This document discusses numbers stations and espionage. It describes how numbers stations transmit encrypted messages to spies using techniques like one-time pads and code tables. The document outlines the anatomy of a message, including call signs, headers with agent IDs and message sizes, figure groups, and redundancy checks. It also discusses who has historically operated numbers stations like the UK, Cuba, Russia and examines cases where spies have been arrested for receiving messages from numbers stations.
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Lecture - Espionage by the Numbers: Introduction to Number Stations - Delft University 2011
1. Espionage by the Numbers
An introduction to Spy Numbers Stations
by Peter Staal
22. Andy Tower
Spokesman British Department of Trade and Industry- 1997
These are what you suppose they are.
People shouldnt be mystified by them.
They are not for, shall we say, public consumption
Telegraph, January 14, 1997
Peter Staal - february 2011
23. Whos behind it / cases
Law Enforcement cases
Peter Staal - february 2011
24. Whos behind it / cases
- Erwin van Haarlem / Vaclav Jelinek
arrested 1988 by British Special Branch
- WASP-network
- arrested 1998 by the FBI
- FBI copied decoding software in 1995
- Cuban Five (arrested 2001)
Peter Staal - february 2011
25. Whos behind it / cases
- Ana Belen Montes (arrested/charged September 21, 2001)
- a Senior US Defence Intelligence Agency analyst
Affidavit: and received her instructions through
encrypted shortwave transmissions from Cuba
Peter Staal - february 2011
26. Whos behind it / cases
Kendall & Gwendolyn Myers - arrested and indicted June 4, 2009
Kendall Myers (agent 202): top intelligence analyst at
the State Department.
Gwendolyn Myers (agent 123 / E-634).
Spied for about 30 years for Cuba.
Peter Staal - february 2011
27. Whos behind it / cases
Meet the Myers
Peter Staal - february 2011
28. Whos behind it / cases
Russian Spy Ring (2010)
Peter Staal - february 2011
29. Whos behind it / cases
Russian Spy Ring (2010)
Peter Staal - february 2011
30. Whos behind it / cases
Russian Spy Ring (2010)
Peter Staal - february 2011
31. Whos behind it / cases
References in literature
Peter Staal - february 2011
32. Whos behind it / cases
References in literature
- Defector / whistleblower
- Declassified documents
- Let the other guy do the talking
- Former employees
- End of the Cold War
- End of Soviet Union
- End of East-Germany
Peter Staal - february 2011
33. References in literature
Spycraft: Robert Wallace & H. Keith Melton
The one-way voice link (OWVL) described a
covert communications system that
transmitted messages to an agent's
unmodified shortwave radio using the high-
frequency shortwave bands between 3 and
30 MHz at a predetermined time, date, and
frequency contained in their
communications plan.
Peter Staal - february 2011
34. References in literature
CIA, Inc.: Espionage and the Craft of Business Intelligence
F. W. Rustmann, Jr.
Peter Staal - february 2011
35. Whos behind it / cases
References in literature
- Defector / whistleblower
- Declassified documents
- Former employees
- End of the Cold War
- End of Soviet Union
- End of East-Germany
Peter Staal - february 2011