Post 9zI3Xh0ITHFF37ScCG by marathon@mastodon.host
 (DIR) More posts by marathon@mastodon.host
 (DIR) Post #9zI1H76HzX8x9hEKS8 by pluralistic@mamot.fr
       2020-09-18T17:09:42Z
       
       1 likes, 0 repeats
       
       Andrey Bezrukov and Elena Vavilova were Russian spies who operated in the USA for 20 years (this is the basis for "The Americans"); they were caught in 2010. "Compromised," is the new memoir by Peter Strzok, the FBI agent who had their case.https://www.hmhbooks.com/shop/books/Compromised/97803582370681/
       
 (DIR) Post #9zI1Hua61V6KcKYKDQ by pluralistic@mamot.fr
       2020-09-18T17:09:53Z
       
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       As Matt Blaze writes, a throwaway detail in the book resolves a longstanding cryptographic mystery: that of a Cuban "numbers station" that operated for years, including a decade where it behaved very erratically (by numbers station standards).https://www.mattblaze.org/blog/neinnines/2/
       
 (DIR) Post #9zI1J9K8hD5ad8gAXA by pluralistic@mamot.fr
       2020-09-18T17:10:06Z
       
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       Some background. Numbers stations - ratio stations in which people (or synthesized voices) read out strings of random numbers - are a means of messages for use with "one-time pads," a cryptographic tool that is, in theory, unbreakable.3/
       
 (DIR) Post #9zI1KMhoQbaaQHKdLU by pluralistic@mamot.fr
       2020-09-18T17:10:19Z
       
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       One-time pads are collections of random numbers used to encipher messages through simple operations: adding each byte of your message to the next number on the pad. If the pad is truly random,  secret and never reused, the code can't be broken.https://www.numbers-stations.com/articles/how-the-one-time-pad-works-cia-instruction/4/
       
 (DIR) Post #9zI1M53R1fruG2GOlU by pluralistic@mamot.fr
       2020-09-18T17:10:27Z
       
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       If your spies are sent abroad with a thick one-time pad, then you can simply broadcast your messages over the entire region in which they operate, and they can use their pads to decipher the messages, while your adversaries just get random numbersNumbers stations, like the powerful shortwave transmitter in Bauta, Cuba, were used to communicate with Soviet (and, later, Russian) spies in the US in this way. 5/
       
 (DIR) Post #9zI1MleQeWPqMvtXG4 by pluralistic@mamot.fr
       2020-09-18T17:10:38Z
       
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       Though one-time pad messages can't be deciphered, it's still possible to leak information using numbers stations. If a radio station ceases operation every time a spy travels, then your adversary can match the station's operating schedule with suspects' itineraries. To prevent this "traffic analysis" attack, the station broadcasted dummy traffic (random numbers that WEREN'T encoded messages) every single day, even if the spies were not listening that day.6/
       
 (DIR) Post #9zI1NT1zMnoMuSFSS0 by pluralistic@mamot.fr
       2020-09-18T17:10:45Z
       
       1 likes, 0 repeats
       
       However, for mysterious reasons - still not understood - the dummy traffic never contained the number nine ("nueve"). That made it easy to tell the real numbers station traffic from the dummy traffic, and from there, it was possible to derive the spies' travel schedules.Even with this glaring error, it took a DECADE for the FBI to get enough timing information to make their move. That was a whole decade in which the Cuban numbers station was making this weird, stupid blunder.7/
       
 (DIR) Post #9zI1NvzVh63mjAJO76 by pluralistic@mamot.fr
       2020-09-18T17:10:53Z
       
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       One-time pads are incredibly powerful, but they're also super-awkward and unforgiving. An error as simple as pad re-use can blow them up, as happened with the notorious Venona affair:https://www.nsa.gov/news-features/declassified-documents/venona/As Blaze writes, "OTPs have long been a favorite of hucksters selling supposedly 'unbreakable' crypto. Remember this story next time someone tries to sell you their super-secure one-time-pad crypto. If actual Russian spies can't use it securely, chances are neither can you."8/
       
 (DIR) Post #9zI1OEm1rRZ8yr9OEq by pluralistic@mamot.fr
       2020-09-18T17:11:01Z
       
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       Blaze was one of the researchers who followed - and recorded! - the Cuban numbers station, and noted the mysterious and telling absence of "nueve" in some of the traffic. He's posted a recording of the station to his site:https://www.mattblaze.org/private/17435khz-200810041700.mp3eof/
       
 (DIR) Post #9zI3O4tylQ3gGvv9bU by marathon@mastodon.host
       2020-09-18T17:33:23Z
       
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       @pluralistic "The VENONA files are most famous for exposing Julius (code named LIBERAL) and Ethel Rosenberg and help give indisputable evidence of their involvement with the Soviet spy ring."I once despised the Rosenberg's but AFAIC now, they were on the right side of history, in my opinion.
       
 (DIR) Post #9zI3Xh0ITHFF37ScCG by marathon@mastodon.host
       2020-09-18T17:35:08Z
       
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       @pluralistic OIC Didn't know that. So the ending of “The Americans” had them going back home to Mother Russia, is wrong, they weren't recalled? Unfortunate — Damn good series, BTW!