Your espionage headquarters for all things spy: spy games, spy equipment, cool links for spies, surveillance how-to and tools, real life spy articles, current espionage news, cryptography, cyphers, and the knowledge to use it all...! For spies of any age.

July 20, 2008

GSSA Spy School Level Three - Steganography: The Null Cipher

One common form of steganography is called a null cipher. In this type of stego, the hidden message is formed by taking the first (or other fixed) letter of each word in the covertext.

Use the first letter of each word in the covertext below (between the names) to decipher the secret message:

Chris~

So, Amy bought every lamp?! Lucky Amy! I've started auctioning decent old unsigned books. Luckily every auction's going excellent! News tomorrow!

~Gareth


(Answer: TNEGA ELBUOD A SI ALLEBAS)

July 19, 2008

GSSA Spy School Level Three - Cryptography: The Pig Pen Cypher


The Pigpen cipher (sometimes called the Masonic cipher or Freemason's cipher) is a simple substitution cipher exchanging letters for symbols based on a grid (or the "pigpen") surrounding it.

Now, using the information above, decode the following message:


(Answer: TOPS EHT SKRAM X)

MORE EXCITING CONNECTIONS:


Special thanks to Wikipedia

July 18, 2008

GSSA Spy School Level Three - Communication Without Words

Hand signals can provide spies with a way to talk to each other without being heard by enemies.

American Sign Language is a system made up of hand gestures, representing words, used by the deaf to communicate. Wouldn't that be a fun way to speak secretly?!

Did you also know you can form the letters of the alphabet with your hands to spell out words? You can! Here's how:
Using what you have learned from above, decipher the following message:

Now you practice! Soon you too will be communicating without words!


(ANSWER: PLEH DEEN)

July 17, 2008

GSSA Spy School Level Two - Cryptography: The Substitution Cypher

Today's lesson in GSSA Spy School is a refresher on the substitution cypher. Do you remember what you have learned? Try to decode the message below using your cypher wheel or this key:

B=A


If you can't remember or have trouble, you can research substitution cyphers by doing a search within this blog on all of our posts about substitution cyphers. Simply type in the words "substitution cypher" in the Blogger search box above our main title, and click {search this blog}. GOOD LUCK! (Answer below)

DSZQUPHSBQIZ JT B GVO BOE VTFGVM TLJMM UP MFBSO




Answer:
NRAEL OT LLIKS LUFESU DNA NUF A SI YHPARGOTPYRC

July 16, 2008

GSSA Spy School Level Two - Steganography: Puzzles

Puzzles are not only clever, but a fun way to pass a secret message!


Try it yourself. Find the following in the word search puzzle above:

.......ACADEMY.............CRAZY.................GET.................KNOW...............SECRET..
.......ADEN......................CYPHER..............HELP...............NOW..................SPY.........
.......BAD.........................GARETH..............JUDGE...........RISK..................TRUE......
.......CHAT......................GEAR....................KID................RUN.....................ZACH...

Once you have found all the words - use the remaining letters to form a secret message!

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _!



Answer:
NEVES TA EM LLAC


July 15, 2008

GSSA Spy School Level Two - Cryptography: ADFGX Cipher



Created by the Germans during World War I, the ADFGX cipher uses only five letters — A, D, F, G, and X. It’s based in a five-by-five grid.

It works kind of like Battleship - if you have ever played that game! The first letter of the sequence referring to the column down and the second letter referring to the row across. So... DF would equal M and FX would equal H.

Using that code, the word SPY would appear like this:
DG AD AA


Notice that the letters I and J appear in the same box. This is because there is only 25 boxes available, and 26 letters in the alphabet! However, the letter J does not get used very often, thus the code is still quite easy to decipher with the key.

Now you try it! (Answer below)


XX GA AG FG AF AF FX FG FA XX FA XX FD

Since some letters appear more frequently than others in words, the ADFGX cipher would have been pretty easy to crack if the same grid was used for weeks at a time.

However, the Germans changed the letter locations in the grid every day, making it more difficult to decipher intercepted messages.

Answer: (TI DID OHW WONK I)

July 14, 2008

GSSA Spy School Level Two - Cryptography: Image Messages

One way to keep a message secret is to use images and a decoder.


