This is a genuine question: I don't really see how it's possible for spies to exist in the modern day. Our world is far too technologically advanced for espionage to work anymore right?
Can someone correct me if I'm wrong.
Can someone correct me if I'm wrong.
To see the value of spying, see two recent news cycles:
The 21-year-old National Guardsman who leaked a bunch of sensitive info for forum cred (thereby causing a lot of headaches for the U.S. presidential administration). Just imagine that info going to a foreign govt instead.
The court case in which Google got admonished for taking any sensitive info off of chat, and auto deleting history. A spy in those offline conversations could still report on what was said.
"Offline" and "in-person" won't mean the same things anymore.
n world of technology, where the problem is no longer the lack of information, but rather the abundance of it, such work is more important than ever.
I guess what I mean is the whole dead drop, casing the scene out, James Bond era of spying.
>Can someone correct me if I'm wrong.
I don't have any special knowledge, but a DDG search for "espionage cases recent" returned a large number of results. Here's a sampling:
https://news.clearancejobs.com/2020/12/30/the-top-5-u-s-espi...
https://www.usnews.com/news/us/articles/2022-11-16/chinese-n...
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/14/us/politics/navy-nuclear-...
https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/former-cia-officer-arrested-a...
https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/former-nsa-employee-arrested-...
https://apnews.com/article/sweden-government-stockholm-57182...
https://news.clearancejobs.com/2021/12/27/top-5-u-s-espionag...
I'd note that none of these include any US/Western spies. If you're inclined to believe it (I have no idea one way or another), Evan Gershkovich[0] is another spy.
[0] https://abc7chicago.com/evan-gershkovich-in-court-wall-stree...
You may well be right that it's impossible "for spies to exist in the modern day" but various governments don't seem to hold that view.
Now you've got me curious. What's so different about now that would make espionage unworkable? I'd think espionage would be much easier due to technological advances, not harder.
I'd be quite interested to hear your thoughts if you don't mind expanding on your comment. Thanks!
Edit: I meant to also say that given the number of cases that are being prosecuted, it seems likely that many more folks are engaged in espionage who haven't been discovered or who have been discovered and are being used as a conduit for disinformation. Again, I have no special knowledge about that, but (at least to me) it makes sense that there would be more, possibly many more.