CHAPTER

The art of writing and passing on secret messages is vital in a world where information means power.

evidence to suggest that coded messages were used as far back as Roman times. Codes and I I vl~lology methods have been developed enormously since then, principally for use in military operations. 1 111 111t: most part, spies and agents were the first to use such codes and little has changed today.
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be passed covertly between the handler and the ir always the possibility that the opposition might detect the II.IIII~I~ ,IIIC~ intercept the message. To this end, all messages should be 1 1 ~ 1 I1 III ~ ~ IIIII! form or another. Many ingenious devices have been used I 1111. vlb,lls to enable governments, the military and spies to pass I .II~I~ 011c - . of the more widely known devices was the World War II I ,I I I I I. 11I I IIII!III;~ machine. Both Britain and America dispatched teams of 1 1 1 111 ~~ltlc\r to capture an Enigma unit so that they could learn its I I .II111 IIW any information they obtained to their advantage. 111 1 1 1 1 1 s l t a , complexity, the Enigma machine's weakness lay in the fact 1 1 1 11 II I 11tl11 rould be deciphered, even though this took an enormous 111111 I 111,lin reason for this was simple; the coding and decoding I # l o I 11 w,ll, ;I systematic and structured process. This meant that, no a IIII~I I II iw ( on\plicated the system was, it could still be broken. In order 1 . ~ 1 I I III~III~: *.vt,IPm to be truly unbreakable, it must work in an I 1 1 1 l1IIIII~II WII~, in other words, randomly. The development of the OneI 1 1 1 1 1 1' 111 I( )I11) wctnt a long way to achieving this goal.
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SAMPLE OTP

PAD 5

- PAGE 17

01 25271 39210 42651 87192 46617 38194 42769 91808 31347 53927 02 69221 67841 74189 24875 01928 04079 88107 39658 80219 52768 03 87301 36533 61098 67823 56430 78871 23310 90312 47820 22495 04 43278 54309 87663 56563 09823 45656 87503 44596 23320 24319 05 39221 67841 74189 24875 01928 04079 88107 39658 80219 52768 06 65271 39210 42651 87192 46617 38194 42769 91808 31347 53927 07 93278 54309 87663 56563 09823 45656 87503 44596 23320 24319

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Ilow TO USE ONE-TIME PADS (OTP)

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011) ,I\ it is ccnerally known, is used for secret Ily ~IISI about all of the world's major intelligence 11%. 1'1~111~1 11~1 ill 1917 drlrinf! lhc First World War, an O T P consists of 1 ~ 1 4 1 I.ISV*. 1 ~ ~ ~ (IIIIIIII~I~I ~ Idor wit11 t l i wholo ~ milking a pad. These ,111'II*.I~I~ o111y OIIII~, 111~11re~ tlio 11,11110 OTP i~1 thr only ciphv~ 1.11 I ,IIIIIIII I,(* II,II kr~tlA1 III~~:III 01 11i(' (oI(1 W,II, 1101 ,I 1' . . I ~ I IIV I ~ 1111, 11(1II w,~.,r I,II k ~ v l l ~ 1111t y AIIII~I/(,III 0 1 111111~.11
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The above is a sample page from a one-time pad. The numbers are generated by random selection; the pad is numbered, as is the page and the line. There are only ever two copies of the O T P , one with the intelligence agency and the other with the field agent. The intelligence agends copy is normally kept by the cipher operator, who works in a high security building, thus ensuring the safety of the copy. Very few people have access to the "pad", neither do they know which agent is using which pad. Only the ciphered message is passed up for intelligence analysis. The field agent will have the second copy. If he is compromised then he will destroy his pad in a special wallet that burns the pad in seconds. Even when the Ibrir\nlyhat, manaced to get their hands on an agent's pad, therc arp ~.~III~)II~ Il 111r 1l1;1t ran bc pill in place to confirm n~~lhcnlit ity II IIII> IIIII~III~!I~III I& ,I~!I$II~V II,I*. 11111 *.li~!l\tc~.,~ 1.11*.l,ic/o11 III,II IIII~II ,I)!I*II~II~I*. 1 IIIIIIIIIIIIII'.I'II, IIII'V wIII .II!IIIIII~I~~I 1 ~ 1 II~~*.III)V 1~ III~IIIII~III
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SECRET CODES

STEP TWO
Choose a line to start in your codebook, in this example we have used line three, and place the number block taken from the vocab book under those in the codebook Next subtract without carrying units forward. Black

codebook, blue vocab book and red = the subtracted numbers.