Agents can send each other messages written in images instead of letters, as long as they all know which image represents which letter. An enemy would have a difficult time figuring it out — unless they got your decoder! Don't let it fall into the wrong hands!


Now you try! (Answer below)



Share the decoder key with your fellow agents.
Memorize it, or keep it in a VERY safe place.


Answer: (NUF SI TAHT LOOHCS A SI ASSG)

July 13, 2008

GSSA Spy School Level One - Steganography: Messages in Print 2

A note or e-mail to a friend may look ordinary, but in the spy world, things are not always what they seem. If spies have a code system in place, a secret message can be hidden in an innocent letter. Try to find the message hidden in the note below.

Gareth,

Our family reunion is coming up soon. Meeting some of our relatives we have never seen before should be exciting! Is it something you are looking forward to? At the moment, I am, but things may change as it gets closer. The truth is, I have never been to a reunion before, and don't know what to expect. Pool will be one of the activities, dad says, as will a buffet, video games and cards. At least that's what I think he said. 5 times you have beat me in pool, so I hope you are ready for a challenge! See, I have been practicing! You know what that means! There is no escape - ha ha!

Judge

The secret: The first word in each sentence forms a secret message!


Knowing the secret makes the message easy to decode, but to someone who doesn't, the email would just look like two competitive cousins talking about a reunion! (Answer below.)

ANSWER: !ereht uoy eeS .5 ta loop eht ta si gniteem ruO

Definitions: Steganography vs. Cryptography

Steganography is the art and science of writing hidden messages in such a way that no one apart from the sender and intended recipient even realizes there is a hidden message.

By contrast, cryptography obscures the meaning of a message, but it does not conceal the fact that there is a message.

Generally, a steganographic message will appear to be something else: a picture, an article, a shopping list, or some other message. This apparent message is the covertext. For instance, a message may be hidden by using invisible ink between the visible lines of innocuous documents.

The advantage of steganography over cryptography alone is that messages do not attract attention to themselves, to messengers, or to recipients. An unhidden coded message, no matter how unbreakable it is, will arouse suspicion and may in itself be incriminating, as in countries where encryption is illegal.

Often, steganography and cryptography are used together to ensure security of the covert message.

July 12, 2008

GSSA Spy School Level One - The Power of Observation


Powers of observation are probably the most important skill a spy can develop. Being observant is essential to a spy’s work, and can even save your life. You need to be able to notice everything,
including little details that seem unimportant. A good way to practice is to observe a scene, and then test your memory. Study the above picture for one minute, to see how many details you can find, and then answer the questions below....





  1. How many pumpkins are in the picture?
  2. The scarecrow is standing on the left or the right of the picture?
  3. In the picture there is also: a squirrel, an automobile, or an American flag?
  4. The rooster in the picture is facing left or right?
  5. The cart that this scene is posed on is: brown, green, or black?


Now check your answers!
Answers: neerG .5 tfeL .4 galf naciremA na .3 thgiR .2 owT .1



How did you do?
5 correct - You are a top agent in observation!
3 to 4 correct - You did well, but you could probably brush up on your observation skills!
1 to 2 correct - Back to Spy School for you!

July 11, 2008

GSSA Spy School Level One - Cryptography: Messages in Print

If you need to get a secret letter to a fellow spy - you can highlight, circle or bold the letters that form your message in a page from a book, newspaper, magazine, or online article. Then make sure it gets in the right hands!

HOW TO DO IT:
To code:
Select your article, book or magazine.
Highlight, bold, or circle letter with in the message to create your secret message.
Deliver it to the receiver. (Perhaps you can use your pre-assigned dead drop!)

To decode:
Write down all the circled, bold, or highlighted letters in order.
Separate them into individual words...
and.... now you have your secret message!

Try to decode this:

from Profile: Alex Allen (answer below)

Alex Allan, who is seriously ill in hospital, is the colorful head of the UK's Joint Intelligence Committee.

As chairman of the committee, his role is to collate intelligence from MI5, MI6 and GCHQ, and brief ministers.

Mr Allan, 57, is a big fan of the 60s rock group the Grateful Dead, and in the 1980s windsurfed to work along the River Thames during a train strike.

He was appointed to the Joint Intelligence Committee despite having no background in the field.

Mr Allan runs a website for "Deadheads", fans of the Grateful Dead, which features a lyric and song search engine for work of the Californian rockers.




