OK, here’s our bold prediction for the next vernacular trendsetter.

Introducing the canary trap.

No, it’s not a snare for catching yellow finches. A canary trap is a weapon of espionage. It’s a tool for detecting and plugging information leaks — a clever ploy for spy agencies to determine which canary is singing when it’s under orders to remain silent.

The term was first popularized and described by novelist Tom Clancy in the 1987 best-seller Patriot Games.

Here’s how a canary trap works: an agency distributes a memo with sensitive information, but the wording is varied slightly in each copy of the memo. If the information gets leaked to the media or to anyone else not authorized to receive it, and the information subsequently goes publicm, one glance at the leaked text reveals which version of the memo was leaked — the source of the leak is identified.

There are variations of the basic trap. Some are simpler, some are far more elaborate.

Government is not the only entity that’s prone to espionage. Corporate espionage has been around as long as corporations have existed. President Donald Trump, a billionaire former business executive, is no stranger to the canary trap; in fact, he claims to have resorted to a variation of the strategy in his first weeks in office.

Even before his inauguration, Trump set a canary trap to catch the source of leaked intelligence briefings. He intentionally set up clandestine briefings, keeping them a secret even from some of his top-level staffers in a attempt to rule them out by showing the the leaks were elsewhere.

Trump’s suspicions were correct. The source turned out to be the very intelligence agents who were conducting the security briefings.

There are all kinds of motivations for planting fake information. In recent weeks we’ve been inundated with examples of fake news being disseminated, and for a variety of reasons. A false news report might be intended to trip up, delay or embarrass a news outlet or the mainstream media in general, or to undermine their reputation for accuracy and reliability, as some political figures claimed during the recent presidential election.

Others said it was the integrity of the electoral process that was being undermined. And representatives of both major political parties are on guard not only against each other, but now against foreign governments and other groups for the release of scurrilous information.

Locally, there have been recent reports of municipal governing boards struggling to keep the lid on confidential matters. Evans City Council, among others, have complained about leaks from council executive sessions. They tried foisting a confidentiality pledge on the mayor and council members, without much success.

Could a canary trap be next? Why not try it? It’s relatively free of risk, free of cost, and fairly simple to do.

They also happen to make wonderful, intriguing news stories that are as fun to read as they are fun to write.