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Espionage

A ship crosses the Baltic Sea at sunrise

The War You Can’t See: Gray Zone Operations Are Reshaping Global Security

EXPERT PERSPECTIVE -- In the middle of the night, with no witnesses, a single ship flagged out of Hong Kong drags its anchor across the Baltic Sea. [...] More

The Latest

Chinese Ghost Machines: The Hidden Risk in Australia's Energy Infrastructure

EXPERT PERSPECTIVE — The recent revelations from Reuters and other U.S. news outlets, detailing the discovery of "rogue" communication devices [...] More

Welcome to the Gray Zone

Welcome to the Gray Zone

It used to be something of a national security secret: identifying the ways in which U.S. adversaries are working to undermine U.S. stability, sow [...] More

How Does the CIA Recruit Russian Spies?

CIPHER BRIEF REPORTING — As any good intelligence officer will tell you, recruiting spies is a tough business. Not only do you have to identify - and [...] More

Spies Who Come Out in the Summer

CHALK MARKS / OPINION — Intelligence officers in the CIA talk about three things when they are together in the field:How bad things are at [...] More

'Lamps are Going Out all over Europe' when it comes to Russian Espionage

OPINION — The day before Britain declared war on Germany in August 1914, the Foreign Secretary Sir Edward Grey remarked to a friend that “the lamps [...] More

Chalk Marks: A Review of The Sympathizer

ENTERTAINMENT — “I am a spy, a sleeper, a spook, a man of two faces.”This opening sentence of Viet Thanh Nguyen’s novel The Sympathizer is one of the [...] More

Why 'Ronin' is an Espionage Classic

CHALK MARKS / COLUMN — If you craft a list of professionals who by virtue of their job knowingly undertake an effort they expect to go badly, it will [...] More

E-Commerce Lessons for Espionage

OPINION — I recently enjoyed an overdue reunion with some college friends, wrongly assuming war stories from this retired CIA officer would wow my [...] More

Why the Classic Movie 'Spy Game' Gets it Right

OPINION — Many moons ago, when I started my training as an operations officer, the world and country were in a different place. Everyone I knew [...] More

Gen Z and CIA is a Relationship in Need of Counseling

OPINION — As a mere “wretched pensioner” in retirement (words taken from my good friend and former CIA colleague Doug Wise), I spend a great deal of [...] More

The Best Reads of 2023: A Holiday Gift Guide

The Best Reads of 2023: A Holiday Gift Guide

HOLIDAY SPECIAL REPORT - In this season of giving, your friendly neighborhood Cipher Brief “Undercover” team - which spends the bulk of the year [...] More

702 is the Spy Tool that Americans need now

OPINION — The Intelligence Community (IC), in a recent press release, said it will lose what it has “used every day to protect the nation from [...] More