[3] During the First Serbian Uprising (1804–1813) the civil security and intelligence work was not organized in a separate institution, but was carried out within the military-administrative service of the Revolutionary Serbia.

In 1808 the Governing Council of Revolutionary Serbia issued order to preventively banish from Belgrade and other Serbian cities all individuals that are potentially involved in espionage for the enemy purposes, while police and judicial authorities "were to pay special attention to malevolent people, outlaws, spies and similar".

After introduction of 6 January Dictatorship in 1929 by King Alexander I and subsequent change of the name of the country to the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, a series of laws and regulations on state administration were enacted.

The work was primarily oriented towards maintaining relations with homeland and providing financial help to the Chetnik Detachments of the Yugoslav Army, as well as conducting intelligence activities directed to the diplomatic mission of the self-proclaimed Independent State of Croatia in Madrid.

The Department for Protection of the People – OZNA (Odeljenje za zaštitu naroda) was established on 13 May 1944 as central intelligence and counter-intelligence service within the National Committee for the Liberation of Yugoslavia.

During its two-year existence, the OZNA used illegal practices which included occasional mass murders of the "enemies of the people" having a notion of conducting the "revolution".

[5][6][7][8] This period was also characterized by the strong presence of armed anti-communist operating in western Serbia representing a serious challenge to the new communist authorities.

[11] The Ministry of Justice established in 2005 the commission to research atrocities that were committed by members of the Yugoslav Partisan Movement after they gained control over Serbia in autumn 1944.

It had the following missions: "organising service, undertaking measures and performing governing tasks with the aim of detecting and preventing activities oriented towards undermining and disrupting constitutionally determined economic, political and legal order and gathering information to this effect."

This was the first time since the establishment of the socialist Yugoslavia that republics, therefore Serbia as well, gained control and greater influence over their respective security services.

On 3 October 1999, a vehicle column of Serbian Renewal Movement, one of largest opposition parties at the time, was attacked while moving down Ibar Highway.

[15] After a yearlong trial in special court in Belgrade, a judge found Radomir Marković and Milorad Ulemek, guilty of planning and carrying out the assassination of Ivan Stambolić.

[21][22] In December 2023, a Bulgarian spy active in Bosilegrad, who was collecting information about Serbian police and military forces stationed in the south of Serbia, was arrested.

[25][26][27] In February 2024, the BIA discovered the representative office of a foreign organization that was acting as an intelligence and subversive agent in Serbia, conducting classic espionage activity.

[28] In July 2024, the BIA in cooperation with the Military Security Agency and the Serbian police arrested employees of the Krušik defence company who had disclosed secret and confidential information to a foreign state.