Espionage

Espionage, spying, or intelligence gathering is the act of obtaining secret or confidential information (intelligence). A person who commits espionage is called an espionage agent or spy.^[1] Any individual or spy ring (a cooperating group of spies), in the service of a government, company, criminal organization, or independent operation, can commit espionage. The practice is clandestine, as it is by definition unwelcome. In some circumstances, it may be a legal tool of law enforcement and in others, it may be illegal and punishable by law.

For other uses, see Espionage (disambiguation).

Espionage is often part of an institutional effort by a government or commercial concern. However, the term tends to be associated with state spying on potential or actual enemies for military purposes. Spying involving corporations is known as industrial espionage.

One way to gather data and information about a targeted organization is by infiltrating its ranks. Spies can then return information such as the size and strength of enemy forces. They can also find dissidents within the organization and influence them to provide further information or to defect.^[2] In times of crisis, spies steal technology and sabotage the enemy in various ways. Counterintelligence is the practice of thwarting enemy espionage and intelligence-gathering. Almost all sovereign states have strict laws concerning espionage, including those who practice espionage in other countries, and the penalties for being caught are often severe.

Modern day[edit]

Today, spy agencies target the illegal drug trade and terrorists as well as state actors.^[10]

Intelligence services value certain intelligence collection techniques over others. The former Soviet Union, for example, preferred human sources over research in open sources, while the United States has tended to emphasize technological methods such as SIGINT and IMINT. In the Soviet Union, both political (KGB) and military intelligence (GRU)^[11] officers were judged by the number of agents they recruited.

: strategic production identification and assessment (food, energy, materials). Agents are usually found among bureaucrats who administer these resources in their own countries

Natural resources

towards domestic and foreign policies (popular, middle class, elites). Agents often recruited from field journalistic crews, exchange postgraduate students and sociology researchers

Popular sentiment

Strategic economic strengths (production, research, manufacture, infrastructure). Agents recruited from science and technology academia, commercial enterprises, and more rarely from among military technologists

intelligence (offensive, defensive, manoeuvre, naval, air, space). Agents are trained by military espionage education facilities and posted to an area of operation with covert identities to minimize prosecution

Military capability

operations targeting opponent's intelligence services themselves, such as breaching the confidentiality of communications and recruiting defectors or moles

Counterintelligence

Espionage agents are usually trained experts in a targeted field so they can differentiate mundane information from targets of value to their own organizational development. Correct identification of the target at its execution is the sole purpose of the espionage operation.

Broad areas of espionage targeting expertise include:

: instigates trouble or provides information to gather as many people as possible into one location for an arrest.

Agent provocateur

Intelligence agent: provides access to through the use of special privileges. If used in corporate intelligence gathering, this may include gathering information of a corporate business venture or stock portfolio. In economic intelligence, "Economic Analysts may use their specialized skills to analyze and interpret economic trends and developments, assess and track foreign financial activities, and develop new econometric and modelling methodologies."^[18] This may also include information of trade or tariff.

sensitive information

: provides political influence in an area of interest, possibly including publications needed to further an intelligence service agenda.^[14] The use of the media to print a story to mislead a foreign service into action, exposing their operations while under surveillance.

Agent-of-influence

Double agent

[19]

: recruited to wake up and perform a specific set of tasks or functions while living undercover in an area of interest. This type of agent is not the same as a deep cover operative, who continually contacts a case officer to file intelligence reports. A sleeper agent is not in contact with anyone until activated.

Sleeper agent

: works for three intelligence services.

Triple agent

In espionage jargon, an "agent" is the person who does the spying. They may be a citizen of a country recruited by that country to spy on another; a citizen of a country recruited by that country to carry out false flag assignments disrupting his own country; a citizen of one country who is recruited by a second country to spy on or work against his own country or a third country, and more.

In popular usage, this term is sometimes confused with an intelligence officer, intelligence operative, or case officer who recruits and handles agents.

Among the most common forms of agent are:

Less common or lesser known forms of agent include:

Johnson, John (1997). The Evolution of British Sigint, 1653–1939. London: . OCLC 52130886.

HMSO

Winkler, Jonathan Reed (July 2009). "Information Warfare in World War I". The Journal of Military History. 73 (3): 845–867. :10.1353/jmh.0.0324. ISSN 1543-7795. S2CID 201749182.