As it is well known secret services are a very well diffused practise, especially useful during war, or more generally in periods of international tension.. In the link below you can find an interesting collection of photos of devices used by various agencies in the world during the 20th century, such as chiper machines, spy equipement, radio, telegraph machines etc...
http://ciphermachines.com/photos/index.php
The argument of this post is related to the ones contained in Secret Services & Spy Sets, Secret Services & Patents: The Enigma Machine, Secret Services & The Enigma Machine, Secret Services & Radio, Secret Services & Cracking Enigma: The Bombe, Secret Services & Bombe 2.0, Telegraph & Morse Code, Minicameras 2.0 and in Minicameras...micro optics at the service of the spies
Showing posts with label MI6. Show all posts
Showing posts with label MI6. Show all posts
May 30, 2013
May 27, 2013
Secret Services & Postage Stamp
The challenge this time is: choose a stamp that talks about the blog theme... and what's better than The British bombe?
It was a wonder of mechanical and electrical engineering. It's function was to figure out the rotors settings for each day's keys, and it was capable to perform that operation in at most 12 hours. From that point, all messages could be read in real time. In all, 210 British bombes were built during the war and all were destroyed at the end of the war, but few of their american evolution, used for analysing all combinations generated by 4 rotor Naval Enigma, in all 121, are still intact and they are still here, remebering us of what a great step toward artificial intelligence it has been done during that period thanks to these machines.
It was a wonder of mechanical and electrical engineering. It's function was to figure out the rotors settings for each day's keys, and it was capable to perform that operation in at most 12 hours. From that point, all messages could be read in real time. In all, 210 British bombes were built during the war and all were destroyed at the end of the war, but few of their american evolution, used for analysing all combinations generated by 4 rotor Naval Enigma, in all 121, are still intact and they are still here, remebering us of what a great step toward artificial intelligence it has been done during that period thanks to these machines.
The argument of this post is related to the ones contained in Secret Services & Patents: The Enigma Machine, Secret Services & The Enigma Machine, Secret Services & Cracking Enigma: The Bombe, Secret Services & Bombe 2.0
May 23, 2013
Secret Services & Spy Sets
Spy sets...I think that they're, actually, one of the most significant evidence of the technological progress of the time spell considered, which in this case is the second world war, because a spy,or more generally speaking a secret agent, doesn't have any certainty about what is going to happen to him, so he needs the best stuff to help him face all the possible scenarios and to work and report even in the most unprobable conditions...I know that now all these problems would make us laugh because of the incredible advance in tech in the last 20, but, at the time still they were a quite compelling issue to solve.
Click on the light blue words to link with pages where you can find more specific description about each single prototype and examples of others similar devices.
Sources:
http://www.cryptomuseum.com/spy/index.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Low_probability_of_intercept
- Spy Radio and Receiver Sets: once again the main problem was to permit spies abroad to comunicate safely and as frequently as possible...To achieve this result all nations developed their own radio, like the RSZ, developped by US Navy around 1943, a small self-contained receiver with an external battery pack in a similar housing, that could be carried on the chest in a canvas case with two pockets; or the URSS Elektron Radio Set, characterized by a output power of 50W, suitable for ranges up to 3000 km and one of the first true spy radios to used a burst encoder in order to minimize the risk of interception and detection by the enemy (LPI). Other examples are: from UK, the Type A Mk. III (A3), a small spy radio set, manufactured by the Marconi Company in the UK in 1944, close towards the end of WWII. It was intended for clandestine operations on occupied territory, by agents, special forces and resistance units (S.O.E); or from Japan the incredible 94-6, a miniature single-valve portable transceiver that was used during WWII, as part of a series of Army radios.
