SPY NEWS: 2022 — Week 20
Summary of the espionage-related news stories for the Week 20 (15–21 May) of 2022.
1. Egypt Sentences 4 to Life in Prison on ISIS Espionage Case
On May 15th, a Cairo criminal court sentenced 4 people to life in prison and a woman to 3 years for their involvement in the 2018 Islamic State (ISIS) espionage case. For the period of 2012–2018 the defendants had agreed to “supply ISIS members within the country with necessary funding and information about vital institutions — specifically Gargoub Maritime Port, and Ramses and Sidi Gaber Train Stations — in order to attack them. These communications were conducted through Telegram.”
2.British MI5 Chief Warns of Online HUMINT Recruitment Threat — And New Mobile App to Counter Them
The Director-General of Britain’s MI5, Ken McCallum, warned that “foreign spies are using online networking sites to target thousands of Government officials, high-tech businesses and academics.” He mentioned that MI5 is aware of over 10,000 disguised approaches for online Human Intelligence (HUMINT) operations. To counter that, MI5’s Centre for the Protection of National Infrastructure (CPNI) created the “Think Before You Link” campaign and released a mobile application which is “allowing users of social media and professional networking sites, to better identify the hallmarks of fake profiles used by foreign spies and other malicious actors, and take steps to report and remove them, has been launched today.”
3. Recently Completed SBU Counter-Intelligence Operations
On May 18th, Ukraine’s Security Service (SBU) published a summary of 6 recently completed counter-intelligence operations. Those were: 1) In Kiev, SBU detained 2 founders of an IT company that supplied Russian officials with software and office equipment, and a Russian collaborator who supported the Russian offensive in Dymer. 2) In Donetsk, SBU detained a Russian agent collecting intelligence on the Ukrainian Armed Forces and National Police in Slovyansk. 3) In the city of Chernihiv, SBU reported a pro-Russia blogger. 4) In Luhansk, the two militants captured in Mach got sentenced to 8 and 10 years in prison, and the Head of one of the branches of the national energy company was detained for his collaboration with the Russian forces. 5) In the city of Rivne, a Russian agent was sentenced to 13 years in prison for collecting intelligence on Ukrainian Armed Forces, and lastly, 6) SBU identified 2 high-ranking Russian officials that were involved in the demolition of hydraulic structures on the North Crimean Canal.
4. Spy Collection: 2011 Russian FSB Cyber Espionage Operation Targeting Georgian Government
We published a 19-minute long video presenting a cyber espionage operation by Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) targeting the government of Georgia in 2011. The video includes both the FSB cyber espionage operation as well as the counter-intelligence operation that Georgia’s CERT conducted.
5. Taiwanese NSB Warns of Celebrities Recruited by China for “Cognitive Warfare” Covert Operations
On Monday, May 16th, Chen Ming-tong (陳明通), Director-General of Taiwan’s National Security Bureau (NSB) stated that “local celebrities are being paid by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to take part in a “cognitive warfare” campaign against Taiwan.” This means that China is paying celebrities and influential figures on social media such as YouTube and TikTok to disseminate Chinese government-provided news stories and anti-Taiwan content. For example, Chen said that “a Taiwanese TikToker alleged to be in Ukraine said the Chinese government was offering to evacuate Taiwanese caught up in the chaos of the Russo-Ukraine conflict. The TikToker was not even in Ukraine, but was in fact in Hangzhou working with China on a concerted cognitive warfare campaign against Taiwan.”
6. Former Pakistani Spy Chief on Peace Talks with TTP
According to South Asia Monitor, Lieutenant General Faiz Hameed, former Director-General of Pakistan’s ISI (2019–2021) and currently the Commander of the XI Corps, “visited Kabul and held peace talks there with the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), a banned Islamist militant group, waging war against the Pakistan state in its northwestern tribal region.” The Afghan government is acting as a mediator in those talks.
7. Podcast: True Spies: DIA — Network Request
On May 17th, SpyScape’s True Spies podcast series published a new 38-minute long episode titled “Network Request” and featuring former US Defence Intelligence Agency (DIA) Officer J. T. Mendoza, telling his story of the cross-agency counter-intelligence operation that uncovered that Kevin Patrick Mallory, a former covert CIA Case Officer and DIA Officer, was actually a Chinese spy. In 2019, Kevin Mallory was sentenced to 20 years in prison followed by 5 years of supervised release.
