SPY NEWS: 2023 — Week 12

Summary of the espionage-related news stories for the Week 12 (March 19–25) of 2023.

1. U.S. Intelligence Helped India Rout China in 2022 Border Clash

US News reported on March 20th that “India was able to repel a Chinese military incursion in contested border territory in the high Himalayas late last year due to unprecedented intelligence-sharing with the U.S. military, U.S. News has learned, an act that caught China’s People’s Liberation Army forces off-guard, enraged Beijing and appears to have forced the Chinese Communist Party to reconsider its approach to land grabs along its borders. The U.S. government for the first time provided real-time details to its Indian counterparts of the Chinese positions and force strength in advance of a PLA incursion, says a source familiar with a previously unreported U.S. intelligence review of the encounter into the Arunachal Pradesh region. The information included actionable satellite imagery and was more detailed and delivered more quickly than anything the U.S. had previously shared with the Indian military.”

2. Spy Collection: GCSB COMSAT Advisory Board (CAB) Update from April 2010

On March 21st we published this new video. As per its description, “the Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB) is New Zealand’s primary Signals Intelligence (SIGINT) agency, part of the FIVE EYES alliance. This video goes through a slide-deck which was leaked by Edward Snowden. It was an update from GCSB’s COMSAT Advisory Board (CAB) from April 2010 in relation to the Agency’s Waihopai interception station, codenamed as IRONSAND.”

3. Russian Officials Instructed to Discard iPhones Over Espionage Risk

On March 20th Tasnim News Agency reported that “the Russian business daily Kommersant reported on Monday that members of the Russian presidential administration focused on domestic policy have been instructed to discard their iPhones by the end of March due to the risk of Western espionage. Russian officials will have to “throw away or give to their kids” their devices running the iOS operating system, according to how one source summarized a discussion during a seminar in early March. The ban will also affect officials liaising with regional governments on behalf of the administration. The decision was made during a seminar in early March and the final say on the matter and the deadline came directly from Deputy Chief of Staff Sergey Kirienko. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov declined to confirm or deny the report, but stressed that officials are not allowed to use smartphones “for work purposes” anyway, as any such device, regardless of its operating system, is too exposed to handle classified information.”

4. Ukrainian SBU Neutralised FSB-controlled Network Called “Communist Party of the Soviet Union”

Ukraine’s Security Service (SBU) announced on March 20th that they “neutralised underground cells of the “Bolshevik Communist Party” in Ukraine. As a result of a special operation in Kyiv and six other regions of our country, underground cells of the so-called “Communist Party of the Soviet Union” were neutralised. This is a Russian organisation controlled by the FSB, which actively participates in subversive activities against Ukraine. After the full-scale invasion, the organisers of the association tried to create an extensive network of their own “regional committees” in our country. Their “activists” were supposed to call for mass support of the Russian occupiers and set up “commandant’s offices” to collect intelligence and prepare enemy sabotage. Local residents, including former and active soldiers who started their service during the Soviet Union, were campaigned to join their own cells. It has been established that the pro-Kremlin organisation is headed by Yury Shchipkov (Юрій Щіпков), the head of the “Central Committee of the Bolsheviks”, who is in Moscow. It was on his instructions that underground “branches” of the association were created in Kyiv, as well as in the Kharkiv, Lviv, Dnipropetrovsk, Zaporizhzhya, Vinnytsia, and Chernihiv regions. The enemy involved more than 45 people in their operation, who used their own homes for conspiratorial meetings of the enemy underground and planning subversive activities. Instructions for carrying out criminal actions were received directly from the head of the Moscow “tsk” through a specially created anonymous Telegram channel. Thanks to the prompt intervention of the SBU, none of the enemy’s plans for subversive activities were implemented.”

5. Turkish Intelligence Eliminates PKK’s ‘Finance’ Point Man in Syria

Daily Sabah reported on March 19th that “Mehmet Yıldırım, a senior figure of the PKK terrorist group’s Syrian wing YPG, was killed in Syria in an operation run by the National Intelligence Organization (MIT). Yıldırım, known by his code name “Hamza Kobani,” was serving as the “finance official” of the terrorist group in Aleppo and Tal Rifaat, security sources said Sunday. The sources told Turkish media outlets that Yıldırım was eliminated in the Sheikh Maqsoud neighborhood of Aleppo on Feb. 24. Yıldırım joined the terrorist group in 1986 and was engaged in its activities in Türkiye and Iraq before relocating to Syria in 2015.”

6. Pakistan’s ISI Brain Behind Pushing Amritpal Slingh Back to India

Live Mint published this article on March 19th stating that “with an aim to revive terrorism in Punjab, Pakistan’s external spy agency ISI has been the brain behind pushing Khalistani leader Amritpal Singh back to India with the help of overseas Sikh separatists, the officials said on Saturday. Singh, 30, was a truck driver in Dubai before the ISI, with the help of Khalistan supporters based outside India, radicalized him so that he could plunge Punjab again into the dark days of terrorism, they said as quoted by news agency PTI. The radical Sikh preacher had been openly making statements about declaring secession from India and forming Khalistan, threatening Union Home Minister Amit Shah and Punjab CM Bhagwant Mann. He spoke about former prime minister Indira Gandhi and chief minister Beant Singh who were assassinated by terrorists. While Gandhi was shot dead by her own guards, Beant Singh was killed by Dilawar Singh, who acted as a human bomb. The radical preacher claimed that many Dilawars were ready in the current scenario of Punjab. The officials said that Singh also incited the Sikh youths to resort to armed rebellion against the democratically elected governments in order to oppose the supposedly discriminatory treatment being mete to achieve the ‘ultimate goal’ of the formation of Khalistan.”

7. Ukraine’s SBU Detained FSB Agent in Odesa

Ukraine’s SBU issued this official statement on March 20th stating that they “detained an FSB agent in Odesa who was collecting intelligence on new units of the Defence Forces. The Security Service exposed another Russian agent during a special operation in Odesa. He turned out to be a former law enforcement officer who was recruited by a case officer of the FSB after the start of a full-scale invasion. At the instruction of the aggressor, his accomplice collected information about the locations of the bases of units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and the State Border Service in the Odesa and Mykolaiv regions. In the “zone of special attention” of the enemy there was information about the newly created volunteer battalion of the Armed Forces of Ukraine called “Black Sea Sich”. To gather intelligence, the Russian agent signed up for an interview with the leadership of Dobrobat, as if to join the ranks of the unit. “Under the guise” of this legend, he carried out covert photo-fixation of the deployment location of the military formation and studied the psychological profile of the commander in order to try to recruit him further. Officers of the Security Service gradually documented the criminal activities of the FSB agent and detained him while he was performing an intelligence task. According to the investigation, the traitor went to the Russian intelligence service on his own initiative and offered his help in the war against Ukraine. For this purpose, the FSB provided a written commitment of tacit cooperation in favour of the aggressor country. At the same time, he wrote a statement addressed to the Minister of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation, in which he asks to consider his candidacy for a leadership position in the “Department of Economic Security and Anti-Corruption in the Odesa Region”, in the event of the capture of the region. In addition, it was established that after missile strikes on the regional centre, a Russian agent went to the area to record the consequences and correct repeated air attacks.”

8. Former US Pilot Could Have Been Lured to Australia

The Daily Mail reported on March 20th that “a former United States military pilot accused of training Chinese aviators could have been lured from China to Australia as part of a U.S. plan to extradite him to his homeland, his lawyer said Monday. In a 2016 indictment from the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., unsealed late 2022, prosecutors say Daniel Duggan conspired with others to provide training to Chinese military pilots in 2010 and 2012, and possibly at other times, without applying for an appropriate license. Prosecutors say Duggan received about nine payments totaling around 88,000 Australian dollars ($61,000) and international travel from another conspirator for what was sometimes described as “personal development training.” Boston-born Duggan, 54, has been in custody in Australia since October and appeared in a Sydney court Monday by video link from a prison cell for a brief hearing about a U.S. application to extradite him. His lawyer, Dennis Miralis, told reporters outside the court that Duggan returned from China in 2022 to work in Australia after he received an Australian security clearance for an aviation license. A few days after his arrival, the clearance granted by the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation, the nation´s main domestic spy agency, was removed, Miralis said.”

9. Documentary: Fault Lines: The Imprisonment of Julian Assange

Al Jazeera published this documentary/investigation on March 20th. As per its description, “on this episode of Fault Lines, we look at what Julian Assange’s case could mean for press freedom — and the consequences he’s faced for publishing state secrets. In 2010, the WikiLeaks founder partnered with other media organisations to publish hundreds of thousands of classified US documents about its wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. It remains the largest leak of classified information to date. He is the only publisher facing charges for releasing this material. The Australian citizen faces a 175-year sentence and has been indicted under the US Espionage Act for activities journalists engage in every day. It is the first time the Act has been used against a publisher — raising alarm bells among First Amendment advocates. In the meantime, he’s being detained in the harshest prison in the UK because of a US extradition request.”

10. Ex-Meta Security Staffer Accuses Greece of Spying on Her Phone

On March 21st The Register reported that “Meta’s former security policy manager, who split her time between the US and Greece, is reportedly suing the Hellenic national intelligence service for hacking her phone. After apparently wiretapping her mobile, the Greek spy agency allegedly deployed Predator surveillance software on Artemis Seaford’s device while she was working on cybersecurity policy at Meta, a role in which she corresponded with Greek and other European officials, according to The New York Times. Predator spyware is illegal in Greece, and a government spokesperson denied the accusations. “The Greek authorities and security services have at no time acquired or used the Predator surveillance software. To suggest otherwise is wrong,” Giannis Oikonomou, the government spokesman, said. “The alleged use of this software by nongovernmental parties is under ongoing judicial investigation.” Seaford isn’t the first or only person to suggest that the Greek government uses spyware — and specifically Predator — to surveil politicians and journalists. The country’s Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis has come under fire for allegedly orchestrating mass wiretapping and spying directed at members of his own government, opposition politicians, and journalists. Additionally, a Google’s Threat Analysis Group (TAG), has said that Cytrox, which developed Predator, sold zero-day exploits to government-backed snoops — some in Greece — who used them to deploy the firm’s spyware in at least three campaigns in 2021. 2021 is when Seaford’s mobile phone was reportedly infected. Seaford has filed a lawsuit in Athens against anyone behind the hack in the hopes of forcing an investigation into the spyware’s usage.”

