The Role of Government

Abstract

In the struggle against terrorists, cybercrime, and crime in general, governments and state agencies often rely on intelligence in the form of espionage. And more and more espionage (and counter-espionage) takes place online, as I have already extensively demonstrated in Chap. 4. In this chapter we’ll look at how espionage works on both sides of the divide between Good and Evil, embodying both sides of a single coin: Espionage can be associated with a cyberattack (and that may be what you first think of in terms of cyberespionage), but it’s also part of the way we defend against such attacks. This is not the least of good reasons that the role of espionage in both attack and defense will always give rise to controversy.