Spy terminology

A guide to some of the spy tradecraft allegedly uncovered by US investigators

published on: Guardian

• Illegals:The name used by Russia's overseas intelligence agency, the SVR, for its secret agents living in the US.

• Legend:The false identities provided to the illegals before they leave Russia, and then built up inside the US.

• Deep cover: When the agents are entrenched within their host society for years or decades.

• Steganography: From the Greek, meaning "concealed writing", the placing of hidden messages. The modern version involves the encryption of messages concealed within the binary code of digital images on publicly accessible internet sites.

• Ad hoc network: Covert communication between a pair of laptop computers temporarily linked to exchange files.

• Brush-past meetings: Also known as "flash meetings", where two people secretly pass items as one walks past the other in a public place.

• Radiograms: Bursts of coded radio data to the agents' handlers in Moscow.

• Drop site: A designated spot at which a small item is left by one agent for another to collect.