This is a list of current secret police organizations. Fictional secret police organizations and historical secret police organizations are listed on their own respective pages.
In this list, reputable sources, with relevant quotes, assert that the organizations in this list are secret police.
| Country | Organisation(s) |
|---|---|
 Azerbaijan | State Security Service (Azerbaijani : Dövlət Təhlükəsizlik Xidməti) [1] [2] |
 Bahrain | National Security Agency (Arabic : جهاز الأمن الوطني) [3] |
 Belarus | State Security Committee (Belarusian : Камітэт дзяржаўнай бяспекі, КДБ, romanized: Kamitet dziaržawnaj biaspeki, KDB, Russian : Комитет государственной безопасности, КГБ, romanized: Komitet gosudarstvennoy bezopasnosti, KGB) [4] |
 Brunei | Internal Security Department [5] [6] |
 China | Ministry of State Security (Chinese :国家安全部; pinyin :Guójiā Ānquán Bù) [7] |
 Egypt | General Intelligence Directorate (GID) (Arabic : جهاز المخابرات العامةGihaz El Mukhabarat El ‘Amma) [8] [9] [10] Homeland Security (Egyptian Arabic : قطاع الأمن الوطنيKetaʿ El Amn El Watani) [11] [12] |
 Iran | Ministry of Intelligence (Formerly, known as SAVAMA for a short period of time after the Iranian Revolution) (Persian : وِزارَتِ اِطّلاعات جُمهوریِ اِسلامیِ ایران, Vezarat-e Ettela'at Jomhuri-ye Eslami-ye Iran) [13] [14] [15] [16] |
 Jordan | General Intelligence Directorate (GID) (Arabic : دائرة المخابرات العامة) [17] [18] [19] [20] [21] |
 Kazakhstan | National Security Committee of the Republic of Kazakhstan (KNB) (Kazakh : Қазақстан Республикасы Ұлттық Қауіпсіздік Комитеті, romanized: Qazaqstan Respublikasy Ūlttyq Qauıpsızdık Komitetı, Russian: Комитет Национальной Безопасности Республики Казахстан, romanized: Komitet Natsional'noy Bezopasnosti Respubliki Kazakhstan) [22] [23] |
 Nigeria | State Security Service [24] [25] [26] [27] [28] [29] |
 North Korea | Ministry of State Security (North Korea) (Korean : 국가안전보위부; RR : Gukga anjeon bowibu) [30] [31] [32] |
 Russia | Federal Security Service (FSB) (Russian: Федеральная служба безопасности Российской Федерации (ФСБ), romanized: Federal'naya sluzhba bezopasnosti Rossiyskoy Federatsii) [33] |
 Saudi Arabia | General Investigation Directorate (Mabahith) (Arabic : المباحث العامة, al-Mabāḥiṯ al-ʿĀmmah) [34] [35] |
 Sudan | National Intelligence and Security Service (NISS) (Arabic : جهاز الأمن والمخابرات الوطني السوداني, Jihaaz Al Amn Al Watani Wal Mukhaabaraat) [36] [37] |
 Syria | Air Force Intelligence Directorate (Arabic : إدارة المخابرات الجوية, Idarat al-Mukhabarat al-Jawiyya) [38] [39] [40] [41] [42] General Intelligence Directorate (Arabic : إدارة المخابرات العامة, Idarat al-Amn al-Amm) [43] [41] Military Intelligence Directorate (Arabic : شعبة المخابرات العسكرية, Shu'bat al-Mukhabarat al-'Askariyya) [38] [41] Political Security Directorate (Arabic : إدارة الأمن السياسي, Idarat al-Amn al-Siyasi) [41] |
 Tajikistan | State Committee of National Security [44] |
 Turkmenistan | Ministry for National Security (Turkmen : Türkmenistanyň Milli howpsuzlyk ministrilgi) [45] |
 Ukraine | Security Service (SBU) (Ukrainian : Служба безпеки України (СБУ), romanized: Sluzhba bezleky Ukrayiny (SBU) [46] |
 Uzbekistan | National Security Service (SNB) (Uzbek : Milliy Xavfsizlik Xizmati, Russian : Служба национальной безопасности, romanized: Sluzhba natsional'noy bezopasnosti) [47] |
 Venezuela | Bolivarian Intelligence Service (SEBIN) (Spanish : Servicio Bolivariano de Inteligencia Nacional) [48] |
 Zimbabwe | Central Intelligence Organisation [49] |
Lists:
The secret police – the Bahrain national security agency, known in Arabic as the Mukhabarat...
…the Belarusian secret police, the KGB…
"out of reach of the KGB" after being summoned to return for questioning at a detention centre run by Belarus' secret police.
time-warped Belarus provides a glimpse into what life was like before the collapse of the Soviet Union, where the secret police are still called the KGB
The KGB – yes, the secret police in Belarus are still called the KGB
The dreaded Internal Security Department can pick up anyone suspected of anti-Government activities and keep them in custody without trial as long as is deemed desirable.
