intelligence asset
Covert information source
An intelligence asset is a person who provides information to an intelligence agency, typically someone recruited or cultivated by a handler rather than a professional officer.
Assets may be foreign nationals with access to valuable secrets, or insiders in organizations of interest: The diplomat was turned into an intelligence asset.
The term also applies to resources like safe houses or communication networks that support intelligence operations.
- tradecraftEspionage methods and skills
- counterespionageBlocking enemy surveillance efforts
- field agentDeployed intelligence operative
- agentOne who acts independently
- informationKnowledge about something
safehouse · safe passage · spy · cover story · code · SIGINT · dossier · classified intel · need to know · clandestine · operative · covert operations · HUMINT · source · bug · contact · infiltration · tail
- espionagespy, spies, double agent, double agents, spying
- strategic locationschokepoint, strait, mountain pass, isthmus, bridgehead
intelligence assetcase officer
Intelligence operative supervisor
handler · controller · intelligence officer · recruiter · spymaster
intelligence assetdouble agent
Spy betraying their side
counterspy · enemy agent · mole · turned agent · defector
intelligence assetfabricator
Creator of lies
blown cover · dry hole · dangle · paper mill · dead drop
intelligence, asset, intelligent, intelligently, unintelligent, intelligentsia, intellect, intellectual, intellectually