Counterintelligence failures Countries with major counterintelligence failures are presented alphabetically . In each case , there is at least one systemic problem with seeking penetration agents when few or none may actually have existed , to the detriment of the functioning of the national service involved . Not surprisingly , more is known about failures in the more open countries than the totalitarian or transitional ones . Many of the individuals named have separate articles in Wikipedia . The emphasis here is on both national - level counterespionage problems , and how the individuals eluded detection . Russian and Soviet counterespionage failures . The Czarist Russia had a secret police before the Soviet Union , and modern Russia still has intelligence services that may have been impacted by events during the Soviet period . While there were penetration accusations after the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution , the great mass of large - scale accusations and purges , after Stalin consolidated power but before WWII , tend to blur into the Great Terror . After Stalin ' s death , Lavrenti Beria , heading state security , attempted to gain control , but was shot and his subordinates purged . Oleg Penkovsky . Oleg Penkovsky was a UK - US defector in place , in an extremely key position in the Soviet system . His position was such that he not only was able to provide information about what the Soviets had learned about the West , but also about the real capabilities of the Soviets . A book , " The Penkovsky Papers " , was prepared , posthumously , with assistance from US intelligence . A 1976 Senate commission stated that " the book was prepared and written by witting agency assets who drew on actual case materials . " Much of the material provided by Penkovsky has been declassified and is available at http : / / www . foia . cia . gov / search . asp ; search the database with the code word " IRONBARK " , which will return a large number of documents . Vladimir Vetrov . One example of counter - intelligence in action involves the case of Soviet defector Vladimir Vetrov , codenamed " Farewell , " who gave several classified documents in 1981 to French Intelligence detailing industrial espionage committed by the Soviet Union in various western nations in a collection called the Farewell Dossier . The information was passed on to the Central Intelligence Agency , who exploited it by secretly preparing sabotaged " intelligence " for Soviet spies to collect . After the Soviet ' s incorporated the flawed industrial technology , it caused numerous technical failures in the USSR including a massive oil pipeline explosion which damaged the economy . UK counterespionage failures . A group of Soviet sympathizers , in respected positions in British society , formed the Cambridge Five , sometimes called the Cambridge Four , and it has never been established how many active agents were involved . Of these , the most devastating was Kim Philby . Other confirmed members included Donald Duart Maclean , Guy Burgess , and Anthony Blunt . See Cambridge Five for other suspets . Kim Philby was an effective Soviet agent while in the British counterintelligence service , warning the Soviets of countersurveillance , while casting suspicion on loyal officers . Philby came under suspicion but was able to escape to the USSR . Philby even was , at one time , considered as a possible head of MI5 . He was able to protect numerous Soviet operations in Britain . British intelligence also suffered from internal suspicion that may or may not have been directed at the right targets , but caused suspicion to be thrown at the highest counter - intelligence officers , with severe effects on morale . Peter Wright , while later extremely controversial about revelations his 1987 book , " Spycatcher : The Candid Autobiography of a Senior Intelligence Officer " , also developed techniques that allowed the UK to track numerous Soviet clandestine agents , and agents under diplomatic cover . US counterespionage failures . James Jesus Angleton , the legendary CIA director of counterespionage and a poet himself , used T . S . Eliot ' s term " an infinity of mirrors " to describe the intricacies of agent to double agent to triple agent so common in counterespionage , with works describing him as paranoid , while others described him as brilliant . Perhaps the truth may only emerge with the novelist ' s pen . It is clear that searches for foreign penetration , whether present or not , came close to paralyzing US intelligence . Aldrich Ames . On February 24 , 1994 , the agency was rocked by the arrest of 31 - year veteran case officer Aldrich Ames on charges of spying for the Soviet Union since 1985 . William Hamilton Martin and Bernon Mitchell . These two cryptologists working for the National Security Agency disappeared in September 1960 and then re - appeared as defectors at a news conference in Moscow . Francis Gary Powers speculated that they were responsible for the downing of the Lockheed U - 2 he was piloting over the Soviet Union causing the 1960 U - 2 incident . The analysis of the National Security Council , however , determined that the two were not recruited by the Soviets and that their defection was " impulsive . " Denial and deception . Analysis of foreign denial and deception ( D & D ) activities is arguably among the most challenging of intelligence analytic disciplines . Throughout history , nations have sought advantage over rivals through the manipulation of valued information . Such manipulation spans a spectrum of activities from the simple act of keeping certain information exclusive or secret to sophisticated deceptions that seek to confuse or mislead an adversary ’ s collection , analytic , and decisionmaking process . This spectrum includes denial , in which information is used in a “ defensive ” way by keeping it both secret and hidden ( where the information gains further advantage through exclusivity and obscurity ) , and deception , in which information is used in an “ offensive ” way to mislead or confuse an adversary and which can include the use of both truthful and overt as well as false information in such a way as to influence a rival nation ’ s perceptions . The discovery and uncovering of the first , and protection against the second , are “ the two great purposes of intelligence One of the greatest bargains in espionage history was the Soviet purchase of the technical manual for the KH – 11 reconnaissance satellite from former CIA employee ( now convicted spy ) William Kampiles for a paltry $ 3 , 000 . As a result of this theft and other compromises , U . S . intelligence must assume as a matter of course that overhead imagery and other technical collection will be met by D & D efforts .