- Covert Cameras or Minicameras: we've already spoke about this item in the posts Minicameras...micro optics at the service of the spies and Minicameras 2.0, but if you wanna go further go on and check the web page in the crypto museum dedicated to them
- Covert Recorders:
high-precision portable minature wire audio tape recorder, which could have been easily hidden under everyday cloathing. As a matter of fact this kind of Covert Equipement, like recorders and, especially bugs, belong more to the post WWII period, around 1950 and following decades, in fact their structure is much different from their precedent, because there were different needs and purposes which must had been considered during their fulfilment. Two exemplar models are the Nagra SN (in the photo), introduced in the 1970, used by both CIA and Stasi and capable of recording in sync with a videocamera, and the Protona Minifon Attaché, a miniature tape recorder, using a magnetic tape which was organized into cassetes produced by the Protona GmbH, since the Philips Compact Cassettes weren't yet available.- Burst Encoders: device that allows messages to be stored on a recording medium first. The pre-recorded message is then sent over the air at very high speed using a play-back device. Many solutions were developed, using a variety of media, such as paper, audio tape, metal tape, mechanical drums and even photographic film. Messages that are sent this way often sound like a short tone or burst, which is why it is called a Burst Transmission.
- Bugs: Once again we're making a step forward in history, of 15-20 years more or less, but still its important to define them as a foundamental element of the spy set. One of the earliest sample of this incredible piece of technology is the KBG bug, a small radio bug, introduced around 1964 , with dimensions 72x23x10 mm, so really small, as it can be inferred by the photo below... but there were smaller and more sophisticated prototypess such as the PS-006, a bollpiont bug developped in the 80's and with a small radious of action, only 25 m due to the small voltage
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Click on the light blue words to link with pages where you can find more specific description about each single prototype and examples of others similar devices.
Sources:
http://www.cryptomuseum.com/spy/index.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Low_probability_of_intercept
May 17, 2013
Maps & Secret Services
Our professor Vittorio Marchis suggested to find a carthography which was coherent with our blog theme and so I've founded not one but three maps, two of which are complementary, that in my opinion are a resumè of what my blog represents:
The first map describe the Organization of the buildings in Bletchley Park in different operating areas, meanwhile the second one depict the pattern followed by not yet analyzed messages
In the link below you can find a google map which illustrates the different positions assumed, in the course of time, by the SIS' Headquartes, the neuralgic centre of all inteligence operations. Londonhttps://maps.google.it/maps/ms?msid=210910011879806218578.0004dc6e3a581c0ae61ba&msa=0
The argument of this post is related to the ones contained in The Art in the Agency and in SIS, aka MI6...A little bit of History.
The first map describe the Organization of the buildings in Bletchley Park in different operating areas, meanwhile the second one depict the pattern followed by not yet analyzed messages
In the link below you can find a google map which illustrates the different positions assumed, in the course of time, by the SIS' Headquartes, the neuralgic centre of all inteligence operations. Londonhttps://maps.google.it/maps/ms?msid=210910011879806218578.0004dc6e3a581c0ae61ba&msa=0
64 Victoria Street - 1909
Ashley Mansions - 1909 'till 1911
Whitehall Court - 1911 'tll 1919
Melbury Road - 1919 'till 1926
Broadway Building - 1926 'till 1964
Century House - 1964 'till 1994
Vauxhall Cross (HQ) - 1994 'till present day
Curiosity: SIS HQ features in several Bond films, like GoldenEye, The World is Not Enough, Die Another Day and Skyfall. The production company, Eon Productions, filmed several sequences outside Vauxhall Cross in cooperation with SIS. The most impressive involved an explosion which causes a large hole in the side of the building and a speed boat launching into the Thames, this was actually filmed using a 50 foot high model of Vauxhall Cross constructed at Pinewood Studios.
The argument of this post is related to the ones contained in The Art in the Agency and in SIS, aka MI6...A little bit of History.
Source:
https://www.sis.gov.uk/our-history/buildings.htmlMay 11, 2013
The Art in the Agency
Few paintings, by James Hart Dyke, from Art Exhibition about SIS entitled "A Year with the MI6" is held in the Mount Street Gallery in London
Source:
https://www.sis.gov.uk/our-history/centenary/a-year-with-mi6-art-exhibition.html
Battersea Power Station
Street scene in Kabul
The HQ
Entrance Hall
Waiting in the hotel room
Contrasts
Going for a meeting
Early orning view over Kabul
Line Drawing
Station
Mansfield CUMMING (1st SIS Chief)
The argument of this post is related to the ones contained in Maps & Secret Services and in SIS, aka MI6...A little bit of History.
