I’ve been watching FX’s show, The Americans for several seasons now and think that it’s one of
the best programs on television today. It’s about a husband and wife spy team
from Russia who live a secret, seemingly normal life in a 1980s Washington,
D.C. suburb.
The show stars Matthew Rhys as Philip Jennings and Keri
Russell as his wife Elizabeth and follows the two undercover KGB spies as they
conduct secret missions for mother Russia while trying to negotiate the ins and
outs of raising a family in America during the Cold War.
Complicating things is their next-door neighbor, Stan—played
by Noah Emmerich—who works with a woman that Philip secretly married. The
woman, named Martha Hanson and played by Alison Wright, works for Stan’s boss,
Agent Frank Gaad (played by Richard Thomas). Philip (in disguise as his alter
ego, Clarke) seduced Martha and got her to plant a bug in Agent Gad’s office.
Without giving anything away, things have gotten complicated. But that’s how
things are in the world of spying.
Given the strides that the world has taken in the
development of modern technology, can you imagine what life was like for spies
back in the day? Bugs in pens, reel-to-reel tape recorders, calls made from
random pay phones—all feature prominently in every episode. Nowadays, we have
the Internet and a spy software for cell phone—both of which take the art of spying to a whole
new level. A digital one.
While I’m sure that Russia and the FBI and the CIA still use
good old-fashioned spies and spy techniques, it’s obvious that a lot has
changed due to the advent of the Internet. Nowadays, government organizations
employ teams of computer experts and even a spy software for cell phones. I imagine that spying has become both easier and more difficult for both
sides—what with the way that technology keeps evolving.
Spying isn’t even just for the government. There are a
multitude of mobile spy tools for cell phones programs that you, as an individual, can purchase
and put on someone’s cell phone. Many of them can give you access to the target
phone’s calls, texts, social media activity and SMS messages. They can also let
you track the device via GPS and activate the microphone and camera so that you
can survey the user’s environment. It’s all very stealthy and can be done
remotely so that no one knows you are doing it. Real spy stuff.
Imagine how easy it would have been for Philip and Elizabeth
to conduct many of their secret missions if they had a smartphone and a couple
of spy apps to put on their targets’ phones? It’s a little scary. If they did,
America—and the technology we helped create—may never have developed to the
point at which we are now, because we’d have been too busy waiting in line for
toilet paper.
