Re: U.S. CIA employee caught spying

On Mon, 18 Nov 1996 17:05:47 -0500 (EST), Tim Scanlon wrote:

>This is on the local DC news;

>Harold Nicholson age 46, a CIA employee was arrested for spying today
>at Dulles airport. He allegedly has been working for the Russians
>for the past 2 years.

Here's a good question to ask: "Why are we getting security policy from the
[un]intelligence agencies?"

What will get mentioned, however, will be: "If he'd been using PGP we'd
never have caught him.  This is why we need GAK!"

#  Chris Adams  <adamsc@io-online.com> | http://www.io-online.com/adamsc/adamsc.htp
#  <cadams@acucobol.com>                 | send mail with subject "send PGPKEY"
"That's our advantage at Microsoft; we set the standards and we can change them."
   --- Karen Hargrove, Microsoft (quoted in the Feb 1993 Unix Review editorial)

At 6:37 PM -0700 11/20/96, Adamsc wrote:

>What will get mentioned, however, will be: "If he'd been using PGP we'd
>never have caught him.  This is why we need GAK!"
>

Or the more positive way of looking at things:

"If he had been using digital dead drops instead of old-fashioned
postcards, and if he'd been using more sophisticated money management
schemes instead of simple deposits after trips to Europe, he might not have
been caught."

(By the way, it's the dumb and/or careless ones who get caught. I surmise
that for every one caught, an average of two are still spying. And they
probably _are_ wiping their hard drives more carefully, probably _are_
using digital dead drops (a la message pools), and probably _are_ having
their fees wired directly to their offshore accounts.)


--Tim May

Just say "No" to "Big Brother Inside"
We got computers, we're tapping phone lines, I know that that ain't allowed.
---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:----
Timothy C. May              | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money,
tcmay@got.net  408-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero
W.A.S.T.E.: Corralitos, CA  | knowledge, reputations, information markets,
Higher Power: 2^1,257,787-1 | black markets, collapse of governments.
"National borders aren't even speed bumps on the information superhighway."