Spy Tips on Security Systems, Light Bulbs, Driving, and more…

As a spy, you try to work only with an experienced team. Going into the field with someone who doesn’t have the proper training is a recipe for disaster. There are times, though, when having a civilian on an operation is unavoidable. In those situations, you just have to make your pitch and hope for the best.

In banks and other secure facilities, the biggest threats are the ones you invite in. Getting a job dropping off sandwiches requires fewer background checks than getting a job guarding millions of dollars, but it gives you the same access.

Most commercial facilities link smoke and security systems. Trigger one alarm, and you trigger them all. Smoke alarms work by detecting irregularly dispersed light. Setting one off with a cigarette requires a little time and a lot of lung capacity.   Click here to read more…

Spy Tips on International Conferences, Special Forces, and more…

Psychiatrists have nothing on spies when it comes to over-analyzing their friends’ behavior. As a covert operative, you routinely trust your co-workers with your life, so you tend to notice when they start acting strangely.

International conferences are good cover for run-of-the-mill diplomatic spooks and black-bag operatives alike. One way to tell them apart, their luggage. You don’t bring a high-speed-film camera to an event where nobody wants their picture taken unless you want to bypass the X-ray machines at the airport. Telephoto lenses are a great place to store the illegal silencer you’re smuggling in.

Under ideal circumstances, a good interrogation unfolds slowly. But circumstances are not always ideal. If you’re operating on a clock, sometimes you have to get right in your enemy’s face and turn up the heat.

When you’re being hunted in a crowd, your biggest advantage is, your opponents can’t maintain visual contact with each other. The key is to move without drawing attention to yourself. When you can, you disguise your actions as something else. When you can’t, you strike fast and hard.   Click here to read more…

Spy Tips on Interrogation, Stealing Large Files, and more…

Interrogating a hostile prisoner is a little like proposing marriage, you want to get it right on the first try. So you don’t settle until you find the perfect spot. You take special care to create the right ambience and set the mood, and then you wait for the best moment to pop the question.

The threat of rendition is usually more persuasive than the fear of immediate torture. For prisoners who want to believe that they’ve hit rock bottom, the idea that their circumstances could get even worse is a powerful motivator. It’s kind of like the grass always being greener, only in reverse.

Every interrogation is a struggle between two parties for control. But when forward progress depends on you giving up this control, you have to be careful. An overt show of weakness is transparent. Bluffing strength and allowing that bluff to get called creates a believable fiction that lets the person across the table think they actually have something on you.

Bureaucracy is a spy’s best friend. The overlap between city, county, and state emergency response creates confusion that can be exploited at a crime scene. If you wander in off the street and claim jurisdiction, you buy time by wrapping yourself in red tape.   Click here to read more…

Spy Tips on Tanto Knives, Remote Control Planes, and more…

Spies are used to battling cutting-edge encryption and billion-dollar security. But sometimes the toughest challenge is cracking something old and out of date. If you find yourself up against an obsolete tape drive loaded with arcane software, you can either find yourself a time machine, or admit defeat.

Spies always assume they’re being followed. It could mean nothing that a route is blocked, forcing everyone to leave the building through one exit. But when that exit is in view of a driver who’s been sitting in a parked car since you walked in, that starts to mean something.

Being hunted isn’t always a bad thing. When someone’s on your tail, you can pick the route. And if you’re really good, you can lead them into a trap of your own.   Click here to read more…

Spy Tips on Floor Safes, Hiding, Perfect Stories, and more…

Spies spend a lot of time traveling, but they usually don’t end up in the most desirable destinations. You’re much more likely to find yourself visiting a rebel camp in the Philippine jungle or a hidden bunker in the mountains of Pakistan than lounging beach-side in the Bahamas. But even when you do find yourself in a vacation paradise, it’s still all about business.

Like magicians, pickpockets rely on misdirection. Whether you’re pulling keys out of a pocket or a rabbit out of a hat, It’s all about big distractions.

Spies don’t always have a choice of hiding places. Sometimes it comes down to taking what’s available. But if you have to hide in something that’s designed to be airtight, you better hope the danger passes before you run out of oxygen.   Click here to read more…

Spy Tips on Punctuality, Electric Fences, Crime, and more…

Spies come from all walks of life, and no two are exactly alike. But whether they’re a burned former operative, A beautiful bomber with a temper, Or a hard-drinking ex-seal, They all share one trait…punctuality. Showing up on time means you’re 15 minutes late.

Identifying an illicit weapons shipment from a specific country isn’t as simple as checking manifests or spotting a flag on a ship It’s too easy for arms dealers to fake both. But phony paperwork and false flags won’t stop crew members from telling you the straight story. Chat up the right deckhand, and you can learn where every shady piece of cargo came on board. There’s no substitute for human intelligence.

