Operational pseudonym [communications cover name]

A Russian tradecraft term [“operativnyi psevdonim”] for a cover name assigned to intelligence officers, agents, valued contacts and sometimes to prominent figures for the purpose of operational correspondence. As a rule, assets and contacts do not know their operational pseudonyms, or the pseudonyms of their case officers, group leaders and couriers. In the terminology of the (US) National Security Agency (NSA), it is a “communications cover name.)

An operational pseudonym should not be confused with a “street name” – a cover name used by an officer, an agent-group leader or a courier in the company of assets or contacts of an intelligence service.