China will prosecute a former high ranking official in its secret police for suspected bribery...Ma Jian, once a vice minister at China's Ministry of State Security
by state security...a Chinese academic stopped from returning to Australia refused to undergo a lie-detector test for China's secret police, one of his friend's claims
the Chinese Ministry of State Security – also well known as the Chinese secret police
for the mukhabarat, the secret police, to eavesdrop on dissenters by hacking into their telephones and turning them into bugging devices.
The Mukhabarat (secret police) intervened in 2015's elections to ensure supine legislative loyalty to the president.
a game being played by the Mukhabarat (Egyptian secret police)
Egypt restores feared secret police units... Egypt's state security investigations service, Mabahith Amn ad-Dawla, a wing of the police force under President Mubarak, and a symbol of police oppression, was supposedly closed in March 2011...The only thing that happened was that they changed the name
including the secret police, which were simply renamed "homeland security" instead of "state security."
...they worked with the secret police SAVAMA and were instrumental in eliminating dissident groups
In a first, Iran provided public information about the structure of its secret services in an Intelligence Ministry magazine published for the 30th anniversary of the creation of the ministry. According to the magazine, entitled "30 years of Silent Devotion," Intelligence Minister Mahmoud Alavi heads a coordination council overseeing 16 different agencies. The Guard, Iran's most powerful military force, separately operates two other intelligence agencies.
The secret police, or mukhabarat in Arabic, is one of the most powerful and ubiquitous forces in the Arab world. Jordan's network had surreptitiously videotaped his reading.
tells the story of a fictional collaboration between the CIA and Jordan's secret police...international observers say the real GID is a far cry from its depiction in art.
fearing arrest by the powerful mukhabarat secret police
The 36-year-old Jordanian traveled throughout the region often, but this was the first time that mukhabarat, secret police
"Institutions I had trusted were just not on board," he said, naming as an example the mukhabarat, or secret police
Kazakhstan's secret police headquarters have been targeted in a suicide attack in one of the country's biggest cities....the KNB, Kazakhstan's successor to the KGB
Aliyev, 52, a former ambassador to Austria, intelligence officer, deputy foreign minister and banker, who had expressed fear that his life was in danger from Kazakhstan's KNB secret police
Nigeria's secret police, the Department of State Services…
Nigeria's secret police… …the State Security Service, responsible for domestic spying in Africa's most populous nation…
In the suit filed by his counsel, Sylva Ogwemoh (SAN), the Economic and Financial Crimes commission (EFCC) and the Department of State Security Service (DSS) were listed as defendants. Wike, in the originating summon, is asking Justice Ahmed Mohammed for an injunction restraining the police, anti-graft agency and the secret police from embarking on the exercise.
The State Security Service, Nigeria's secret police
Nigeria secret police details leaked...The leak of personal data of more than 60 past and current employees of Nigeria's State Security Service
The SSS did not disclose the identities of the suspects. The secret police previously arrested an "ISIS recruiter" named Abdussalam Enesi Yunusa in Kano in February
The security agent came in and this agent of the Bowibu [secret police]…
…Jang officially controls the internal security forces, including the secret police.
agents from North Korea's Ministry of State Security, the country's secret police
Russia's secret police have long been immune to the law that they supposedly uphold...The lawsuit is the first of its kind in Russia to target the FSB, according to Mr Lebedev
Amongst the files seen by FORBES so far are emails detailing Hacking Team's sales to Russia's secret police, the FSB.
An official at the Center for Information Security of the FSB, Russia's secret police
the FSB, Russia's secret police, gave a warning to WikiLeaks that showed none of the tact of the U.S. reply to the Iraq revelations.
FSB, 'May Have Been Involved' In Whistleblower, Alexander Perepilichny's Death...Russian secret police "may well be involved" in the death of a whistleblower living in Britain, an inquest was told on Monday.
of the secret police (FSB), successor to the Soviet-era KGB.
the infamous Federal Security Service (FSB). Originally established to protect the Kremlin's rule at home, it has increasingly moved into Russia's foreign operations. A new cohort of secret policemen....Their backgrounds as secret police in an authoritarian state make them especially prone to bullying and blackmailing, corrupting and killing
the FSB secret police headquarters
Russia has expanded the powers of its FSB secret police
...spokesman for the powerful Ministry of Interior, whose Mabahith secret police...
...the Mabahith, the General Investigation Directorate of the Saudi Ministry of Interior, the Kingdom's brutal secret police...
...the Sudanese secret police — the notorious National Intelligence and Security Services (NISS)...
