We are living in an era in which technology plays a dominant role in human life. Communication technology, for example, has developed at a rapid pace. New technologies in the fields of telecommunications, language, data, text and image transmission techniques have come into existence. The earth is surrounded by a close-meshed satellite network. It goes without saying that intelligence services, too, employ these techniques.
Satellite reconnaissance offers spectacular opportunities.
Today, telephone calls, teletype and fax communications can be filtered automatically by employing a special word search program and can be listened to, read and recorded without authorization. These systems also provide intelligence agents with relatively easy and risk-free ways of communicating with their control centers. Technology is no substitute for the human source of information Despite these technical developments, human beings remain an indispensable source of knowledge and ideas for intelligence agencies. No computer is as important as an agent who forwards confidential information. Not only experts and executives but also secretaries, document managers and system administrators are interesting targets for foreign intelligence agencies.