How America's FBI Sabotaged Tech-Stealing Spies from the USSR (politico.com) 27
FBI agent Rick Smith remembered seeing that Austrian-born Silicon Valley entrepreneur one year earlier — walking into San Francisco's Soviet Consulate in the early 1980s. Their chance reunion at a bar "would sow the seeds for a major counterintelligence campaign," writes a national security journalist in Politico, describing the collaboration as "an FBI-led operation that sold the Soviet Bloc millions in secretly sabotaged U.S. hi-tech."
The Austrian was already selling American tech goods to European countries, and "By the early 1980s, the FBI knew the Soviet Union was desperate for cutting-edge American technology, like the U.S.-produced microchips then revolutionizing a vast array of digital devices, including military systems..." Moscow's spies worked assiduously to steal such dual use tech or purchase it covertly. The Soviet Union's ballistic missile programs, air defense systems, electronic spying platforms, and even space shuttles, depended on it.... But such tech-focused sanctions-evasion schemes by America's foes offer opportunities for U.S. intelligence, too — including the opportunity to launch ultra-secret sabotage campaigns to alter sensitive technologies before they reach their final destination... Working under the FBI's direction, the Austrian agreed to pose as a crook, a man willing to sell prohibited technology to the communist Eastern Bloc... [T]he FBI and the Austrian would seed faulty tech to Moscow and its allies; drain the Soviet Bloc's coffers; expose its intelligence officers and secret American conspirators; and reveal to American counterspies exactly what tech the Soviets were after...
[T]he Soviet Bloc would unknowingly purchase millions of dollars' worth of sabotaged U.S. goods. Communist spies, ignorant that they were being played, would be feted with a literal parade in a Warsaw Pact capital for their success in purchasing this forbidden technology from the West... The Austrian's connections now presented a major opportunity. The Bulgarians, and their East German and Russia allies, were going to get that forbidden tech. But not before the FBI tampered with it first...
Some of the tech was subtly altered before the Bulgarians could get their hands on it. Some was rendered completely unusable. Some of it was shipped unadulterated to keep the operation humming — and allay any suspicions from the Eastern Bloc about what might be going on. And some of it never made its way to the Bulgarians at all. In one case, the bureau intercepted a $400,000 order of computer hardware from the San Jose-based firm Proquip and shipped out 6,000 pounds of sandbags instead.... Some suffered what appeared to be "accidental" wear-and-tear during the long journey to the Eastern Bloc, recalled Ed Appel [a former senior FBI official]. Other times, the FBI would tamper with the electronics so they would experience "chance" voltage overloads once Soviet Bloc operatives plugged them in. The sabotage could also be more subtle, designed to degrade machine parts or microchips over time, or to render hi-tech tools that required intense precision slightly, if imperceptibly, inaccurate.
The article concludes that "While the Soviet Union might have imploded over three decades ago... Russia's intelligence services are still scouring the globe for prohibited U.S. tech, particularly since Moscow's February 2022 invasion of Ukraine...
"Russia has reportedly even covertly imported household items like refrigerators and washing machines to rip out the microchips within them for use in military equipment."
The Austrian was already selling American tech goods to European countries, and "By the early 1980s, the FBI knew the Soviet Union was desperate for cutting-edge American technology, like the U.S.-produced microchips then revolutionizing a vast array of digital devices, including military systems..." Moscow's spies worked assiduously to steal such dual use tech or purchase it covertly. The Soviet Union's ballistic missile programs, air defense systems, electronic spying platforms, and even space shuttles, depended on it.... But such tech-focused sanctions-evasion schemes by America's foes offer opportunities for U.S. intelligence, too — including the opportunity to launch ultra-secret sabotage campaigns to alter sensitive technologies before they reach their final destination... Working under the FBI's direction, the Austrian agreed to pose as a crook, a man willing to sell prohibited technology to the communist Eastern Bloc... [T]he FBI and the Austrian would seed faulty tech to Moscow and its allies; drain the Soviet Bloc's coffers; expose its intelligence officers and secret American conspirators; and reveal to American counterspies exactly what tech the Soviets were after...
