The Cold War just got hotter. Deep undercover with a sexy Russian spy.
Summary: Not only do you have a throwback to the Cold War, secret agents, and spies, you also have the hot model Anna Chapman, who is allegedly a secret mole spying on Americans.
Unless you've been hiding under a rock, you know that the FBI arrested 11 Russian spies. According to FBI officials, the Russians were spying on the United States and operating "deep cover" agents who were attempting to penetrate "policy making circles".
It seems so 1974, doesn't it?
It's also interesting and perhaps even coincidental that these arrests happened shortly after Russian President Medvedev met with President Obama. President Medvedev even had the opportunity to experience the life-changing world of 140-character-at-a-time tweets.
This modern-day Russian spy thing is also a great story. Not only do you have a throwback to the Cold War, secret agents, and spies, you also have the hot model Anna Chapman, who is allegedly a secret mole spying on Americans. She even has a Facebook page with 684 friends! (Update: another profile link, with 162 friends -- are people de-friending now?)
It's a great story, but -- perhaps more importantly -- it's almost not surprising. After all, spycraft is as old as civilization and whether or not the "Russkies" are spying for secret information on our nuclear strategy, trying to influence our foreign policy, or stealing high-tech trade secrets, this is what countries and companies do.
A few years ago, I wrote about the worrisome implications of the Mexican theft of White House BlackBerry devices, where an agent of the Mexican government stole BlackBerry devices belong to White House officials while at a conference.
The Russian story is why it's so important that America's intelligence agencies remain fully-funded and continue to improve their techniques, skills, and technology. Mark my words: Russia is not the only country spying on us. They're not even the only "frenemy". Expect our allies to have deep cover spies in the United States as well as our more serious enemies.
Be careful who you trust. But also be aware that the risk isn't just from spies who operate under cover. Companies and government agencies regularly engage in practices so incomprehensibly stupid when it comes to security that it almost makes old-school spying seem unnecessary.
For example, many of our financial services companies (yeah, those jokers) provide access to our confidential financial information to people in foreign countries -- you know, the people we call for customer service. U.S. government agencies routinely outsource IT operations, often to countries not necessarily on our friend's list.
American universities routinely bring in foreign nationals as graduate students and provide them access to the most secret of research projects, and then send them home once they graduate -- complete with all that knowledge.
And, of course, companies like AT&T can't seem to get something simple like an iPhone purchase right, so they send credit card information out via email to, well, pretty much random people on the Internet.
So, yes, the story of hot Anna and her spy cabal makes for good buzz. And yes, there could be more deep cover spies among us. But we need to take real and reasonable precautions as well, and stop going out of our way to sacrifice our own security, outsource our own financial and IT operations, and stop sharing so much information freely and openly.
When it comes to security, the Russians may be our frenemies, but we may be our own worst enemies.
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Talkback
RE: The Cold War just got hotter. Deep undercover with a sexy Russian spy.
RE: The Cold War just got hotter. Deep undercover with a sexy Russian spy.
Uh huh. Tell that to the people who broke the Enigma code. Tell that to the people who worked to break the Japanese JN25 codes.
Those are but two examples. You, and the "historians" you rode in on do not know what you're talking about.
RE: The Cold War just got hotter. Deep undercover with a sexy Russian spy.
Cave dwelling and beyond
[i]A team of historians combed though decades of declassified documents not long ago and concluded that espionage had little to no impact on significant events and the course of history. [/i]
It's about the only thing the English had over the Germans in WWII. As for its ultimate impact, that's always debatable, but let's put it this way: No government would dare leave home without it. That extends back to time immemorial, where Neanderthal spy dwellers no doubt did their thing from cave to cave. ;)
As for Anna coming over to hang out, well... she is easy on the eyes... *doh!*
RE: The Cold War just got hotter. Deep undercover with a sexy Russian spy.
Agreed. Although espionage is also common in place one might think would be safe. Or else how could you explain Armaggeddon and Deep Impact showing off just weeks after another, if you conclude that it takes years to plan and stage a Hollywood flick.
Another case is the WePad and the Cisco Cius. How would those people know what the iPad would look like without inside knowledge.
Last, but not least, the iPhone 4 'leaks' in San Francisco and Vietnam.
And, BTW, let David continue with his rants. He seems to be unaware that the U.S. traded the 11 spies for 4 american guys. Why so few? Did the U.S. had less active people, or were those 4 valued more than the 11 ones. One must never accuse the other of doing what one regularly does. Paranoia is just that...
What is this "friends" stuff?
If you believe what's printed in the newspapers, the country that by far is conducting more espionage against the US government than any other is Israel. But of course, we aren't rounding up nests of Israeli spies. Why is that?
Google "Israeli Art Students."
RE: The Cold War just got hotter. Deep undercover with a sexy Russian spy.
Probably because they have more influence in the great halls than the people supposedly running your country.
It's the tail wagging the dog in the USA
With all that free annual jack from tax paying red, white and blue stiffs, they simply invest a healthy portion of it to buy and place (or sustain) the politicians they want into seats of influence and on both sides of the aisle, just so this privileged and absurd hand-out cycle repeats ad infinitum. Their purchased congressional brats assure that fact. It's a sham of the highest order, one that increasingly compromises our sovereignty.
Naturally their kissin' cousin pals in Hollywood, a close (and closed) knit fraternity if there ever was one, see to it that very little of this gets publicized. The end result: Our stars and stripes fly permanently at half mast in the current age, just below - and in the shadow of - an ascendant Star of David.
Age old tired libels trotted out again
The Russians Are Still Our Enemies
Building nuclear reactors in Iran. Selling all sorts of "defensive" actually offensive weapons to Iran, Syria, and any other troublemaker around the world.
This is a friend?
RE: The Cold War just got hotter. Deep undercover with a sexy Russian spy.
It's called Capitalism. Not that they weren't doing this when they were blatantly Socialist. Got to keep the wheels of the Military/Industrial Machine turning.
P.S. I'm not sure if you can conjoin Tsarist and Communist. It would seem to be contradictory.
RE: The Cold War just got hotter. Deep undercover with a sexy Russian spy.
RE: The Cold War just got hotter. Deep undercover with a sexy Russian spy.
RE: The Cold War just got hotter. Deep undercover with a sexy Russian spy.
It's a good way to make the CinC look bad without getting your sorry butt fired. Too bad McChrystal didn't use this runaround. Lost a good man on that RS fiasco.
As far as a security threat I'm sure these "spies" gave their handlers the bare minimum and a lot of BS just so they could live the life of Reilly in the good ol' USA. I wonder how Siberia will be after a comfortable life in the States. If I was the three letter agencies involved I would of flipped them and used them to my benefit. But then again, apparently their tradecraft was seriously lacking.
RE: The Cold War just got hotter. Deep undercover with a sexy Russian spy.
Handler
Of course they're de-friending now
A story like this
International Students?
Where exactly did you learn that international students get access to secret research projects? You might want to check your sources again.
As an international student at a university department where more than three quarters of funding comes from defense projects, I know how international students are not allowed access. And yes, I have contacts at other universities and know the situation to be the same there too.
So do you see what you have accomplished with a single wayward line there?
On a side note, that above quoted line sounds as if the universities are doing a favor to the students by bringing them in. We all know the know the financial motives behind this act- intl. student fees, state grants et al.
RE: The Cold War just got hotter. Deep undercover with a sexy Russian spy.
http://usspi.org/how-to-save-jobs/research-resources/