(All answers will now be printed backwards for security reasons!)
ANSWER: thginot 8 ta em teem (meet me at 8 tonight)

July 10, 2008

GSSA Spy School Level One - Cryptography: Reflections


One easy way spies can disguise a message is to write it so it’s readable only when held up to a mirror. Mirror writing is hard to read. This makes it useful for writing secret codes. See if you can read the above message, then hold up a mirror and read the reflection.

Mirror image writing is not a great way to hide top secret information, as it’s fairly easy to decipher. But it’s a good method in a pinch—and especially useful when the words are actually code words for something else. That way, if the wrong person finds the message and deciphers it, they still will not know what it means.

HOW TO DO IT:

Write your message backward, from left to right. You have to write the word backwards AND you have to write each letter backwards in order for it to look perfect when held up to a mirror.

For example, the letters O and V look the same when viewed in a mirror or on paper, but letters like R, L, K, and S have to be written backward.

July 9, 2008

Top UK Spy Collapses


Courtesy of the HERALD SUN


MYSTERY deepens over the sudden illness of Britain's top spy after a neighbor said he was found covered in blood.

Alex Allan, 57, the chairman of the Joint Intelligence Committee, was still in a coma under police guard as doctors ran tests to try to identify what caused him to collapse.

He was found by painter Dominique Salm, who took over the studio in his home when his artist wife of 29 years died of cancer last year.

Neighbors said Ms Salm, 35, told them she found him slumped unconscious and "blood everywhere".

But Whitehall sources blamed pneumonia.

Experts say pneumonia sufferers may cough up some blood but rarely much.

Ms Salm's mother, Sally Ann Salm, said: "Some very serious people have asked Dominique not to comment on any of this until it has been fully investigated and she is doing just that. So am I."

A police source said it was "quickly established there was a medical reason for how he was found. He is being treated as a medical patient, not the victim of any kind of poisoning or other attempt on his life".

Mr Allan oversees the committee analyzing intelligence from MI5, MI6, GCHQ, and other sources.


GSSA Spy School

Starting tomorrow, Gareth's Secret Spy Academy will begin GSSA Spy School, in association with Scholastic, Spy X, and the American Spy Academy. There will be 16 courses offered with difficulty levels of one through four.

By studying the courses as they are offered - you will learn many different spy techniques, that will eventually allow you to complete your on-line Spy X training and receive a printable diploma from the American Spy Academy!

Have fun!

July 8, 2008

Danger Room & Threat Level Join Our Site!

What better way to keep up on what is going on in the intelligence community, with national security, and the world of terrorist threats and solutions than a up-to-date news feed or two?

Well, from the annals of the Wired Blog Network, The Danger Room: What's Next in National Security and Threat Level: Privacy, Security, Politics & Crime Online; have now joined our site.


Check these out!

Danger Room articles:

Threat Level articles:

For the above articles and more check out our new site feed! (Located in our right sidebar, middle. Use menu button to select either Danger Room or Threat Level feed.)

July 7, 2008

The package....

You are a top secret agent...

a mysterious package is delivered to your office...

you open it...


It's a BOMB!!!!

CAN YOU DIFFUSE IT IN TIME?!?!?
(Click here to find out)

July 6, 2008

Cryptography: The Rail Fence Cipher

The original Rail Fence Cipher (also called a zigzag cipher) is a form of transposition cipher that gets its name from the way in which it is encoded. In the rail fence cipher, the message is written downwards and diagonally on successive "rails" of an imaginary fence, then moving up when we reach the bottom rail. When we reach the top rail, the message is written downwards again until the whole plaintext is written out. The message is then read off in rows.

For example, if we have 3 "rails" and a message of 'WE ARE DISCOVERED. FLEE AT ONCE', the cipherer writes out:

W . . . E . . . C . . . R . . . L . . . T . . . E
. E . R . D . S . O . E . E . F . E . A . O . C .
. . A . . . I . . . V . . . D . . . E . . . N . .
Then they would read off the rows, to get the ciphertext: WECRLTE ERDSOEEFEAOC AIVDEN



The modern version of Rail Fence Cipher is created by writing messages so that alternate letters are written on separate upper and lower lines, and are more rectangular than zig zag.

