A Galaxy of Spies | EVE Online

A Galaxy of Spies

2008-04-17 - By Svarthol

The Spying Game - Espionage is rampant across New Eden. Not only do the four empires conduct operations against each other, but corporations and alliances also spy on each other. In fact, some corporations and alliances exist primarily to spy on others and sell the intelligence.

One such alliance is W A S T E L A N D [WASTE]. WASTE is a mercenary alliance that engages in terrorism, intelligence, infiltration, and espionage. They claim that they have infiltrated many of the major alliances and thus can offer intelligence on many fronts. If they do not have a network in a corporation or alliance, and a customer needs information, they will infiltrate the new target for a price.

Getting a spy to sit down and talk is not an easy thing to do, but we managed to convince NoMoreLies, one of the major players in WASTE, to speak with us about espionage in New Eden. He first described one of their recent operations in which they managed to get the passcodes for an alliance’s station network and its jumpbridges. With this information they were able to destroy several stations and steal ships and other assets.

“Customers,” NoMoreLies said, “want different kinds of information.” Some just want to steal assets, while others just need intelligence on where certain people are located. Other types of information include “planned operations, fleet make ups for tactical purposes and disinformation.” On this last point NoMoreLies was unwilling to describe specific operations but he did confirm that WASTE controls double agents as well.

When asked how long it takes a spy to gain the trust of corporations and alliances NoMoreLies said that sometimes it is very easy. Many new corporation/alliance members are given access to the private nets these organizations maintain and from those nets gain much of their intelligence early on. On the other hand, it may take months to gain the trust of other corporations/alliances that are more careful with their information.

WASTE is unusually open about the types of operations they engage in and even advertise on GalNet in an effort to gain customers.

In spite of the fact that spying is rampant across New Eden surprisingly little is invested in counter intelligence operations. Most corporations limit their counter intelligence operations to closely vetting those whom they allow to join their corporation. New pod pilots who want to join big corporations are especially viewed with suspicion. Surely more efforts than this will be needed to root out spies like WASTE.