...and the hated secret police, the NISS.
Colonel Riad al-Asaad told Reuters that guerrilla-style attacks were concentrating on Military and Air Force Intelligence, secret police personnel entrusted with preventing mutiny in the military
were herded into the office of Jamil Hassan, the head of air force intelligence, the most dreaded branch of Syria's secret police.
A statement by rebels said they had killed Major Ayham al-Hamad, a key operative in Airforce Intelligence, a secret police division that has been spearheading the crackdown on the revolt in the city.
The system is being run by at least four intelligence agencies collectively referred to as mukhabarat, or secret police, the report says. Those agencies include the Department of Military Intelligence, the Political Security Directorate, the General Intelligence Directorate and the Air Force Intelligence Directorate.
Syrian activists talk a lot about Air Force Intelligence. Hafez al-Assad, the former president and father of Bashar al-Assad, had commanded the air force, making its security arm one of the most powerful of Syria's dozen or so secret police organizations.
had been travelling regularly to Damascus for talks with the infamous Syria's mukhabarat secret police.
A U.S.-trained secret police force… …The State Committee of National Security, the successor to the Soviet spy agency KGB in the central Asia country…
…his meeting with an opposition leader was broken up by secret police…
His heavyweight secret police, the KNB…
…including MNS secret police and other officials…
Masked men in Ukraine's secret police ... Officers from the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) arrested the men...
He said officers from the SBU, Ukraine's secret police, had swooped on a hotel he owns in the More resort in Alushta on the Crimean coast.
...when the nation's secret police blamed a power outage on Russia... Ukraine's SBU state security service responded by blaming Russia...
...then served briefly as deputy chief of Ukraine's secret police...
...got a call on his cell phone from an officer of the SBU secret police, Ukraine's successor to the Soviet-era KGB.
Mobile-phone conversations intercepted by the SBU (Ukraine's secret police) appeared to show...
...Uzbek Secret Police Roam Russian Prisons ... Rights activists says Tashkent security men interrogate detainees and abduct asylum-seekers in Russia with impunity.
the country's feared secret police — the SNB
The SNB -- the secret police that strikes fear into the hearts of citizens and expats alike
...members of the secret police, called the Sebin, surrounded Mr. Morales and arrested him...
...was moved Wednesday from the SEBIN secret police lockup...
the national guard and the feared, black-uniformed SEBIN (secret police)
Even the head boss over all of SEBIN took photos with me as if I were some sort of trophy to him," he wrote, referring to the initials for Venezuela's secret police.
They would likely have to call SEBIN -- the dreaded secret police
More alarming than a tweetstorm, however, are allegations that young protesters detained by Maduro's secret police (SEBIN)
…agents of the Central Intelligence Organisation, the feared secret police.
…Several reliable sources within the Zimbabwe secret police (the Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO))…
for Zimbabwe's secret police - the Central Intelligence Organisation, or CIO.
for Mugabe's secret police. The Central Intelligence Organisation reports directly to the president
A former member of Robert Mugabe's feared secret police in Zimbabwe...The CIO, along with the police and armed forces, was widely blamed for the worst of the violence
Spetsnaz, are special forces in many post-Soviet states. Historically, this term referred to the Soviet Union's Spetsnaz GRU, special operations units of the GRU, the main military intelligence service. Today it refers to special forces branches and task forces subordinate to ministries including defence, internal affairs, or emergency situations in countries that have inherited their special purpose units from the now-defunct Soviet security agencies.
Secret police are police, intelligence, or security agencies that engage in covert operations against a government's political, religious, or social opponents and dissidents. Secret police organizations are characteristic of authoritarian and totalitarian regimes. They protect the political power of a dictator or regime and often operate outside the law to repress dissidents and weaken political opposition, frequently using violence. They may enjoy legal sanction to hold and charge suspects without ever identifying their organization.
The Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation is the principal security agency of Russia and the main successor agency to the Soviet Union's KGB; its immediate predecessor was the Federal Counterintelligence Service (FSK) which was reorganized into the FSB in 1995. The three major structural successor components of the former KGB that remain administratively independent of the FSB are the Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR), the Federal Protective Service (FSO), and the Main Directorate of Special Programs of the President of the Russian Federation (GUSP).
The Foreign Intelligence Service of the Russian Federation or SVR RF is Russia's external intelligence agency, focusing mainly on civilian affairs. The SVR RF succeeded the First Chief Directorate (PGU) of the KGB in December 1991. The SVR has its headquarters in the Yasenevo District of Moscow with its director reporting directly to the President of the Russian Federation.
The Security Service of Ukraine is the main internal security agency of the Ukrainian government. Its main duties include counter-intelligence activity and combating organized crime and terrorism. The Constitution of Ukraine defines the SBU as a military formation, and its staff are considered military personnel with ranks. It is subordinated directly under the authority of the president of Ukraine. The SBU also operates its own special forces unit, the Alpha Group.
