Cut-out (espionage)

In espionage parlance, a cut-out is a mutually trusted intermediary, method or channel of communication, facilitating the exchange of information between agents. Cutouts usually only know the source and destination of the information to be transmitted, but are unaware of the identities of any other persons involved in the espionage process. Thus, a captured cutout cannot be used to identify members of an espionage cell.

Outside espionage
Some computer protocols, like Tor, use the equivalent of cutout nodes in their communications networks. Due to the use of multiple layers of encryption, nodes on networks like this do not usually know the ultimate sender or receiver of the data.

In computer networking Darknets can and do have some cut out functionality. Darknets are distinct from other distributed P2P networks as sharing is anonymous (that is, IP addresses are not publicly shared and nodes often forward traffic to other nodes). Thus with a Darknet users can communicate with little fear of governmental or corporate interference.

For this reason, Darknets are often associated with dissident political communications, as well as various illegal activities. More generally, the term "darknet" can be used to describe all non-commercial sites on the Internet, or to refer to all "underground" web communications and technologies, most commonly those associated with illegal activity or dissent.