Easier? Maybe not. An agent can betray you, even if only to say, "I'm an agent!" Humans require handlers and are unpredictable in their actions and circumstances, and of course they can always suddenly flee or die. You have to deal with people, contact people, leave traces with people.

A failure to hack is almost always going to be just... a failure to hack. A failure to turn an asset or a turned asset... yikes.

...or just reward an existing ops person with something like the real value of the information (millions?). Ops people are notoriously underpaid and overworked.