Dana Taylor

In an age dominated by digital surveillance, human desire remains a vulnerability.

Foreign intelligence agencies are still using intimacy as a tool for gathering information.

Is there a way to protect national security secrets from sexpionage?

Hello and welcome to USA Today's The Excerpt.

I'm Dana Taylor.

Today is Thursday, February 26th, 2026.

If trained officials with security clearances can be compromised in this way, how safe are our secrets?

For more on that, I'm now joined by USA Today World Affairs Correspondent Kim Helmgaard.

It's good to speak with you, Kim.

Can we live in an era of spy satellites, facial recognition tools, AI surveillance, and the ability to track billions of personal devices with all that tech?

Why is something as old school and low tech as a honey trap still being deployed?

And what kinds of national secrets are adversaries trying to gain access to through these relationships?

Are we talking about American soldiers and officers being duped here, or are these people engaging in transactional sex?

Do they know what they're doing, or are some underestimating the security risk?

For TransAction, this up close and personal, how difficult is it to track attempts to extract intelligence through sex?

Kim, how do honey traps compare to money traps?

Do they go hand in hand or does money offer a spy more leverage?

Are these tactics primarily confined to diplomatic circles or soldiers deployed overseas?

Are we seeing cases of sexpionage happening here in the U.S.

or even within the Pentagon itself?