11. New Cyber Espionage Operator Found in the Area of Russo-Ukrainian Conflict

Private cyber security firm Kaspersky published a technical analysis on March 21st stating that “since the start of the Russo-Ukrainian conflict, Kaspersky researchers and the international community at large have identified a significant number of cyberattacks executed in a political and geopolitical context. We previously published an overview of cyber activities and the threat landscape related to the conflict between Russia and Ukraine and continue to monitor new threats in these regions. In October 2022, we identified an active infection of government, agriculture and transportation organizations located in the Donetsk, Lugansk, and Crimea regions. Although the initial vector of compromise is unclear, the details of the next stage imply the use of spear phishing or similar methods.”

12. South Korea Announces List of Banned Items for Third-party Export to North Korea

Daily Mail reported on March 21st that “South Korea on Tuesday announced a “watch-list” to prevent export of items linked to North Korea’s satellite development, days after Pyongyang launched an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) into the sea between the Korean peninsula and Japan. A total of 77 materials on the list will be banned from export to North Korea via a third country, South Korea’s foreign ministry said, adding the move was aimed at stepping up implementation of sanctions on the reclusive regime. The list specifically targets North Korea’s satellite development after Pyongyang said it will develop a new spy satellite by April this year.”

13. Podcast: Everyday Espionage: The Undeniable Power of Positive Incentives

Following week 10 story #69, on March 21st former CIA officer Andrew Bustamante published a new podcast episode. As per its description, “there is no super power more powerful than getting people to do what you want. Every comic book hero and villain struggled because at some point someone resisted them. In this episode, you learn how to use the one power most people never understand. Whether you use it to be a hero or a villain is up to you…”

14. Ukrainian SBU Detained 2 Russian Informants in Odesa

On March 21st, Ukraine’s SBU announced that they “detained two enemy informants in Odesa who were spying on the positions of the Ukrainian Air Defence Forces. They collected intelligence on the locations of units of the Defence Forces and strategically important critical infrastructure facilities in the region. First of all, they were interested in information about the movement of convoys with military equipment, as well as the positions of the air defence systems of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. The enemy planned to use the received information to prepare air strikes on the regional centre. However, counter-intelligence officers of the SBU timely exposed both perpetrators, gradually documented the criminal acts and detained them while trying to pass intelligence information to the aggressor. According to the investigation, the accomplices of the enemy are two local residents, among whom is an employee of the utility company “Heat Supply of the City of Odessa”. It was established that the Russian intelligence service remotely involved them in tacit cooperation against Ukraine. They came into the enemy’s field of vision because of their pro-Kremlin views, which they repeatedly expressed among those around them. Messengers were used to communicate with the aggressor, and intelligence was transmitted in the form of electronic photo and video files with a description of the surrounding area. During searches of the places of residence of the accused, their mobile phones, which they used in criminal activities, were discovered.”

15. What Do America’s Spies Really Think About China?

On March 20th Project Syndicate published this article stating that “while the US intelligence community’s latest threat assessment is right to focus on advances in China’s military, economic, and technological capabilities, it omits too much when it comes to the country’s domestic political challenges. These matter, because what happens in China does not stay in China.”

16. Interview: The Chris Hedges Report: How America destroyed the Nord Stream pipelines with Seymour Hersh

Following week 6 story #82 and week 7 story #85, The Chris Hegdes Report published this interview with Seymour Hersh. As per its description, “who blew up the Nord Stream pipelines? In February, veteran journalist and Pulitzer Prize-winner Seymour Hersh dropped a bombshell report detailing how President Joe Biden ordered the destruction of the Nord Stream pipelines. Seymour Hersh joins The Chris Hedges Report to explain his report, and why corporate media and the US government are so intent on dismissing him.”

17. Switzerland: Spymaster: Intelligence Chief Dussey Grapples with Shaken Swiss Neutrality

On March 24th Intelligence Online released an article about the “Head of Swiss Federal Intelligence Service Christian Dussey.” As per the article, “as head of the Federal Intelligence Service, Christian Dussey knows how to draw on his small service’s strengths to meet the needs of Switzerland’s Federal Council. Now he faces a changing European political landscape and a hunt for Russian assets that threaten to destabilise his country’s historical neutrality.”

18. Spain: Three Catalan Parties Show Confidence that European Action Can Clarify Pegasus Case

Following last week’s stories #56 and #68, on March 20th El Nacional reported that “the Catalan pro-independence parties have concluded their meeting with the MEPs of the Pegasus committee convinced that the battle can still be won. According to them, the Pegasus case still has a long way to go, quite apart from their criticism of the “obstructionism” of the Spanish government that has re-emerged in the last week. That is why the Republican Left (ERC), Together for Catalonia (Junts) and Popular Unity (the CUP) hold out hopes that the European chamber will take note, that it will act forcefully to prevent further cases of espionage from happening and that it will ban the use of these programs, as the Parliament of Catalonia voted to do in a resolution. After meeting with the European parliamentary mission at the EU institution’s headquarters in Madrid, the representatives of the three Catalan parties have the sensation that the mass espionage affair still arouses concern in Brussels and they hope that spyware such as Pegasus will be banned. In a joint appearance at the Catalan government’s Blanquerna cultural centre in Madrid, Marta Vilalta, from ERC, said that “the Pegasus file is very much alive, on all fronts, so that justice can be done in all cases”. Vilalta called on the European mission to “seek the maximum of facts and conclusions” with the aim of “laying the foundations for guarantees of non-repetition”. The Republicans put the emphasis on “clarifying the rules” and for MEPs to “be proactive and shed light on what the Spanish institutions are not doing”.”

19. Ukraine’s SBU Detains Russian Agent in Kharkiv

On March 21st Ukraine’s Security Service (SBU) announced that they “detained an enemy informant who was “hunting” for ammunition depots of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in Kharkiv Oblast. The Security Service detained another informant of the Russian intelligence services during stabilisation measures in the liberated territories of Kharkiv Oblast. The perpetrator collected intelligence on the locations and movements of units of the Defence Forces in the Kupyan district. First of all, the aggressor was interested in the storage locations of military equipment, weapons and ammunition of the Armed Forces in the front-line territories of the region. The enemy needed the intelligence to prepare targeted missile strikes on Ukrainian targets. According to the investigation, the Russian intelligence service involved the woman in tacit cooperation through her husband, who is in the territory of the aggressor country. To collect data, the attacker went to the area and secretly photographed military sites. The received information was sent to the Russian Federation through messengers.”

20. Turkey: Top Commander in Istanbul Involved in the Assassination of Neo-nationalist Academic

On March 20th the Nordic Monitor published this article stating that “the chief of the Turkish military’s Central Command ((Merkez Komutanlığı) in Istanbul, Gen. Nurettin Hakan Büyükçulha (52), served as a backup assassin in the murder of Necip Hablemitoğlu, a neo-nationalist academic who was killed on December 18, 2002 in front of his apartment building in Ankara. The revelation was made during the testimony of a key suspect in the case, Nuri Gökhan Bozkır, who had worked with the killer in Combat Search and Rescue (MAK), an elite force attached to the military’s Special Forces Command (ÖKK). According to details of the assassination plot incorporated into an indictment, Büyükçulha was assigned as a backup killer in the event that Ahmet Tarkan Mumcuoğlu, the murderer who worked as the counterintelligence officer in MAK’s intelligence section, failed to carry out the assassination. The damning testimony, provided by Bozkır in January 2022 after he was extradited from Ukraine, named the killer and his accomplices and gave a detailed description of how the murder was planned and how it unfolded. He said Büyükçulha was his team commander at the time and that he saw with his own eyes the case file on Hablemitoğlu, who was described as being on a target list. The case file was stored on Büyükçulha’s office computer.”

21. Belarus: Lukashenko Said that the West Offered Him to Exchange Belarusians Detained in Poland for Spying for Russia

The Nasha Niva reported on March 22nd that ““they [in the West] can no longer answer. You know, Ukrainians and Belarusians were arrested there: “Oh, miracles! They worked for Russia.” Ukrainians, Belarusians and others. But no one proves anything, no one shows anything what kind of people they were who worked for Russia. They were declared spies. It’s simple: they want to exchange. They grab people to offer Russia or Belarus an exchange for someone. They have already offered,” Lukashenka said. On March 15, the Polish Internal Security Agency announced that it had liquidated a spy network that worked for Russia and was supposed to prepare for sabotage activities in Poland. Among them are three Belarusians — 41-year-old Nikolai Moskalenko, 28-year-old Vladislav Posmityukha and his girlfriend, 18-year-old Maria Medvedeva.”

22. Former United States CIA Officer Jason Hanson Publishes New Videos

Throughout this week former US Central intelligence Agency (CIA) officer published the following videos: 1) Warning: Criminals Are Probing You… And Here’s How They Do It, 2) (Don’t Let This Happen to You!) Robbers Stole $75,000 in Cash From a Woman…, 3) A Cult Invited Me…and Here’s What I Did.

