Espionage Series | Modern Espionage
How modern espionage happens today. Unlike the old days of disguises and secret meetings, a lot of spying now happens digitally.
🔹 Types of Modern Espionage
- Cyber Espionage (Hacking)
- Governments or hackers break into computer systems to steal sensitive data.
- Targets: military networks, government databases, corporations.
- Example:
- China and the U.S. have accused each other of hacking for defense and economic secrets.
- In 2015, hackers stole data on 21 million U.S. federal employees from the Office of Personnel Management.
- Industrial/Corporate Espionage
- Companies spying on rivals to steal trade secrets, formulas, or technology.
- Example:
- In 2018, a Chinese engineer was caught stealing secrets about self-driving car technology from Google’s Waymo before joining Uber.
- Human Intelligence (HUMINT) – Still Alive
- Classic spycraft: recruiting insiders (spies, moles, double agents).
- Even today, countries plant or recruit people inside governments or companies.
- Signals Intelligence (SIGINT)
- Listening to phone calls, intercepting emails, or monitoring internet traffic.
- Agencies like the NSA (U.S.) and GCHQ (UK) are known for large-scale digital surveillance.
- Social Media & Data Espionage
- Collecting info from people’s online presence (what they post, like, or share).
- Sometimes foreign governments use fake accounts to befriend or manipulate people to reveal information.
✅ Bottom line:
Espionage today is less about trench coats and secret meetings, and more about hacking, data theft, and insider leaks. But human spies still matter—especially to confirm or interpret digital intelligence.
