Skills -- Spy Trade

Cryptography

You’re an expert in the making and breaking of codes, from the simple ciphers of old-school espionage tradecraft to the supercomputer algorithms of the present day. You can:

recognize ciphers and codes
determine the meaning of code phrases
identify code-related equipment, tools and algorithms
notice important symbols

Sample clues

“Paging Dr. Firestone, third floor” means a possible fire. That’s where they’re trying to destroy the evidence!
That line of dancing men in the garden is clearly a subsititution cipher. If we can find another sample we can perform a frequency analysis to crack it.
He was carrying a one-time pad – we can decode their messages until the next changeover.

Human Terrain

Human terrain is a cross-section of anthropology, sociology, political science, and propoganda. It’s about identifying the cultures and power structures of a region. You can:

identify artifacts and rituals of living cultures
predict the behaviour of a given crowd, mob or militant faction
identify whether a practice or ritual is orthodox or heretical, secular or religious
identify meeting places, temples, and locally important structures
analyze political and social structures - including identifying key figures, rivalries, and weak points
detect, or conspire at, election rigging

Outdoor Survival

You are familiar with working and living outdoors and in the wild.

You can:

tell when an animal is acting strangely
tell whether an animal or plant is natural to a given area and time
find edible plants, hunt, and fish
make fire and survive outdoors at night or in bad weather
navigate overland, albeit more easily with a compass and a map
track people, animals, or vehicles across grass or through forests
hunt with dogs, including tracking with bloodhounds, assuming you have friendly dogs available

Tradecraft

You know how to utilize the techniques of conventional espionage agents, and how to talk to them if you must hold a meet. You can:

set up and check a dead drop
spot or conduct a brush pass or car toss
determine which agency trained a covert operative by examining his tradecraft, surveillance methods, etc.
identify good places for recognition signs, cleaning passes, etc.
recall notorious or relevant episodes of spying, covert ops, etc.
gather rumors in the covert ops world
make contact with operatives without scaring them off
convey information or threats elliptically without tipping off eavesdroppers

Sample clues

That red ribbon tied just above eye level is the old resistance signal for a meeting.
Of course! The old gas mask in the false nose trick! This man is a KAOS agent.
He’s an ex-KGB general, so he’ll have a dedicated security detail nursemaiding him.

Traffic Analysis

You know how to boil down a mass of data — probably raw signals intel, a tranche of phone records, or possibly a whole lot of surveillance tapes — and extract its meaning and patterns. Given the data, you can:

determine which numbers in a set of phone records are calling who, when, about what
determine which cars in a city’s traffic pattern are driving where, when, and how long they’re staying there
find patterns in the data flow, e.g., more murders in August, or the same museum guard on duty during all the incidents
work out the daily (and weekly, monthly, etc.) routine of an office, military base, museum, etc. and answer questions like: When is payroll made? Who takes delivery of parcels? When does the cleaning staff arrive?
find anomalies in the data flow, e.g., missing records or “dogs that didn’t bark”
find weak spots in security that follows a regular pattern
identify the source of information (or disinformation) by tracking its route through the system
assemble a communications or organizational picture of a social network such as a criminal conspiracy, academic email list, or division of border guards

Sample clues

There’s only one place in this county to rent an ice resurfacer this time of year. The rest are seasonal.
Monitoring the gang confirms they’re involved with the upcoming takeover. They’re moving assets into position.
Nearly all of these accounts were created in the last 3 days… and are using stock photos sourced from the same website.