23. Iran Sentences Five Prisoners to Death on ‘Espionage for Israel’

Following last week’s story #92, on March 22nd Kurdistan Human Rights Network reported that “the Branch Three of the Islamic Revolutionary Court of Orumiyeh has sentenced civilians Nasim Namazi, Vafa Hanareh, Aram Omari Berdiani, Rahman Parhazou and Mansour Rasouli to death on charges of “participation in intelligence cooperation and espionage for Israel” over the past few weeks. The court also sentenced five other civilians, Kamran Hanareh, Fakhroddin Doudkanlou Milan, Ashkan Osmannezhad Ganduk, Hassan Omarpour, and Amir Moshtagh Gangachin, to ten years in prison on the same charge. “The ten civilians that come from Orumiyeh were arrested by the Ministry of Intelligence in Orumiyeh over a period of several months, between the fall of 2021 and early 2022, and were physically tortured for months in solitary cells of the ministry on the accusation of ‘participation in intelligence cooperation and espionage for Israel’”, an informed source told the Kurdistan Human Rights Network (KHRN). Forced to “confess” under “torture and threats to detain and rape their family members”, they denied all allegations of the security agencies during their trial, saying that they were “tortured” during their interrogation, the source said. According to the source, “Mansour Rasouli, was a member of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) in Orumiyeh. Last year, the media outlets of the Islamic Republic of Iran reported that a Mossad-affiliated group kidnapped him in Iran and published his confessions”. The source also spoke on the court proceedings and the trial of the civilians and said: “The trial of these ten civilians was held in two separate sessions at Branch Three of the Islamic Revolutionary Court in Orumiyeh, presided over by Judge Najafzadeh. The court sentenced them to death while some of them were denied the right to have lawyers. The sentence was communicated to the prisoners at Orumiyeh Central Prison in the past few weeks.” Last week, Aram Omari, Rahman Parhazou, Amir Moshtagh Gangachin, Fakhroddin Doudkanlou Milan, and Ashkan Osmannezhad went on a hunger strike, protesting against their “unjust” death and prison sentences.”

24. Indian Cyber Espionage Operation Targeting Russian-speaking Individuals

On March 24th cyber threat researcher NaN FMC discovered and disclosed technical indicators of a previously unknown cyber espionage operation attributed to an actor dubbed as BITTER, previously associated with the government of India. The operation involved a lure document titled “China-Russia Friendship, Peace and Development Committee”, written in Russian, which, if opened, was covertly installing a custom cyber espionage software implant.

25. Analysis of Sophisticated Bug Found Inside CryptoPhone IP-19

This week the Netherlands-based Crypto Museum published this article. As per its introduction, “this page describes a highly professional covert listening device (bug) that was discovered in March 2018 in Germany, inside a CryptoPhone IP-19 that was used by activists working for the whistleblower website WikiLeaks. It was used by WikiLeaks for secure communication between London and Berlin, whilst coordinating the revelations of NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden in mid-2013. It was also used in the days that WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange was a resident of the Embassy of Equador in London. The expensive high-tech implant was tailor-made 1 and is attributed by some experts to the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) or a related agency.”

26. Documentary: How Mysterious Explosions in Bulgaria Are Connected to Russia’s War in Ukraine

On March 21st the Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty published this documentary. As per its description, “a string of mysterious explosions and a poisoning have targeted Bulgaria’s arms industry, which has been a crucial supplier of weapons to Ukraine. But amid mounting evidence of Russian involvement, critics accuse Bulgarian authorities of dragging their feet in their investigations of these unsolved blasts.”

27. British Cybertool Developer Wylde Launches Disruptive Industries

Intelligence Online reported on March 21st that “Lee Wylde, an Intelligence Corps veteran and OSINT expert who has been involved in a number of British Army intelligence and data analysis programmes, has founded the defence startup Disruptive Industries.”

28. Ukrainian SBU Detained Russian Agent in Kramatorsk

On March 22nd Ukraine’s SBU announced that they “detained the adjuster of the Russian missile attack on the school in Kramatorsk. The SBU established that it was on his tip that the occupiers launched a rocket attack on the school in Kramatorsk on March 5 of this year. In addition, he scouted the combat positions of the units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the front-line areas of the region. His handers were particularly interested in the coordinates of the location of long-range foreign weapons of Ukrainian troops. Counter-intelligence officers of the SBU detained the attacker while he was carrying out an enemy intelligence mission. According to the investigation, the accomplice of the invaders turned out to be a factory worker in Kramatorsk. At the beginning of March of this year, the Russian intelligence service remotely involved him in secret cooperation. He sent the collected intelligence to a “liaison” agent. During the searches, a mobile phone was found in the detainee’s possession, which he used to transmit data to the aggressor.”

29. Croatia Convicts Yugoslav Intelligence Chief of War Crimes

Balkan Insight reported on March 20th that “Osijek County Court on Monday sentenced Aleksandar Vasiljevic, the former head of the Yugoslav People’s Army’s Counterintelligence Service, to 20 years in prison in his absence for war crimes against Croatian civilians and prisoners of war held in camps in Serbia and Croatia in 1991. The court found that Vasiljevic committed the crimes as the head of the Security Directorate of the then Yugoslavian Federal Secretariat for National Defence, SSNO, during the war in Croatia. Under a SSNO order signed on October 10, 1991, camps for prisoners of war were established Begejci, Stajicevo, Sremska Mitrovica, Nis and Stara Gradiska in Serbia. A total of 19 Croatian detainees were killed in the camps, the court found. A larger number of detained civilians and prisoners of war suffered severe and life-threatening injuries, with permanent damage to their health, while several women systematically raped and sexually abused, according to the prosecution. Explaining the verdict, presiding judge Zvonko Vrban said that the evidence showed that Vasiljevic ordered that the camps be set up in Serbia, and that they were managed by his subordinates from the State Security Service, although officially the camp commanders were from the Yugoslav People’s Army. “Detainees were physically and mentally tortured and abused in the camps on a daily basis, through interrogations conducted by members of the Serbian State Security Service, which Vasiljevic knew, but did not prevent, nor did he ensure adequate conditions for the lives of the prisoners; therefore, in such inhumane conditions of daily abuse, 19 detainees were killed, and the health of a large number of people was damaged,” said judge Vrban.”

30. Russia: FSB Comes Back in From the Cold

Intelligence Online reported on March 22nd that “benefitting from the rising number of incidents on Russia’s periphery and the careful staging of its response to these, the national security service has returned to the forefront of Russian politics after being given the cold shoulder over its strategic errors on Ukraine.”

31. TikTok, Apps ‘Sensitive to Espionage’ to Be Banned from Dutch Civil Servants’ Devices

Following week 10 stories #37, #54, #71, and #80 and last week’s stories #41 and #93, on March 22nd EUractiv reported that “TikTok and other apps that are ‘sensitive to espionage’ will be banned from civil servants’ work devices, the Dutch cabinet, which has already heavily discouraged using such apps, has said. The move comes after EU institutions, member states, as well as the UK made similar moves, while concerns about the platform have also been raised by member states, such as the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Denmark. “The central government must be able to do its work securely, including via its mobile devices. Recent parliamentary questions and international developments have led us to a careful consideration that goes beyond discouraging one application. We opt for a structural solution that central government officials can trust when working in a digital world,” Alexandra van Huffelen, State Secretary for Kingdom Relations and Digitalisation, has said.”

32. Netherlands: New Additions to the Crypto Museum

This week the Crypto Museum added the following new items to its online collection: 1) CryptoServer CSe Hardware Security Module (HSM) from 2012, 2) CryptoServer LAN V2 secure server from 2012, and 3) Orion NJE-4000 (HGO-4000) Non-Linear Junction Detector (NLJD) from REI, developed in 1999 and known as “The Hunter”.

33. ‘BITTER’ Espionage Hackers Target Chinese Nuclear Energy Organisations

Following this week’s story #24, on March 24th Bleeping Computer reported that “in the new campaign found by Intezer, Bitter sends emails pretending to be from the Embassy of Kyrgyzstan in Beijing to various Chinese nuclear energy companies and academics related to that field. The email pretends to be an invitation to a conference about nuclear energy supposedly held by the Kyrgyz Embassy, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), and the China Institute of International Studies (CIIS).”

34. Chinese Espionage is Norway’s Main Concern

ScandAsia reported on March 22nd that “China’s “state-sponsored” hackers, who were conducting contract work in service of government espionage, have become the main concern for Norway. This is according to an article on Portal Plus. The hackers employ social engineering techniques, including the use of dating sites, employment sites and massaging platforms to gain victims’ trust. The Norwegian Intelligence Service (PST) and the National Security Agency (NSM) have highlighted that China has been targeting individuals through social media, in this year’s threat assessments. Security intelligence has expressed concerns saying that Beijing can influence the global technical landscape in the coming years. At the same time, the Norwegian government has banned ministers and officials from using Tik Tok on work phones and tablets. According to the governments statement Tuesday, March 21, the decision is based on the fear of espionage. This aligns with the recommendations in several other Western countries.”

35. Documentary: Our Veterans, Their Stories — Joseph Simon, U.S. Army counterintelligence

On March 21st the Cattaraugus County Museum published this documentary. As per its description, “Joseph Simon from Olean, N.Y., entered the military in 1988 to become a medic. In 1992, he transferred and began his service career as a counterintelligence agent for the U.S. Army.” The documentary has the following chapters: 1) Counterintelligence, 2) First Counterintelligence Assignment, 3) Fort Meade, 4) Watching Our Adversaries, 5) US versus Islam, 6) 9/11, and 7) Changes After 9/11.

