The Science of Spying: A Quick Glance into a Changing Field

By Mihaela Pranjkovic-Kovac, Science and Technology

Many of us conjure up a similar image of a stereotypical spy when we think of espionage. Disguises, black sunglasses, a jack of all trades, a guy who builds their gadgets, hacking on a black screen with green code; the list goes on. Having such stereotypes has made the world of spies and espionage seem like a fantastical one—one that is far removed from our real world. It makes the field seem limited to being viewed only on a movie screen. In reality, however, the changing world of espionage has real-life implications, particularly political ones. 

While the exact number may never be known, considering the nature of the profession, it has been estimated that there are roughly 100,000 spies sent from around seventy countries to spy on the United States (Patterson 2017). Washington, D.C., has even colloquially been referred to as the spy capital of the world and is estimated to house around 10,000 spies (Beaujon et al. 2023). With that being said, it is no coincidence that the capital of one of the most politically powerful and relevant countries in the world happens to be the home to so many spies. Espionage is frequently an inherently political act. Oftentimes, the goal of espionage is to collect information about the political landscape and behind-the-scenes happenings of a country.

This very relationship to politics is the core engine in the formation of the Espionage Act. The act criminalizes spreading and conveying information that interferes with the affairs of the nation; this primarily applied to World War I at the time that Congress passed the act (National Constitution Center 2025). Continuing into the modern era, U.S. presidents and lawmakers still use intelligence collected by agencies like the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to shape and inform their foreign policy decisions (Dehlinger 2020). Some of the biggest foreign policy decisions, like the United States’ invasion of Iraq, have been made based on intelligence collected by the CIA. And so, it becomes compelling to delve into the ways the changing technologies have impacted modern espionage and its relation to politics. 

Like many fields in the modern era, the primary way this change has been catalyzed is through the rise of “cyber” espionage. Cyberspace has provided spies with an entirely new field to take advantage of, especially with how much information takes up digital space in comparison to physical copies. This has led to new strategies being developed for collecting this information. Cyber intrusions as a result have become a real concern for many political institutions. According to the former NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen, there can be as many as over one hundred cyber intrusion attempts coming from many countries on a daily basis on NATO’s headquarters. The political nature of this is highlighted by the hacking of the U.S. Democratic National Committee’s emails by what is theorized to have been done by Russian spies. Cyber espionage is a large new field that countries have to account for, and was estimated to cost the global economy $2.1 trillion before 2020 (Pun 2017).

At the heart of the recent digital shift in espionage is the fact that the age of digitization has allowed for massive amounts of information to be compressed on small devices that are easy to preserve and transport. The impact of this on intelligence agencies is clear as the digital revolution has forced the CIA’s hand into taking new factors into considerations, such as how to recruit officers and where to train its personnel; it even led to a restructuring of the agency, including the Directorate of Operations which oversees espionage, and the Directorate of Science and Technology which is in charge of creating spy craft technology to assist in espionage (Dehlinger 2020).

Even the manner in which spies are recruited has changed drastically because of the digital age. There is the case of Kevin Mallory, a former CIA employee, who would end up facing twenty years in prison for spying on the United States. The way this subversion of allegiance began? He was targeted and convinced into spying for Chinese intelligence by a message on LinkedIn. An app that so many use for seemingly harmless reasons, such as searching for a job, networking, or building a professional profile, has direct connections to the world of espionage and led Kevin Mallory down a completely different path than the one he could have envisioned at his original job. It has been noted that the spotting process, known as ‘seeking out’ agents, has become much more time and cost-efficient by platforms such as LinkedIn. It has reached the point that the Federal Bureau of Investigation released a message announcing that anyone who has publicized the fact of their work for the United States government was at risk of being reached out to by foreign spies through platforms such as LinkedIn. The site allows for officials to disclose their security clearance in hopes of attracting potential employees, but like Kevin Mallory, they might end up drawing in an entirely new crowd—foreign spies. (Dehlinger 2020). 

The technological developments of the modern age don’t just provide spies with benefits, but numerous new barriers to circumvent as well. The sharp increase in the utilization of biometric technology gave spies many novel issues to address. Former CIA Director Michael Morrell mentioned how these emerging and still-developing technologies make it exceedingly burdensome to travel while undercover (Dehlinger 2020). Cameras are able to take clearer pictures, mass information providing both a wealth of info on enemies and conversely on themselves, and messages to either help or harm are able to be sent in an instant. The contemporary field of espionage that spies have to navigate becomes a fine line to walk in order to remain effective and secretive.

While these are riveting cases to look at, they do raise a salient question: how many cyber spies are out there? The answer may very well never be concretely known, but providing insight into how the field has grown proves its salience. For example, North Korea allegedly has over 6,000 hackers that work to obtain money for the country’s nuclear program, and China is responsible for possibly one of the longest cybersecurity threats ever with its group APT10, which has attacked Japanese companies, stolen large amounts of data, and have targeted world trading routes (Broadcom). With its inherent secrecy and rapid technological developments, espionage remains a field that transcends its stereotypes, but may prove even more entertaining than any Hollywood depiction. 

References

Beaujon, Andrew. Hruby, Patrick. Mullins, Luke. McNamara, Sylvie. 2023. “City of Spies: DC is the World Capital of Espionage.” Washingtonian, July 13. https://www.washingtonian.com/2023/07/13/city-of-spies-dc-is-the-world-capital-of-espionage/. 

Broadcom. “What is Cyber Espionage?” Broadcom, https://www.broadcom.com/topics/cyber-espionage 

Dehlinger, Kathryn. “Espionage in the Digital Age: How Technology is Impacting The Recruitment and Handling of Spies.” The University of Texas at Austin, May 13. https://repositories.lib.utexas.edu/server/api/core/bitstreams/96f241db-60be-4cb4-aa5e-7b5e833735ab/content.  

National Constitution Center. 2025. “Espionage Act of 1917 and Sedition Act of 1918 (1917-1918).” National Constitution Center. https://constitutioncenter.org/the-constitution/historic-document-library/detail/espionage-act-of-1917-and-sedition-act-of-1918-1917-1918#:~:text=During%20World%20War%20I%2C%20President,interfere%20with%20the%20war%20effort. 

Patterson, Thom. 2017. “Spies among us: Get a peek at their playbook.” CNN, July 18. https://www.cnn.com/2016/07/20/us/declassified-spycraft-espionage-gear-techniques/index.html. 

Pun, Darien. 2017. “Rethinking Espionage in the Modern Era.” Chicago Journal of International Law, July 7. https://cjil.uchicago.edu/print-archive/rethinking-espionage-modern-era