Photo: BBC
The main thing is to catch the “correct” wave
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Radio is still an effective and fairly safe communication channel, the main thing is to correctly decode the signal
During the Cold War, agent radio was often used to transmit information. In the 21st century, with its latest technologies, it would seem that they could invent new ways to exchange secret data. But, no matter how it is, spy radio is still in vogue, according to the publication of the German TV channel ARD.
Radio is still an effective and reasonably secure communication channel. The location of the sender of radio signals can be determined fairly accurately. However, it is impossible to determine who exactly the encoded messages are intended for, because, in fact, any person can receive them. Another question is to correctly decode the signal.
Radio in a suitcase
In 2018, in Salzburg, Austria, a former officer of the Austrian army Martin M. was exposed, who for 25 years sold secret materials to Russia and received 280 thousand euros for this.
During the investigation, the Austrian counterintelligence found an unusual find: a small, rather inconspicuous suitcase. It had built-in electronics, which at first glance seemed rather outdated. With the help of this suitcase computer, Martin M. could establish communication with the Russian military satellite Strela-3, receive and send encrypted messages. In addition, the spy found a list with the exact time when the satellite, orbiting the Earth, was over Austria.
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BBC
Decryption codes
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Are still listening
The Federal Office for the Protection of the German Constitution (BfV), together with the federal police, to this day monitors radio signals from Moscow, notes ARD. Now they are not a series of numbers, read out at a certain time in a mysterious voice – today, signals come in the form of pulses, which can then be deciphered using a code.
The counterintelligence division of the Constitutional Protection Department is confident that there are still those in the country who receive orders by radio. “Probably, they are more like old-school spies,” reporters quoted one seasoned intelligence officer as saying.
In October 2011, German security forces stormed a house in Marburg, Hesse and arrested a man and a woman. Andreas and Haydrun Fullshlag were Russian spies. In the late 1980s, they were sent to the Federal Republic of Germany, where they pretended to be Austrians who were supposedly born and raised in South America, but in reality they were highly qualified spies of the Soviet KGB, who later worked for the new Russian foreign intelligence service of the SVR.
The Full House spouses received orders from their customers in Russia not through encrypted emails or chats, but, first of all, through agency radio. When the police broke into the spies’ house, Haydrun Fullshlag was just sitting at her computer, which was connected to a shortwave radio. When she was arrested, she was still trying to crush the device.
Spouses Anshlag were sentenced to several years in prison, but were released ahead of schedule. “From prison, they were met by employees of the Russian consulate in Bonn. Having received new passports, they flew to Russia, where, as they say, they trained spies, “writes ARD.
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