36. The ‘Ordinary’ Family at No 35: Suspected Russian Spies Await Trial in Slovenia

The Guardian published this story on March 24th saying that “Maria Mayer and Ludwig Gisch settled in Slovenia’s capital, Ljubljana, in 2017, with their two young children. People who met the couple tended to like them; the new arrivals from Latin America were friendly but never overbearing, inquisitive but never pushy. Mayer opened an online art gallery, while Gisch ran an IT startup. They told friends that a nagging fear of street crime at home in Argentina had prompted their move to Europe. Peaceful, mountainous Slovenia offered a refreshing change of pace. In interviews with about a dozen people who knew one or both of the couple, two words kept cropping up: “ordinary” and “nice”. Neighbours insisted the people living at No 35 were a run-of-the-mill family, and said the children could often be heard playing in the garden, shrieking in Spanish. It therefore came as a shock when, early in December, Mayer and Gisch were the targets of one of the most secretive and well-coordinated police and intelligence operations in Slovenia’s recent history. Officers swarmed the house, arresting the couple and taking their two children into social care. Police also raided an office owned by the couple. Among the finds, according to a source with knowledge of the investigation: an “enormous” amount of cash; so much, in fact, that it took hours to count. In late January, Slovenian outlets broke news of the arrests, linking the pair to Russian intelligence. Sources in Ljubljana told the Guardian this week that “Maria and Ludwig” were in fact elite Russian spies known as “illegals”. The arrests came after Slovenia received a tipoff from a foreign intelligence service. On Thursday, the foreign minister, Tanja Fajon, corroborated these claims, telling reporters the arrested couple were in fact Russian citizens, rather than Argentinians. Unlike “legal” Russian intelligence officers, who are disguised as diplomats at Russian embassies across the world, the illegals operate without any visible links to Moscow. They are trained for years to impersonate foreigners and then sent abroad to gather intelligence. Many have children, who are raised in the cover identity without any idea that their parents are really Russian. “The suspects are members of a foreign intelligence service, who used illegally obtained foreign identity documents to live and work in Slovenia under false identities and secretly gather information,” said Drago Menegalija, a police spokesperson. Numerous other officials also declined to comment, citing the sensitivity of the matter. But, speaking without attribution, two sources with detailed knowledge of the case said Mayer and Gisch worked for Russia’s SVR foreign intelligence service. If the couple are indeed SVR illegals, it will be the first such case aired publicly since 2010, when the FBI rounded up a group of 10 in the US after tipoffs from a mole inside Russian intelligence.”

37. Greece: The Document from Slovenia Exposed Tsalla

Posts English reported on March 22nd that “in a classified document communicated by the Slovenian authorities to Greek police a few weeks ago is said to be hiding the answer to the question that has been raised since last Thursday about “how the National Intelligence Service revealed the identity of Maria Tsalla». That is, of the Russian woman Irena S. who was living in the country with false information and was allegedly working on their behalf Russian secret services. According to a well-informed source of “K”, the document was drawn up by the Slovenian police and shared with EL.AS. through Europol’s official communication channel. With this, the security services of the Central European country asked the Greek Police to answer them if the androgynous man who was arrested on December 5, 2022 in a quiet suburb of Ljubljana for espionage for of Russia was related to Greece. But how did this come about? The couple, both 38, were living in Slovenia using fake Argentine passports under the names Ludwig Gisch and Maria Rosa Mayer Munos. During the interrogation that followed the arrests, the woman allegedly claimed to the Slovenian police that she was originally from Greece. Following this, as refers to “K” the same source of information, the Slovenian police sent a request document through official cooperation channels asking EL.AS. to check whether the woman in question was indeed naturalized in Greece. Ultimately, it emerged that both the man and the woman were Russian nationals and had settled in Slovenia opening in 2017 in Ljubljana a real estate office and an antique shop. However, the cooperation between the security and intelligence services of Greece and Slovenia (s.s. SOVA are the initials of the Slovenian EYP) is said to have been the one that finally led, at the beginning of January, to the disclosure of the identity of “Maria Tsalla”. In its statement, the Slovenian police said that “the two arrested were members of a foreign secret service” and that they “were conducting espionage in Slovenia on behalf of a foreign intelligence service”, which they did not name. According to reports in the Slovenian press, the couple was based in Ljubljana and traveled frequently to other EU countries. and the Balkans. Maria Tsalla obtained a fake identity in 2018 thanks to the help of two Greek lawyers, one of whom is no longer alive. It is about a young lawyer from Athens who dealt with Foreigners’ law and ended up as a result of a heart attack. His former colleagues clarified that he was suffering from cardiovascular problems and that he had been hospitalized at the Evangelismos hospital.”

38. Ukraine’s SBU Detained Russian Agent in Zhytomyr

On Marc 23rd Ukraine’s Security Service (SBU) announced that they “detained a traitor who passed intelligence on the video surveillance system in Zhytomyr to the “Wagner” group. The attacker turned out to be a former deputy commander of one of the Ukrainian military units, who retired in the early 1990s. It was established that in July of last year, the reconnaissance unit of the Russian military group “Wagner” involved him in secret cooperation. According to the investigation, the enemy carried out remote recruitment through the banned Vkontakte social network, which was actively used by the person involved. At the instruction of the aggressor, he collected intelligence on the movement of units of the Armed Forces, and was also “interested” in the personal data of the active command staff of the Ukrainian forces in the region. In addition, he recorded the coordinates of street video surveillance systems located near the buildings of state authorities and law enforcement agencies. The enemy needed the relevant information for planning and possible sabotage on the territory of the city. The traitor transmitted the received information to the “Wagnerians” through established electronic communication channels in the form of photographs of maps with markings. SBU counter-intelligence officers gradually documented the criminal actions of the Russian agent and detained him on the eve of his attempt to escape abroad. During the search of the detainee’s residence, a laptop, mobile phone and maps of the region, which he used in subversive activities, were found.”

39. Documentary: SR-71 Blackbird And U-2 Dragonlady — Skunk Works & Kelly Johnson Extraordinary Spy Planes

The DroneScapes released a new documentary on March 18th. As per its description, “a dive into the the SR-71 Blackbird and the U-2 Dragonlady spy planes made by Skunk Works / Kelly Johnson / Lockheed. The U-2 Dragonlady is an American single-engine, high altitude reconnaissance aircraft operated from the 1950s by the United States Air Force (USAF) or the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). It provides day and night, high-altitude (70,000 feet, 21,300 meters), all-weather intelligence gathering. Lockheed Corporation originally proposed it in 1953, it was approved in 1954, and its first test flight was in 1955. It was flown during the Cold War over the Soviet Union, China, Vietnam, and Cuba. In 1960, Gary Powers was shot down in a CIA U-2C over the Soviet Union by a surface-to-air missile (SAM). Major Rudolf Anderson Jr. was shot down in a U-2 during the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962. The Lockheed SR-71 “Blackbird” is a long-range, high-altitude, Mach 3+ strategic reconnaissance aircraft developed and manufactured by the American aerospace company Lockheed Corporation. It was operated by the United States Air Force (USAF) and NASA. The SR-71 was developed as a black project from the Lockheed A-12 reconnaissance aircraft during the 1960s by Lockheed’s Skunk Works division. American aerospace engineer Clarence “Kelly” Johnson was responsible for many of the aircraft’s innovative concepts. The shape of the SR-71 was based on that of the A-12, which was one of the first aircraft to be designed with a reduced radar cross-section. Initially, a bomber variant of the A-12 was requested by Curtis LeMay, before the program was focused solely on reconnaissance. Mission equipment for the reconnaissance role included signals intelligence sensors, side looking airborne radar, and a camera; the SR-71 was both longer and heavier than the A-12, allowing it to hold more fuel as well as a two-seat cockpit. The SR-71 entered service in January 1966.”

40. Spy Way of Life: The Ritz-Carlton in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

This week’s selection for Intelligence Online’s Spy Way of Life was “the Ritz-Carlton in Riyadh, a gilded prison turned hotspot for business elites thriving under MbS.” As per the article, “this week, Intelligence Online explores the Ritz-Carlton in Riyadh. Turned into a gilded prison in 2017 by Mohammed bin Salman during his anti-corruption purge, the opulent establishment is fast becoming a favourite haunt of heads of state and business tsars.”

41. South Korea to Inspect All Port Cranes Bought from China Due to Espionage

Following week 10 story #4, on March 22nd Energy Focus Reports stated that “the South Korean government is planning to inspect every port crane supplied by China. This is because the U.S. government recently pointed out that cranes built by Shanghai Zhenhua Port Machinery Company (ZPMC) may be used for espionage purposes. At present, a total of 478 Chinese port cranes are in operation in South Korea along with 389 domestically produced ones. According to the U.S. government, Chinese cranes at U.S. ports are capable of accessing military secrets such as military supply transport information with their software and sensors. The U.S. government said it is closely monitoring state-run ZPMC in particular, the global market share of which is 70 percent. Approximately 80 percent of U.S. port cranes are ZPMC cranes. The company said in 2017 that it could monitor each of its cranes from its Shanghai headquarters. In South Korea, a total of 876 port cranes are in operation, including 427 ZPMC cranes. These include 298 in Busan, its largest trade port, and 21 in Pyeongtaek and Dangjin, where U.S. military supplies arrive. The South Korean government is planning to accelerate import replacement, too. South Korean port crane suppliers’ global market share dropped from 8.1 per cent to 3.9 per cent from 2003 to 2008 and has been close to zero since 2013.”

42. Warsaw’s Secret War Against Moscow’s Spies: Poland’s Intelligence Services Have Gone Into Overdrive to Combat Putin’s Covert Assault

The First News released this article on March 21st saying that “sitting on the border of war-torn Ukraine, in the shadowy world of espionage Poland is fighting a secret war against Russian aggression. Openly supplying President Zelensky’s soldiers with weapons and firepower, in the cloak and dagger world, Warsaw is covertly battling Moscow’s increasingly aggressive subterfuge. The arrest last week of a spy network in Poland is just the latest in the country’s secret war against Russian intelligence since Putin’s troops invaded Ukraine. The nine people were seized after agents from Poland’s Internal Security Agency, the ABW, found hidden cameras recording important railway routes for transferring weapons and ammunition to Ukraine. Captured while secretly monitoring the shipments, according to Polish authorities, the spies were preparing to ‘paralyse the deliveries’, destabilise Polish-Ukrainian relations, incite hostility towards Nato countries in Poland, and attack the policies of the Polish government towards Ukraine.”

43. France: International OSINT Groups Vie for Position with State Agencies in Paris

On March 23rd Intelligence Online reported that “attracted by security trials ahead of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, a number of leading OSINT groups based in the United States and Israel are strengthening their presence in France.”