8. Russian FSB Detained Saboteur in Kemerovo
On May 18th, Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) announced the detainment of an individual in the city of Kemerovo, Russia. He is a Russian citizen, supporter of Ukraine, who was “involved in the damage of two power transmission towers” causing a temporary power outage in the region. FSB did a search in his home and found “Molotov cocktails, canisters of gasoline, fastening bolts from the damaged power lines, two air guns converted to fire live ammo, two combat knives, communications and navigation equipment with maps of military and police offices” as well as “a personal diary with handwritten notes confirming the commission of the sabotage.” Now FSB investigates any potential links with foreign intelligence services.
9. SIGINT Historian: SIGINT Liaison with Finland
On May 15th, Tony Comer, former Departmental Historian at GCHQ, published an article titled “Sigint Liaison with Finland” covering a lesser known historical moment of the Signals Intelligence (SIGINT) world where “for a short period in the Second World War the UK and Finland found themselves on the same side.” As per the article, “the Finns were willing to exchange their knowledge of Russian codes and ciphers in return for the radios they were very short of.”
10. North Korean “Highly Skilled IT Workers” Infiltration Operation
This week, the United States FBI released a guidance with the help of the US Department of the Treasury. According to that, the North Korean (DPRK) government is using their IT workers to covertly infiltrate foreign entities. The report highlights that “DPRK dispatches thousands of highly skilled IT workers around the world to generate revenue that contributes to its weapons of mass destruction (WMD) and ballistic missile programs, in violation of U.S. and UN sanctions. These IT workers take advantage of existing demands for specific IT skills, such as software and mobile application development, to obtain freelance employment contracts from clients around the world, including in North America, Europe, and East Asia. In many cases, DPRK IT workers represent themselves as U.S.-based and/or non-North Korean teleworkers. The workers may further obfuscate their identities and/or location by sub-contracting work to nonNorth Koreans. Although DPRK IT workers normally engage in IT work distinct from malicious cyber activity, they have used the privileged access gained as contractors to enable the DPRK’s malicious cyber intrusions.”
11. Podcast: SpyCast: Peter Earnest Memorial: Spook, CIA Spokesman, Spy Museum Director
On May 17th, International Spy Museum’s SpyCast podcast series published a 54-minute long episode featuring Peter Earnest, 35 year CIA veteran who joined the CIA as a Case Officer and retired as the Agency’s Chief Spokesman. He later became the Executive Director of the International Spy Museum. The intelligence subjects highlighted in this episode are: 1) Losing a friend in the line of duty vs. betrayal by a colleague, 2) Using affability to your advantage, 3) Thoughts on the shift from classic espionage to counterterrorism for the CIA, and 4) The relationship between the CIA, the press and the public.
12. Latvia Sentences Man to 5 Years in Prison as Russian Spy
As reported this week, Latvian national Valentin Frolov, who was arrested last year by the Latvian State Security Service (VDD) on espionage suspicions, was sentenced to 5 years in prison. V. Frolov was a construction businessman living in the vicinity of Riga. In the 1980s he served in the Soviet Union’s Army and according to the court, he has been a Russian spy for a long time. VDD detected him last year collecting intelligence “about the arrival and deployment of NATO forces in the Baltic countries, airports used for military logistics, Latvia’s defence capability and domestic politics.”
13. Two Polish Citizens on Trial for Being Russian FSB Agents
On Thursday it became known that two Polish citizens are put on trial for acting as Russian FSB spies. The two defendants are Marcin K. and Radosław S. and are accused of facilitating espionage activities. They were both discovered by Poland’s Internal Security Agency (ABW). Specifically, Marcin K. “carried out intelligence activities” and Radosław S. “provided him [Marcin] with information in order to obtain financial benefits, which was then transferred to Russian intelligence.” Note that Radosław S. had a Visa brokerage company. They are now facing up to 10 years in prison.
14. Former Samsung Employees Accused of Industrial Espionage
This week Korea Times published a story about two Samsung Electronics employees. Specifically, from SEMES, the largest semiconductor and display manufacturing equipment maker in S. Korea, part of Samsung Electronics. As per the report, “the Suwon District Public Prosecutors’ Office said Monday that two former employees of SEMES were indicted for their alleged involvement in selling a wafer cleaning machine to a Chinese company. A total of four members, including the two ex-SEMES engineers, reportedly pocketed 80 billion won ($62.8 million) by handing over the equipment ― which had been supplied exclusively to Samsung ― to China.” The article also highlighted, using this recent case as an example, the efforts South Korea is making to combat industrial espionage from China.
