# Backstopping **Entity class:** Intelligence-support practice **Domain:** Cover / identity / operational security ## Definition **Backstopping** supplies the corroborating infrastructure that lets a cover identity survive independent checks: records, employment, offices, telephone response, documents, communications, institutional history, and other evidence consistent with the legend. Contemporary backstopping increasingly includes a coherent digital life. The source paper treats historical precedents such as an FBI wartime cover company and [[wiki/Studio Six Productions|Studio Six Productions]] as evidence for the function, not as proof of any named current operation. ## Relationships - **sustains:** [[wiki/Legend (Intelligence)|Legend]] and [[wiki/Commercial Cover|Commercial Cover]]. - **may use:** [[wiki/Proprietary (Intelligence)|Proprietary]]. - **governed within:** [[wiki/Producer Function|Producer Function]]. - **source:** [[research/The Producer Function in Intelligence Tradecraft and Dramaturgy|The Producer Function in Intelligence Tradecraft and Dramaturgy]].