https://spyops.pl/en/ SpyOps.pl: new and updated en Sat, 07 Nov 2026 09:00:00 +0100 Platforma TheScience.fm https://spyops.pl/en/topics/what-is-osint/ https://spyops.pl/en/topics/what-is-osint/#2026-11-07 Sat, 07 Nov 2026 09:00:00 +0100 OSINT is intelligence built on information that anyone can lawfully obtain: from the press, radio, the internet, publications and databases. We explain how the US intelligence community and NATO define it, why intelligence services need openly available knowledge, and where the permissible ends – in criminal law and in the rules on personal data. https://spyops.pl/en/topics/polish-codebreakers-1920/ https://spyops.pl/en/topics/polish-codebreakers-1920/#2026-11-07 Sat, 07 Nov 2026 09:00:00 +0100 A decade before Enigma, Polish radio intelligence was reading the Red Army’s encrypted messages. Lieutenant Jan Kowalewski and mathematicians from the University of Warsaw broke one key after another, and the plan for the Battle of Warsaw – as the Polish Senate has stated – rested on information from Polish radio intelligence. What we know from documents, ABW publications and the work of historians. https://spyops.pl/en/topics/illegals-who-they-are/ https://spyops.pl/en/topics/illegals-who-they-are/#2026-11-07 Sat, 07 Nov 2026 09:00:00 +0100 An illegal is an intelligence officer who lives abroad under someone else’s identity, with no diplomatic passport and no protection of immunity. Using three cases described by the FBI and MI5 – Rudolf Abel, the Portland spy ring and Ghost Stories – we show who these people were and what led to their arrest. https://spyops.pl/en/topics/cyber-espionage-sabotage-cyberwarfare/ https://spyops.pl/en/topics/cyber-espionage-sabotage-cyberwarfare/#2026-11-07 Sat, 07 Nov 2026 09:00:00 +0100 After every major incident the word “cyberwar” comes up. Yet in law, stealing data, destroying a system and attacking during a war are three different things. We explain the differences using the Tallinn Manual, the positions of NATO, the UN and the Red Cross, EU sanctions and the Polish Criminal Code. https://spyops.pl/en/topics/active-measures/ https://spyops.pl/en/topics/active-measures/#2026-11-07 Sat, 07 Nov 2026 09:00:00 +0100 “Active measures” was the Soviet term for covert influence operations: forged documents, planted articles, front organisations and agents of influence. How the machine worked, who ran it and what we know about it from the 1987 State Department report, CIA publications and the archive of Vasili Mitrokhin. https://spyops.pl/en/pop-culture/tinker-tailor-soldier-spy/ https://spyops.pl/en/pop-culture/tinker-tailor-soldier-spy/#2026-11-07 Sat, 07 Nov 2026 09:00:00 +0100 Tomas Alfredson’s film of John le Carré’s novel about the hunt for a Soviet mole at the top of British intelligence. The plot is fiction, but its background is the real case of the Cambridge Five, and the traitor is associated with Kim Philby. https://spyops.pl/en/pop-culture/the-imitation-game/ https://spyops.pl/en/pop-culture/the-imitation-game/#2026-11-07 Sat, 07 Nov 2026 09:00:00 +0100 Morten Tyldum’s film about Alan Turing and the breaking of Enigma at Bletchley Park. A reviewer in the CIA’s journal found that it pays tribute to Turing but is riddled with inaccuracies; a GCHQ historian noted that it mentions the contribution of the Polish cryptologists only to a very small degree. https://spyops.pl/en/pop-culture/the-courier/ https://spyops.pl/en/pop-culture/the-courier/#2026-11-07 Sat, 07 Nov 2026 09:00:00 +0100 Dominic Cooke’s film about the British businessman Greville Wynne, the go-between linking Western intelligence with the GRU colonel Oleg Penkovsky. A CIA historian found that the film gets many details wrong but gets the most important point right: Penkovsky’s significance in the Cuban missile crisis. https://spyops.pl/en/pop-culture/the-americans/ https://spyops.pl/en/pop-culture/the-americans/#2026-11-07 Sat, 07 Nov 2026 09:00:00 +0100 An FX series about a couple of Soviet KGB illegals posing as an ordinary American married couple in the 1980s. It was created by the former CIA officer Joe Weisberg. We compare it with the Ghost Stories case – the arrest of Russian illegals in the United States in 2010. https://spyops.pl/en/pop-culture/operation-mincemeat-film/ https://spyops.pl/en/pop-culture/operation-mincemeat-film/#2026-11-07 Sat, 07 Nov 2026 09:00:00 +0100 John Madden’s film about a British deception of 1943: the body of a supposed officer carrying false documents was to persuade the Germans that the Allies would not strike at Sicily. The film is based on Ben Macintyre’s book, and the real operation is well described in archival files and museum publications. https://spyops.pl/en/pop-culture/enigma-2001/ https://spyops.pl/en/pop-culture/enigma-2001/#2026-11-07 Sat, 07 Nov 2026 09:00:00 +0100 Michael Apted’s film of Robert Harris’s novel, with a fictional Bletchley Park cryptologist in the lead. The Polish community in Britain protested that the only Pole in the film is a traitor, while the work of the Polish cryptologists who first broke Enigma is dismissed with one brief mention. https://spyops.pl/en/pop-culture/ https://spyops.pl/en/pop-culture/#2026-11-07 Sat, 07 Nov 2026 09:00:00 +0100 Spy films, series and books compared with the facts. https://spyops.pl/en/maps/intelligence-warsaw/ https://spyops.pl/en/maps/intelligence-warsaw/#2026-11-07 Sat, 07 Nov 2026 09:00:00 +0100 Places in Warsaw linked to the history of Polish intelligence, cryptology and the apparatus of repression: the site of the Saxon Palace, the plaque to the Enigma codebreakers, the former seat of the German Security Police and the prison on Rakowiecka Street. Only historic sites, memorials and museums. https://spyops.pl/en/maps/illegals-trail/ https://spyops.pl/en/maps/illegals-trail/#2026-11-07 Sat, 07 Nov 2026 09:00:00 +0100 Four places linked to illegals – Soviet and Russian intelligence officers who lived abroad for years under an assumed identity. We chose only places confirmed by official sources: the FBI, MI5, the CIA and the US Department of Justice. https://spyops.pl/en/maps/how-a-double-agent-works/ https://spyops.pl/en/maps/how-a-double-agent-works/#2026-11-07 Sat, 07 Nov 2026 09:00:00 +0100 Nine steps from detecting an enemy spy to a game that leads the enemy astray. Definitions follow the CIA and International Spy Museum glossaries; the example is the British Double Cross System and agent GARBO, as described by MI5. Details and differing figures are in the cards. https://spyops.pl/en/maps/from-signal-to-report-sigint/ https://spyops.pl/en/maps/from-signal-to-report-sigint/#2026-11-07 Sat, 07 Nov 2026 09:00:00 +0100 Seven stages in which an intercepted signal becomes a report for its customer, together with the oversight meant to keep that work in check. Stages follow the NSA and NATO doctrine AJP-2; oversight follows the NSA, GCHQ and the Polish Act on the Internal Security Agency and the Foreign Intelligence Agency; the short descriptions are by the SpyOps.pl editors. https://spyops.pl/en/maps/from-enigma-to-the-nsa/ https://spyops.pl/en/maps/from-enigma-to-the-nsa/#2026-11-07 Sat, 07 Nov 2026 09:00:00 +0100 Five places along the history of codebreaking: from the Pyry meeting in 1939, through Bletchley Park and Arlington Hall, to the post-war signals intelligence agencies – Britain’s GCHQ and America’s NSA. https://spyops.pl/en/maps/cold-war-in-berlin/ https://spyops.pl/en/maps/cold-war-in-berlin/#2026-11-07 Sat, 07 Nov 2026 09:00:00 +0100 Seven places in Berlin and on its edge where the intelligence Cold War was at its most visible: from the bridge where spies were exchanged to the former Stasi headquarters and its remand prison. https://spyops.pl/en/maps/cold-war-berlin-places/ https://spyops.pl/en/maps/cold-war-berlin-places/#2026-11-07 Sat, 07 Nov 2026 09:00:00 +0100 Places in Berlin linked to Cold War intelligence and counterintelligence that can be seen today: the bridge where spies were exchanged, Checkpoint Charlie, a section of the eavesdropping tunnel, the listening station on Teufelsberg, the former Stasi headquarters and its remand prison. We checked every place in official sources. https://spyops.pl/en/maps/attributing-a-cyber-attack/ https://spyops.pl/en/maps/attributing-a-cyber-attack/#2026-11-07 Sat, 07 Nov 2026 09:00:00 +0100 Eight steps from detecting an incident to publicly naming the culprit and the response of states. This is a summary of the article on attribution in the Cyber section, which has the full discussion, examples and differing views. https://spyops.pl/en/maps/ https://spyops.pl/en/maps/#2026-11-07 Sat, 07 Nov 2026 09:00:00 +0100 SpyOps.pl concept maps, maps of places and routes. https://spyops.pl/en/lexicon/services/uop/ https://spyops.pl/en/lexicon/services/uop/#2026-11-07 Sat, 07 Nov 2026 09:00:00 +0100 The Office of State Protection (Urząd Ochrony Państwa, UOP), a Polish service created in 1990 to protect the security of the state. It was abolished by a 2002 Act that created the ABW and the AW. https://spyops.pl/en/lexicon/services/sluzba-bezpieczenstwa/ https://spyops.pl/en/lexicon/services/sluzba-bezpieczenstwa/#2026-11-07 Sat, 07 Nov 2026 09:00:00 +0100 A service within the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Polish People's Republic, in operation from 28 November 1956; dissolved in 1990 by the Act on the Office of State Protection. https://spyops.pl/en/lexicon/services/oddzial-ii/ https://spyops.pl/en/lexicon/services/oddzial-ii/#2026-11-07 Sat, 07 Nov 2026 09:00:00 +0100 Military intelligence and counterintelligence of the Second Polish Republic, known colloquially as the “dwójka” (“the Two”). Its structure included the Cipher Bureau, which broke Enigma. https://spyops.pl/en/lexicon/services/kgb/ https://spyops.pl/en/lexicon/services/kgb/#2026-11-07 Sat, 07 Nov 2026 09:00:00 +0100 The intelligence, counterintelligence and state security service of the Soviet Union, formally established on 13 March 1954 and dissolved in November 1991. Its tasks were taken over by Russian services, including the SVR and the FSB. https://spyops.pl/en/lexicon/services/departament-i-msw/ https://spyops.pl/en/lexicon/services/departament-i-msw/#2026-11-07 Sat, 07 Nov 2026 09:00:00 +0100 The civilian intelligence branch of the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MSW) of the Polish People's Republic, in operation from 28 November 1956 to 31 July 1990. https://spyops.pl/en/lexicon/services/aw/ https://spyops.pl/en/lexicon/services/aw/#2026-11-07 Sat, 07 Nov 2026 09:00:00 +0100 The Foreign Intelligence Agency (Agencja Wywiadu, AW), the Polish service responsible for protecting the external security of the state. It operates mainly outside Poland, and its head reports directly to the Prime Minister. https://spyops.pl/en/lexicon/services/aise/ https://spyops.pl/en/lexicon/services/aise/#2026-11-07 Sat, 07 Nov 2026 09:00:00 +0100 Italy's external intelligence agency, created by Law No. 124 of 3 August 2007 to replace the military SISMI. https://spyops.pl/en/lexicon/services/abw/ https://spyops.pl/en/lexicon/services/abw/#2026-11-07 Sat, 07 Nov 2026 09:00:00 +0100 The Internal Security Agency (Agencja Bezpieczeństwa Wewnętrznego, ABW), the Polish service responsible for protecting the internal security of the state and its constitutional order. Its head reports directly to the Prime Minister. https://spyops.pl/en/lexicon/people/witold-pilecki/ https://spyops.pl/en/lexicon/people/witold-pilecki/#2026-11-07 Sat, 07 Nov 2026 09:00:00 +0100 An underground officer who in 1940 let himself be caught so as to be sent to