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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. [citation needed]
By definition, an "agent" acts on behalf of another, whether another individual, an organization, or a foreign government. Agents can be considered either witting or unwitting, and in some cases, willing or unwilling. Agents typically work under the direction of a principal agent or a case officer.
As the name suggests, human intelligence is mostly collected by people and is commonly provided via espionage or some other form of covert surveillance. However, there are also overt methods of collection, such as via interrogation of subjects or simply through interviews.
Basic agents can be formed into groups with leaders, or report directly to the controller. Basic agents include information providers, perhaps through espionage or expertise about some local subject. Also in the basic group are "executive agents", who will kill or commit sabotage, and recruiting agents.
Espionage is usually part of an institutional effort (i.e., governmental or corporate espionage), and the term is most readily associated with state spying on potential or actual enemies, primarily for military purposes, but this has been extended to spying involving corporations, known specifically as industrial espionage.
Agency (psychology), an attribute of humans and non-human animals; Agent (economics), an actor and decision maker in a model; Agent (grammar), in linguistics, the thematic relation of a cause or initiator to an event; Agent noun, a word identifying an actor, derived from a word denoting an action
The deceptions were implemented with the use of double agents, radio traffic and visual deception. The British "Double Cross" anti-espionage operation had proven very successful from the outset of the war, [27] and the LCS was able to use double agents to send back misleading information about Allied invasion plans. [28]
In espionage, a sleeper agent is one who has infiltrated the target country and has "gone to sleep", sometimes for many years. The agent makes no attempt to communicate with the sponsor or any existing agents or to obtain information beyond what is in public, and becomes active only upon receiving a pre-arranged signal or message from the sponsor or a fellow agent.