15. Podcast: Everyday Espionage: Your Human Instinct Working Against You
On May 17th, former CIA Case Officer Andrew Bustamante published a new 26-minute long episode briefly talking about some CIA training he received on “natural threat response instinct” and how this applies to everyday life. The three responses described were: individual, maternal and paternal.
16. Reports of Turkish MİT Abducting Dissidents from Africa and Asia
Associate Professor and former official of Turkey’s National Intelligence Organisation (MİT), Ali Burak Darıcılı, stated that MİT has “forcibly returned to Turkey individuals linked to the Gülen movement from some African and Central Asian countries by bribing local officials.” He also noted that MİT “failed to do the same in European countries or the United States.”
17. Declassified Central Florida Intelligence Exchange Bulletin
On May 16th, Public Intelligence released a new 5-pages document. It’s an Intelligence Bulletin from the Central Florida Intelligence Exchange (CFIX) titled “Literary Propaganda Used To Drive Violent Extremist Narratives Towards the U.S. Government and Law Enforcement.” The document was originally created on February 17th, 2021.
18. Russian SVR States that US is Recruiting and Training ISIS Members and Other Terrorists to Fight in Ukraine
On May 17th, the Head of the Press Bureau of Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR), S. Ivanov, issued a press release which states that “the United States is actively recruiting even members of international terrorist organisations as mercenaries to participate in hostilities in Ukraine, including members of the Islamic State (ISIS)” and it continues that “at least from April, with the participation of American intelligence agencies, about 60 ISIS militants aged 20–25 years were released from prisons controlled by the Syrian Kurds. Then they were transferred to the area of the American military base “Al-Tanf”, located in Syria near the border with Jordan and Iraq, for combat training with a view to subsequent transfer to Ukrainian territory. According to the SVR, this military base and its environs have long turned into a kind of terrorist “hub”, where up to 500 ISIS loyal to Washington and other jihadists are being “retrained” at the same time.”
19. Lithuanian Intelligence Surveillance on Paleckis Supporters
This week, Darius Jauniškis, Head of the State Security Department of Lithuania (VSD) publicly stated that “VSD monitors the activities of Lithuanian citizens, supporters of Algirdas Paleckis convicted of spying for Russia, and their trips to Minsk.” According to him, most of them are influenced by Russian propaganda but the Agency has them under surveillance and informs the decision-makers of the country if they identify any potential threats.
20. DR Congo President Made Mossad Chief Feel “Unwelcome”
According to DAWN, “the head of Israeli spy agency was expelled from the Democratic Republic of the Congo in 2019 after the country’s president grew suspicious that Mossad may be planning a regime-change conspiracy against him.” The report continues that Yossi Cohen, Director of Mossad (2016–2021) “flew to the DRC twice in 2019 in a private plane to meet with its former president, Joseph Kabila, without telling incumbent President Felix Tshisekedi. When Tshisekedi found out, he told Cohen he was not welcome in the DRC for such meetings.”
21. Podcast: Spies Like Us: The Best Spy Movies Ever
On this week’s episode, Spies Like Us featured entertainment reporter Keith Phipps in a discussion about spy movies. The hosts of the podcast were former CIA Counter-Terrorism Officer Brandon Blackburn, and Mubin Shaikh, former undercover operative who had infiltrated terrorist organisations for his country.
22. Iran Releases Footage of French Couple Accused of Espionage
Iran’s state-controlled TV released for the first time a story relating to the arrest of the two French nationals, who are accused of being foreign spies (see week 19 story #42). The two defendants were identified as Cecile Kohler, 37, and her partner Jacques Paris, 69. C. Kohler is the French Head of International Relations of the National Federation for Education and Culture (FNEC). According to Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence (MOIS), “the two spies intended to foment unrest in Iran by organising trade union protests.” You can find the original footage released here.
