# SAFETYNET Agent Classification

## Overview

SAFETYNET uses a hexadecimal designation system for its agents, combining numerical classification with role specialisation. This system allows for both hierarchical structure and functional categorisation while maintaining operational security—agent designations reveal nothing about the individual's real identity.

## Field Agent Classifications

### 0x00 Series: Field Analysts

**Designation Range**: 0x0000 - 0x008F
**Role**: Entry to mid-level field operatives
**Player Designation**: Player characters are typically 0x00 series agents

**Responsibilities**:
- Conduct on-site security assessments and penetration tests
- Gather intelligence during undercover operations
- Execute standard infiltration protocols
- Report findings to handlers for analysis
- Maintain cover identities during extended deployments

**Authority Level**:
- Authorised to conduct offensive security operations under cover
- Limited access to classified databases (need-to-know basis)
- Can requisition standard field equipment
- Must receive handler approval for high-risk actions
- Cannot authorise operations for other agents

**Career Progression**:
0x00 series agents advance through several informal tiers:
- **0x00-0x1F**: Junior analysts (0-2 years experience, closely supervised)
- **0x20-0x4F**: Mid-level analysts (2-5 years, increased autonomy)
- **0x50-0x6F**: Senior analysts (5-8 years, can mentor juniors)
- **0x70-0x8F**: Lead analysts (8+ years, may supervise small teams)

### 0x90+ Series: Senior Field Operatives

**Designation Range**: 0x0090 - 0x00FF (and beyond)
**Role**: Veteran agents and specialists
**Rarity**: Rarely seen by junior agents

**Responsibilities**:
- Complex multi-phase operations requiring extensive planning
- High-risk infiltration of hardened targets
- Counter-intelligence operations against ENTROPY leadership
- Training and mentoring 0x00 series agents
- Field command of multi-agent operations

**Authority Level**:
- Broad operational discretion
- Full access to intelligence databases
- Can authorise equipment requests and tactical support
- May approve certain actions by subordinate agents
- Direct communication with Operations Command

**Specialisations**:
Senior agents often develop specialisations:
- **Physical Infiltration Specialists**: Expert lock-pickers, social engineers, and physical security experts
- **Cyber Operations Experts**: Advanced exploitation, malware analysis, and network infiltration
- **Counter-Intelligence Operatives**: ENTROPY specialists who track and neutralise specific hostile agents
- **Technical Surveillance**: Electronic surveillance, signal intelligence, and SIGINT operations
- **Field Trainers**: Experienced agents who evaluate and mentor junior operatives

### Field Handlers

**Designation**: Not typically assigned agent numbers (operate under different classification)
**Role**: Mission control and field support
**Visibility**: Primary point of contact for field agents

**Responsibilities**:
- Assign missions and provide briefings to field agents
- Monitor operations in real-time (when possible)
- Provide tactical guidance and intelligence updates
- Coordinate technical support and resource allocation
- Debrief agents after mission completion
- Maintain psychological support and welfare checks

**Qualifications**:
- Former field agents (usually 0x90+ series who've transitioned)
- Extensive operational experience and judgment
- Strong analytical and decision-making skills
- Ability to remain calm under pressure when agents are in danger
- Unfortunately high tolerance for agents' creative interpretations of the Handbook

**Career Path**:
Many field agents aspire to handler positions—you get to tell other people to walk into danger while you sit in a comfortable office. However, handlers bear the psychological weight of every mission that goes wrong, every agent who doesn't come back, and every impossible decision made in real-time.

### Technical Support

**Designation**: Various technical classifications (not public-facing)
**Role**: Provide remote technical assistance and infrastructure support
**Visibility**: Rarely interact directly with field agents

**Responsibilities**:
- Maintain secure communications infrastructure
- Provide real-time technical consultation during operations
- Develop and test new tools and exploits
- Analyse intelligence data and ENTROPY techniques
- Support digital forensics and attribution analysis

**Specialisations**:
- **Infrastructure Team**: Maintain secure communications and VPN infrastructure
- **Tool Development**: Create and adapt security tools for field use
- **Intelligence Analysis**: Process and correlate data from multiple operations
- **Research Division**: Study emerging threats and techniques
- **Forensics Team**: Analyse recovered systems and data

**Note**: Technical support personnel are the unsung heroes of SAFETYNET. Field agents get the glory; tech support gets angry tickets about why the VPN is down during a critical infiltration.

## Recruitment and Training

### Identification Phase

SAFETYNET identifies potential recruits through:
- **Academic Excellence**: Top performers in cybersecurity and computer science programs
- **Competition Performance**: Winners and standouts in CTF competitions, bug bounties, and security challenges
- **Professional Work**: Exceptional talent in legitimate penetration testing and security consulting
- **Demonstrated Judgment**: Technical skill is necessary but not sufficient—candidates must show good judgment and ethical reasoning
- **Reformed Hackers**: Occasionally, individuals with a "colourful past" who've demonstrated rehabilitation

### Vetting Process

Before recruitment begins:
1. **Background Investigation**: Comprehensive check of candidate's history, associations, and potential vulnerabilities
2. **Financial Review**: Looking for connections, debts, or financial pressures that could compromise loyalty
3. **Psychological Assessment**: Indirect evaluation of stress tolerance, moral flexibility, and reliability
4. **Social Engineering Test**: Candidates are unknowingly tested to see how they handle manipulation and pressure
5. **Technical Evaluation**: Skills are assessed through seemingly unrelated challenges or job tasks

### Recruitment Approach

SAFETYNET doesn't send a letter saying "Congratulations! You've been selected for a secret spy agency!"

