Text

Western intelligence agencies used to inhabit a parallel world where spy battled spy. Their trade was stealing or guarding secrets. Their masters were the men and women in government. Today the intelligence services are part of everyone’s world. Their main task has been to protect society from terrorists and criminals. They are increasingly held to account in the press, parliaments and courts.

The intelligence revolution is partly the result of new technology. As recently as 1999, on becoming director of the American National Security Agency (NSA), Michael Hayden asked to send an e-mail to all staff. He was told: “We can’t actually do that.” The organization used computers to break codes rather than to surf the web as everyone else did. The NSA’s new facility in Utah, the first of several, now stores

exabytes of data drawn from everyday communications. At Britain’s GCHQ, most code-breaking was done on paper until well into the 1980s.

The revolution has brought spying closer to ordinary people. After the attacks on America on September 11th 2001, counter-terrorism and counter-insurgency became the focus for the American intelligence agencies. Almost two-thirds of today’s intelligence personnel have been hired since 9/11. As the world has moved online, so the spooks have become involved in monitoring organized crime and paedophiles as well as terrorists.

In a not very remote past, spies sent coded messages using short-wave radios and dead letter boxes. Now the communications of the spooks’ new targets are mixed in with everyone else’s, shuttling between computers and smartphones that are identical to those on your desk and in your pocket. Counter-terrorism, in particular, is pre-emptive. Hence the security services have had to act as hunters of conspiracies rather than gatherers of evidence.

Western intelligence — Shaken and stirred.

In: The Economist, 12/11/2016 (adapted).

Based on text, judge the following item.

In the fragment “on becoming director of the American National Security Agency”, the preposition “on” refers to a period when the action is taking place.

Text

Cyber-cafés were once a favoured tool of Western intelligence and security agencies. They were inconspicuous, cheap to establish and highly effective. Set up near and international summit buzzing with targets, or close to a place where drug-dealers peddle their wares, these facilities allowed their masters to monitor browsing habits, obtain targets’ logins and passwords, and plant spyware for future use. This was legal: consent was buried in the terms and conditions which users clicked on without reading. And in a neat twist, security-conscious people trying to avoid using their own computers favoured such places. Some would hop between cafés, unaware that all the convenient ones were run by the authorities.

Not any more. Edward Snowden, a former contractor for America’s National Security Agency (NSA) now living in Moscow, revealed the use of cyber-cafés to spy on the G20 summit in London in 2009. Now people are wary. In many countries the cyber-cafés have been closed. The staff who ran them have had to be moved (and in some cases given costly new identities).

The episode highlights one of the most important trends in modern intelligence work. Collecting electronic information is generally getting easier. It is hard to lead a completely non-digital life, and any activity using computers and networks creates openings for the watchers. An e-mail is as easy to read as a postcard for anyone with modest technical skills. With a few tweaks, mobile phones become tracking beacons and bugging devices. Most people readily trade private information for convenience. And hacking into computers can yield vast amounts of intelligence.

A lot of spying, however, has become trickier. It is much more difficult for intelligence officers to maintain secrecy and create fake identities. And high expectations of privacy, especially in the digital realm, mean that in many countries the work of intelligence and security agencies arouses outrage, not gratitude. Intelligence and democracy — a new age of espionage.

In: The Economist, 30/7/2015 (adapted).

Based on text, judge the following item.

Text

Cyber-cafés were once a favoured tool of Western intelligence and security agencies. They were inconspicuous, cheap to establish and highly effective. Set up near and international summit buzzing with targets, or close to a place where drug-dealers peddle their wares, these facilities allowed their masters to monitor browsing habits, obtain targets’ logins and passwords, and plant spyware for future use. This was legal: consent was buried in the terms and conditions which users clicked on without reading. And in a neat twist, security-conscious people trying to avoid using their own computers favoured such places. Some would hop between cafés, unaware that all the convenient ones were run by the authorities.

Not any more. Edward Snowden, a former contractor for America’s National Security Agency (NSA) now living in Moscow, revealed the use of cyber-cafés to spy on the G20 summit in London in 2009. Now people are wary. In many countries the cyber-cafés have been closed. The staff who ran them have had to be moved (and in some cases given costly new identities).