44. The Spanish Government Disassociates Morocco from the Pegasus Espionage Case

Atalayar reported on March 23rd that “the Spanish government has rejected the versions that point to Morocco as a party involved in the case of espionage carried out through the Pegasus system, after members of the European Parliament investigating the plot indicated in Madrid that this option could be real and credible. Government sources consulted by the EFE news agency have described as “mere speculation” any information relating to placing a third country, especially the Moroccan kingdom, as a party involved in the Pegasus spying plot on members of the Spanish government, such as President Pedro Sánchez and the ministers of the Interior, Defence and Agriculture. According to these sources, there is no basis for such a claim and they referred only to the investigation being carried out by the Audiencia Nacional following a complaint filed by the State Attorney’s Office, just after the two-day visit of the MEPs to Spain. Regarding the criticism of the lack of cooperation from the government by the MEPs, these same government sources have told EFE that the members of the committee that visited Spain on Monday and Tuesday were informed of the agenda of the members of the Executive, especially on the occasion of the development in Congress of the last debate of the motion of censure brought against the Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez. Precisely, a situation that has occurred at a time of significant political activity within the Spanish government.”

45. Syria: Mossad Espionage in Damascus: In the Lion’s Den

Grey Dynamics published this article on March 22nd. As per its introduction, “Eliahu ben Shaoul Cohen, better known as Eli Cohen, was an Israeli spy that conducted espionage for Mossad in Damascus, Syria between 1961 and 1965. His infiltration among the Syrian politico-military elite is undoubtedly among the most successful Mossad espionage operations known publicly. Indeed, in less than five years, Kamel Amin Tabeeth, Cohen’s undercover identity, passed from Buenos Aires to Damascus, quickly climbing the social hierarchy, obtaining trust and befriending prominent figures of the Syrian establishment. These links permitted him to access valuable intelligence from one of Israel’s most dangerous enemies. Nevertheless, the same overconfidence that allowed several outstanding results, combined with Mossad growing pressures and Syrian suspicions, led to this capture in January 1965. Despite the mediation attempts by his family and the Israeli authorities, they publicly hung Eli Cohen in Damascus on 18 May 1965. While Cohen undoubtedly furnished valuable intelligence to Israel, the relevance of his contributions has been partially romanticised. Around this legendary character of Israeli security forces, the debate remains heated. Whereas some sustain the primary role of Cohen’s intelligence in 1967 Israel’s landslide victory in the six-day war, others consider him a “very poor spy”.”

46. United States: Justice Department Announces Charges and Sentence in Connection with Attempts to Acquire Military and Dual-Use Technologies

The US DoJ issued this press release on March 21st saying that “in connection with today’s announcement, the Department of Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control designated three of the defendants and four entities for their involvement in the procurement of equipment that supports Iran’s unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) and weapons programs. According to the indictment, between 2012 and 2013, defendants Amanallah Paidar, of Iran, and Murat Bükey, of Turkey, conspired to procure and export U.S. technology for Iran through their companies Farazan Industrial Engineering, in Iran, and Ozon Spor Ve Hobbi Ürünleri, in Turkey. Specifically, Paidar and Bükey exported from the United States and transshipped through Turkey a device that can test the efficacy and power of fuel cells and attempted to obtain a bio-detection system that has application in weapons of mass destruction (WMD) research and use. Bükey, who was extradited to the United States from Spain in July 2022, pleaded guilty to conspiring to violate the AECA and IEEPA in December 2022. He was sentenced yesterday in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to 28 months in prison, with credit for time served. He will be removed from the United States after completing his sentence. Paidar is a fugitive and remains at large.”

47. Ukrainian SBU Detained Two FSB Agents in Zaporizhzhia and Kyiv

On March 24th Ukraine’s SBU announced that they “detained two Russian agents: among them — the design engineer of the Motor Sich plant. At the beginning of February 2023, they were recruited by a case officer of the FSB administration in the Altai Territory. Recruitment took place through the Telegram channel, where the participants periodically published their pro-Kremlin comments. On the instructions of the enemy, the agents scouted the locations of Ukrainian military facilities and law enforcement agencies. The SBU documented their criminal actions in stages. In Zaporizhzhia, the design engineer of the Motor Sich enterprise, who was gathering information about the Defence Forces in the territory of the regional centre, turned out to be an accomplice of the enemy. The SBU officers detained the traitor while he was carrying out an intelligence task — he photographed the buildings of the military hospital and the prosecutor’s office with reference to the area. Another Russian agent was detained in the suburbs of Kyiv when he tried to photograph one of the buildings of the State Emergency Service. Intelligence was needed by the occupiers to carry out missile attacks on Ukrainian sites and to prepare sabotage on the territory of the regions. During the search, mobile phones with evidence of enemy missions and correspondence with the aggressor were found.”

48. United States: Newly Released Documents Reveal How a Paranoid FBI Amassed a Thousand-Page Surveillance File on Prominent Cold War Hawk, Believing Erroneously He Was a Communist

The Covert Action Magazine published this article on March 22nd stating that “throughout his long tenure as FBI Director from 1926 to 1971, J. Edgar Hoover effectively presented himself as a dedicated “red hunter” who protected the nation from subversive threats. However, under the counter-intelligence program (COINTELPRO), Hoover’s FBI carried out mass surveillance on Americans in violation of their constitutional rights, supporting illegal methods targeting political activists and even the murder of dissidents like Black Panther leader Fred Hampton and Martin Luther King, Jr. Newly released documents show Hoover to be not only brutal and oppressive, but also paranoid and inept.”

49. Podcast: Grey Dynamics: Drone Threat Intelligence, 3D Printing and Dark Networks with Mike Monnik

On March 24th Grey Dynamics released a new podcast episode. As per its description, “today I spoke with Mike Monnik, CEO of DroneSec. They focus on drone threat intelligence, documenting the latest developments in the use of drones by malicious actors. We discussed the use of drones in bank robberies, drone innovation in Myanmar, China’s role in the supply chain and much more.”

50. United Kingdom: Dozens of Graduates from Chinese ‘Defence Universities’ Working in British Arms Firms Could Be Spying for Beijing, New Investigation Reveals

On March 25th DailyMail reported that “dozens of graduates from China’s ‘defence universities’ — which are suspected of harvesting foreign research for its military — work for leading British companies. The US bans visas for most graduates of the institutions nicknamed the ‘Seven Sons of National Defence’ amid allegations that they play a key role in training staff for China’s forces and espionage. But the Mail has discovered that more than 30 graduates from these universities are currently or have recently worked for, or in collaboration with, a range of key UK companies, including within the defence and security industry and national infrastructure. One conducted research for the Typhoon jet while others worked on projects for BAE Systems Military Air and Information, an audit of LinkedIn profiles found. Another collaborated with BAE Systems on investigating electromagnetic interference in military aircraft and vehicles. At least nine have worked at Rolls-Royce, including an engineer who has helped develop the firm’s military aerospace testing labs.”

51. In the Shadows: How Nazi Germany Used ‘Honorary Consuls’ to Advance Agenda Globally

On March 20th the Brewminate published this article stating that “in 1942, as Nazi Germany began to send hundreds of thousands of Jews to killing centers, Brazilian police swooped into a port city in the South American country and arrested a wealthy landowner. To locals, he was Otto Uebele, a Brazilian manager of a prominent coffee trading company. He also served as honorary consul for Germany — and was an accused Nazi spy. “One of the leaders of German espionage in South America,” Allied intelligence agents wrote in a secret document, later released by the CIA. A local newspaper at the time called Uebele a man of “respectable appearance, who enjoyed the greatest prestige and influence in social and commercial circles.” “Nobody,” the paper wrote, “could imagine him a spy. The fact went off like a bomb, such was the surprise.” Historians have long chronicled the clandestine use of ambassadors and other professional diplomats by Nazi intelligence services. Far less attention has focused on the activities of honorary consuls, who for centuries have worked from their home countries to represent the interests of foreign governments. ProPublica and the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists used declassified intelligence documents, media accounts and other reports to identify about 20 honorary consuls who were suspected of supporting the Third Reich through espionage and other illicit activities.”

52. North Korean Hackers Using Chrome Extensions to Steal GMail Emails

Bleeping Computer reported on March 22nd that “a joint cybersecurity advisory from the German Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV) and the National Intelligence Service of the Republic of Korea (NIS) warn about Kimsuky’s use of Chrome extensions to steal target’s Gmail emails. Kimsuky (aka Thallium, Velvet Chollima) is a North Korean threat group that uses spear phishing to conduct cyber-espionage against diplomats, journalists, government agencies, university professors, and politicians. Initially focused on targets in South Korea, the threat actors expanded operations over time to target entities in the USA and Europe. The joint security advisory was released to warn of two attack methods used by the hacking group — a malicious Chrome extension and Android applications. While the current campaign targets people in South Korea, the techniques used by Kimsuky can be applied globally, so raising awareness is vital.”

53. Ukrainian SBU Disrupted Bot Farm Used for PSYOPs and IOs

On March 22nd Ukraine’s SBU announced that they disrupted “an enemy bot farm in Khmelnytskyi region, through which fakes about the war in Ukraine were “dispersed”. Cyber ​​specialists of the Security Service eliminated a pro-Kremlin bot farm in Khmelnytskyi region. More than 2,000 bots “dispersed” disinformation about the situation at the front and urged Ukrainians to avoid mobilisation. Also, the pro-Russian cell was engaged in discrediting the military-political leadership and units of the Defence Forces of our country. According to operational information, the main “service customers” of the bot farm were representatives of the intelligence services of the aggressor country. They bought fake accounts and used them in popular social networks supposedly on behalf of ordinary Ukrainians. The aggressor tried to destabilise the internal political situation in the western regions of Ukraine by carrying out information sabotage. According to the SBU, the illegal activity was organised by a resident of Kamianets-Podilskyi, a former policeman. He placed the hardware and software complex for “growing” bots in his own apartment in one of the sleeping areas of the city. Specialised equipment allowed him to log hundreds of anonymous accounts every day. He received payment for the “rental” of fake accounts through Russian electronic payment systems. During searches at the address of residence of the person involved, the following was found: ️computer equipment with evidence of illegal activity; ️hundreds of SIM cards of mobile operators;️ specialised equipment and software. Currently, the seized equipment has been sent for examination.”