[T]he Soviet Bloc would unknowingly purchase millions of dollars' worth of sabotaged U.S. goods. Communist spies, ignorant that they were being played, would be feted with a literal parade in a Warsaw Pact capital for their success in purchasing this forbidden technology from the West... The Austrian's connections now presented a major opportunity. The Bulgarians, and their East German and Russia allies, were going to get that forbidden tech. But not before the FBI tampered with it first...
Some of the tech was subtly altered before the Bulgarians could get their hands on it. Some was rendered completely unusable. Some of it was shipped unadulterated to keep the operation humming — and allay any suspicions from the Eastern Bloc about what might be going on. And some of it never made its way to the Bulgarians at all. In one case, the bureau intercepted a $400,000 order of computer hardware from the San Jose-based firm Proquip and shipped out 6,000 pounds of sandbags instead.... Some suffered what appeared to be "accidental" wear-and-tear during the long journey to the Eastern Bloc, recalled Ed Appel [a former senior FBI official]. Other times, the FBI would tamper with the electronics so they would experience "chance" voltage overloads once Soviet Bloc operatives plugged them in. The sabotage could also be more subtle, designed to degrade machine parts or microchips over time, or to render hi-tech tools that required intense precision slightly, if imperceptibly, inaccurate.
The article concludes that "While the Soviet Union might have imploded over three decades ago... Russia's intelligence services are still scouring the globe for prohibited U.S. tech, particularly since Moscow's February 2022 invasion of Ukraine...
"Russia has reportedly even covertly imported household items like refrigerators and washing machines to rip out the microchips within them for use in military equipment."
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:3)
Uh, when Russia was technically superior (Sputnik, anyone?), they suffered from being industrially inferior during the industrial age.
To be sure, the erstwhile Soviet Union achieved many milestones in the beginning of the space age. However, I don't think that was due to technical superiority. Both the East and the West were aided substantially by German rocket scientists and engineers after WW II. I'd say both sides were pretty much equally matched; someone had to be first, and initially it was the Soviet Union. More generally, the Soviets had a robust scientific program, but it was not advanced over anything the west had.
As for being in
Re: (Score:3)
Re: (Score:3)
I don't believe that I have ever been in the office of a professor of physics in an American university, where there was not a set of Landau and Lifshitz on the office bookshelf.
I majored in physics and have a PhD in it. I have several of L&L's books too. Yes, the Soviets had outstanding scientists (and Russia does now) but so did (and does) the West.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Sure, very little spying, like Nortel right?
https://globalnews.ca/news/727... [globalnews.ca]
https://nationalpost.com/news/... [nationalpost.com]
Re: (Score:2, Flamebait)
Meanwhile, Trump's campaign are so fucking stupid that Iran has compromised their email and been watching and learning from their communications for months [politico.com]...
Republicans are too fucking inbred-stupid to be let anywhere near security-sensitive posts or elected offices.
Re: (Score:2)
Meanwhile, Trump's campaign are so fucking stupid that Iran has compromised their email and been watching and learning from their communications for months [politico.com]...
That's what they think anyway. From the article:
The campaign blamed “foreign sources hostile to the United States,” citing a Microsoft report on Friday that Iranian hackers “sent a spear phishing email in June to a high-ranking official on a presidential campaign.” Microsoft did not identify the campaign targeted by the email and declined to comment Saturday. POLITICO has not independently verified the identity of the hacker or their motivation, and a Trump campaign spokesperson, Steven Cheung, declined to say if they had further information substantiating the campaigns’ suggestion that it was targeted by Iran.
So they don't actually know; could have been Hillary Clinton. :-)
Re: (Score:2)
Given that it was Trump's own campaign that suggested it was Iran, I doubt they would have failed to mention Hillary Clinton if they suspected her instead.
