NSA Operative Dragos has blown a mission and lies in a Tunisian hospital awaiting certain death, when two men offer him a new life working in Corporate Black Ops. He accepts and sets off into a strange world where creativity is key, Co-Operatives are bizarre, guns are frowned upon, and weaponry consists of martial arts moves and a device known as a spinal separator. At first he finds the work thrilling and exotic, but soon discovers that this form of espionage is far more dangerous than the one he left behind.
The definitive spy story, based on exclusive interviews with CIA mole Aldrich Ames, his KGB handlers, and with the families of the spies he betrayed. "The story of Aldrich Ames will remain an unsettling reminder of the moral abyss at the heart of the Cold War".--"The Washington Post".
Perkins, a former chief economist at a Boston strategic-consulting firm, confesses he was an "economic hit man" for 10 years, helping U.S. intelligence agencies and multinationals cajole and blackmail foreign leaders into serving U.S. foreign policy and awarding lucrative contracts to American business.
What can you learn from a CIA spy who spent his career artfully manipulating regular people to steal high-value secrets? Plenty! In this explosive book, former intelligence officer Peter Warmka unveils detailed methodologies that he and other threat actors use to breach the security of their targets, whether they're high-profile individuals or entire organizations. His illustrative examples reveal: the motivations and objectives behind attempted breaches by foreign intelligence services, criminal groups, industrial competitors, activists and other threat actors how social media and carefully crafted insights into a victim's motivations and vulnerabilities are leveraged during phishing, smishing, vishing and other advanced social engineering operations to obtain even closely held information the psychology behind why humans are so susceptible to social engineering, and how influence techniques are used to circumvent established security protocols how spies and other social engineers use elicitation to legally procure protected information from victims who often have no idea they're being used Whether you want to learn more about the intricate methods threat actors can use to access sensitive information on your organization or want to be able to spot the ways a social engineer might manipulate you in person or online, this book will change the way you think about that innocuous email in your inbox or that unusual interaction with an eager stranger. Following his CIA career, Peter founded the Counterintelligence Institute in order to transform the way individuals and their organizations assess the control they have over their own security. The insights detailed in this book have led clients to prioritize proactive measures in breach prevention over the more costly reactive measures following a preventable breach.
The first ever, first-person story of America's private, paramilitary contractors at work around the world-from a man who performed these missions himself and has decades of stories to tell. This is a fascinating tale-and potentially the first-to describe the work of American contractors, men who run highly dangerous missions deep inside foreign countries on the brink of war. It will lift the veil and detail the ultimate danger and risk of paramilitary operations (both officially government-sanctioned and not) and show us in very intimate terms exactly what private soldiers do when the government can't act or take public responsibility. GRAY WORK combines covert military intelligence with boots-on-the-ground realism, following Jamie Smith through his CIA training and work as a spy in the State Department, to his co-founding of Blackwater following 9/11, to his decision to leave that company. As the founder and director of Blackwater Security, Smith's initial vision has undeniably shaped and transformed a decade of war. He argues that this gray area-and its warriors who occupy the controversial space between public and private-has become an indispensable element of the modern battlefield.
No one said being a spy for the British government would be easy. When Miss Mary Bennet is assigned to London for the Season, extravagant balls and eligible men are the least of her worries. A government messenger has been murdered and suspicion falls on the Radicals, who may be destabilizing the government in order to compel England down the bloody path of the French Revolution. Working with her fellow spies, Mr. William Stanley and Miss Fanny Cramer, Mary must investigate without raising the suspicions of her family, rescue her friend Miss Georgiana Darcy from a suitor scandal, and solve the mystery before anyone else is harmed—all without being discovered, lest she be exiled back to the countryside. This is the perfect job for a woman who exists in the background. Can Mary prove herself, or will this assignment be her last?
Winner of a 2023 Independent Publisher Book Award (IPPY) for Autobiography/Memoir “Kerbeck’s juicy memoir tells riveting tales [with] the thrill of a spy novel. . . Kerbeck bares all of his wild business secrets within the world of corporate espionage” — Foreword Reviews "Robert Kerbeck has mastered the art of social engineering, or what he calls 'rusing', and taken it to a whole new level." — Frank Abagnale, author of Catch Me If You Can B-list actor, A-list corporate spy. . . In the world of high finance, multibillion-dollar Wall Street banks greedily guard their secrets. Enter Robert Kerbeck, a working actor who made his real money lying on the phone, charming people into revealing their employers’ most valuable information. In this exhilarating memoir that will appeal to fans of The Wolf of Wall Street and Catch Me If You Can, unsuspecting receptionists, assistants, and bigshot executives all fall victim to “the Ruse.” After college, Kerbeck rushed to New York to try to make it as an actor. But to support himself, he’d need a survival job, and before he knew it, while his pals were waiting tables, he began his apprenticeship as a corporate spy. As his acting career started to take off, he found himself hobnobbing with Hollywood luminaries: drinking with Paul Newman, taking J.Lo to a Dodgers game, touring E.R. sets with George Clooney. He even worked with O.J. Simpson the week before he became America’s most notorious double murderer. Before long, however, his once promising acting career slowed while the corporate espionage business took off. The ruse job was supposed to have been temporary, but Kerbeck became one of the world’s best practitioners of this deceptive—and illegal—trade. His income jumped from tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars a year. Until the inevitable crash… Kerbeck shares the lies he told, the celebrities he screwed (and those who screwed him), the cons he ran, and the money he made—and lost—along the way.
"In this book, Marc Anthony Viola assists government and military professionals transitioning into the civilian world, using techniques from the U.S. intelligence community, It is intelligence "tradecraft - applied to the post-military career transition process. While Viola includes advice on resume writing and interviewing, the book goes beyond "how to find a job" to the challenge of conceptualizing a new vocation by exploring the personal journey of a former intelligence professional transitioning to the civilian sector. Viola uses his experiences and observations from his own military intelligence career in ways that are of interest and benefit to anyone thinking of changing careers."--BOOK JACKET.