Let's use the words: SECRET SPY ACADEMY

First let's take out all the spaces: SECRETSPYACADEMY

Then decide how many "rails" (rows) you want to use. Let's use 2.

So, starting with the S in Secret, I am going to write down every second letter until I get to the end of the message.

Like this: SCESYCDM

Directly behind those letters I will write the letters I skipped.

Like this: SCESYCDMERTPAAEY

I then put the number 2 at the beginning to tell the receiver how many rails I used - and to know what to divide by.

Like this: 2SCESYCDMERTPAAEY

That is the message that the other secret agent would receive...!


2SCESYCDMERTPAAEY


To decipher an encrypted message, you will need to divide the message (number of letters total) by the number of rails.

Ask yourself this way: How many rails of ___ can I get from ___ letters? (Do not count the number! It is the key!)

The message we created has 16 letters. So let's use our formula: How many rails of 2 can I get from 16 letters? The answer is eight. So your first line should have 8 letters and your second line should have 8 letters.

Then we will write out the first 8 letters, and put the remaining 8 letters directly below them to make 2 rails (or rows).

Like this: S C E S Y C D M
---------->E R T P A A E Y

Starting at the S, you can then write out the message column by column.

Like this: SE CR ET SP YA CA DE MY

Take out the spaces and you get: SECRETSPYACADEMY;
which is easy to break into the original message: SECRET-SPY-ACADEMY

(If for some reason your message has an odd number of letters; first use your formula: How many rails of 3 can I get from 17 letters? Answer 5 (because 17 divided by 3 is 5 with 2 left over.) Use the 2 left over letters in your first 2 lines, and the remaining 5 in your last!) Answer: 6, 6, 5

(However many extra letters you have left over, will be how many lines you have to add 1 extra letter to at the end)

Another example: 4 rails, 15 letters ;(15 divided by 4 is 3 remainder 3) so each of the first three lines get an extra letter and the answer is 4, 4, 3!

(The security of the cipher can be improved by choosing more than two lines to encrypt your message with.)

Now you try it:

2IIFNORAAOETSUTBEKCD

(Hint: Use your formula! How many rails of 2 can I get from 19 letters? Answer 9 (18 divided by 2 is 9 with 1 remaining.) Use the 1 extra letter in line 1 and problem solved!) Answer below!

Try it again with 3 rails:

3KWDIORNLGSWOEEPE

(Hint: Use your formula! How many rails of 3 can I get from 16 letters? (16 divided by 3 is 5 with 1 remaining. So your first line gets the extra letter, for 6 letters in that line and your remaining 2 lines each have 5 letters apiece!) Answer below.

Challangers:

5STCYOALESAIOCECPDSLEARYEAPTREAMCLON

4GSSDYLOPNMSLOIEAKSDEENI




Answers:



it is fun to break a code


knowledge is power


secret spy academy is a cool place to learn


good spies need many skills



July 5, 2008

Spy School: A History of Spy Techniques

Some of the techniques formerly used by spies were clever, some were strange, and some just downright silly. Below are several real spy techniques used by actual spies throughout history! Hope you enjoy them!

One way to send a secret messages is to shave someones head, tattoo your message on his or her scalp, then wait until the hair grows back. Presto! Your message remains safely concealed (until the next haircut). A Greek ruler in ancient times discovered this spy technique. He used the head of his slave as a notepad. Note: This technique is not useful for urgent messages or bald spies... and probably won't make parents very happy if tried at home!

In feudal Japan, the fearsome Ninja were military spies known for 'their stealthy techniques, clever disguises, and general trickiness. In combat they sometimes wore two false heads to confuse opponents, who would not know which one to hit! When pursued, they dropped small metal spikes that could dig into the straw-bottomed sandals most people wore. They could even "disappear" by crushing a hollow egg filled with dust and blowing the dust in the enemy's face, giving them time to escape before the enemy could clearly see again.

During the Civil War; Elizabeth Van Lew was a Southern belle living in the Confederate capital of Richmond, Virginia. Because she visited Union soldiers in prison and spoke openly against slavery, people called her Crazy Bet. In fact, she was one of the Union's most successful spies. She smuggled the secrets she learned out of the Confederate prison in hollow eggshells hidden in baskets of eggs. She kept a secret room in her house for escaped prisoners. She even hid her horse there for a time, in case she needed to make a quick getaway.

