Even offline computers can be monitored - The NSA uses radio technology to
monitor offline computers, smart phones and other devices. According to a New
York Times report, the agency installed software on 10,000 computers which were
shipped around the world, enabling NSA agents to locate and monitor the machines
even when offline. The NSA insists such technology – which relies on radio
waves transmitted from tiny circuit boards and USB cards inserted into computers
– is "only being deployed overseas". The program, known as Quantum, has
reportedly targeted Chinese Army, Russian military and Mexican drug cartels –
among others – since its introduction in or before 2008. The Internet isn't the
only way to download information - On a more basic level,
computers which aren't connected to the Internet still have any number of
peripheral data ports that can be hooked up to USBs, disc drives or printers.
Bradley Manning – now Chelsea Manning – transported 91,000 classified documents
that became known as the Iran War logs via rewritable CDs. Moreover, hard
drives eventually break down, but remain susceptible to data harvesting. The
same legal technology used by data reclamation companies to retrieve information
from defunct computers can be used by thieves if old hard drives are not
securely disposed of. The Russians are already doing it - Last
year Kremlin sources revealed Russia's Federal Guard Service (FSO) was spending
486,000 rubles – around £10,000 – on a number of electric typewriters. The
return to typewriters was prompted by the publication of secret documents by
WikiLeaks, the whistle-blowing web site, as well as Edward Snowden, the fugitive
US intelligence contractor. Directives to the defense minister and the supreme
commander-in-chief, Mr Putin, were already printed on paper for security
reasons, a defense ministry source said at the time. Each typewriter is uniquely
traceable - Some models of typewriter including the Triumph Adler are designed
so that each specific unit creates a unique "handwriting" traceable to that one
alone.
However... Typewriters can be spied upon - In 1952, the FBI analyzed the
ribbon of a typewriter used by CIA officer Aldrich Ames – actually a double
agent for the KGB – to unearth plans for a clandestine meeting in Venezuela.
And in 1985 Soviet spies installed secret "keystroke loggers" and antennas in at
least 13 typewriters in the US Embassy in Moscow to detect and transmit the
typing patterns of embassy secretaries. The same technology is used more
broadly today by criminals to steal passwords and credit card details. And of
course, paper documents are still unreliable - they can be stolen or
photographed, or go up in smoke in case of a fire. There is also the matter of
human error – the history of intelligence is rife with examples of spies leaving
briefcases of classified documents in public places, or in the company of
friendly "honey trap" agents...
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