23. Turkish MİT Assassinated PKK/YPS Member Ekrem Üstek in Syria
Turkish media published that the National Intelligence Organisation (MİT) conducted an operation in the the region of Aynularap, Syria, near the border with Turkey, killing Ekrem Üstek. According to MİT, he had the cryptonym “Hayri” and was wanted as a member of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and the Syrian Civil Protection Units (YPS), both of which are considered terrorist organisations under the Turkish law.
24. Russian Diplomats in the US Report Threats and Getting Enticed by US Intelligence Agencies
Reuters released a story describing how “Russian diplomats in Washington are being threatened with violence and U.S. intelligence services try to make contact with them.” Quoting anonymous sources from the Russian embassy, “agents from U.S. security services are hanging around outside the Russian embassy, handing out CIA and FBI phone numbers, which can be called to establish contact.” CIA and the FBI refused to comment.
25. Serbia Detains Polish Nationals Photographing Defence Facilities
On Sunday, Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić announced that two Polish nationals were detained by law enforcement while photographing the facilities of defence manufacturer Sloboda Čačak. The two suspects claimed they were photographers/artists interested in the factory, but according to the Serbian President, this is “a factory that produces mines and grenades, since it is now being consumed in huge quantities.” The two suspects are being interrogated to identify any links with foreign intelligence services.
26. Greek NIS Investigates Yacht with Alleged Turkish Dissidents in Elafonisos Island
On Thursday, at 2:30 am, a yacht arrived in the island of Elafonisos, Greece with 19 people onboard. 9 men, 6 women and 4 children. Law enforcement identified them as high-ranking Turkish officials and businessmen. They stated they were Gülen movement supporters trying to escape from Turkey, to move to Italy, but due to the bad weather they ended up in Elafonisos island. The National Intelligence Service (NIS) of Greece took over the investigation for this incident for potential espionage links.
27. US Dismantles Chinese MSS Network in New York Spying on Dissidents
Following the recent (see week 11 story #31) disruption of the spy ring in New York and another agent (see week 13 story #56) from Operation FOX HUNT, this week the US Department of Justice (DoJ) announced the charging of a US citizen and 4 Chinese intelligence officers for espionage. They were spying on “prominent dissidents, human rights leaders and pro-democracy activists.” The defendants are: 1) Wang Shujun, 73, of Queens, New York, 2) Feng He, aka Boss He, of Guangdong, 3) Jie Ji, of Qingdao, 4) Ming Li, aka Elder Tang and Little Li, of Guangdong, and 5) Keqing Lu aka Boss Lu, of Qingdao. The last four have been described as Chinese Ministry of State Security (MSS) officials. Regarding the US citizen, Wang Shujun, the DoJ says that “Wang acted as a covert intelligence asset in his own community, spying on and reporting sensitive information on prominent pro-democracy activists and organizations to his co-defendants, who are members of the Chinese government’s Ministry of State Security.”
28. German BfV Warns for Increased Risk of Sabotage and Cold War Levels of Espionage Activity
The Head of Germany’s domestic intelligence agency, Thomas Haldenwang of BfV, stated on Thursday that they “assess the level of espionage against Germany at least at the level of the Cold War — if not significantly higher.” He also highlighted that “in a world of open hostilities and drastic sanctions, the inhibition threshold for espionage, sabotage and illegitimate influence will continue to fall.”
29. Indian SSOC Detains 2 Conducting Espionage for Pakistan’s ISI
On May 19th it was published that the State Special Operation Cell (SSOC) of Punjab Police in India arrested two individuals who were “ providing information related to buildings of the Indian Army and Air Force to a Pakistan-based intelligence officer.” The two defendants were identified as Zaffar Riaz from Kolkata, and Mohd Shamshad from Bihar. The Pakistani officer was also identified as an official of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) named Awais. The report says that “in 2005, Zaffar got married to a Pakistan national Rabia. Initially, Rabia stayed with him in Kolkata but after his accident in 2012, his financial condition deteriorated and on his in-laws’ request, he shifted to Lahore. Zaffar frequently travelled to India on the pretext of his treatment. During this period, he got in touch with a Pakistan intelligence officer, Awais, who claimed to be working in the foreigner regional registration office in Lahore. Awais allured Zaffar to work for Pakistan intelligence agency ISI. During interrogation, Zaffar said he also introduced his friend Shamshad to Awais. Shamshad runs a lemonade cart opposite Amritsar railway station. Shamshad admitted that he also clicked and shared photographs of air force station and cantonment area of Amritsar with Zaffar multiple times.”
