Spies & Spying Personality Profiling: Technical Operations Officers 

From The Psychology of Spies and Spying by Adrian Furnham and John Taylor.

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Technical Operations Officers (TOOs) include many different beasts. They include the ‘boffin’ sections which create new methods of eavesdropping and how to deploy them. There are then those who plant the devices in the rooms or offices of the targets. And then there are those who conduct the clandestine entry of vehicles and buildings. 

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This is among the most stressful and exciting work and the key capability is to control one’s panic response to unexpected events.

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Spies & Spying: Technical Operations Officers 

Much of their work is against telephones and computers used by intelligence targets.

The essential difference between Hackers and Technical Operation Officers is that the TOOs do their clandestine work outside their offices and must often engage with the public in their work. This means they need a cover and to explain their presence, sometimes in foreign countries.

Staff from the TOO sections are often called on to ensure a room does not have hostile eavesdropping devices. These people are often called ‘sweepers’. They have a 'trained eye' for all sorts of clues.

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Spies & Spying: Psychological profile notes for Tech Ops Officers

The key attributes of a TOO are keeping up to date with manifold technical changes and developments. They must be observant and experimental, trying out new ways of doing things. They need to be composed and 'cool under fire'.

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Spies & Spying: Tech Ops Officers essentials

TOO sections might also include the boffins - those who design the equipment. These people require intellect, openness to new ideas, and drive.

And the three essentials for a Technical Operations Officer are:

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Spies & Spying: Tech Ops Officers in fiction

There are a few books on the subject from the real world. Robert Wallace, formerly a head of the TOO department in the CIA, has written about the work in Spycraft (2009).

There are many references to technical operations in fiction but none reach the ingenuity of Ian Fleming’s ‘Q’ in the Bond books and films. So famous has ‘Q’ become that SIS changed the name of their technical section and now calls it ‘Q’.

“As I said in my weekend interview, we’re looking for a new ‘Q’. If you want to serve your country by helping MI6 to develop the operational technology of the future, please take a look,“ - Tweet from the Chief of SIS, Richard Moore @ChiefMI6, in 2021.

Excerpt courtesy of The Psychology of Spies and Spying by Adrian Furnham and John Taylor.

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