Luckily, you and your colleagues have a predefined code - a system of words that represent other words - to protect your communication and yourselves. You’re in a tight spot and don’t know who might be listening in. “You’ll need a passport for your next assignment,” says one of your superiors.
That way, you’re able to acquire and pass on information free from surveillance. You’re always aiming to stay clean: undetected, unsuspected. To get to it you’ll either need the right security clearance or another, less official way in. Clandestine premisesĬlassified information is protected by law from public view, because a government feels it’s too sensitive to reveal. Clandestine operationĪn operation so secretive that the whole thing is designed to remain unknown and deniable. For someone to read it, they’ll either need the key or to be skilled at cryptanalysis. CipherĪ cipher scrambles your message into nonsense by substituting (and adding to) the letters in it. Minor intelligence of no operational worth that an agent or double agent passes to a foreign intelligence service to prove their value. A vehicle rolls up slowly, and swift as a shadow, you’ve vanished inside. You’re waiting on a dark street and hear a gentle rumbling. Either way, your identity has been compromised. It’s so swift and subtle, even a trained surveillance team can miss it.
Just enough to exchange something - a word, an envelope, a key. A brush contact is barely contact at all: a moment’s jostle on a busy platform, two strangers passing on the street. Some of the most important meetings in espionage last less than a second. If you want me to believe you are who you say you are, or that you have the clearance you claim, I’ll need cold, hard proof. Why? Your mission or identity has been fully discovered. If something goes wrong with your covert operation, the consequences for those responsible may be disastrous. So if you’re discovered, it’ll look like you were working for some private group or organization. The people at the top must be able to say they never knew. These are missions so sensitive they have to be deniable. “It wasn’t us.” That’s the official line on black ops. The name comes from the black bags burglars often use to carry their tools. You might have to pick locks, clone keys, crack safes. In a black bag operation, you break into a building to collect intelligence. Trust the British to come up with such an eccentric, understated nickname for an intelligence officer. So you need backstops: the names and addresses of front companies that support your legend. You can’t expect the world to take you at face value. AssetĪ secret source of information or operational assistance, usually an agent, but occasionally someone totally unaware they’re aiding an intelligence service.
You’ll need to conduct anti-surveillance drills to find out if people are watching you, without letting them know you know. If you think you’re being watched, you’ll need to check without revealing your suspicions. AnalystĪs an expert in your field, your job is to obtain crucial insights from intelligence, then write reports and give presentations to spymasters. You’ll need an alias - a false identity - to conceal a genuine one in the physical or digital worlds. Your job is to manage (or run) an agent operation, which might include recruiting, instructing, paying, debriefing, or advising your agent. While the FBI calls certain officers 'agents', most intelligence services prefer 'officers'. AgentĪs an agent, you work secretly for an intelligence service, offering secrets or operational support. You’ll learn the difference between blowback and playback, dead drop and dangle, mole and microdot. Top intelligence officers have helped SPYSCAPE create this glossary to share the tricks of their tradecraft. The language of espionage: get this spy lingo right and you might even pass for an intelligence officer yourself