Then, as suddenly as they came in, they would move to another town. Such controversial activities were new to civilized society in the 1700s. Infiltration and the questionable ethics associated with spying are issues of debate and controversy even today, Backscheider said. Backscheider believes that studying early forms of organized espionage and the inner workings of such spy networks can help us to better understand and prevent covert activities which occur in modern society - particularly as terrorism has become a growing concern. The downside of infiltrating terrorist organizations is the violence it can create.
Every society has the dilemma of infiltrating groups to learn their real intentions.
Hopefully, through researching these kinds of activities from the past, we can learn better ways to prevent such activities as terrorism in our own times.