When you're about to be captured, it's really important to destroy your codebook. Spies have burnt, flushed, even eaten!, their codes. But make sure you do a good job. In World War I, while his zeppelin was crashing over enemy territory, a German captain and his crew tore their codebook into tiny pieces and sent the scraps fluttering across miles of English countryside. They thought they were safe. But the British carefully collected the pieces-gathering 22 sackfuls of paper-and glued them back together. (Guess the Germans should have had codebook for dinner instead.)

There were many spies during the Revolutionary War. But Anna Strong, a member of the Culper Spy Ring reporting to General George Washington, had an unusual way of sending messages... her clothesline. She hung a black petticoat on her line as a coded signal to her spy neighbor across the bay, who watched the line with his telescope. The order in which she hung the clothes indicated which of six coves along the coast was that night's meeting place.

French captain Georges Painvin was a brilliant paleontologist and cellist. He was also a genius at code breaking. But breaking the super-complicated German ADFGVX cipher during World War I, nearly broke him! Exerting his enormous brain power on the problem was so stressful that Painvin lost 33 pounds and had to spend six months in the hospital to recover.

July 4, 2008

Make a Book Safe


Secrets don't have to be locked away in a vault, you can hide them in plain sight with this book safe!

You might think that secrets need to be be put in a place where other spies can't get to, such as a big safe. The problem with that is, that a safe is known for holding valuables, and crooks know this too!

Sometimes it's better to hide your secrets in plain sight. For this you can modify a regular (hard cover) book to be a great hiding place. It may not be as well protected as in a safe, but the upside is that other spies won't know where to look for it!

What you need to make a book safe:

  • Hard cover book that nobody wants to read anymore (double-check with your parents).
  • Sharp Stanley or Exacto knife (get your parent to help!)
  • Ruler
  • Pencil
Assembly instructions:

  1. Open the book near the beginning, but not on page 1. If needed, you can put another book under the front cover to support it, so the pages in which you are going to cut are lying flat.
  2. With the pencil and ruler, draw a rectangle on the right page. Don't draw to close to the edge of the page!
  3. Now we're going to cut into the book. Cutting is done with a sharp knife and should be done by an adult! Put the ruler on one edge of the drawn rectangle, and cut through the pages with the knife against the ruler. Watch your fingers! Don't cut all the way to the edge of the page, and don't go to deep, as it's difficult to cut, plus you can skip the pages you just cut, and cut deeper from that point on.
  4. After you have cut rectangles out of the pages you wanted, you'll have a void in the book, much like the picture above.
  5. Some like to glue the cut pages together with wallpaper paste. It isn't necessary to hide your stuff though.
  6. Now hide your secrets in your book safe, and lastly put your secret book on a book shelf with many more books. Others won't know where to look for it!

July 3, 2008

The Dead Drop


A dead drop or dead letter box, is a location used to secretly pass items between two people, without requiring them to meet.

Spies have been known to use dead drops, using various techniques to hide items (such as money, secrets or instructions) and to signal that the drop has been made.

The system involves using signals and locations which have been agreed in advance. These signals and locations must be common everyday things to which most people would not give a second glance.

The location (the Dead Letter Box) could be a loose brick in a wall, a library book, a hole in a tree or a shrub in a park etc. It should be something common and from which the items can be picked up without the operatives being seen by a member of the public or the security forces who may be watching them.

The signaling devices can include a chalk mark on a wall, a piece of chewing-gum on a lamppost, a newspaper left on a park bench etc.

For example, Aldrich Ames left chalk marks on a mail box located at 37th and R Streets NW in Washington, DC to signal his Russian handlers that he had made a dead drop. The number of marks on the box prompted some local residents to speculate, somewhat jokingly, that it was used by spies.

The dead drop is often used as a cut-out* device. In this use the operatives who use the device to communicate or exchange materials or information do not know one another and should never see one another. While this type of device is useful in preventing the roll up of an entire espionage network. It is not foolproof. If the lower level operative is compromised he or she may reveal the location of and signal for the use of the dead drop. Then the counter espionage agents simply use the signal to indicate that the dead drop is ready for pickup. They then keep the spot under continuous surveillance until it is picked up. They can then capture the operative who picked up the material from the dead drop.