Instead:
1. **Initial Contact**: Candidate receives a job offer from a legitimate security consultancy (a SAFETYNET front company)
2. **Probation Period**: First 3-6 months involve normal security work—penetration testing, compliance assessments, etc.
3. **Gradual Exposure**: Assignments become progressively more unusual; candidates are exposed to grey-area operations
4. **The Conversation**: Eventually, a senior agent or handler has "the talk"—explaining what the company really is
5. **Decision Point**: Candidate can accept (and sign terrifying NDAs) or decline (and be carefully monitored forever)
6. **Formal Training**: Once accepted, intensive training in field craft, cover operations, and SAFETYNET protocols

### Training Program

New agents undergo a comprehensive training program:

**Phase 1 - Foundations (4 weeks)**:
- Advanced penetration testing techniques
- Physical security and lock-picking
- Social engineering and OSINT
- Cover story development and maintenance
- Introduction to the Field Operations Handbook (emphasis on contradictions)

**Phase 2 - Field Craft (6 weeks)**:
- Undercover operations and role-playing
- Surveillance and counter-surveillance
- Operational security and OPSEC failures to avoid
- Intelligence gathering and reporting
- Communications security and secure messaging

**Phase 3 - ENTROPY Focus (4 weeks)**:
- ENTROPY history, methods, and known operations
- Recognition of ENTROPY indicators and techniques
- Case studies of successful (and failed) operations
- ENTROPY counter-intelligence methods
- Staying alive when ENTROPY is on to you

**Phase 4 - Specialisation (8 weeks)**:
- Agents choose focus area: cyber operations, physical infiltration, or hybrid
- Advanced technical training in chosen area
- Mentorship with experienced 0x90+ series agents
- Simulated operations with progressively increasing complexity
- Final evaluation and certification

### Ongoing Development

Agent training doesn't stop after initial certification:
- **Quarterly Skills Assessments**: Keeping technical skills sharp
- **Annual Refresher Training**: Updates on new techniques and ENTROPY methods
- **Specialisation Courses**: Opportunities to develop new skills
- **Peer Learning**: Agents share lessons learned from recent operations
- **Conference Attendance**: Attending security conferences (undercover, of course) to stay current

## Agent Performance and Advancement

### Evaluation Criteria

Agents are evaluated on:
- **Mission Success Rate**: Achieving objectives while maintaining cover
- **Intelligence Quality**: Providing actionable, accurate information
- **OPSEC Compliance**: Maintaining operational security and cover identity
- **Adaptability**: Handling unexpected situations and complications
- **Judgment**: Making sound decisions under pressure
- **Handbook Interpretation**: Creative yet defensible application of contradictory regulations

### Advancement Path

Progression from 0x00 to 0x90+ series requires:
- Minimum 8-10 years of field experience
- Demonstrated excellence across multiple mission types
- Successful completion of high-risk or high-value operations
- Recommendations from handlers and senior agents
- Psychological evaluation confirming fitness for increased responsibility
- Acceptance of the fact that harder missions don't come with better pay

### Alternative Career Paths

Not all agents remain in field operations:
- **Transition to Handler**: Experienced agents move to mission control
- **Technical Support**: Those with deep technical skills may join research or tool development
- **Training Division**: Teaching the next generation of agents
- **Operations Planning**: Strategic planning and mission design
- **Retirement**: Eventually, agents age out of field work (those who survive that long)

## Cross-References

- **Overview**: See [overview.md](./overview.md) for SAFETYNET's mission and structure
- **Cover Operations**: See [cover_operations.md](./cover_operations.md) for how agents maintain their identities
- **Rules of Engagement**: See [rules_of_engagement.md](./rules_of_engagement.md) for operational protocols
- **Technology**: See [technology_resources.md](./technology_resources.md) for equipment available to each classification

## For Scenario Designers

### Using Agent Classifications in Your Scenarios

**Player as 0x00 Series Agent**:
- Players are typically junior to mid-level 0x00 series agents
- This explains why they receive orders rather than giving them
- Provides justification for handlers offering guidance
- Allows for mistakes and learning experiences

**Introducing 0x90+ Series Agents**:
- Use sparingly to avoid overshadowing the player
- Can appear in briefings to provide context or warnings
- Might be the subject of rescue missions if captured by ENTROPY
- Can serve as mentors or occasional mission partners
- Their presence should raise the stakes (if they're involved, it's serious)

**Handler Characterisation**:
- Handlers are experienced but not infallible
- They have personalities—some patient, some sarcastic, some overly bureaucratic
- Can provide comic relief through reactions to player's creative solutions
- Should feel like they're on the player's side, even when delivering bad news

**Technical Support**:
- Usually voice-only or text-only (maintaining mystique)
- Can provide hints disguised as technical advice
- Occasional failure of support systems creates interesting complications
- Their limitations justify why players must solve puzzles themselves

### Progression and Growth

**Showing Player Advancement**:
- Early missions might have more handler oversight
- Later missions could offer more autonomy and trust
- Recognition of player's growing experience through dialogue
- Possibly assign the player a higher designation after major successes
- Trust them with more sensitive information or complex objectives

**Teaching Through Characters**:
- Use senior agents to demonstrate advanced techniques
- Handlers can explain why certain approaches are preferred
- Technical support can provide context for tool selection
- Other 0x00 agents can show different approaches to similar problems

### Common Pitfalls to Avoid

- **Over-powered Senior Agents**: Don't let 0x90+ series agents solve everything—they're busy with their own missions
- **Inconsistent Handler Knowledge**: Track what your handler should reasonably know based on their access
- **Ignoring Hierarchy**: The player can't just order around technical support or other agents
- **Unrealistic Advancement**: A 0x00 agent shouldn't suddenly become 0x90+ without years of experience
