Cover (intelligence gathering)
A cover in foreign, military or police human intelligence or counterintelligence is the ostensible identity and/or role or position in an infiltrated organization assumed by a covert agent during a covert operation.
Fake birth certificate used by Virginia Hall during the Second World War; it gave her the alias of a Frenchwoman named Marcelle Montagne.
Espionage, spying, or intelligence gathering is the act of obtaining secret or confidential information (intelligence). A person who commits espionage is called an espionage agent or spy. Any individual or spy ring, in the service of a government, company, criminal organization, or independent operation, can commit espionage. The practice is clandestine, as it is by definition unwelcome. In some circumstances, it may be a legal tool of law enforcement and in others, it may be illegal and punishable by law.
Madame Minna Craucher (right), a Finnish socialite and spy, with her chauffeur Boris Wolkowski (left) in 1930s
An intelligence officer's clothing, accessories, and behavior must be as unremarkable as possible—their lives (and others') may depend on it.
Painting of French spy captured during the Franco-Prussian War