54. New Data-stealing Malware Targets State Entities in Russia-occupied Ukraine

On March 22nd The Record reported that “researchers have uncovered a new espionage campaign targeting government agencies and organizations operating in Russia-occupied territories of Ukraine. Attackers used previously unknown malware strains — dubbed CommonMagic and PowerMagic — to steal data from their victims’ devices, according to a new report from Kaspersky. The campaign began in September 2021 and continues to this day. Its targets are located in the Donetsk, Lugansk and Crimea regions that Russia annexed in 2014. According to Kaspersky, government agencies, as well agriculture and transportation organizations, have been targeted. Given the conflict in that region, it is likely a part of a cyber war between Russia and Ukraine. The malware and techniques used are not particularly sophisticated but they are effective, the researchers said. When Kaspersky discovered the infection in October, malicious software had already been installed on the victims’ machines, meaning that some of the attacks were successful, security researcher Leonid Besverzhenko told The Record. So far, Kaspersky hasn’t been able to attribute the campaign to any known threat actor, but Besverzhenko said the investigation is still ongoing.”

55. Podcast: World of Intelligence: Iran at a Crossroads

On March 22nd Janes’ World of Intelligence released this new podcast episode. As per its description, “in this episode we take a more practical look at open source intelligence and its role in understanding the current situation in Iran as it sits at the crossroads of a range of geopolitical choices, the result of which will play a large role in determining the course of the country’s internal dynamics, as well as its external relations with other states.”

56. United States: What the Biden Administration Isn’t Telling Congress About Spy Balloons

Politico published this article on March 21st stating that “lawmakers have been asking the Biden administration for weeks for details about hundreds of aerial objects floating in U.S. airspace and how many of them may be foreign surveillance tools. They haven’t gotten much of an answer. One reason: The administration is still trying to determine how bad the problem is. Even in classified briefings, officials working on the issue inside the Pentagon and the intelligence community have yet to answer key questions. Those include how many foreign surveillance balloons the U.S. has identified in the past, what sort of tracking the current detection system allows and why the Chinese spy balloon the administration shot down in February required more action than previous ones, according to a U.S. official and two congressional aides. All were granted anonymity to speak freely about a sensitive national security matter.”

57. Netherlands: OM Concludes, Of Course, the Death of ex-MIVD Officer Hans van de Ven

Following 2022 week 5 story #1, on March 25th the VRPO reported that “the Public Prosecution Service (OM) has completed the investigation into the death of former MIVD employee Hans van de Ven. According to the Public Prosecution Service, the 69-year-old man from Amstelveen died of natural causes and there are no indications that he was murdered. On February 5, 2021, Van de Ven was found dead in a bath under suspicious circumstances.”

58. Chinese Cyber Actor’s EARTH PRETA: Updated Stealthy Strategies

On March 23rd private cyber security and intelligence firm TrendMicro published this technical analysis on a Chinese nation-state cyber actor dubbed as EARTH PRETA. As per the analysis, “in our previous research, we disclosed and analyzed a new campaign initiated by the threat actor group Earth Preta (aka Mustang Panda). In a more recent campaign we’ve been tracking, we discovered Earth Preta delivering lure archives via spear-phishing emails and Google Drive links. After months of investigation, we found that several undisclosed malware and interesting tools used for exfiltration purposes were used in this campaign. We also observed that the threat actors were actively changing their tools, tactics, and procedures (TTPs) to bypass security solutions. In this blog entry, we will introduce and analyze the other tools and malware used by Earth Preta.”

59. Russia: New Issue of SVR’s “РАЗВЕДЧИК” Magazine is Out

Following 2022 week 51 story #28, on March 24th Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) announced the release of the second issue of their “РАЗВЕДЧИК” (Secret Agent) magazine. The 116-pages long magazine is available here.

60. Italy: Intelligence Memorial Day: Speech by the Mantovano Undersecretary

On March 22nd it was officially announced that “this morning, on the occasion of the “Day of remembrance of the Fallen of the Security Intelligence Services”, the commemoration ceremony of the Fallen of the Intelligence took place. Among others, the relatives of the Fallen, the Undersecretary of State Alfredo Mantovano, the Ministers of the Interministerial Committee for the Security of the Republic (CISR), the members of the Parliamentary Committee for the Security of the Republic (COPASIR) and the intelligence. In his speech, the Mantovano Undersecretary recalled the figures of Vincenzo Li Causi, killed in Somalia in 1993, Nicola Calipari, who lost his life in Iraq in 2005, Lorenzo D’Auria, mortally wounded in Afghanistan in 2007, and Pietro Antonio Colazzo, who fell in Kabul in 2010. A laurel wreath was placed at the foot of the ‘Wall of Memory’ located in Palazzo Dante, headquarters of the Section. In the national and international offices of DIS, AISE and AISI, all members of the information bodies observed a minute’s silence in honor of their colleagues who tragically died.”

61. Podcast: SpyCast: “Israeli Military Intelligence” — with IDF Brig. General (Res.) Yossi Kuperwasser

On March 21st the International Spy Museum’s SpyCast published this new podcast episode. As per its description, “Yossi Kuperwasser has had quite the illustrious career within Israeli intelligence. He’s the former head of the Research Division at the Israeli Defense Forces’ Intelligence Corps, former Director General of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and former Intelligence Attaché to the United States, among many other positions. This week on SpyCast, Yossi joins Andrew in conversation about the Israeli intelligence community, including Aman, Mossad, and Shabak. What tactics does Israel utilize against their adversaries, and what does the future of Israeli intelligence look like? You’ll find out in this week’s episode.”

62. United States CIA: Spy Sites: Skis, Spies, and America’s Newest National Monument Camp Hale

On March 20th the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) published this article stating that “as white, fluffy snow coats America’s majestic Rocky Mountains and temperatures drop to below freezing, many snow-obsessed vacationers will head for the ski slopes. Some of them, unknowingly, may even venture onto the same terrain where World War II soldiers and spies learned to fight on skis, and later where Tibetan Freedom Fighters were secretly trained by the CIA. Tucked away in a high mountain valley in Colorado, between several popular ski resorts, is Camp Hale: the nation’s newest National Monument. Camp Hale was designated as a tribute to some very special WWII heroes who helped create the very ski industry that thrives today throughout the Rocky Mountain region. It’s also home to one of America’s most chilly spy sites.”

63. United States: The Honey Trap — The FBI Used an Undercover Cop with Pink Hair to Spy on Activists and Manufacture Crimes

The Intercept published this story on March 21st saying that “the young woman with long pink hair claimed to be from Washington state. One day during the summer of 2020, she walked into the Chinook Center, a community space for left-wing activists in Colorado Springs, Colorado, and offered to volunteer. “She dressed in a way that was sort of noticeable,” said Samantha Christiansen, a co-founder of the Chinook Center. But no one among the activists found that unusual or alarming; everyone has their own style. They accepted her into the community. The pink-haired woman said her name was Chelsie. She also dropped regular hints about her chosen profession. “She implied over the course of getting to know her that she was a sex worker,” said Jon Christiansen, Samantha’s husband and another co-founder of the Chinook Center. “I think somebody else had told me that, and I just was like, ‘Oh, OK. That makes sense,’” said Autum Carter-Wallace, an activist in Colorado Springs. “I never questioned it.” But Chelsie’s identity was as fake as her long pink hair. The young woman, whose real name is April Rogers, is a detective at the Colorado Springs Police Department. The FBI enlisted her to infiltrate and spy on racial justice groups during the summer of 2020.”

64. U.S. RC-135 Surveillance Jet Has Flown Unprecedented Mission Over Finland

The Warzone released this article on March 23rd stating that “a U.S. Air Force RC-135V/W Rivet Joint has conducted a sortie inside Finnish airspace for the first time, at least in recent memory, flying opposite the border with Russia. These flights look set to become routine as Finland continues to move through the process of joining NATO, something the country’s leadership decided to pursue following the Russian military’s all-out invasion of Ukraine last year. Today’s sortie highlights how the Finnish ascension to the alliance will allow for expanding already robust efforts to surveil Russia from the air. Online flight tracking websites caught the RC-135W Rivet Joint aircraft, which has the serial number 62–4131 and was using the callsign Jake 11 at the time, departing RAF Mildenhall in the United Kingdom earlier today. The aircraft then flew east over the English Channel, the Netherlands, Germany, and Poland, before turning north.”

65. SIGINT Historian: Gwen: from Lance Corporal to Warrant Officer at Bletchley Park

Following last week’s story #87, the former GCHQ Departmental Historian Tony Comer published this article on March 22nd. As per its introduction, “I have said that I was rather overawed by the Oxonians in our small ATS group, so it might have been expected that I would be overwhelmed by the brilliance and eccentricity of the denizens of Bletchley Park itself. But not so: we were very much the newest intake and a pretty lowly rank, so we only came into touch with the next echelon above us individually and about twice a day. They would descend on us from what we called the Fuzz Room (Fusion) and we would tell them what we had found out. One of our number, Anne, did come into contact with quite a lot of people in the ad hoc games of mixed hockey played on an empty bit of the Park, but as an Oxford Blue she terrified both teams by her speed and ferocity. However, culturally speaking, my horizons were very much extended. There were musical concerts in the Assembly Hall by professionals from both outside and inside the Park, and I would go up to London with an increasing number of friends, sometimes taking in a matinee or a concert and staying overnight with their families. Their lifestyle was different from what mine had been. It was no surprise to me that they ate dinner at night, preceded by drinks, but it was extraordinary to find that the hyper-intellectual parents of some girls lived in large but very dusty houses with dangerously toppling piles of books even on the staircase.”

