If you're in a top 20 Evony alliance then chances are your alliance is being spied on by someone, or perhaps it is your Evony alliance doing the spying on some other unwitting alliance. Either way, it's happening – you may as well know what to do about it.

Evony spies come in to alliances for all sorts of reasons. Some times an Evony spy may be spying on your alliance from a blue allied alliance just to "keep tabs" on your alliance so he can report back to his/her real Evony alliance leaders and let them know what kind of strengths their allies really have. However, generally an Evony spy is in your alliance to gather information that could be used maliciously.

Here's a list of things that are commonly recorded and passed along by even the most mediocre Evony spies:

• Evony Alliance Member City Coordinates
• Evony Alliance Members Low on Troops
• Evony Alliance Members with Lots of Unprotected Resources
• Times of Planned Attacks on Hostile Evony Alliances
• News Regarding Friendly Evony Alliances
• Group Mails

Also, here's a list of things spies more skilled in the Art of Evony Espionage will take note of:

• Which Evony Alliance Members' Cities are Strong/Weak
• Which Evony Alliance Members are Strong/Skilled
• Timezones and Sleeping/Work Schedules of Important/Strong Evony Alliance Members
• High Level Evony Hero Locations
• Evony Hero/City Transferring (For Stealing)

So what can you do in order to avoid being the victim of Evony Espionage? Evony Counter-Intelligence of course! First of all, any Evony Alliance looking to be elite needs to have a strict recruiting regime. No taking in just any ol' passer-by, you have to set requirements, minimums, and most importantly – Do Evony background checks! New recruits should be scrutinized no matter how much you may be wanting new or strong players in your Evony alliance – looks are often deceiving.

Here are some things you can do to improve Alliance Security and hinder Evony Espionage from doing much damage at all to your Evony Alliance:

• For ANY and ALL Important Evony Alliance Matters Use an External Group Chat method such as Skype, Ventrilo, AIM, Y!Messenger, etc..
• Have Different Tiers of Chat Rooms/Areas for Hosts Only, Presbyters and Hosts, Officers and Above, and then one for the Entire Evony Alliance including Members.
• Remind Evony Alliance Members to NOT give out their Coordinates, Hero Locations, or Schedules in Evony Alliance Chat.
• Remind Evony Alliance Members to NOT  say "Goodbye" or anything else that would let spies know they are going offline, or away from Evony.
• Hosts should NOT ever use Group Mails to Relay Sensitive Information to the Evony Alliance.

Furthermore, here are some things you can do as Alliance Leaders as well as Members to disrupt the flow of important information out of your Evony Alliance, as long as everyone that Matters is informed of what is really going on:

• Send False Information throughout Evony Alliance Chat all the time, for example: Incorrect Troop/Resource  Counts, Falsely Say you are Going Offline or other things Regarding Schedule, Falsely Report the Target of a Certain City then Attack a Different city, etc..
• Send Fake Group Mails to Suspected Spies and see if the Information is Passed out of the Evony Alliance.
• Hosts should Keep a Watch on the External Chat Area for the entire Evony Alliance and compare what Topics are being discussed in what Areas by which Members to determine if they have High Position Spy, or just a Member Position Spy.
• All New Applicant to the Evony Alliance should be Reviewed by Hosts, as well as Presbyters and even Officers – if the decision can not be made by Officers and Above, the New Applicant should not be approved unless a few Very Trusted Members can speak on his/her behalf.

So there you have it – some simple steps to help keep your Evony Alliance from succumbing to Evony Espionage. At first it will take some time to get all of the Trusted Alliance Members on the same page as the Leaders when it comes to dealing with Spies, but eventually you will have a good grasp of who in your Evony Alliance is trustworthy and who is not, as well as How To tell when New Members are Spies right from the start.

Remember, a Smaller Evony Alliance of Skilled and Trustworthy Members can be much more Effective than a larger Evony Alliance riddled with Spies and members just looking for a Free Ride. Happy Farming!