Glossary: Types of Agents

Access Agent – An agent used primarily as a spotter of targets of interest to the CIA. The access agent will also provide avenues to help assess and vet other development contacts for his Case Officer. The access agent may also help provide physical access to a target such as a room, building, computer, and telephone where the CIA may plant a technical operation. Access agents primarily provide operational information rather than intelligence information.

Double Agent – An agent engaged in clandestine activity for two or more intelligence services.

Mole – An officer of an intelligence service who has been recruited to report to a hostile security/intelligence service. The mole is a penetration agent.

Institutional Agent – An agent, usually witting of his CIA contacts, who can be easily handed down from Case Officer to Case Officer over many years of service. Institutional Agents may work for the CIA over a period of 10, 20 or more years and may be passed down through ten to twenty different Case Officers over his years of service to the CIA.