11 Terms Used by Spies (2024)

FAQs

What words do spies use? ›

Ciphers and Coded Letters

In ciphers, letters were used to represent and replace other letters to mask the true message of the missive. The letter's recipient utilized a key--which referenced corresponding pages and letters from a well-known book, such as Entick's Dictionary--to decode the document's true message.

Now the five kinds of spies are these: village spies, inner spies, converted spies, death spies, living spies. If these five means be employed simultaneously, none can discover their working.

A person who commits espionage is called an espionage agent or spy. 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.

To avoid being seen themselves, spies often use fancy gadgets to help them with their surveillance. For example, to keep an eye on someone from a distance, a spy might use binoculars. Spies might also use high-tech cameras hidden in all sorts of different objects, from pens and buttons to key fobs and ties!

Top Secret is the highest level of classified information. Information is further compartmented so that specific access using a code word after top secret is a legal way to hide collective and important information. Such material would cause "exceptionally grave damage" to national security if made publicly available.

One of the hardest codes to crack is arguably the US government's Advanced Encryption Standard (aka Rijndael or AES) which the Americans use to protect top-secret information. AES is considered unbreakable by even the most sophisticated hackers.

That's why sharing information relies on covert communication or COVCOM. Methods include secret writing (such as invisible ink or tiny microdots) or sending and receiving secure messages using special technology (often concealed or even disguised to look like everyday objects).

Can spies tell their family? ›

You can. But you have to think long and hard about who you tell. "The general advice in MI5 that we give," says Jo, "is that you can tell close family members or a close friend." John says he decided to tell some members of his family that he was applying for a job with MI6 straight away.

Yes, spies do indeed exist.

Swallow. A female agent employed to seduce people for intelligence purposes.

Word forms: plural secret agents. countable noun. A secret agent is a person who is employed by a government to find out the secrets of other governments. Synonyms: spy, undercover agent, spook [US, Canadian, informal], nark [British, Australian, New Zealand, slang] More Synonyms of secret agent.

Trivia. The Spy is known to speak phrases in French, Spanish and Catalan.

August 2023) (Learn how and when to remove this message) In espionage, a sleeper agent is one who has infiltrated the target country and has "gone to sleep", sometimes for many years. The agent does nothing to communicate with the sponsor or any existing agents or to obtain information beyond what is in public.

Agent: a person who spies on their own country; typically a citizen of a foreign country who is spying on behalf of the United States Government. Not to be confused with CIA employees, who are known as intelligence “officers.” Often used interchangeably with “asset.”