GCN – July 1, 2010

Were alleged Russian spies undone by technology
problems?

Password security needed improvement, too

• By
  Michael
  Hardy
• Jul
  01, 2010

What’s Russian for “geek?” The recently busted
alleged Russian spy ring apparently was in serious need of tech support,
according to published reports.

Their problems included misconfigured wireless networks,
users writing passwords on slips of paper and laptop help desk issues.

“One of the most glaring errors made by one of the spy
defendants was leaving an imposing 27-character password written on a piece of
paper that law enforcement officers found while searching a suspect’s
home,” Greene reported. “They used the password to crack open a
treasure trove of more than 100 text files containing covert messages used to
further the investigation.”

The password gave investigators access to the alleged
spies’ steganography program, a
sophisticated technology used to hide messages in digital files and retrieve
them over the Web. Using steganography, for example, a spy could embed
classified information in the digital code of a .jpg and post it on a blog. Any
changes to the image that the hidden code caused would be nearly unnoticeable,
and someone with the right decoder could download the picture and extract it.

The suspected spies also apparently had recurring problems
with laptops that froze during file transfer, and wireless networks they could
never get configured correctly, Greene reported.

The steganography software the spies used was apparently
outdated, and that, even aside from the written-down password, might have led
to their exposure.

The alleged spies used older software that leaves detectable
traces. As one commentator explains:  “Instead
of leaving behind an artifact of your wrong-doing for the Justice Department to
download, new stego programs use ephemeral channels that disappear when the communication
has been completed. It’s called network steganography. You can do it in real
time, you can transmit huge amounts of data, and you can do it without leaving
behind any artifacts to implicate you.”