A sample vocab book

There are many ways in which a numbered code can be deciphered into a simple language. This can either be achieved by starting at a random place in the alphabet triggered by a number or through the use of a common book, such as an encyclopaedia. The most common form is to have a "vocab" book that lists a simple set of names and special letters and which will also provide the user with an alphabet from which he can spell place names that are not in the vocab book We can now translate the following massage using the vocab book above and then encrypt it using the OTP: AGENT WlLL MEET YOU AT GR327903 2 P M 5 AUGUST. HE WlLL GIVE YOU WEAPONS AND AMMUNITION.

STEP THREE
Next add the codebook number, page and line to the front of the subtracted numbers i.e.

These numbers can now be safely transmitted to the agent; they will make absolutely no sense to an enemy unit even if they manage to intercept them.

STEP ONE
Find the word "agent" in the vocab book and write down the three-digit number next to it, i.e. 309. Continue to do this until you have written down all of the digits. Any numbers in the message are simply left unchanged. You should finish up with the following line of numbers, which you should then separate into a block to match those in the codebook, in this example blocks of five:
30931 13073 00319 30532 79032 34253 61310 31131

STEP FOUR
Once the agent has received the message he uses the first block to identify the correct codebook, page and start line. (Agents may well have several different codebooks, using one for each person they deal with). The agent has the only other copy of the O T P code book, so it is a simplo matter of placing the received message, less the indicator block, under the correct line and subtracting the numbers. The sublrnct~clnunlhcrs ~III* rlien brokcn down into blocks of rlircc in order lo finrl ~ l l c r~lc~c~.,il:c> IIOI)I tl~c vo(,ilj Ijook l,ik(> 11111 linw 10 III~cI~I~,I,~II(I liow 1110 t),i,.ir ~ I I I I [ ~ ~ I P ~ Ir~vrrlvc~tl 111 011' WIIC 01111' VIIII II,I\II~ III,I~.~I~II\(~ *.111111.11 11011 V~IIIIO~., 1111~ II,.~I I*. lQ81n.v
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SECRETCODES

SPOTCODEBOOK
#.potcode system can be used either by spies, agents or surveillance IIOI~I~IIO~S. It is a particularly good system as it allows the user to identify a III.I(III I(\;lture, usually a specific place, junction or crossroads. When a spot I 1 1 1 1 1 s ,.v,tem is used for surveillance, it allows the desk operator to know \~lrl11*111 ,111the surveillance operators are at all times. He can also direct foot 11111 v~*liicle surveillance to a specified spot. WIII~IIused by handlers and agents, the spot code system offers several IIIIIIIII~II~C back-up options. For example, if "blue 5" is compromised, both 11 I I ~ I~,~~~ and rllc the r agent will automatically know that they have to meet 11 1 1 1 1 1 i ~0" and so on. This is how it works:
11118

MAKING A SPOT CODEBOOK

The spy may use a street map of his area, which can be easily and cheaply obtained from tourist offices or newsagents in the local area or even farther afield if he's exercising even more caution than usual. Any decent streetmap will do for his purposes. He will also buy some self-sticking coloured spot labels from an office supplies store. To make the spot codebook, he then sticks the spots at each of the major intersections and streets and number them. Then he will make a number of photocopies for each of his contacts, being careful to copy only the exact number of codebooks that he needs.

A ';IMPLE SPOT CODE I\ 11111 I IICIP is normally made by allocating a colour and a number to II 1 1 I I I ~ I ~ O road I intersection. As the surveillance operator drives from I~~l~.~n.~v-rion to another, he simply identifies himself and tells the .I- 1 . IIIII~I,II~ "Nine, ~ . this is Sierra Papa four - towards blue 5'30-35." I 111l.11 ~ l ~ i v ~ the ~ l r :operator , simply adds the approximate speed to the 1 1 0 1 1 1 1 III-. (,111,providing a rough estimated time of arrival at the next IIIII \NIII~II111c area is new to the operator, he will carry a spot o 1 4 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 ~ 111 Ili'; vehicle. However, should this codebook fall into . IIIV II~IIIII*,,i~ will present a short-term security risk. This will I,, . 11.111' ,1111 1 1 ~ $OOI codes being changed and with everyone having 1 a l Ill1 l l l l ~ III~W 1 l~(lP$, 1111 11111 I or111 t.yl,lraln c,in nlqo b r ilscd lo refer to actions rather than III~III 1018,11111111,111row111c clric1my off hilktnrr sliotlld they hc ( l ) ( a l ~ ~"C~PII~I l p l ~ ~ P,11)~1 IOIII Irllllt 111 ~I~.II~II~II~! 10 t l ~ rop(~1,11/011 l I 111,l-111,111a ( I " 11) I(~,IIIIv,IIIO i,~Il(o la. ~.~IIIIII~ 111lll11l: III(I~lo*.k ~O(~I,IIIII
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I INVISIBLE WRITING

