Tradecraft

Tradecraft, within the intelligence community, refers to the techniques, methods, and technologies used in modern espionage (spying) and generally as part of the activity of intelligence assessment. This includes general topics or techniques (dead drops, for example), or the specific techniques of a nation or organization (the particular form of encryption (encoding) used by the National Security Agency, for example). Agent handling is the management of espionage agents, principal agents, and agent networks (called "assets") by intelligence officers, who are typically known as case officers. Analytic tradecraft is the body of specific methods for intelligence analysis. Black bag operations are covert or clandestine entries into structures or locations to obtain information for human intelligence operations. This may require breaking and entering, lock picking, safe cracking, key impressions, fingerprinting, photography, electronic surveillance (including audio and video surveillance), mail manipulation ("flaps and seals"), forgery, and a host of other related skills. Concealment devices are used to hide things for the purpose of secrecy or security. Examples in espionage include dead drop spikes for transferring notes or small items to other people, and hollowed-out coins or teeth for concealing suicide pills. Cryptography is the practice and study of techniques for secure communication in the presence of third parties (called adversaries). More generally, it is about constructing and analyzing communications protocols that block adversaries. A cut-out is a mutually trusted intermediary, method or channel of communication, facilitating the exchange of information between agents. People playing the role of cutouts usually only know the source and destination of the information to be transmitted, but are unaware of the identities of any other persons involved in the espionage process. Thus, a captured cutout cannot be used to identify members of an espionage cell.