When it comes to the attraction of spy movies as James Bond film series, no one can ignore the awesome scenes of highly advanced espionage technology the spy employed. With those modern gadgets and effective communication , no matter how risky crime he did, authorities and police could never catch him up. Are they real or fictional? How possible that idealized plot can actually happen in reality? I have always doubted that for a long time? After reading the article "The tech refresher Russia's spies needed" from Newscientist, I got my answer and learn the lesson of how to be a smart spy. According to the article, FBI charged 1o people to be suspects of being deep-cover spying for Russia. They are found to conceal their messages by using a technique named "steganography"
to hide the messages inside online pictures. Wojciech Mazurczyk, of the network security group at Warsaw University of Technology in Poland, suggested that the kind of technology is quite out of date and attaches many drawbacks. Because a picture can contain merely small amount of data, they have to send a lot of pictures to communicate a decent amount of information. Worse than that, the pictures will appear on email server between source and destination which leave a trial easy to detect. However, the technology was not the real lead of this arrest. The FBI finally found "100 pictures and readable text in them"(2010,¶5) since "the instructions for opening the program ("press ctrl, alt and e") and the 27-character password it required were left on a notepad in a suspect's New Jersey home" (2010,¶6).
One very essential thing I learnt from the story is that we have to also pay much attention to how to cover our traces. Everyone can do anything. But, few people can keep what they are engaging in silence without other people's perception. This qualification should be a top priority in a job description of this occupation, haven't it? How possible that an agent can not well handle with being snooped. Although effective technologies can support missions to success, I think, the most significant factor is the potential of person's management. Using old-fashioned Morse-code signals can be an operative strategy unless you leave the note of its decryption in your drawer or under the pillow.
Since it's hard to keep a secret in the world, being a spy requires no room for negligence and less awareness. Every minute of your actions always counts. I believe many of them are out there in places that we daily see. Look around yourself, they may be your neighbours, people whom you are familiar with ,or incredulously your love ones.
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References
Marks, P.(2010, July 06). Innovation: The tech refresher Russia's spies needed. NewScientist. Retreived July 07,2010 from http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn19131-innovation-the-tech-refresher-russias-spies-needed.html
Last night, I saw a spy.
ReplyDeleteHe moves very fast, jumps as high as tenth floor building.
The answer is spyyyy derman (spider-man)
I appologise for this very dry joke but I can't keep it for myself because this is a happy blogging.
Oh dear, Petch's comment reminds me of the awful riddle in the fourth Harry Potter novel, where he is in the maze for the last tri-wizard champion task.
ReplyDeleteIt's one of the few really weak bits in the whole series of seven novels, which I thought were great fun. I suppose Rowling was a bit limited there by the fact that she was aiming to include children as her audience, and more sophisticated riddle just wouldn't work.
(And that's my couple of minutes of continuous response writing for this comment.)
Petch, it wasn't bad at all. at least, I smile about your joke. ^o^
ReplyDeleteApple, your response writing reminds me to one of my favorite series Chuck, which is about one man, is accidently CIA spy being and in love with co-worker, which is originally assigned to be protector. Both of your article and series show other side of being spy required high technology to cover their identity. Anyway, from my point of view, spy life is very unpleasant because it has to live in pretence and makes you forget what you are.
"incredulously your love ones." (¶ 4)
ReplyDeleteAnd just a couple of days ago I watched Mr and Mrs Smith again, that wonderfully silly movie starring Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie. A perfect example of Apple's idea. But where am I going to find that sort of partner to be unsuspicious of? And now we're in danger of slipping into polyamory again.
(Only about one minute this time, but I did keep writing.)
I can't agree with you more,peter. The character of Mr and Mrs Smith best suit the explanation of that phrase. It is true that suspiciousness is all around us. But a life will be meaningless without the value of trust, don't you think so?
ReplyDeleteAnyway, I love to hear about your personal preference(like watching the two movies you mentioned). It likes I see you were smiling when writing the comment(just only my imagination).
p.s. p'book, I've heard about that series too but I have not seen it yet. Is it interesting?
Maybe I should not miss it.
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ReplyDeletePetchy, your joke made me standstill. It's not suitable in our generation at all. -*-
ReplyDelete