Skip to content

SpyOps.pl › Topics

Topics

We arrange the texts on the site into five sections. The sections intersect with the lexicon: a text about a Cold War operation belongs to history, but it leads to the cards for services and operations.

Intelligence

How states gather information: the intelligence disciplines (human, signals, imagery, open-source), the intelligence cycle and the limits of this work.

Counterintelligence

How states protect themselves against foreign intelligence: detection, the protection of classified information and oversight of the services.

ABW SKW classified information security classification espionage College for Special Services (Kolegium do Spraw Służb Specjalnych)need-to-know principle guarantee of secrecy (rękojmia zachowania tajemnicy)security vetting (postępowanie sprawdzające)security clearance (poświadczenie bezpieczeństwa)national security authority document (classified)processing of classified information ICT security accreditation “restricted” (zastrzeżone)operational and reconnaissance activities (czynności operacyjno-rozpoznawcze)operational control (kontrola operacyjna)covert monitoring (niejawne nadzorowanie)confidentiality, integrity, availability disclosure of classified information industrial security compartmented intelligence SCI covert action alias cover blown (compromised)bona fides bug concealment device dead drop dangle double agent exfiltration infiltration covert opening of mail honey trap leak eyes only classified material certification (protection of information)ICT system security documentation ICT system security audit risk assessment SCIF burn bag Security Service Act 1989 brush pass live drop cache microdot numbers stations surveillance detection route technical surveillance countermeasures listening post passive bug electronic dead drop wire (body-worn bug)L-pill TEMPEST illegal legend mole sleeper (sleeper agent)agent-in-place walk-in cut-out provocateur chicken feed sanitisation (of a document)Special Services Committee (Sejm)ISC Intelligence Services Act 1994 Parliamentary Oversight Panel (PKGr)SSCI FISA finding (presidential authorisation of covert action)

Cyber

Cyber intelligence and cyber operations: what we know from official reports, how operations are attributed and where public knowledge ends.

InfoOps and PsyOps

Disinformation, influence operations and psychological operations: how they work, how to recognise them and how states’ and organisations’ documents describe them.

disinformation FIMI psychological operations information operations deception subversion and sabotage hybrid threats propaganda hybrid warfare state information security strategic communication false flag kompromat agent of influence black propaganda misinformation

History

Intelligence and counterintelligence in the 20th century: from the Cipher Bureau and Enigma, through the Cold War, to the security services of the Polish People’s Republic and the reckoning with them in the archives.

Breaking Enigma The Cambridge Five Cipher Bureau UOP Operation Bridge (“Most”)Operation “Samum”clock method state security organs (1944–1990)Security Service (Służba Bezpieczeństwa, SB)collaboration (within the meaning of the Lustration Act)lustration declaration card catalogue (Rejewski's)Second Department of the General Staff (Oddział II Sztabu Głównego)GC&CS Bletchley Park Bombe (British)Commission for the Liquidation of the WSI cipher code encryption cryptology KGB Jedburghs GROM Department of Public Security of the PKWN (Resort Bezpieczeństwa Publicznego PKWN)Second Directorate of the General Staff of the Polish Army (Zarząd II Sztabu Generalnego WP)one-time pad Stasi OSS SOE secret collaborator (TW)cell secret collaborator (TWC)candidate for secret collaborator (KTW)operational contact (KO)official contact (KS)confidential contact (KP)consultant (SB)informer (informator, 1945–1960)Department I of the Ministry of Internal Affairs (Departament I MSW)operational contact and information contact of Department I (kontakt operacyjny, kontakt informacyjny)rezidentura (Department I of the Ministry of Internal Affairs)correspondence point (punkt korespondencyjny, PK)safe flat (mieszkanie konspiracyjne, MK) and contact premises (lokal kontaktowy, LK)address drop (skrzynka adresowa, SA)personal file and work file of a secret collaborator (teczka personalna, teczka pracy TW)operational records file on a priest (teczka ewidencji operacyjnej na księdza, TEOK)the “T” branch and operational technology (pion “T”, technika operacyjna)report (from surveillance or eavesdropping; komunikat)covert observation post (zakryty punkt obserwacyjny, ZPO) and special covert post (specjalny punkt zakryty, SPZ)operational combination (kombinacja operacyjna)cryptonym (kryptonim)coordination (in the SB; koordynacja)general information card index (kartoteka ogólnoinformacyjna, KOI)query (check; zapytanie, sprawdzenie)operational safeguarding (zabezpieczenie operacyjne)foreign travel ban (zastrzeżenie wyjazdów zagranicznych)registration questionnaire (kwestionariusz ewidencyjny, KE)case of operational investigation (sprawa operacyjnego rozpracowania, SOR)case of operational checking (sprawa operacyjnego sprawdzenia, SOS)object case (sprawa obiektowa)case of operational observation (sprawa obserwacji operacyjnej)registration and observation case (sprawa ewidencyjno-obserwacyjna, SEO)agent case (sprawa agenturalna)cipher telegram (SB; szyfrogram)registration log (dziennik rejestracyjny)Internal Military Service (Wojskowa Służba Wewnętrzna, WSW)backdoor (in a cipher)crib (probable plaintext)key (cryptographic)known-plaintext attack zeroisation frequency hopping Vernam cipher Ultra Double-Cross System (XX)ISK (Intelligence Service Knox)Radio Security Service TICOM Washington–Moscow hotline cryptanalysis Enigma cyclometer Zygalski sheets cryptologic bomb (bomba)steganography Cheka Okhrana Smersh Military Information Services (Wojskowe Służby Informacyjne, WSI)Church Committee

A TheScience.fm podcast

Na celowniku

Conversations on security with recognised guests (in Polish).