Sleeper agent

A sleeper agent is a spy who lives a normal life and pretends to be an ordinary person until they are given a secret mission. They are often sent to another country and wait quietly, sometimes for years, without doing anything suspicious. When their boss gives them a signal, they “wake up” and start doing secret work like gathering information or causing problems for the other side. Until then, no one knows they are a spy.

Known sleeper agents:

• Anna Chapman. "Among the sleeper agents [that were discovered or] uncovered during Operation Ghost Stories, Anna Chapman" became well-known.

Some movies have characters that are sleep agents. Example of movies:

• The Manchurian Candidate; The character "Shaw is an amoral and cruel individual who was turned by the Soviets into a sleeper agent", according to media.

Source

• The Sleeper Agent Threat: Alive and Well in 2025. Mirasafety.com