66. Video: No Wires, No Batteries — Spying Changed FOREVER! — Can I make a working Bug for Hannah Fry?

On March 21st the “Machining and Microwaves” YouTube channel published this video. As per its description, “BBC TV asked if I could build a working replica of the Great Seal Bug, a Top Secret 1940s Soviet eavesdropping device , for “The Secret Genius of Modern Life” with Professor Hannah Fry. You don’t say “No” to that sort of request. The Bug was planted in the US Ambassador’s residence at 10 Spasopeskovskaya Square in Moscow near the end of World War Two in 1945. It ran WITHOUT ANY BATTERIES OR MAINS POWER for the next SEVEN years, leaking the secret conversations from the Ambassador’s study in Spaso House to the NKVD. It’s a masterpiece of Spycraft and PsyOps and technical engineering skill. An elegant solution produced under extreme conditions. It’s also a classic tale of what spies and spying and counterespionage and technical security countermeasures used to be all about. I uncover a lot of disinformation, some of it intentional, some of it resulting from group-think and assumptions. Now you may have heard the story before, and have heard the technical explanations and the politics and history. I’m the sort of obsessive nerd that has to MAKE things to test them out properly, and I try to do my research from primary sources rather than repeating the twaddle and nonsense that sometimes surrounds Zlatoust, the Great Seal Bug. This is the story of my personal quest. It escalated from “Can you build one” right up to “Can you demonstrate it on camera in Broadcasting House and be interviewed by the presenter and appear on The Secret Genius of Modern Life?”. It encompasses research, design, modelling, machining, lathework, testing of the Bug, setting up the equipment inside the Council Chamber at the front of the BBC’s iconic Art Deco Broadcasting House in Langham Place in the West End of London and working with the production team and Professor Hannah Fry. It’s a story of mishaps and near-disasters. This is part one of a series about the Bug. Future instalments will cover the history right back to before 1920, the personalities, the Gulags, the Sharaskas, the showbiz celebrity musician and entrepreneur at the heart of the design, then the deep technical analysis and the Physics and Maths of how the passive resonant microphone and its supporting systems REALLY work. The request from the BBC was passed on by Heather from the most excellent press office team at the Radio Society of Great Britain, to whom I owe a huge debt of gratitude for this opportunity to make a complete idiot of myself on prime-time national TV and impress my Mum’s friends.”

67. Nagorno Karabakh Arrests Two Stepanakert Rresidents on Suspicion of Espionage

On March 25th ArmenPress reported that “Nagorno Karabakh law enforcement agencies have arrested two residents of Stepanakert city on suspicion of spying for Azerbaijan. In a statement released Saturday, the Nagorno Karabakh Investigative Committee said “two residents of Stepanakert city established contact with agents of the Azerbaijani intelligence agencies” and regularly relayed classified information, including top secret data, in exchange for money. Authorities said the suspects conveyed information on Nagorno Karabakh’s economy, the security of citizens, the social programs in response to the blockade, the changes happening in the composition of the government, the presidential orders and other information relating to the population — actions that constitute “high treason.” The law enforcement agency did not mention how the suspects gained access to top secret information. Both suspects are charged with high treason and are being held in custody.”

68. Japanese Man Detained in China on Espionage Suspicion

On March 25th NHK News reported that “a Japanese man in his 50s has been detained in Beijing. Japanese governmental sources say the man was detained earlier this month by China’s security authorities for allegedly violating Chinese law. Details remain scarce, but he is believed to have been arrested on suspicion of spying. The man is an executive of a Japanese company. The Japanese embassy in Beijing has requested permission to talk with the man, and is also collecting information about the reasons for his arrest.”

69. Intelligence Sharing with Venezuela Leaves Colombia Vulnerable to Spying, Ex-President Says

The Union Bulletin published this article on March 24th saying that “former Colombian President Ivan Duque warned on Friday that his successor’s decision to share intelligence information with Venezuela leaves his country vulnerable to espionage from Nicolas Maduro’s socialist regime, and could damage the longstanding cooperation between U.S. and Colombian agencies. Speaking at a forum on Venezuela held in Washington by the Wilson Center, Duque said Venezuela continues to pose the greatest single security threat to the region and warned against diplomatic efforts to “whitewash” the Caracas regime despite its long record of human-rights violations and its support of terrorist and criminal groups. Without naming his successor, current Colombian President Gustavo Petro, Duque said the decision to share intelligence information with the neighboring country will boost the espionage capacity inside his country of hated Venezuelan agencies, such as the Bolivarian National Intelligence Service, SEBIN, and the General Directorate of Military Counterintelligence. “I feel as something that is a threat to Colombia’s security… The interaction of intelligence information between SEBIN and other units with the DNI (National Directorate for Intelligence) in Colombia is opening the possibility for SEBIN to do espionage not only on political leaders, and members of the core system, but also on journalists in our country,” Duque said. Similar interactions between Venezuela with other nations in the region is facilitating efforts by the Maduro regime to “use espionage technologies, similar to the Pegasus type of instruments, to start monitoring regime opponents in other Latin American countries,” he said. Pegasus is spyware that can be covertly installed on mobile phones and other devices. After reestablishing diplomatic relations with the Maduro regime, Petro announced in December that his country would begin sharing information with Venezuelan intelligence services to combat criminal gangs in the border between both nations. But Duque said intelligence sharing is used by Maduro for other purposes. “The Maduro regime is using this as a way to fracture the historical relationship in intelligence findings with the United States. They want to be able to gather how the intelligence cooperation system works and that represents not only a threat to Colombia’s national security but to the whole hemisphere,” he said.”

70. Russian Spy Who Tried to Infiltrate ICC Charged in US

Following 2022 week 24 story #2 and 2022 week 45 story #76, the Brussels Times reported on March25th that “a Russian national who tried to infiltrate the International Criminal Court last summer was charged on Friday with espionage in the United States, where he is accused of living under a false identity for two years. Sergei Vladimirovich Cherkasov, 37, worked as an illegal Russian intelligence agent under the Brazilian alias of Victor Muller Ferreira, federal prosecutors in Washington said in a statement. According to the indictment, he began operating under that identity in Brazil in 2010 and built a “legend” for himself with a fictitious aunt, a deceased mother and few friends. Five years later, he applied to a Washington-based university under that name. After being accepted, he entered the US in 2018 on a student visa. He lived under this cover until 2020, pursuing studies in international relations while gathering information about Americans that he passed on to Russian intelligence, the services of prosecutor Matthew Graves said. After leaving the US in May 2020, he continued to use his academic contacts to obtain information about US foreign policy, they added. In April 2022, he tried to gain admission as an intern to the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague, Netherlands, which is investigating charges of war crimes in Ukraine, aimed at Russia. The Dutch secret service unmasked him and denied him entry into the Netherlands. Sent back to Brazil, he was arrested on fraud charges and sentenced in July to 15 years in prison. According to court documents, Moscow has demanded his extradition, accusing him of drug trafficking in 2011 and 2013.”

71. United States CIA: Charlotte Gower Chapman: An Exceptionally Capable and Brilliant Woman

On March 22nd the CIA published this article. As per its introduction, “Charlotte Gower was born and raised in Kankakee, Illinois. From an early age, Charlotte had an interest in the study of languages and history. After graduating from Smith College, Charlotte studied at the University of Chicago and pursued her passion in anthropology. During her time at the University, Charlotte was one of only two women awarded degrees from the Department of Sociology and Anthropology. She wrote her PhD dissertation on Chicago’s Sicilian immigrant community with a focus on Sicilian religion and culture during the Prohibition era. Beginning in 1926, she spent two years in France working on prehistoric archeological digs as Director of the American School of Prehistoric Research for Yale University. Then from 1928–30, Charlotte traveled around Sicily, immersing herself in the peasant life in a remote Sicilian mountain village of Milocca, near Palermo. She compiled her notes and interviews and wrote an anthropological study titled “Milocca: A Sicilian Village,” which included a detailed account of daily life, traditions, and mysticism of early Sicilians.”

72. Video: Mysterious Nord Stream Pipeline Explosion Finally Solved By Pulitzer Prize Winner

Following week 6 story #82 and week 7 story #85, and this week’s story #16, on March 21st the “Be Amazed” YouTube channel published this animated video, discussing the same revelations about this, reporterdly, United States clandestine sabotage operation to destroy the Nord Stream gas pipelines that connected Russia with Germany.

73. United States: License Plate Surveillance, Courtesy of Your Homeowners Association

The Intercept published this article on March 22nd stating that “at a city council meeting in June 2021, Mayor Thomas Kilgore, of Lakeway, Texas, made an announcement that confused his community. “I believe it is my duty to inform you that a surveillance system has been installed in the city of Lakeway,” he told the perplexed crowd. Kilgore was referring to a system consisting of eight license plate readers, installed by the private company Flock Safety, that was tracking cars on both private and public roads. Despite being in place for six months, no one had told residents that they were being watched. Kilgore himself had just recently learned of the cameras. “We find ourselves with a surveillance system,” he said, “with no information and no policies, procedures, or protections.” The deal to install the cameras had not been approved by the city government’s executive branch. Instead, the Rough Hollow Homeowners Association, a nongovernment entity, and the Lakeway police chief had signed off on the deal in January 2021, giving police access to residents’ footage. By the time of the June city council meeting, the surveillance system had notified the police department over a dozen times.”

