How to get secret service grade security
You could be forgiven for thinking that spying is all about midnight parachute drops, Aston Martins and vodka martinis – shaken, not stirred. However, when you strip away all the fiction, spying can be reduced to one word: information.
Espionage is all about acquiring information, keeping it safe and transferring it securely. This makes spies and spying a valuable learning ground for anybody who takes PC and internet security seriously.
In this age of high-speed broadband and information overload, you might expect setting up a secure communications channel to be easy. You'd be wrong. Just look at the Russian agents – coyly dubbed 'illegals' by the FBI – who were unmasked in America this summer. They all had rock-solid cover stories, wads of cash at their disposal and access to cutting-edge spy technology, yet they were unable to keep their messages safe from American counter-espionage teams. We can all become safer surfers by understanding the techniques and, more importantly, the errors made by real life spies.