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the street and discard an empty packet of cigarettes, a natural process, but the inner paper layer may well contain an invisible message. Despite having been around for centuries, the art of invisible writing is still widely used by many intelligence agencies today. One of the problems with traditional invisible ink is that the author cannot see what they are writing. As a result, the message has to be short and very precisely written. Even when they were writing with an ultraviolet pen, the authors could not see what they were writing and the message could only be seen when the ink was highlighted with a special ultraviolet light. Then, some years ago, the British intelligence service discovered, purely by accident, that a Pentel Rollerball makes a brilliant tool for invisible writing. The rollerball, commercially available in most parts of the world, writes normally on a piece of paper. The writing is then pressed against the piece of paper that will carry the secret message. The original ink dries almost immediately, so to the eye the message paper looks blank However, when it is swabbed with a developing fluid, the message miraculously appears. It therefore allows the author to write a detailed and well-spaced letter in real time and transfer it to a blank piece of paper by what is known as "offset" printing. The transferred message will only become visible when it is developed.

Any clear (not visible to the eye when dry), carbon-based liquid can be used to make invisible ink, milk and lemon juice being the most common. It is best to use normal writing or computer paper, as glossy or absorbent paper distorts the writing. Using an old-fashioned metal nib pen, although a toothpick would suffice, the spy will dip this into the milk or lemon juice and simply write his letter. The wetness provides some idea of he has written, but once the liquid is dry then the writing will disappear. The best way to read the message is by using a domestic iron. The spy will run the hot iron over the paper. Because the liquid is carbon-based, it will turn brown and thus develop his message. Agents have used various forms of heat, such as gently moving the paper over a candle flame, in order to reveal the hidden message.

OTHER METHODS OF ENCODING AND DECODING MESSAGES

CODE WORD
The handler can make a list of code words that he can pass on to the agent; the list may be ten code words long and contain words where only one letter of the alphabet appears (no repeats) i.e. Blackstone. Blackstonc may appear as number 4 on the list. The message may be hidden in a Dl ll or passed as a secret message. By a totally different signal, the handler wlll also indicate the list number, in this case number 4.

MAKING INVISIBLE INK

STEP ONE
The handler will write out the alphabet, next he will write down the codc word followed by the rest of the alphabet omitting the letters in the codcwil~rl
Plaintext: A B C D E F G H I I K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y 7 Code: BLACKSTONEDFGHIIMPQRUVWXY7

STEP TWO
The handler will construct his mcssay;c by !akin!! rlic (odc I(\llrl I)calow normal nlplinbcl I ~ l l ~ Tor r , cxnniplc: I will rncw yo11ill ~ I i o ~ ) , i ~IIii~, k wlll
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SECRET CODES

STEP THREE
The agent, having received the numbers, checks the list for the number. The list may have been memorized to increase security further. The agent then writes out the alphabet, with the code word and the remaining alphabet written underneath. Using the encoded letters he will be able to decode the message.

SYMBOL CODE
Many codes have taken the form of symbols. In biblical times, it was believed that the sign of the fish drawn in the sand was a sign of a believer in JesusChrist. Symbolic writing can be complicated and can take years to decipher, as is the case with Egyptian hieroglyphics. A more downto-earth symbolic code is "Pigpen". This uses a grid system designed in such a way as to allow two letters of the alphabet into each segment of the grid. The shape of the grid containing the letter forms the code.

STEP ONE
A grid is drawn in which all sectors are different. Then the alphabet is filled B in the top left-hand corner, following which in; first in a logical order, i.e. A they can be placed at random. If this is done, then both parties must know the sequence.

IlNGEMlOUS CODES
' I ~ I I Iof ~ the codes that have developed over the centuries have been IIIIIV ingenious and, while these are rarely used today, it is worth looking ,II tlicm. Although the best way of transcribing a message is to use the o~ll)linbet, the alphabetic and figure form can transcribe into symbols or a.1111rid blocks. While the best example of the latter is Morse code, many I~~ti~lliflence agencies have experimented with microwave and other -.I I I I I ~ devices. ~

MORSE CODE
MIII'.I\ Code is just a simple substitution code based on dashes and dots. tl,lcIi ic; normally three times as lnnl! 41% IP dot. The best way to i11~11111 1110 ~ ~ l i I I ~ r ~i~ n to c ( rPpP;It ~ tli~ wo1~1'. to VOIII'.I~II. "dot d n i l i l ~ ~ h " .
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SECRET CODES

STEP TWO
The code is written using symbols, note that the second letter in each sector is denoted by a dot. The encoded message will look something like this. As with any encoded message, word block is best broken up into regular blocks to avoid the enemy decoding the message, should it fall into their hands.