The episode highlights one of the most important trends in modern intelligence work. Collecting electronic information is generally getting easier. It is hard to lead a completely non-digital life, and any activity using computers and networks creates openings for the watchers. An e-mail is as easy to read as a postcard for anyone with modest technical skills. With a few tweaks, mobile phones become tracking beacons and bugging devices. Most people readily trade private information for convenience. And hacking into computers can yield vast amounts of intelligence.

A lot of spying, however, has become trickier. It is much more difficult for intelligence officers to maintain secrecy and create fake identities. And high expectations of privacy, especially in the digital realm, mean that in many countries the work of intelligence and security agencies arouses outrage, not gratitude. Intelligence and democracy — a new age of espionage.

In: The Economist, 30/7/2015 (adapted).

Based on text, judge the following item.

Text

Cyber-cafés were once a favoured tool of Western intelligence and security agencies. They were inconspicuous, cheap to establish and highly effective. Set up near and international summit buzzing with targets, or close to a place where drug-dealers peddle their wares, these facilities allowed their masters to monitor browsing habits, obtain targets’ logins and passwords, and plant spyware for future use. This was legal: consent was buried in the terms and conditions which users clicked on without reading. And in a neat twist, security-conscious people trying to avoid using their own computers favoured such places. Some would hop between cafés, unaware that all the convenient ones were run by the authorities.

Not any more. Edward Snowden, a former contractor for America’s National Security Agency (NSA) now living in Moscow, revealed the use of cyber-cafés to spy on the G20 summit in London in 2009. Now people are wary. In many countries the cyber-cafés have been closed. The staff who ran them have had to be moved (and in some cases given costly new identities).

The episode highlights one of the most important trends in modern intelligence work. Collecting electronic information is generally getting easier. It is hard to lead a completely non-digital life, and any activity using computers and networks creates openings for the watchers. An e-mail is as easy to read as a postcard for anyone with modest technical skills. With a few tweaks, mobile phones become tracking beacons and bugging devices. Most people readily trade private information for convenience. And hacking into computers can yield vast amounts of intelligence.

A lot of spying, however, has become trickier. It is much more difficult for intelligence officers to maintain secrecy and create fake identities. And high expectations of privacy, especially in the digital realm, mean that in many countries the work of intelligence and security agencies arouses outrage, not gratitude. Intelligence and democracy — a new age of espionage.

In: The Economist, 30/7/2015 (adapted).

Based on text, judge the following item.

Cyber-cafés were once a favoured tool of Western intelligence and security agencies. They were inconspicuous, cheap to establish and highly effective. Set up near and international summit buzzing with targets, or close to a place where drug-dealers peddle their wares, these facilities allowed their masters to monitor browsing habits, obtain targets’ logins and passwords, and plant spyware for future use. This was legal: consent was buried in the terms and conditions which users clicked on without reading. And in a neat twist, security-conscious people trying to avoid using their own computers favoured such places. Some would hop between cafés, unaware that all the convenient ones were run by the authorities.

Not any more. Edward Snowden, a former contractor for America’s National Security Agency (NSA) now living in Moscow, revealed the use of cyber-cafés to spy on the G20 summit in London in 2009. Now people are wary. In many countries the cyber-cafés have been closed. The staff who ran them have had to be moved (and in some cases given costly new identities).

The episode highlights one of the most important trends in modern intelligence work. Collecting electronic information is generally getting easier. It is hard to lead a completely non-digital life, and any activity using computers and networks creates openings for the watchers. An e-mail is as easy to read as a postcard for anyone with modest technical skills. With a few tweaks, mobile phones become tracking beacons and bugging devices. Most people readily trade private information for convenience. And hacking into computers can yield vast amounts of intelligence.

A lot of spying, however, has become trickier. It is much more difficult for intelligence officers to maintain secrecy and create fake identities. And high expectations of privacy, especially in the digital realm, mean that in many countries the work of intelligence and security agencies arouses outrage, not gratitude. Intelligence and democracy — a new age of espionage.

Based on text, judge the following item.

The expression “neat twist” refers to the irony of cyber-café patrons becoming victims of their own security consciousness.