The psychology of an officer who falls prey to honey trapping

To combat honey traps, experts suggest psychological tests, pep talks for young recruits

New Delhi, July 12: The use of sex or a romantic relationship for espionage is one of the oldest tactics used to elicit sensitive information. This tactic dates back to the days of the femme fatales such as the Dutch exotic dancer Mata Hari and Margretha Zelle.

While the advent of social media has been a boon for many, it also has its flip side and that is it has made espionage much easier. One of the biggest headaches for the security agencies has been cases of honey trapping as a result of which security is compromised and crucial information is leaked.

If one were to look at the recent string of cases relating to honey trapping the officials are either in the junior level or are lonely. It is only in certain cases where officials have fallen prey to money.

Officials OneIndia spoke with say that honey trapping cases continue despite the officials being sensitised about the problem. In most cases what has been noticed is that older officials are being honey trapped and this brings us to the question about whether the selection process needs a revamp.

Swati Mukherjee, Updesh Kumar and Manas K Mandal, three military psychologists of the Defence Institute of Psychological Research, said in a paper titled 'Status of Military Psychology in India: A Review' said that the selection process of Other Ranks or sepoys needs a revamp.

The paper says that the Indian Armed Forces have been using projective personality testing for selection of officers. However, selection of the large number of personnel below the officer rank in Armed Forces, is largely based on non-psychological techniques.

An Intelligence Bureau official says that there is a lot that needs to be done on this front. At the time of recruitment and training the new recruits must be sensitised about the problem. For one if an official is honey trapped, he not only lets out crucial information, but also ends up embarrassing the agencies.

In May the National Investigation Agency (NIA) took over a probe into a case where the spy agency of Pakistan was trying to inject malware into the computers and phones of defence personnel. The agency took over the probe after an account named fb.com/shaanti.patel.89737, managed to gain unauthorised access to restricted data of computer resources.

An assessment by the Intelligence agencies earlier said that honey trapping would continue to remain one of the key concerns for the security agencies.

The honey trap wing of the ISI is being run from Faridkot. Since 2015, the ISI has earmarked a budget of nearly Rs 3,500 crore for this unit. This only goes on to show how important the unit is for the ISI. After a trap is laid, the information is either elicited through blackmail or in the lure for cash.

The ISI has been looking to trap as many as 200 such young recruits and recent investigations showed that the Pakistan agents were already in touch with over 50 of them. When the police had arrested Gaurav Kumar, a resident of Rohtak, they found that he was asked to click pictures, each time he visited the Army training camp. He had plans of joining the Indian Army and was training for the same.

The paper by the three military psychologists says that now things are changing and new tests are aimed at enhancing their motivation to work and ensuring effective measures to screen out individuals with potential negative tendencies.

A selection battery consisting of a cognitive and a personality test has been developed for the selection of the Other Ranks in the Indian Army. The cognitive test has been developed in nonverbal format using matrix type items keeping in view the educational level and diversity of the applicant population, the paper also says.

The official cited above says that the operations these days have become very simple for the enemy. While honey traps have been laid on Facebook very often, the advent of WhatsApp has made the job of the enemy even easier. It was found in the Operation Dolphin Nose case where in December 2019 seven Indian Navy sailors were arrested for leaking sensitive information.

They were called by attractive women and were promised a good time and money following which they leaked out sensitive information. In other cases it was found that some officials who had put out their bio on social media were approached and lured into sending out information. At times it is money but most of the time it is also blackmail. An expert says that such persons in sensitive positions must not get carried away and it is best they stay away from social media.