covert activities
Hidden government actions
Covert activities are operations conducted secretly, typically by governments or intelligence agencies, designed to conceal the identity of the sponsor or the nature of the involvement: The CIA's covert activities in Latin America, covert activities aimed at destabilizing the regime.
The term appears frequently in discussions of espionage, military intervention, and political manipulation.
Distinguished from overt actions, which are openly acknowledged.
- disguiseIdentity-concealing alteration
- bugCrawling creature or defect
- dead dropsConcealed exchange locations
- drop zoneDesignated touchdown area
- surveillanceSystematic observation of subjects
sabotage · wet work · sleeper agent · double agent · alias · false flag · reconnaissance · mask · propaganda · tradecraft · vetting · infiltration · handler · encryption · cryptography · cyber espionage · misinformation · background checks
covert, cover, covered, covering, covers, uncover, uncovered, uncovering, discover