74. Secret Meeting at the CIA Exposes Duality of US-Liberia Relations

On March 24th FPA reported that “no doubt, Liberia has strong historic ties with the United States. The country was founded by freed American slaves from the United States and has been in the orbit of America for most of its existence. Liberia has probably the closest consanguinity with that of the United States more than any other country and hundreds of thousands of Liberians and their families live in America. They send over 400 million US dollars annually in foreign remittance, which is a major boost to Liberia’s struggling economy. Despite the closeness of the two countries, the meeting in Langley, the CIA global headquarters with President George Manneh Weah is evoking specter of Cold War politics and exposing the duality that currently exists with relations between Liberia and the United States. How to punish the egregious actions of corrupt Liberian officials while still maintaining cordial relations with the country? Why would a US Spy Agency invite an African leader to Washington, when three officials of his government had been sanctioned by the US just months ago, on August 15, 2022, by the United States Treasury under the Global Magnitsky Act? The Global Magnitsky Human Rights and Accountability Act targets perpetrators of serious human rights abuses and corruption around the world. It is an Act designed to change the behavior of corrupt actors and human rights abusers. The Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), an arm of the United States Treasury designated three Liberian officials (Specially Designated Nationals, SDNs), former Minister of State Nathaniel McGill, former NPA Boss Bill Twehway, and former Solicitor General Cyrenius Cephus of engaging in corrupt acts. Bringing Weah to Washington thus exposed the duality and conundrum of US-Liberia relations.”

75. Netherlands: Resigned Regulator — ‘New Intelligence Law Could Lead to North Korean Scenes’

Following 2022 week 36 story #56, on March 23rd the Dutch FTM reported that “in September, Bert Hubert suddenly resigned as overseer of the intelligence services. He disagrees with a bill that should give the AIVD and the MIVD broader powers to tap and hack. According to Hubert, all Dutch internet traffic will soon be tapped by the intelligence services, who play extremely high stakes to get their way: ‘It is almost irresponsible.’ “I was a nerd early on,” says Bert Hubert. ‘Around the age of seven we got a computer at home, a ZX Spectrum. I fell in love instantly.’ During his physics studies in Delft, he played endlessly with ones and zeros. At the end of the 1990s, he breaks off his studies and starts working for internet provider Casema. A few years later he goes to the General Intelligence and Security Service (AIVD), where he becomes an ICT specialist. After three years, Hubert also calls it quits. Despite wanderings via security Fox-IT, the American Netscout and his own company PowerDNS, the intelligence community continues to draw. When his former business partner Ronald Prins will leave the Assessment Committee for the Use of Powers (TIB) in the summer of 2020, Hubert applies immediately. He will become a technical member of this committee, which supervises the use of special powers such as hacking and tapping internet cables by the AIVD and the MIVD.”

76. Canada: What Happens When an Intelligence Agency is at War with a Prime Minister?

The Toronto Sun reported on March 25th that “what happens in politics is important. And, sometimes, what doesn’t happen is important, too. Consider, for instance, CSIS and PMO, and their relationship. CSIS, of course, is the Canadian Security Intelligence Service. PMO is the Prime Minister’s Office. When I worked under Jean Chretien, it was understood that CSIS and the RCMP could brief the prime minister about national security or policing matters — always in the presence of his capable chiefs of staff, Jean Pelletier or Percy Downe. No one else. Ministers, chiefs of staff, advisors: none of us actually knew if any briefings ever took place, however. Nor should we. Under the Trudeau regime, CSIS theoretically reports to the Minister of Public Safety. Previously, the minister responsible for our spy service was the Solicitor General.”

77. United Kingdom: MI5 Spy Reveals Secret ‘Unauthorised’ IRA Talks

BBC published this story on March 25th saying that “an MI5 spy who helped bring peace to Northern Ireland by defying orders, has broken his silence to the BBC. He has revealed he met IRA leaders in March 1993, despite talks being called off by the British government after IRA bombs killed two young boys in England. What he said in that meeting encouraged them to declare the ceasefire and move towards the process that eventually led to the 1998 Good Friday Agreement. The BBC’s Peter Taylor has been trying to find the spy for almost 30 years. He has discovered that what the spy said during the talks was not authorised by the British government. The minutes of the meeting had been published by Sinn Fein — the IRA’s political wing — in 1994. They allege that the spy said: “The final solution is union… this island will be as one.” “Those words are so controversial and so important,” says Taylor in a BBC documentary The MI5 Spy and the IRA: Operation Chiffon. “To Unionists such words would be seen as the ultimate betrayal.” The journalist says he wanted to hear what was actually said from the spy’s own lips, but to do that he would have to track him down. It is extremely rare to hear an MI5 officer talk about a top-secret operation like this. Its codename was “Chiffon” and it was designed to get the IRA to call a ceasefire and embrace the political process.”

78. United States: Inside the CIA’s Bureau for Hiding Defectors

The Economist published this article on March 24th saying that “on a September morning in 2019, a horde of journalists stampeded into a tranquil suburb in Virginia and parked their tv trucks on the edge of a vast green lawn. Only days earlier, the six-bedroom home had been occupied by Oleg Smolenkov, a former Russian diplomat, and his family. Now it was empty. The cia had smuggled the family out of Russia two years earlier, a reward for the years Smolenkov spent spying for the agency as an aide to Vladimir Putin’s foreign-policy adviser. Much of the evidence about Putin’s secret campaign to sway the 2016 presidential election in Donald Trump’s favour is thought to have come from Smolenkov, although the American government has not acknowledged this. Five months after Trump took office, the baby-faced Smolenkov flew with his wife and three children to Porto Montenegro, a resort on the Adriatic Sea favoured by wealthy Russians. The Russian government had banned employees from travelling to Montenegro owing to friction between the two countries, but the Smolenkovs weren’t planning to stay long. The cia quickly spirited them away to America. Once they landed, the Smolenkovs were greeted by officers from the National Resettlement Operations Centre (nroc), the cia’s little-known programme for foreign agents who defect to America. In the late spring of 2018, nroc officers helped the Smolenkovs start a new life in Stafford, a quiet community 40 miles south of the agency’s headquarters in Langley, Virginia.”

79. Nation-state Cyber Attacks on Industrial Organisations in H2 2022

The Kaspersky ICS-CERT published this technical report on March 24th. As per its introduction, “this summary provides an overview of APT attacks on industrial enterprises disclosed in H2 2022 and related activity of groups that have been observed attacking industrial organizations and critical infrastructure facilities. For each story, we sought to summarize the most significant facts, findings, and conclusions of researchers, which we believe can be of use to experts who address practical issues related to ensuring the cybersecurity of industrial enterprises.”

80. Video: Pakistan ISI’s High-ranking Officer Ambushed by Taliban; Brigadier Mustafa Killed in Warizistan

The Hindustan Times published this video report on March 22nd stating that “a high-ranking officer of Pakistan’s spy agency ISI was killed along with his driver on Tuesday night when “hard core terrorists” ambushed his vehicle in the country’s northwest region bordering Afghanistan, security officials and police said. Brigadier Mustafa Kamal Barki from the Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) was killed “while leading the encounter from the front” in South Waziristan’s Angoor Adda, said the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) — the media wing of the army. Watch the video for more.”

81. Archive Director Testifies to U.S. Senate on Over-classification

The US National Security Archive published this on March 23rd. As per its description, “the United States Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs invited the National Security Archive to testify today about ways to modernize the nation’s security classification system. Archive director Tom Blanton, in a statement co-authored by Archive policy director Lauren Harper and Archive historian Dr. William Burr, described the crisis of over-classification, the enormous and growing backlogs of millions of classified records and thousands of unanswered declassification requests, and the incoming tsunami of digital secrets. The Archive statement emphasized findings from our 2022 Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) audit showing the National Archives suffering from 30 years of an almost flat-lined budget while the number of records for which it is responsible has increased exponentially. The Archive highlighted four key components of the National Archives that, if fully funded, would be more prepared to meet these challenges, but that at present — together with the entire National Archives system — are funded at the level of two of the Marine One helicopters that ferry the President (roughly $217 million apiece). “The National Archives needs at least another chopper,” the Archive said.”

82. Sweden: Jan Leijonhielm Worked at the Top Secret IB — Recruited in the East

The Swedish Dagens Nyheter published this article on March 25th. As per the article, “in the spring of 1973, it is revealed that Sweden has a top-secret intelligence service: IB. Jan Leijonhielm works in the lion’s ball. He is ordered to keep quiet and carry a gun. Today — 50 years later — he talks about his work to recruit Swedish sources, “agents”, in the Soviet Union and Warsaw Pact countries.”

83. South Koreans Spying for North Korea Pledged Loyalty to Kim Jong Un: Prosecutors

The Straits Times published this article on March 24th saying that “South Koreans charged with spying for North Korea met secretly with North Korean agents in Cambodia and other South-east Asian countries, according to Seoul prosecutors. The Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office wrote in an indictment released late on Thursday that the head of the alleged spy ring, a 60-year-old identified only by his surname of Hwang, made overseas trips to communicate with North Korean agents in person. In March 2016, in one of the earliest of such encounters, Hwang stayed at a resort in Cambodia where he and two North Korean agents met up and exchanged intelligence, prosecutors said. Prosecutors said Hwang eventually made other members of the spy ring, named the People’s Unification Front, travel to countries like Cambodia and Vietnam to meet North Korean agents there. Hwang gave the spy ring members specific instructions on how and where to find the North Korean agents and cautioned them about being followed or watched. One of them, a 44-year-old woman surnamed Jung, gave the North Korean agents her personal details such as her hometown and the identities of her children to gain their trust, prosecutors said. She even submitted a written pledge of loyalty to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.”

84. Poland: The Work of the Internal Security Agency Has Shown that the Critical Infrastructure in our Country is Being Targeted by the Russian Services

On March 21st the Polish PAP reported that “the network of Russian spies broken up by the ABW most likely acted on behalf of the GRU, Wojciech Brochwicz, former deputy head of Polish counter-intelligence, tells PAP. “I suppose it’s their action as they are directly involved in providing the Russian military with information,” he assesses. In recent months, Russian spies have been detained in Germany, Italy, France, Sweden and Norway, among others. However, as Brochwicz emphasises, tracking down the entire network of agents is a rarity. “It happens that a few, and sometimes even a dozen or so diplomats are expelled from the country. However, a group of foreign agents operating in our area is a real sensation” — he says. If the investigation confirms the information provided by the Ministry of the Interior and Administration, breacking such a large spy network will be a great success for the Polish services. “Such effective and fast counter-intelligence is what we need in today’s difficult times” — points out Brochwicz.”