Spy is a person who tries to get secret information, especially about the enemy in time of war. A spy usually does so by operating in the enemy’s territory in disguise. Spies seek valuable military, political, scientific, and economic facts and secrets. They sometimes operate under legal cover as diplomats, commercial representatives, or journalists. Countries use counterspies to prevent theft of information. Counterspies called double agents pretend to spy for an organization but actually spy against it.
The punishment for wartime spying usually is death. The United States and many other nations have laws making peacetime spying punishable by death as well. In the United States, the first law to establish specific punishments for spying was the Defense Secrets Act of 1911.