30. Video: How CIA Created a Banana Republic — Guatemala 1954
The Cold War YouTube channel published a 19-minute long mini-documentary titled “How CIA Created a Banana Republic — Guatemala 1954”, covering the 1954 coup in Guatemala and the involvement of the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in it.
31. China’s Cyber Espionage Targeting Russian State Defence Institutes
On May 19th, Check Point Research cyber security firm published an analysis of a previously unknown cyber espionage operation attributed to the Chinese intelligence services. The operation was using “sanctions-related baits” to target Russia’s state-owned defence institutes, part of the Rostec Corporation. The operation started as early as June 2021 with the latest activity being from April 2022. According to the researchers this is part of the “Made in China 2025 plan defines objectives for China to become a major technological and economic power, and also identifies the sectors in which it must become a world leader, including robotics, medical equipment, and aviation. To support that, China’s five-year plan for the years 2021–2025 outlines a steady increase in R&D budgets each year in order to expand China’s scientific and technical capabilities.” On May 17th, the Russian cyber security firm Positive Technologies (PT) published a more detailed technical analysis of a similar (potentially the same) operation by Chinese nation-state actors targeting Russian aerospace government institutions.
32. Turkish MİT Training and Supporting Qatar World Cup
According to the Mehr News Agency, the Turkish National Intelligence Organisation (MİT) is playing a key role in the security of the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar. The article says that “since 2019, 791 Qatari forces have been trained by the National Intelligence Organisation (MİT) on sports security, including how to intervene in mass events and protect facilities against terrorist acts.” In addition to that, “Turkey will send a 3,000-security group consisting of anti-insurgency forces, special forces and bomb disposal experts, as well as trained police dogs to Qatar.”
33. Canada Banned 5G Huawei and ZTE Equipment Over Espionage Concerns
On Thursday it was announced that the federal government of Canada decided to ban Chinese tech giants Huawei and ZTE from providing products or services to the country’s 5G networks. Additionally, they’ll have to also remove their existing 4G equipment by Dec. 31, 2027. As per the article “Huawei insists it is a fiercely independent company that does not engage in espionage for anyone, including Beijing.”
34. Video: Israeli Cellebrite on How To Refute an Alibi Using the Mutual Locations feature in Cellebrite Pathfinder
The Israeli Cellular Exploitation (CELLEX) solutions provider Cellebrite published a 3.5-minute long video demonstrating the new “Mutual Locations” feature of their “Pathfinder” product which can be used to validate if someone met with a particular person at a specific location. The video uses the example of a criminal investigation but the same technology is also widely used by intelligence services globally too.
35. Dutch National Detained, and Later Released, on Espionage Suspicions in Benin
On Friday Dutch media started reporting that Dutch journalist Olivier van Beemen and his Benin colleague Flore Nobime where detained in Benin on espionage accusations. They were working in an investigation related to the African Parks, funded by the Dutch Postcode Lottery and the European Union. Shortly after their detainment, and due to diplomatic pressure by the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, they were both released from custody. The Dutch national was immediately deported from Benin. While detained they were in the north part of Benin where they interviewed people related to jihadist violence activities. No further details were disclosed.
36. Shin Bet Uncovers Iranian Covert Operation to Lure Israelis Abroad to Kidnap Them
Haaretz published a new story relating to a newly disrupted Iranian covert operation. The operation was disrupted by Israel’s domestic intelligence agency, the Shin Bet, and it involved contacting persons of interest from Israel via stolen identities online to lure them to travel abroad where they could kidnap them, or worse. Shin Bet said that they were “portraying themselves as academics, journalists, business people and philanthropists, using the identities of real people from overseas who were unaware their names were being used.” Shin Bet also noted that the “initial contact was made through email, using an email a similar address to the address of someone known to the target, with a changed letter or punctuation mark. After contact was made, the target would be asked to initiate a WhatsApp conversation using a phone number not previously known to them.” Someone referred the suspicious activity to Shin Bet and this is how they uncovered the entire operation. Shin Bet identified it as a “recurring method” of Iran’s intelligence services to target Israeli nationals.
