blown (compromised)

The state in which the true identity or secret activity of an officer or agent has come to light despite their cover.

The CIA glossary uses the term blown here; an operation or source that has been discovered is described as compromised.¹

The International Spy Museum also uses the term burned for a case officer or agent whose identity has been exposed.²

An example: according to B. G. Royden’s article in Studies in Intelligence, the CIA’s Soviet source Adolf Tolkachev was compromised in 1985; the article names the former CIA officer Edward Lee Howard and Aldrich Ames as the likely traitors. In June 1985 the KGB detained a CIA officer on his way to a meeting with Tolkachev; Tolkachev was executed in 1986.³