Re: (Score:2)
From the article:
The campaign blamed “foreign sources hostile to the United States,” citing a Microsoft report on Friday that Iranian hackers “sent a spear phishing email in June to a high-ranking official on a presidential campaign.” Microsoft did not identify the campaign targeted by the email and declined to comment Saturday. POLITICO has not independently verified the identity of the hacker or their motivation, and a Trump campaign spokesperson, Steven Cheung, declined to say if they had further information substantiating the campaigns’ suggestion that it was targeted by Iran.
So they don't actually know; could have been Hillary Clinton. :-)
Or everything in part or in full is a damn lie. One must accept the default perspective when trying to discern Trump is that he's lying again. For attention, diversion, disinformation, insanity, whatever.
Re: (Score:2)
Or everything in part or in full is a damn lie. One must accept the default perspective when trying to discern Trump is that he's lying again. For attention, diversion, disinformation, insanity, whatever.
Agreed. With Trump and his minions, one must start with the assumption that everything is a lie or, at least, distortion -- or the musings of a deranged or severely diminished mind.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:1)
The story is about things that happened 40 years ago. Lets check history and see if your predictions come true....
Spy vs Spy (Score:3)
Ahh... the feel good stories of the old days.
Everyone still does it... but the methods have evolved, and the stories are less exciting.
Re: (Score:2)
I wish we had more information about the other side of it, when other countries fed us misinformation or thwarted our efforts. It would be fascinating to know more about.
There is a little bit of info on some of it, like the phantom missile gap and the famous Russian hidden, passive bug hidden in a crest, but I'm sure there are many more stories. Especially on the industrial espionage side.
That said a lot of what we do know was rather mundane - they just bought the stuff from intermediaries, much like how Ir
Chips from washing machines is a thing (Score:4, Interesting)
"Russia has reportedly even covertly imported household items like refrigerators and washing machines to rip out the microchips within them for use in military equipment."
It was noticed, almost immediately, that while sales of washing machines to Russia severely declined after they invaded Ukraine, there was a consequent increase in the sale of washing machines and other appliances to neighboring countries. For example, Armenia imported more washing machines in the first eight months of the war than in the two previous years combined [time.com].
The same situation applied to Kazakhstan. They exported $3.7 million worth of advanced semiconductors to Russia in 2022, up from $12,000 the previous year [intellinews.com]. This graph [yahoo.com] shows the sudden and undeniable surge in refrigerator imports into Kazakhstan in 2022.
Soon after the war, chips from dishwashers and refrigerators [businessinsider.com] were showing up in Russian tanks [techspot.com].
With the recent "friendship" between Russia and China blossoming, it is assured China is supplying chips to Russia who is desperate for any western technology it can lay its hands on. This is especially important due to staggering losses of equipment Russia has suffered on the ground [newsweek.com], in the air [charter97.org], and on the [pbs.org] water [bbc.com].
Re:Chips from washing machines is a thing (Score:5, Funny)
Re: Chips from washing machines is a thing (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Interestingly, back in 2008 Finnish National Theatre showed a historical wartime play where Russian soldiers were portrayed by used washing machines, and the Finnish soldiers would whack them with sledgehammers. In this article [yle.fi] (in Finnish), the producers are asking for donations of old machines, preferably strong models from the Eastern bloc.
Another article in English [tinfo.fi] tells more about the director as well as the use of the washing machines:
Smeds image of the enemy -- washing machines, or metal skeletons, that no longer work any more. They are thrown onto the stage from above, and the Finns strike them with large construction hammers. The loud sounds of heavy falling washing machines simulate heavy artillery fire and screeching aircraft flying across the theater. The spinning and turning of the washing machine drums is meant to represent the Soviet blitzkrieg through Karelia
Re: (Score:1)
If it's a Samsung, they can use it as a bomb with little to no modification!
A free blueprint for China's counter-US efforts? (Score:2)
Nice to see the US is explaining to China how to sabotage the tech that the US spies are going to try and steal in the coming years.