37. Spy Way of Life: Casa Coppelle Restaurant
This week’s site for Intelligence Online Spy Way of Life was the “Casa Coppelle”, a restaurant in Rome, Italy. As described, it is a place “where spymasters dine and which has been the setting for meetings between the Italian and American intelligence services.” One of the most recent, publicly known, such example is from August 15, 2019 when “the former American secretary of justice Bill Barr and the then head of the Italian secret services Gennaro Vecchione” met secretly there in relation to the, so called, Barr Affair. That was an investigation on whether or not the then United States President, Donald Trump, had committed treason.
38. Analysis of Fronton (Фронтон) — An FSB System for Automated Inauthentic Behaviour
In 2020 an alleged hacktivist leaked a series of documents from a Russian government contractor, 0day Technologies, used by Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB). One of them was Fronton (Фронтон). This week Nisos cyber intelligence firm published an analysis of that, including a 21-pages long report, explaining how Fronton was designed “for coordinated inauthentic behavior on a massive scale.” The system allows its user(s) to “formulate and deploy trending social media events en masse.”
39. US Open C3 House Intelligence Subcommittee Hearing on Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAP)
On May 17th, the US House Intelligence Counterterrorism, Counterintelligence, and Counterproliferation Subcommittee (C3), chaired by Congressman André Carson held a hearing on “Unidentified Aerial Phenomena” and the 1.5-hour long recording of it was later shared online. This was followed by a classified hearing which, of course, was no shared.
40. More Details on Greek Journalists’ Espionage Targeting
On May 16th, the Greek Inside Story published a detailed article, including several technical indicators, on how at least since July 2020 several lure websites were created by a Greek reseller (Intellexa) of the government cyber espionage solution Predator, originally developed by the Israeli Cytrox. The article describes how many of them had successfully compromised mobile devices of well-known Greek journalists, but also that unwitting visitors could have been impacted. The lure websites were impersonating popular Greek news websites. The article notes that Intellexa was founded by a former Israeli intelligence operative, Tal Dilian, and continues to operate in Athens, Greece under the direction of Merom Harpaz, also a former Israeli intelligence official. Lastly, it notes the strong indications that the operation was conducted by the Greek National Intelligence Service (NIS).
41. Pakistani Cyber Espionage Operation Targeting Academic Institutions in India
The Shadow Chaser Group of the GcowSec team discovered and disclosed a new active cyber espionage attributed to an actor dubbed as “SIDECOPY” who has been previously associated with the government of Pakistan. The operation has a lure document titled “Types of Software.docx.lnk” and “Software Types. zip” which impersonates an assignment for the course of “Computer Applications” of an Indian university. If opened, it infects the target with a custom cyber espionage software implant.
42. CNN Releases Footage of Ukrainian SBU Arresting Russian Agent
The CNN released a 4-minute long video from their correspondent in Ukraine, Sam Kiley. The video shows Ukraine’s Security Service (SBU) apprehending a man suspected of collecting intelligence related with the location of military targets and providing them to his Russian handler.
43. Webinar: Accessory to a Mission — Gadgets and Gear For The Well-Dressed Spy
On May 19th, the International Spy Museum published a 55-minute long recording from a session titled “Accessory to a Mission — Gadgets and Gear For The Well-Dressed Spy”, part of the museum’s “Spies and Spymasters Happy Hour” series. As per the description, “International Spy Museum Collections Manager Joanna Church and your favorite Spy Museum Happy Hour hosts Amanda Ohlke, Shana Oltmans, and Hannah Saloio will show off some of the jauntiest gear that we have on display and in storage in our spy vault.”
44. Avantix Starts the Production of its FlashHawk COMINT/CESM
This week Janes published a story about the French Avantix who started the production process for its FlashHawk airborne Communications Intelligence (COMINT), Communications Electronic Support Measures (CESM) system. According to Janes, FlashHawk can provide “instantaneous detection, characterisation, localisation, and identification of short-burst emitters in the VHF/UHF (30–3,000 MHz) communication bands. The system uses a patented compact antenna design to achieve precise 3D geolocation (typically 1° RMS) that is sufficient for immediate cueing of an electro-optical/infrared (EO/IR) sensor for real-time visualisation and video tracking.”
45. Swiss Government Drafts Amendment Allowing its FIS Access to the Financial System of the Country for Intelligence Purposes
On Thursday the government of Switzerland revealed a draft amendment of the intelligence law of the country, allowing the country’s Federal Intelligence Service (FIS) to “be able to clarify financial flows by requesting information on transactions from financial intermediaries.” The aim of the proposal is to allow the FIS proactively uncover any people “funding terrorism, espionage or violent extremism.”
