The practice of modern high-tech espionage

    Yesterday, the US Department of Justice posted lawsuits against 11 spies who collected information for the Russian Federation. The documents on this case ( PDF1 , PDF2 ) show what espionage is of the 21st century: the guys used high technology in full.

    For example, in one episode of the case, informant Anna Chapman brought a laptop with classified information to a cafe on 47th Street in Manhattan. Representatives of the Russian intelligence arrived in a minibus and removed all the necessary information remotely, without even entering the building.

    In another episode, the same informant went to the Barnes and Noble bookstore in Greenwich Street, opened a laptop and joined a closed WiFi network, through which the Russians again copied all the necessary information without entering into personal contact with the informant.

    Undercover Russian agents introduced into the United States several decades ago used a special steganography program developed in Moscow to transmit information. According to FBI experts, the program was called by pressing Ctrl + Alt + E, after which it was necessary to enter a 27-digit password. Agent hard drives are seized, and the FBI is now trying to figure out a password to prove its theory.

    Until now, the American authorities have not received any information about what specific information the Russians were able to transfer to Moscow, so agents were charged under other articles: 18 USC 371 (illegal conspiracy to harm the United States) in violation of 18 USC 951 (mandatory registration agents of foreign governments in the US prosecutor’s office). Nine agents are also charged with money laundering.

    via Cnet

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