Some simple cipher wheels.

STEP ONE
T o encode a message, the spy simply turns the inner disk to wherever he wishes to Stah He can rotate the inner disk until the A is now aligned w th P. Using the outer disk as his plain text he writes down the aligned letter on the inner disk to form his code. The inner and outer circles need to be carefully aligned to read off.
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ENCODING AND DECODER RINGS

This a very simple substitution cipher, but one that can be used over and over while changing the code each time. Basically it uses two wheels, one that is about 1 cm smaller than the other. These wheels can be made of any material that can be written on. Around the outer edge of each wheel is the alphabet and the numbers 0 through to 9. The clock-face method is most commonly used to ensure that the writing is evenly spaced, so that the outer and inner markings are directly in line with each other. The idea is that the smaller disk can rotate inside the larger.

STEP TWO
It is a simple matter of passing the code to the handler or agent together with the original start place on the outer disk; in this instance P. The matter can be made more complicated by having a more complicated start code, P7-V4-S6. T o decode the message, he first places the inner disk at P and reads off the first seven letters. The inner disk will then be moved to V for the next four letters and to S for the remaining six Decoded message should be kep in blocks.

SECRETCODES

II~III,I~I~ secret. The difference in normal human forms of cryptology and IIIIIB.I~ tl~veloped for computers is simply one of security, i.e. it is easy for a I I III1l11l1c.r to crack a human code, but not vice versa. Most computer III 1~11tion systems belong to one of two categories - symmetric-key 1 III ~yl~tion and public-key encryption. '.v111111otric-key encryption is a secret code based on one individual III 11 II ltm. In order for one computer to send the encrypted message to IIIIII~II~I computer, the second computer must first know the same secret I11 I I)Psecret code is the key to unlocking the information. I II.IIIII)~P:In a simple form, a text-encoded message is sent to another I I l l i ~ l ~ l l telling l r ~ r the user that the secret code is 3. The encrypted process II III 11 l ~ , ~ ~ i ~ changes i ( l l y the alphabetical information letters to 3 places down I I' A omes D and B becomes E etc. 1111.. I., n very simple explanation of how computer encryption works, but 11 III ~ ~ lbe l t l stated that todavs encryption systems are highly advanced. I'IIIIII( k ~ encryption y uses both a private key and a public key. Whereas llv VI II II computer knows the private key, any other computer that wants 1 1 1 1 - r c~mmunications can access your computefs public key. In order to #IlI 11111' incoming message, the receiving computer must have and use 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 ~p~lblic and the private keys.
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Internet or on a disk With the appropriate software and code word, the text can be taken out of the picture. One such system uses the well-known steganography technology that is also used for digitally watermarking pictures. Bitmap graphics consist of pixels that can be modified to store your text. If the altered picture - containing the text file - is then seen by someone else, it will simply look like a normal image. It works by removing or altering some of the bits that make up the picture pixels and replacing them with the text. To the human eye these changes cannot be seen as only insignificant information is removed and this is done across the whole spectrum of the digital image. One of the best shareware programmes for hiding text inside pictures is called StegenlCE and a free download can be found at the following address:

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CIA

zecurity

The Central Intelligence Agency was a late developer in terms of inlernationalespionage, its predecessor, the Office of Strategic Services (055)not beinp formed until 1942. I t officially became known as the CIA in 1947 after the F.lationalSecurity Act was passed and was charged with gathering, correlating, evaluating l a n d dlssemtnatlnglntell~gence affecting natlonal security. Reportingto the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence and the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, most of its operational ability and efficiency can be held accountableby State, leading at times to publii accusations and danininn criticism of its activities. especially in the case of the Iran-Contra affair .and Watergate. Although CIA involvement in both #cases was not proved, deep suspicion still remains as to its responsibility. However, its failures in the Ray of Pigs invasion d Cuba, and, more recently, the debacle over Saddam Hussein's missing weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, have proved damaging. The headquarters of the CIA is situate ' on 258 acres of highly secured land at Langley, V~rglnin. Costing more than $46 million to build, it l i o l ~clustrr t of bulldings house the speclalists th, 11vn1.r II[I l l r r :'I~,OI.IO cmploycns based there. A1 81 11 C D . IIO.?~ nly .ill(11 l h ~ 7i r l ,lnOrmployrcs ore I#.!, I!,!~,?II#~I.. I r , r > l l l $v. .a11<1 An~*tIc,il-~ ~ l ~ l ~ , l r.lilln-. ~ ~ ~ IIIIIIIIII ~ ~ ~ ~ I Ilr lwr< ~ r l ~ 111I*: l . rsm~hct
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