46. Britain’s GCHQ Startup Support Programme
This week, Freya Pratty of Sifted published a story about the efforts Britain’s GCHQ is making to modernise the image of the Agency to the general public. Among others, this includes a program to support technology startup companies, following a model similar to that of Israel’s Unit 8200.
47. Closing of the 7th Alkindi Cryptanalysis Competition of DGSE
Since 2016 the French DGSE has been organising the Alkindi Cryptanalysis Competition for middle and high school students, named after the first known cryptanalyst, Iraqi citizen Al-Kindi. This year’s event was completed on May 18. In total, there were 57,000 participants from 800 French schools across the world. The winning team was the “Les Crypto-Locos” from the Lycée Rochambeau, located in Bethesda, Maryland, US.
48. Pro-Russia IOs Surrounding the War in Ukraine
On May 19th, cyber security and intelligence firm Mandiant published an article summarising some of the Information Operations (IOs) taking advantage of the war in Ukraine. The article expands to more nation-states that demonstrated anti-West and pro-Russia IOs including Russia, Belarus, China and Iran.
49. Codename Wind Flyer: The John Walker Spy Ring Was a Family Affair with 17 Years of Espionage
On May 20th, former CIA officer with 30+ years of service, Christopher Burgess, published a short article for the case of US Navy Chief Warrant Officer John Anthony Walker who became a KGB spy and helped create a human intelligence network in the US Navy to provide the Soviet Union with cryptographic material used to secure the US Naval communication systems.
50. Podcast: Secrets & Spies: The Betrayal with Robert Mazur
This week’s Secrets & Spies episode was 1 hour and 15 minutes long and featured Robert Mazur, talking about his second book titled “The Betrayal” among other things. R. Mazur served for 27 years as a US Federal Agent operating undercover with the US Customs Service and the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) to infiltrate drug trafficking and cartels. He was also part of the Operation C-CHASE where, posing as money launderer Bob Musella, infiltrated Pablo Escobar’s Medellin Cartel which resulted in over 100 indictments and a tab of over $500 million that was paid by the Colombian drug organisation.
51. BBC Releases More Details on MI5 Agent’s Abusive Behaviours
For the last few weeks (see week 9 story #20), BBC has been trying to reveal the identity of a British MI5 agent who has been continuously reported of abusive and violent behaviour but the government refused to release his details or take legal actions against him due to potential impact on national security. This week, BBC released more details, including a censored video where the accused MI5 agent is using violence and threats against his former partner, as well as an update on the development of the case. This story came after a High Court ruling from earlier this week allowed the BBC to publish, in this censored manner, the abuse story.
52. FBI Announces New Intelligence Directorate Chief
This week it was announced that The United States FBI’s Intelligence Branch (IB) has a new Director. The newly appointed Director is Tonya Ugoretz who, since 2018, has been Deputy Assistant Director at the FBI Cyber Division. T. Ugoretz joined the FBI in 2001 as an Intelligence Analyst with previous experience in similar positions in the CIA’s Counterterrorism Centre (CTC), the Customs and Border Protection (CBP), as well as the ODNI’s Cyber Threat Intelligence Integration Centre.
53. Video: How China Has Been Spying on India — India’s Counter-Intelligence Efforts
The Indian Swarajya YouTube channel published a 22-minute long video explaining the modern history and current situation of Chinese intelligence services’ covert operations in India, and the motivation behind them.
54. German and Slovak Journalists Detained Last Month for Espionage in Iraq, Return to Their Countries
According to UltraSawt, last month a female journalist from Germany was detained by the Iraqi counter-intelligence agency while covering the Kurdish community of Northern Iraq. She was accused of “espionage and support for terrorism” related to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). She was captured together with a Slovak national, part of her crew. This week both of them were released and they returned back to Germany and Slovakia respectively.
55. Husband-and-Wife Scientists Plead Guilty to Illegally Importing Potentially Toxic Lab Chemicals to the US and Illegally Forwarding Confidential mRNA Vaccine Research to China
FBI’s Counterintelligence Division (CD) uncovered and prosecuted a couple, Chenyan Wu and Lianchun Chen, who worked as research scientists for a major American pharmaceutical company. Both of them pleaded guilty of gathering confidential mRNA vaccine research from their employer to advance their competing laboratory research in China.