Auschwitz. In the camp he built a resistance movement and sent out reports on the crimes committed there, and after the war he gathered intelligence for General Anders. The communist authorities executed him in 1948. https://spyops.pl/en/lexicon/people/william-friedman/ https://spyops.pl/en/lexicon/people/william-friedman/#2026-11-07 Sat, 07 Nov 2026 09:00:00 +0100 An American cryptologist who brought mathematical and scientific methods into cryptology. He headed the US Army’s Signal Intelligence Service, and a team under his direction reconstructed the Japanese PURPLE cipher machine. https://spyops.pl/en/lexicon/people/ryszard-kuklinski/ https://spyops.pl/en/lexicon/people/ryszard-kuklinski/#2026-11-07 Sat, 07 Nov 2026 09:00:00 +0100 A colonel on the General Staff of the Polish People’s Army who, from 1972, passed secret documents of communist Poland, the USSR and the Warsaw Pact to US intelligence. In November 1981 the CIA took him out of Poland. https://spyops.pl/en/lexicon/people/rudolf-abel/ https://spyops.pl/en/lexicon/people/rudolf-abel/#2026-11-07 Sat, 07 Nov 2026 09:00:00 +0100 A Soviet intelligence officer who operated in the United States as an illegal; his real name was William Fisher. Arrested in 1957, he was exchanged in Berlin in 1962 for the U-2 pilot Francis Gary Powers. https://spyops.pl/en/lexicon/people/robert-hanssen/ https://spyops.pl/en/lexicon/people/robert-hanssen/#2026-11-07 Sat, 07 Nov 2026 09:00:00 +0100 An FBI counterintelligence agent who, with breaks, spied for Soviet and then Russian intelligence for more than 20 years. Arrested in 2001, he was sentenced to life imprisonment. https://spyops.pl/en/lexicon/people/richard-sorge/ https://spyops.pl/en/lexicon/people/richard-sorge/#2026-11-07 Sat, 07 Nov 2026 09:00:00 +0100 A German Communist and journalist who ran a Soviet intelligence network in Tokyo. Arrested by the Japanese in October 1941, he was executed on 7 November 1944; in 1964 the USSR posthumously made him a Hero of the Soviet Union. https://spyops.pl/en/lexicon/people/oleg-penkowski/ https://spyops.pl/en/lexicon/people/oleg-penkowski/#2026-11-07 Sat, 07 Nov 2026 09:00:00 +0100 A colonel in Soviet military intelligence and an important CIA source. His material was used in US assessments of the Soviet missile threat at the time of the Cuban missile crisis. Arrested on 22 October 1962, he was executed in 1963. https://spyops.pl/en/lexicon/people/oleg-gordijewski/ https://spyops.pl/en/lexicon/people/oleg-gordijewski/#2026-11-07 Sat, 07 Nov 2026 09:00:00 +0100 A KGB officer who from the 1970s secretly worked with British intelligence. In 1985, when he was due to take over the KGB residency in London, he came under suspicion; the British got him out of the USSR across the Finnish border. https://spyops.pl/en/lexicon/people/mata-hari/ https://spyops.pl/en/lexicon/people/mata-hari/#2026-11-07 Sat, 07 Nov 2026 09:00:00 +0100 The Dutch dancer Margaretha Zelle, executed by the French in 1917 for spying for Germany. Legend turned her into a super-spy; British files and a French military historian describe rather an ineffective amateur, though one in the service of German intelligence. https://spyops.pl/en/lexicon/people/markus-wolf/ https://spyops.pl/en/lexicon/people/markus-wolf/#2026-11-07 Sat, 07 Nov 2026 09:00:00 +0100 For more than three decades the head of East Germany’s foreign intelligence service, the Main Directorate A (HV A) of the Ministry for State Security. After German reunification he stood trial. https://spyops.pl/en/lexicon/people/krystyna-skarbek/ https://spyops.pl/en/lexicon/people/krystyna-skarbek/#2026-11-07 Sat, 07 Nov 2026 09:00:00 +0100 A Polish woman in British service, known as Christine Granville: a courier into occupied Poland and, in 1944, an SOE agent in southern France. Awarded the George Medal and the OBE, she was murdered in London in 1952.