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Real Cyber-Spying
phr1 writes: "Kevin Poulsen has an article at The Register about a USAF sergeant arrested for emailing classified info to "Country A" (apparently Libya). The guy was something of a bozo, using free webmail accounts from locations near his home to email the stuff. It's an interesting read about a legitimate (for once) cyber-bust."
The network itself is physically seperated from any other networks. The cabling and links are all a closed loop, it's just built using the same protocols and tools that the internet runs. The Register article mentioned that it now uses a digital signature file to restrict access to a "need to know" level set by the people who create user accounts.
The people who run this network are extremely paranoid about what you point out, so there are no access points that exist outside of secure installations. The network traffic itself is probably encrypted as well, but that's beyond my "need to know"
Wu-Tang Name: Half-Cut Skeleton Get your own Wu-Na
First of all, don't send email to quaddafi@intel.mil.lb. That is good advice for anyone, not just spies.
2) Use one-time pads. A DVD full of geiger counter readings will do a better job of fooling the spooks than any method that can be brute forced. If it can be brute forced, they will do it. NSA pays the salaries of more math Ph.D.s than anyone else on the globe. The only problem with the OTP is ridding yourself of the traces of the plaintext and noise (the DVD itself and residual memory on your box)
3) Remailers, public and private. I would have Country B set up clean cover companies in third countries (those Scandinavian countries are good). Send your mail to katrina@fakecompany.fi, let it get bounced around and rehashed with static. This should slow down the spooks a bit.
I hope this would take care of the secure data transmission end.
Remaining problems:
-getting the goods (unless you're the boss like Hanssen, don't get any secrets you wouldn't normally have access to anyway)
-getting paid (diamonds in a ziploc bag are fun to have around, but how are you going to spend them? Hanssen drove around in a beat-up minivan, b/c all his "l3wt" was in jewel form, or in a "secret account" in the SovUnion. If you show up at the office driving a Maserati, eyebrows are sure to raise)
-getting away (eventually they'll catch up to you, so you'll want to leave before they do. Where are you going to go? Libya? Talibanistan? The Sudan?)
In conclusion, let me say that spying is bad. We're the good guys (well, compared to Libya and Iraq). Put 15% of your salary into an IRA, and when you retire, you'll have your pension & a cool mil.