Ideally, a bug should never be seen by anyone. But when there’s a possibility it may be, it’s best to make it look like something People won’t want to touch. A wad of gum stuck to a balled-up piece of tissue and a sprinkling of whatever’s in your lint trap Will usually do the trick.

Organized crime bosses, like senior administrators in any business, have a lot of people who want to meet with them. Hang around long enough asking for some face time, and you can get yourself on the schedule, but don’t count on the receptionist offering you coffee while you wait.

Holding someone’s arms behind their back Is a good technique for a bully on the playground, but it leaves you very exposed. A well-placed kick right beneath the knee will cripple your opponent and a crippled opponent Can be a great weapon.   Click here to read more…

Spy Tips on Modifying Your Vehicle, Manipulation, and more…

Housed in office utility rooms, a pbx is the phone switchboard for a whole company. Using a router with upgraded firmware, pros can hack them to make untraceable calls from the comfort of their own homes. It’s how spies get free long-distance. Identifying the right line to bug on a pbx is as simple as matching call times from your records to those in the computer. Of course, if you have to comb through thousands of phone calls, it’s easier said than done.

Everyone knows spies are good with languages and firearms, but they need to be great storytellers, too. If you can’t keep a break-in secret, you have to get creative to cover your tracks. If a company’s just laid off half its staff, no one asks many questions when it looks like an ex-employee broke in to make a mess.

Wrap a metal chain around two power lines, and you complete a very powerful electrical circuit. It can get you arrested, but it’s a good way to make a ruckus in a pinch.   Click here to read more…

Spy Tips on Name Brands, Scanners, Stealing, and more…

Name brands and décor can often tell you a lot about who you’re dealing with. Official agencies operate with government budgets. You can usually rule the idea of federal involvement s soon as you see a pricey antique or a pair of $1,200 shoes.

It takes a while to learn how to read intelligence files. They start as stacks of unrelated documents, but stick with it long enough and a pattern can emerge. Of course, not all intelligence is reliable, which means when you’re done checking the file, you have to check the source.

Illegal weapon sales is a multimillion-dollar industry. For a big-time gun runner, it’s easy to live the life of luxury. The problem is, when you’ve spent your career dodging local law enforcement and making mortal enemies, it’s much safer hiding in a tent in the jungle than enjoying a piece of beachfront property.

With thermal imaging and laser-target designators, an unmanned drone allows your enemy to launch a precise strike while staying completely anonymous. All you really know is that whoever you’re up against has deep pockets and isn’t afraid of tying up loose ends.   Click here to read more…

Spy Tips on Abandoned Facilities, Collateral Damage, Extraction, and more…

In espionage, you often deal with people who are working undercover – some legitimately, because their identity needs to remain a secret, and some illegitimately, because they’re betraying the country they’ve sworn to protect. Either way, they go to great lengths to keep their regular life separate from their covert lives, keeping their secrets far from view. Which is why there’s nothing quite so unsettling as seeing one of those secrets show up in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Abandoned facilities are often used to cover up covert activity. Set up in a crumbling building covered in graffiti, and no one takes much notice. There are ways of figuring out if a facility is truly abandoned, however, like the power draw. If a building’s using electricity, chances are someone’s home.

In a heavily populated and high-traffic environment, a covert op has to leave a small footprint and create as little disturbance as possible. An urban snatch-and-grab with a small team requires good intelligence. That begins with identifying and tracking the target. It’s not enough knowing he’ll be in town. You need to know when his flight arrives, what vehicle he’s driving, every detail down to where he’s gonna make a left turn.

Once your target is tracked, the next task is to stop his vehicle. In an urban environment, this is usually done with another vehicle in a precisely timed collision.   Click here to read more…

Spy Tips on Shady Businesses, Audio Surveillance, Manipulation, and more…

A spy’s life rarely starts with a happy childhood. The fact is, the best preparation for a career filled with danger and paranoia is a home life filled with danger and paranoia. It makes for a complex relationship with the past, under the best of circumstances.

Law firms are used to run all sorts of shady businesses for good reason. They’re discrete, powerful, and protected. Between the high security and privacy rules, getting intel from a law office is more or less impossible, unless you’re willing to break those rules.

If you can find someone who fits your general description and borrow their identification, the perfect wig and a new pair of glasses can get you a free ticket to look around. At least until the firm’s lawyers get back from lunch.

Audio surveillance is more difficult than it sounds. Taking coherent notes on a half-heard conversation is a challenge. And aiming a directional mike at a target without being too obvious takes the skills of a marksman.   Click here to read more…