[Spooks] Spooks Digest, Vol 78, Issue 26

[Ryan Foster]

None of this is relevant mate.  No agency worth their salt would give their
ops the same pad.  Your not broadcasting messages to all agents, your
broadcasting random numbers to all but one agent.



On Tue, Jul 27, 2010 at 9:56 AM, The Doctor <drwho at virtadpt.net> wrote:

>
> > The only problem is that, the moment the handlers learned of the arrests,
> > they would change the one-time pads, making the old ones useless.
>
> That brings another problem: distributing the new 'pads to field
> operatives.  That means additional risk, at the very least of connecting
> handlers to operatives.
>
> > It would be interesting to note if there was more traffic on the Russian
> > numbers stations in the days following the arrests, notifying other
> agents
> > not caught in the net of the changes......
>
> That could potentially leak more information to a traffic analysis
> attack (stimulus-response).  One might think that they would avoid
> tipping their hand in such a way.
>
> The compromise of field operatives seems like it would be a contingency
> covered during planning, with a specialized message already worked out
> and ready to go ("PRIMARY TEAM CAPTURED GO TO GROUND STOP", or "If you
> ever see this sequence of numbers don't decode it, it means that we've
> lost field agents.  Sit tight until you see this sequence of numbers and
> then start decrypting messages again starting with the next one.")
>
>