counterintelligence

[koun-ter-in-tel-i-juh ns]

noun

the activity of an intelligence service employed in thwarting the efforts of an enemy's intelligence agents to gather information or commit sabotage.
an organization engaged in counterintelligence.

Origin of counterintelligence

First recorded in 1935–40; counter- + intelligence

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for counterintelligence

Contemporary Examples of counterintelligence

Rõivas called the kidnapping of a counterintelligence official a serious crime “unacceptable to any Estonian.”
Russia Steps Up Pressure on the Baltics
Will Cathcart
September 5, 2014
“I have been a counterintelligence officer,” Alasania told The Daily Beast.
Georgian Opposition Says the Country's Democracy Is Slipping
Eli Lake
December 4, 2011
Far from it, said David G. Major, the retired FBI counterintelligence agent.
Inside the FBI's Bid to Flip a Russian Spy
Philip Shenon
July 12, 2010
Few of the people in MI6 or MI5, the counterintelligence service, would divulge anything at all.
The Charmed Life of a Traitor
Harold Evans
November 6, 2009
The job of a counterintelligence officer and a field agent working for the CIA or the MI-6, their job is not to tell the truth.
The Twisted Mind Behind Julia
Kara Cutruzzula
March 21, 2009

British Dictionary definitions for counterintelligence

counterintelligence

noun

activities designed to frustrate enemy espionage
intelligence collected about enemy espionage

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for counterintelligence

also counter-intelligence, 1940, from counter- + intelligence.