Spycraft Rebooted: How Technology is Changing Espionage (Kindle Single)

Technology is turning spycraft upside down. Once, intelligence operations could employ James Bond-style forgeries and disguises to infiltrate a target, but modern-day spies must succeed at the seemingly impossible: to hide in plain sight in a world where everything is visible. Our technology-reliant lives are a trail of electronic interactions; from card payments to CCTV, we leave involuntary and often unwitting digital footprints. Faking this online trail is hard, while the lack of one is dangerously conspicuous. When even an expertly forged ID has little chance against biometric databases and facial recognition technology, how can open societies intelligence agencies continue to operate undercover? In this gripping, meticulously researched study, drawing on numerous real-life cases, Edward Lucas, an acclaimed espionage expert, tracks the changing landscape of international spycraftand highlights the Wests growing disadvantage against its autocratic adversaries.