cia – Noise

Part Four of The Kryptos Sculpture

Bruce Schneier — Fri, 24 Oct 2025 11:01:14 +0000

Two people found the solution. They used the power of research, not cryptanalysis, finding clues amongst the Sanborn papers at the Smithsonian’s Archives of American Art. This comes as an awkward time, as Sanborn is auctioning off the solution. T...

Jim Sanborn Is Auctioning Off the Solution to Part Four of the Kryptos Sculpture

Bruce Schneier — Thu, 21 Aug 2025 11:02:28 +0000

Well, this is interesting:

The auction, which will include other items related to cryptology, will be held Nov. 20. RR Auction, the company arranging the sale, estimates a winning bid between $300,000 and $500,000.

Along with the original handwritten plain text of K4 and other papers related to the coding, Mr. Sanborn will also be providing a 12-by-18-inch copper plate that has three lines of alphabetic characters cut through with a jigsaw, which he calls “my proof-of-concept piece” and which he kept on a table for inspiration during the two years he and helpers hand-cut the letters for the project. The process was grueling, exacting and nerve wracking. “You could not make any mistake with 1,800 letters,” he said. “It could not be repaired.”...

Tradecraft in the Information Age

Bruce Schneier — Fri, 11 Jul 2025 16:06:26 +0000

Long article on the difficulty (impossibility?) of human spying in the age of ubiquitous digital surveillance.

Story of an Undercover CIA Agent who Penetrated Al Qaeda

Bruce Schneier — Wed, 21 Aug 2024 13:56:29 +0000

Rolling Stone has a long investigative story (non-paywalled version here) about a CIA agent who spent years posing as an Islamic radical. Unrelated, but also in the “real life spies” file: a fake Sudanese diving resort run by Mossad.

Details of a Phone Scam

Bruce Schneier — Wed, 21 Feb 2024 12:08:56 +0000

First-person account of someone who fell for a scam, that started as a fake Amazon service rep and ended with a fake CIA agent, and lost $50,000 cash. And this is not a naive or stupid person. The details are fascinating. And if you think it couldn&#82...

Speaking to the CIA’s Creative Writing Group

Bruce Schneier — Fri, 19 Jan 2024 12:21:13 +0000

This is a fascinating story.

Last spring, a friend of a friend visited my office and invited me to Langley to speak to Invisible Ink, the CIA’s creative writing group.

I asked Vivian (not her real name) what she wanted me to talk about.

She said that the topic of the talk was entirely up to me.

I asked what level the writers in the group were.

She said the group had writers of all levels.

I asked what the speaking fee was.

She said that as far as she knew, there was no speaking fee.

What I want to know is, why haven’t I been invited? There are nonfiction writers in that group...

Security Vulnerabilities in Covert CIA Websites

Bruce Schneier — Fri, 30 Sep 2022 14:19:16 +0000

Back in 2018, we learned that covert system of websites that the CIA used for communications was compromised by—at least—China and Iran, and that the blunder caused a bunch of arrests, imprisonments, and executions. We’re now learning that the CIA is still “using an irresponsibly secured system for asset communication.”

Citizen Lab did the research:

Using only a single website, as well as publicly available material such as historical internet scanning results and the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine, we identified a network of 885 websites and have high confidence that the United States (US) Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) used these sites for covert communication...

Long Story on the Accused CIA Vault 7 Leaker

Bruce Schneier — Mon, 06 Jun 2022 15:33:36 +0000

Long article about Joshua Schulte, the accused leaker of the WikiLeaks Vault 7 and Vault 8 CIA data. Well worth reading.

Secret CIA Data Collection Program

Bruce Schneier — Tue, 15 Feb 2022 15:56:30 +0000

Two US senators claim that the CIA has been running an unregulated — and almost certainly illegal — mass surveillance program on Americans. The senator’s statement. Some declassified information from the CIA. No real details yet.

Swiss-Swedish Diplomatic Row Over Crypto AG

Bruce Schneier — Tue, 06 Oct 2020 11:11:31 +0000

Previously I have written about the Swedish-owned Swiss-based cryptographic hardware company: Crypto AG. It was a CIA-owned Cold War operation for decades. Today it is called Crypto International, still based in Switzerland but owned by a Swedish company.

It’s back in the news:

Late last week, Swedish Foreign Minister Ann Linde said she had canceled a meeting with her Swiss counterpart Ignazio Cassis slated for this month after Switzerland placed an export ban on Crypto International, a Swiss-based and Swedish-owned cybersecurity company.

The ban was imposed while Swiss authorities examine long-running and explosive claims that a previous incarnation of Crypto International, Crypto AG, was little more than a front for U.S. intelligence-gathering during the Cold War...