[1] Simm was born in Suure-Jaani and was inducted into the Soviet Interior Ministry as a Militsiya officer in 1970 and worked in the Estonian SSR until 1991, reaching the rank of Polkovnik (Colonel).
After Estonia's independence, during which he played a significant role in helping organize Estonian resistance to Russian military aggression, he held various positions at the Interior Ministry and the Police Board, including director general of the board, when he started work for the Defence Ministry in 1995 as head of the information analysis office of the defence policy department.
The department is also responsible for issuing access to classified information and for handling data from international organizations, including NATO, the European Union and Estonia's other defence partners.
from 2001 to 2006, Simm regularly traveled abroad to negotiate agreements on the protection of classified information with member countries of NATO and the European Union.
In November 2006, Herman Simm resigned from the post of head of the state secret protection department, but continued to work as adviser of the Minister of Defence, retaining access to classified information.
[11] Security Police chief Raivo Aeg said Simm would meet three or four times a year in at least 15 European countries with his SVR handlers, identified as Valeri Zentsov and Sergey Jakovlev.
The court assessed his risk of recidivism as low and found that Simm's access to classified information potentially interesting for foreign states is incredibly limited.