The dead drop spike (shown above) is a concealment device similar to a microcache which has been used since the late 1960s to hide money, maps, documents, microfilm, and other items. The spike is waterproof and mildew-proof and can be shoved into the ground or placed in a shallow stream to be retrieved at a later time.

Modern dead drop techniques:

On January 23, 2006, the Russian FSB accused Britain of using wireless dead drops concealed inside hollowed-out rocks to collect espionage information from agents in Russia. According to the Russian authorities, the agent delivering information would approach the rock and transmit data wirelessly into it from a hand-held device, and later his British handlers would pick up the stored data by similar means.

A British al-Qaeda related terrorist cell, convicted of terrorist offences on April 30, 2007, used an email account as a dead drop technique. By sharing the account's password, members of the group could write messages for each other and save them as drafts, without leaving a permanent recording by actually transmitting them.

*SPY TALK: a cutout is a mutually trusted channel of communication which aids in the exchange of information between agents.

July 2, 2008

Spy Toys

You want to have the same tools spies do? Of course you do! Whether you are looking for toys for kids - or the real thing you can find it on one of the links listed below:

Have fun! (Hope you get some great stuff!)

Invisible Ink Recipes

Spies often need to send secret messages. Now you can too, with this Invisible Ink recipe and a little top-secret know how!

Getting information and communicating are the two of the most important skills of any spy. If you must communicate by means of paper, you basically have two choices: coding and concealing.

Coding has one problem. Anyone who comes across an encoded message, knows it is a secret message... ...and that you are (most likely) a spy. Your cover could be blown. Not good!

Another possibility is to conceal your message. In other words, make it invisible to the naked eye. But how? You can make invisible ink, and write with that!

******************HOT TIPS!******************

Don't write your message on an empty page. An empty page is strange... why would you want to send an empty page to someone? When people start asking such questions, they may investigate further. So make sure you write a message on it. Something harmless, that anybody may read. Another idea is to write a message with loads of clues that lead nowhere, throwing your enemy off track.

Even better: encode your message first, THEN write it in invisible ink on the harmless message. When it comes to secrecy, there's no such thing as doing too much!

*****************************************************
Invisible Ink Recipes
Recipe #1 - Material Needed:
  • Baking Soda
  • Water
  • A toothpick , fountain pen, or even just a Q-Tip
  • A piece of paper
  • A source of heat (light bulb etc)
Recipe # 1 - The Method
Step 1 - Mix one table spoon of baking Soda to two tablespoon of water. This is your ink solution.

Step 2 - Now take your Q-tip, toothpick or fountain pen and dip it in your solution and write your message on the paper.

Step 3 - Let it dry

Step 4 - To read your message: Hold the paper with the secret writing near a light bulb*
(or other heat source). You will soon see the message appear in a brown color.


*CHILDREN: Be sure to ask your parents for help, as paper + heat can = FIRE!


Recipe #2 - Material Needed:
  • Lemon Juice
  • A toothpick , fountain pen, or even just a Q-Tip
  • A piece of paper
  • A source of heat (light bulb etc)

Step 1 -
Pour or squeeze some lemon juice into a small dish. This is your ink solution.

Step 2 -
Now take your Q-tip, toothpick or fountain pen and dip it in your solution and write your message on the paper.

Step 3 - Let it dry

Step 4 - To read your message: Hold the paper with the secret writing near a light bulb*
(or other heat source). You will soon see the message appear in a brown color.

*CHILDREN: Be sure to ask your parents for help, as paper + heat can = FIRE!

NOTE: Lemon juice invisible ink, while quick and handy, isn't completely invisible. It's a good idea to write on paper that's not bright white. Recycle paper (as used by newspapers) is ideal for this!

July 1, 2008

James Bond 007 - FOREVER!!!


James Bond is a high-profile, dashing secret agent!

If you have ever seen him in his movies, you've probably wanted to be just like him! Now, you too can know everything there is to know about James Bond!

Simply click the title link above to visit mi6 - the home of James bond!

...and if you are interested in having a list of the 007 movies; or just want to know titles, characters or other facts: CLICK HERE

Another good source of information for James Bond or other spy movies is IMDb.com; the greatest internet movie database ever! (Remember: It's important for a spy to have excellent resources!) Check it out!

TEST YOUR KNOWLEDGE OF JAMES BOND TRIVIA: click here to play!