Governments throughout history have stolen ideas, formulas, and technology to undercut rivals or “borrow” innovations. What is economic espionage?Įconomic espionage is the clandestine gathering of information from an economic competitor. In 2013, NSA contractor Edward Snowden was charged with crimes under the Act for intentionally revealing secret national security information. Major parts of the 1917 Espionage Act remain part of US law today. In 1953, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were charged and convicted for giving nuclear secrets to the Soviet Union and became the first and only American civilians executed under the Act. The 1917 Espionage Act, passed shortly after the US entered WWI, imposed heavy penalties for spying or any activities that weakened or imperiled the country’s defense. What is espionage?Įspionage is defined as the act of spying or using spies, agents, assets, and intelligence officers, as well as technology, to collect secret information, usually through illegal means. or the Soviet Union’s Oleg Penkovsky who passed secrets to the CIA in the 1950s and 1960s. A spy (or intelligence officer), however, gathers information (usually in secret) about the activities or intentions of a rival government or group in support of national security. Think Sherlock Homes, or famed FBI agent Melvin Purvis who hunted down gangsters in the 1930s. What is the difference between a detective and a spy?Ī detective or investigator works in the field of law enforcement, looking for clues and evidence (usually quite openly) as part of solving a crime. Outside the intelligence world, the term “double agent” is often used much more broadly to refer to someone who pretends to work for one side while secretly working for another, but whose loyalties remain unchanged. True double agents are rare… because their survival is rare. After his release, he continued to work for MI6 as he passed secrets to the KGB (including British and American plans for the Berlin Tunnel). But when communist North Korea captured him in 1950, he decided he was fighting on the wrong side. George Blake, for example, joined Britain’s MI6 in 1944. In the intelligence world, a true double agent is loyal to one side before being “turned” and transferring loyalties to the other side. What is a Double Agent?Ī double agent is essentially someone who works for two sides. (You’ll find agents in other parts of government as well, but that’s a different use of the term: FBI agents and special agents, for example, work in law enforcement.
#Surveillance by secret agents professional#
They trust their handler (a professional intelligence officer) to protect them. They may be recruited through money, ideology, coercion, greed, or for another reason, such as love (human beings are complicated). What is an Agent?Īn agent is another word for a spy: someone who volunteers or is recruited to pass secrets to an intelligence agency, sometimes taking risks to spy on their own country. Of course, the term “spy” also is used much more broadly, often to refer to anyone or anything connected to “spy agencies” (from intelligence analysts to hidden cameras), or any activity done secretly (spy missions, use of malicious computer software).
For this reason, a government minister might make a great spy-but so might the janitor or a cafeteria worker in a government ministry.ĭiscover some fascinating spies in our Spies & Spymasters exhibit, such as Morten Storm, who volunteered to spy against Al Qaeda celebrated dancer Mata Hari, who spied for the French during WWI and Mosab Hassan Yousef, a spy for Israeli intelligence.
From an intelligence perspective, their most important quality is having access to valuable information. Instead, a spy either volunteers or is recruited to help steal information, motivated by ideology, patriotism, money, or by a host of other reasons, from blackmail to love. Also called an agent or asset, a spy is not a professional intelligence officer, and doesn’t usually receive formal training (though may be taught basic tradecraft). In the intelligence world, a spy is strictly defined as someone used to steal secrets for an intelligence organization.
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