Subj : Examples of Unexpected Communications
To   : All
From : k9zw
Date : Wed Oct 19 2022 20:04:53

Not all methods of covert communications are codes, high tech wizzbang technology, or really all that clever.

Recounted by a detective, investigators were puzzled how a pawn shop they believed was dealing synthetic drugs was getting the message out when drug shipments arrived.

Supplies arrived and within hours the parade of users arrived, and the people stopped coming when the supplies were deleted.  Surveillance (physical and technical) didn't find anything obvious.

It took running analysis of the pawn shops website, as recorded by multiple screen captures to finally figure it out.

The webpage had some cartoon characters on the opening graphics, and the eye color of one was changed when the dope was in stock.  

Liked marked cards the subtle change was hard to pick out without a picture of the other eye color to compare.  

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A surveillance team somewhere in Europe was on rotating 24 watch of a particular apartment building, taking pictures of a group of windows.  Analysis of what position the blinds were and lights were, showed that a sort of semaphore was being used to pass on instructions from a control cell to an action cell of a terror group.  (How the patterns were interpreted and how that information was acquired remains a mystery).

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A similar concept to tell a control agent that a dead drop was loaded and needed servicing was observed by how a garbage can was positioned.  This technique allowed the control agent to drive by observing if the garbage can was out and if so, how was it positioned.  There were several dead drops controlled with this silent communications.

--- Steve K9ZW via SPOT BBS 

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