56. Active Indian Cyber Espionage Infrastructure Uncovered
The Shadow Chaser Group of the GcowSec publicly disclosed technical indicators of active infrastructure associated with a cyber espionage operation. The operation uses a lure document titled “17 May 22.doc” which, if opened, infects the target system with a custom cyber espionage software implant. The infrastructure was attributed to an actor dubbed as “DONOT” who has been previously associated with an Indian entity developing cyber espionage solutions for government intelligence agencies.
57. Video: Interview with World War II Spy Jeannie Rousseau de Clarens
On May 20th, the International Spy Museum published a recorded 20-minute long interview with Jeannie Rousseau de Clarens which was originally recorded in 2011. As per the description, “De Clarens was an amateur spy who passed a wealth of information to the British about the development of the V-1 and V-2 rockets during World War II and survived stays in three concentration camps for her activities and died on Aug. 23, 2017 in Montaigu, southeast of Nantes, France. She was 98.”
58. The Daring Wartime Exploits of Erotic Cabaret Star Josephine Bake
The Daily Mail published a story for World War II spy Josephone Bake. The article summarises some of her exploits as a French spy and also her recognition, such as the “Medal of the Resistance with Rosette, the Croix de Guerre, and she would be appointed a Chevalier of the Legion d’Honneur. She would eventually be interred in the crypt of the Pantheon, a foremost monument in Paris reserved as a resting place for those considered the nation’s foremost National Heroes. Fewer than 100 individuals — and only five women — have been awarded such a high distinction.”
59. British and European Union Universities and Academics Covert Collaboration on Chinese Military Projects and Research
This week, the German non-profit organisation CORRECTIV published a two part investigation (part 1 and part 2), followed by reports on DW and Breitbart, discussing how Chinese government has been using British and European Union universities to conduct research and development on projects directly related to objectives of the Chinese military and intelligence services. In some cases this was done through covert influencing via academics, while in others through covert funding and pressure from third party organisations who were, covertly, operated by the Chinese government.
60. Podcast: Cold War Conversations: First Female CIA Officer in Moscow
On May 20th, the Cold War Conversations published a new 55-minute long episode featuring Marti Peterson, former CIA Case Officer who became the first ever CIA female officer to serve as a covert operative in Moscow during the Cold War era.
61. Indian Police Arrests Honey-trapped Army Spy in Rajasthan
This case has similarities to the last week’s (story #20). However, this time the Rajasthan Police in India arrested an Indian Army soldier, Pradeep Kumar, 24, for providing classified information to a female Pakistani ISI officer. As per the report, he met her online (Facebook). She pretended to be “a Hindu woman from Gwalior, Madhya Pradesh” using the fake name “Chaddam” saying she was working at a company in Bangalore, India. She met him several times and each time she asked him to provide her with secret files of the Indian Army, which he did through WhatsApp. A female friend of Kumar was also involved but no details were provided on how.
62. Urge to Yemen to Free 4 Sentenced to Death for Espionage
Amnesty International started a campaign to urge Yemen’s Houthis to free four individuals who were arrested in June 2015 on espionage charges. The four individuals are: 1) Abdul Khaleq Amran, 2) Tawfiq al-Mansouri, 3) Harith Hamid and 4) Akram al-Walidi and were all identified as journalists. However, the Houthis Court has sentenced all for them, in 2020, to death penalty on charges of “treason and spying for foreign states.” An appeal will be heard by the Specialised Criminal Appeals Division in Sanaa on Sunday.
63. Webinar: Four (or More) Interesting Enigma-like Crypto Machines
The National Museum of Computing (TNMOC) of the UK published a new webinar by Jerry McCarthy which gives “a brief explanation of the operation of the German Enigma machine” and then goes through “four (or more) similar machines, including the Japanese “Green” machine, a Hebrew-ised version of Enigma, and the Polish “Lacida”.”
64. How the CIA’s Hunt for a Russian Mole Blinded it to Putin’s Rise
On May 21st, former CIA Case Officer and bestselling author Robert Baer published a story in the Time Magazine giving his perspective on CIA’s involvement in Ukraine, assumptions that have been made so far, and providing a historical perspective on the subject, especially focusing on penetrations (from either side), based on historical cases.