Active measures is a term used to describe political warfare conducted by the Soviet Union and the Russian Federation. The term, which dates back to the 1920s, includes operations such as espionage, propaganda, sabotage and assassination, based on foreign policy objectives of the Soviet and Russian governments. Active measures have continued to be used by the administration of Vladimir Putin.
A security agency is a governmental organization that conducts intelligence activities for the internal security of a nation. They are the domestic cousins of foreign intelligence agencies, and typically conduct counterintelligence to thwart other countries' foreign intelligence efforts.
There were a succession of Soviet secret police agencies over time. The first secret police after the October Revolution, created by Vladimir Lenin's decree on December 20, 1917, was called "Cheka" (ЧК). Officers were referred to as "chekists", a name that is still informally applied to people under the Federal Security Service of Russia, the KGB's successor in Russia after the dissolution of the Soviet Union.
The Bolivarian National Intelligence Service is the premier intelligence agency in Venezuela. SEBIN is an internal security force subordinate to the Vice President of Venezuela since 2012 and is dependent on Vice President Delcy Rodríguez. SEBIN has been described as the political police force of the Bolivarian government.
Yevhen Kyrylovych Marchuk was a Ukrainian politician, intelligence officer, and general who served as the fourth Prime Minister of Ukraine after its independence in 1991.
Nikolai Platonovich Patrushev is a Russian politician, security officer and former intelligence officer who has served as the secretary of the Security Council of Russia since 2008. He previously served as the director of the Federal Security Service (FSB) from 1999 to 2008. Belonging to the siloviki faction of president Vladimir Putin's inner circle, Patrushev is believed to be one of the closest advisors to Putin and a leading figure behind Russia's national security affairs. He played a key role in the decisions to seize and then annex Crimea in 2014 and to invade Ukraine in 2022. He is considered as very hawkish towards the West and the United States. Patrushev is seen by some observers as one of the likeliest candidates for succeeding Putin.
Chekism is a term that relates to the situation in the Soviet Union where the secret police strongly controlled all spheres of society. It is also used to point out similar circumstances in post-Soviet intelligence states such as modern Russia. The term can refer to the system of rule itself, and to the underlying ideology that promotes and popularizes political police violence and arbitrariness against real and imagined enemies of the state.
Alexander Valterovich Litvinenko was a British-naturalised Russian defector and former officer of the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) who specialised in tackling organised crime. A prominent critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin, he advised British intelligence and coined the term "mafia state".
Alexander Vasilyevich Bortnikov is a Russian intelligence officer who has served as the director of the Federal Security Service (FSB) since 2008. He is one of the most powerful members of the silovik faction of president Vladimir Putin's inner circle. A Hero of the Russian Federation since 2019, he also holds the rank of General of the Army, the second highest grade in use in the Russian military. According to some experts, it is likely Bortnikov played a key role in Putin's decision to invade Ukraine in 2022.
Counterintelligence state is a state where the state security service penetrates and permeates all societal institutions, including the military. The term has been applied by historians and political commentators to the former Soviet Union, the former German Democratic Republic, Cuba after the 1959 revolution, Iraq under Saddam Hussein, China under the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), and post-Soviet Russia under Vladimir Putin, especially since 2012.
The Committee for State Security (CSS) was the main security agency for the Soviet Union from 13 March 1954 until 3 December 1991. As a direct successor of preceding agencies such as the Cheka, GPU, OGPU, NKGB, NKVD and MGB, it was attached to the Council of Ministers. It was the chief government agency of "union-republican jurisdiction", carrying out internal security, foreign intelligence, counter-intelligence and secret police functions. Similar agencies operated in each of the republics of the Soviet Union aside from the Russian SFSR, where the KGB was headquartered, with many associated ministries, state committees and state commissions.
Valentyn Oleksandrovych Nalyvaichenko is a Ukrainian diplomat and politician.
Special Group "Alpha" is an elite Ukrainian special forces, branch of the Security Service of Ukraine; and a successor of the Soviet Union's Alpha Group. Group Alpha is one of the top divisions of the special forces of Ukraine.
Maksym Mykhaylovych Shapoval was a senior officer (Colonel) in the Ukrainian military and head of the special forces of the Chief Intelligence Directorate. He was assassinated in a car bomb attack in central Kyiv on 27 June 2017, having only recently returned from the conflict zone in eastern Ukraine. At the time of his death, Shapoval was investigating Russian involvement in Eastern Ukraine. He collected intel on their locations and weapons, which was able to substantiate Ukraine's position in the war criminal trial in The Hague on Russia's armed aggression. At the time, he was one of the most senior Ukrainian officials killed in action.