Hi readers!
Sorry to remain absent for the last two weekly blogs. Actually, I could not find any think interesting to write. It is war, war and war, in the print and electronic media all over the world. Since it is not my forte, I thought it would be better to be absent.
However, in the same arena, we have been hearing words like spying, intelligence, espionage, surveillance etc., so today I decided to write on this topic. It is boring but hope you will enjoy it because you also have been listening the same anyway.
Dear readers! what if I tell you “Don’t trust even your own shadow”? I am sure your immediate response will be “why”? The answer to this is not easy to understand unless you get familiar with the following terms. just read the following quotes:
- The life of spies is to know, not to be known. George Herbert
- Espionage and counterespionage go together like horse and carriage. Charles McCarry and
- Intelligence is the art of making yourself indispensable (so, make yourself indispensable and everyone will be after you). David Kahn.
- It is only the enlightened ruler and the wise general who will use the highest intelligence of the army for the purposes of spying, and thereby, they achieve great results (and if they don’t do this, the result will as it is around you, you can be backstabbed by your trusted friend. What do you think?). Sun Tzu.
These quotes emphasized 3 words vis., spies, espionage and intelligence. One more word can be added to the list and that is surveillance. The details of these 4 words will force you not to trust your shadow. Let’s know the details.
Spies (to know not to be known i.e. you don’t know who is spying on you and for what?). Spying is usually conducted to collect (secretly) information about other countries or organizations and maybe of her individuals working there on various assignment (be careful I have experienced this). The purpose could be strategic or intelligence gathering. However, spyware is a type of malicious software which interferes with the normal working of a device for collecting information without alerting the user and sends it to another unauthorized entity.
Highly invasive spyware allows unlimited access to a device by default. It leaves little to no trace hence, it’s almost impossible for the user to know what data was taken?
Spyware can infect advice linked with the internet when a user click the compromised links sent via text, email or on social media platforms. Spying can be for personal reasons, like gathering information about a competitor in business, or for hacking into someone’s computer to steal information.
Espionage is an organized, often state-sponsored, activity of gathering intelligence, particularly about adversaries using sophisticated methods targeting sensitive entities like military plans, technological advancements, or political strategies.
The difference between spying and espionage is in the scope and context. Espionage is typically a state-level activity with a clear strategic objective, while spying is a general term for any act of secretly gathering information which clarified that espionage is a specialized form of spying, often involving high-level operations and significant consequences.
Intelligence is a business related with information, its processing and analysis, thereby making it useful for decision making, especially in national security and disseminating the processed and analyzed information for similar purposes.
Intelligence gathering can be made through human sources or through technical surveillance aiming at obtaining and understanding information about potential threats and opportunities as well.
Surveillance refers to closely monitoring a person, a group or activities to gather information for security, law enforcement or business operations. It is legal and legitimate depending upon the intent which varies widely from monitoring potential threats to tracking employee’s performance (I have personally experienced this too).
The difference between espionage and surveillance is in their scope, intent, and legality. Espionage is typically covert and illegal, involving the gathering of classified information for a hostile entity while surveillance, can be both overt and covert, and is often a legal and legitimate activity conducted by authorities or organizations to monitor behavior or activities for various purposes. Both, however, revolved round information gathering.
Dear readers, look around and watch who is doing what? Keeping in mind what has happened in our neighboring countries. What did the trusted friends do to another friend? And what did an enemy do to another enemy using friends within the enemy? Don’t you think the phrase “ don’t trust your shadow” is the right one? Who knows, enemies might have been (God forbids) doing something similar in our country using friends from within? There is no dearth of such people in our country. What do you think? Please be vigilant and select you friends carefully and minutely check the behavior of those you already have. We are passing through dangerous times so, keep your eyes and mind open.
See you next week if I found an interesting topic.
Take care, Bye.
