Russian Spy Ring Is Nothing to Laugh At

If you are anything like me, you have probably been scratching your head at the recent Russian spy saga involving the “illegals,” or a gang of more than 10 spies who apparently infiltrated themselves into American social networks, online and off.

It would appear we are only being allowed to see the tip of the iceberg.

On the face it, or the way it was initially reported, this case seemed to smack of ineptitude, with references to seemingly outdated espionage techniques (like invisible ink!). It has certainly elicited more than just a snicker or two, with some of the biggest laughs apparently coming from the Russians themselves.

The story has led to typical conspiracy theories about which government, government official, or government department stood to gain most from charging the suspects with “conspiracy to act as unregistered agents of a foreign government” and “conspiracy to commit money laundering.”

Not exactly the worst offenses to be charged with for a bona fide foreign spy ring.

So what is this all about? Much ado about nothing? The product of anti-Russian elements in the US security services? Or an elaborate attempt by the Russian oligarchy to embarrass and weaken President Medvedev and his newfound friendship with the US?

The attitude of reporters has surprised me. Many have a tongue-in-cheek approach to the story; few actively attack Russia as a whole. Some have expressed surprise that we should even be questioning that the Russians would have “deep cover” spies at all and opined that no real harm was done anyway.

A closer look at the charge sheets and a little bit of delving soon dispels any thoughts that these spies were simply bunglers with odd-ball methodologies. If fraudulent passports, false identities, agent-to-agent encrypted communications, cover professions, and encrypted messages were not enough; if covert communications by private wireless networks, phone bugging, hidden cameras, international money laundering, surveillance, counter-intelligence, radiograms, and, yes, invisible ink, are still nothing to be worried about.. then perhaps the use of “double ringed steganography” will change your mind.

This case involved the most high-profile, confirmed use of steganographic data concealment in real life since the fear of its use by Al Qaeda around 9/11.

It is also clear that social networking played a large part in this saga. One suspect’s Facebook network included top social media venture capitalists, high-tech pioneers, startups in several countries, and online gaming payment systems. Example: Anna Chapman, the suspect in question, was friendly online with the head of business development for Playdom, a Calfornia-based firm specializing in virtual currency systems (and a potential target for money laundering?).

Speaking of money laundering, the “missing” 11th member of the gang, Christopher Metsos, wanted for that offense, jumped bail after being arrested in Cyprus, which is a high-risk jurisdiction with its own links to organized crime and cyber-crime money laundering.

So, making light of this particular spying incident and downplaying the technology and the implications for social networking is little more than damage control in Moscow and in Washington. Indeed, at least one author says there may be more than 300 active Russian spies in the UK alone.

Regardless of the coverage of this story so far, it is pretty safe to say we’ve been presented with 10 low-level “illegals” in the US, who are tip of the iceberg of Russia’s Web-savvy spying network.