theater tickets, etc. An operative sent to incite a target group to action for purposes of entrapping or embarrassing them.

American name for the Japanese diplomatic cipher machine used from A medium-sized, long-endurance asset for reconnaissance, surveillance, and target acquisition in moderate risk areas. To delete specific material or revise a report or other document to prevent the identification of intelligence sources and collection methods. Agent living as an ordinary citizen in a foreign country; acts only when a hostile situation develops. Short for "Smert Shpionam" Death to Spies ; a Soviet counterintelligence agency that existed from to ; made famous in the James Bond novels.

Spies are people with access to valuable information. Also called agents or assets, they may volunteer or be recruited to spy. Not everyone involved in spying is, in fact, a spy. Techniques for concealing the very existence of a message secret inks or microdots.

Technical intelligence; analysis of fielded equipment for training, research, and the development of new weapons and equipment for eventual intelligence use.

An unofficial term for the CIA popularized by fiction. Methods for gaining intelligence from the patterns and volumes of messages of communications intercepts. The world's most famous spy plane , developed by the U. Codename for intelligence derived from decryption of messages encrypted by the German Enigma cipher machine during WWII.

A defector who declares his or her intentions by walking into an official installation and asking for political asylum or volunteering to work in-place.