Doing a quick search on 'keyhole' and 'spy satellite' as suggested by Jeff, I got the following information.....
Jon...
----------------------
http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/cold.war/experience/spies/melton.essay/
New technologies for the digital spy
The tradition roles of spies in gathering, communicating and analyzing information (secrets), as well as counterintelligence, have been altered in ways never before imagined.
Gathering information:
The advent of the "Keyhole" satellite program nearly 30 years ago provided the United States with the capability to digitally observe events on Earth in near "real time." Exponential advances in computer processing power have subsequently provided refinements that allow these "spies in the sky" to observe the Earth regardless of cloud cover, inclement weather and darkness. Using infrared cameras, radar and advanced sensing lenses, they can resolve images approaching a single inch in diameter. The strategic role of satellites will be tactically supplemented by small pilotless drone aircraft, with stealth masking, capable of remaining aloft for days at a time over hostile territory.
New "ears in space," sometimes officially designated as "weather or mapping" satellites, will continue to eavesdrop on all forms of communication signals transmitted into the ether. The increasing utilization of wireless frequencies for the transmission of telephone and computer data is absorbed into the antenna of these satellites and relayed to ground stations on Earth for analysis. Speech recognition software, new to the consumer market but utilized by intelligence agencies for more than 25 years, will employ artificial intelligence to "filter the unnecessary" and recover secrets being communicated by both friends and foes.
The transformation of the Internet into the "information highway" has forever changed the way in which information is gathered. CIA veteran Sherman Kent, author of "Strategic Intelligence for American World Policy," once observed 50 years ago that 90 percent of everything spies need to know is available openly. The Internet, as the library of world knowledge, has become the repository of information needed to fuel economies of the world's superpowers. The keys to this "fountain of knowledge" are high-speed Internet access, advanced networking to share information quickly, and massive computer power to analyze billions of bits of data to discover the secrets hidden inside.
Powerful Internet browsers and "agents" are even now traveling through cyberspace into the computers and networks of both the suspecting and unsuspecting to record their secrets. A clever computer programmer in the immediate future will unleash electron based "cyber-agents" to recover more vital information in a day than a thousand fictional James Bonds could recover in a lifetime.
--------------------------
