A cover designation for a case, a target, a technical means or an operation.
According to the glossary of the IPN Archival Inventory, a cryptonym (abbreviated kr. or krypt.) was a word the SB used to designate an operational case, a target, a means of operational technology or an operation in order to conceal identifying data. Cryptonyms were also given to contact premises, safe flats, hiding places, targets of surveillance, room bugs and telephone taps, and to operational plans; the glossary also cross-refers to the related entry “pseudonim” (pseudonym). For example, a surveillance file of the “B” branch was marked with a cryptonym and a registration number.1,2
Other services used cryptonyms too – for instance, SIS called the 1985 operation to exfiltrate Oleg Gordievsky from the USSR PIMLICO, while Gordievsky himself was designated in turn SUNBEAM, NOCTON and OVATION.2,3
Sources
- Institute of National Remembrance, IPN archival inventory – Glossary, letter K (in Polish)
- Institute of National Remembrance, IPN archival inventory – Glossary, letter T (in Polish)
- David A. Foy, ‘Studies in Intelligence’ 63 (1), 2019, pp. 39–41 (CIA), Review: B. Macintyre, The Spy and the Traitor (2018)
Checked: 4 November 2026