Source:
https://www.sis.gov.uk/our-history/centenary/a-year-with-mi6-art-exhibition.html
May 9, 2013
SIS, aka MI6...A little bit of History
As I've already said in the post Secrecy...Pro & Con cryptography departements have a story that dates back in ancient times...but if it's of proprer organizations, meaning agency, that we're talking about, the're first appereance is way more tardive....In particular, in the case of the SIS, the foundation year, as reported by the agency itself, is the 1909 with the Name of Secret Services Bureau, as a response to the continuous and threatening expansion of the German military and naval army, but its exhistance hadn't been revealed until the 1994 even if rumors were already spread by the publication of the literary succes of the James Bond Series by Ian Flemming.
(further description about this episode can be found in the first chapter of The Code book, by Simon Singh)
The SIS is a the military inteligence section 6 (MI6), and it is divided its self in braches in which the S.O.E. (Special Operations Executive) was included and that still includes the G.C.H.Q, the unit responsible for Signal Inteligence (SIGINT) and information insurance, and the G.C.&C.S., the code-breacking division creating during the WWII.
If you want to discover all the incredible men who took the lead of this incredible department:
https://www.sis.gov.uk/our-history/previous-chiefs.html
It is possible to find more information about the Historical Events affected by the work of the SIS checking the two links below:
https://www.sis.gov.uk/our-history.html
http://www.redicecreations.com/article.php?id=3683
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secret_Intelligence_Service
Or in alternative in the book
MI6: The history of the Secret Inteligence Service from 1909-1949, by Prof. Keith JEFFERY, [click on the title for a preview]
May 8, 2013
The Secret Intelligence Service (SIS)...Books' Point of View
Following a list of quotes from both books but all regarding the same argument: the SIS organization, also known as S.O.E., or MI6 or The Firm (just in Pynchon's book)...Enjoy...
Pirate Prentice is a strange talent for—well, for getting inside the fantasies of others: being able, actually, to take over the burden of managing them, in this case those of an exiled Rumanian royalist who may prove needed in the very near future. It is a gift the Firm has found uncommonly useful: at this time mentally healthy leaders and other historical figures are indispensable. What better way to cup and bleed them of excess anxiety than to get someone to take over the running of their exhausting little daydreams for them ... to live in the tame green lights of their tropical refuges, in the breezes through their cabanas, to drink their tall drinks, changing your seat to face the entrances of their public places, not letting their innocence suffer any more than it already has ... to get their erections for them, at the oncome of thoughts the doctors feel are inappropriate
So of course when Pirate makes the mistake of verifying the fantasy with Loaf, it's not very long at all before higher echelons know about it too. Into the dossier it goes, and eventually the Firm, in Their tireless search for negotiable skills, will summon him under Whitehall, to observe him in his trances across the blue baize fields and the terrible paper gaming, his eyes rolled back into his head reading old, glyptic old graffiti on his own sockets. . . .
The first few times nothing clicked. The fantasies were O.K. but belonged to nobody important. But the Firm is patient, committed to the Long Run as They are.
Novi Pazar, anyhow, was still a croix mystique on the palm of Europe, and EO. finally decided to go to the Firm for help. The Firm knew just the man.
Early in 1939, he was discovered mysteriously suffocated in a bathtub full of tapioca pudding, at the home of a Certain Viscountess. Some have seen in this the hand of the Firm.
It's as useful to him as he is to the Firm—who, it is well known, will use anyone, traitors, murderers, perverts, Negroes, even women, to get what They want. They may not've been that sure of Pirate's usefulness at first, but later, as it developed, They were to grow very sure, indeed.
His best guess is that Mexico only now and then supports the Firm's latest mania, known as Operation Black Wing, in a statistical way—analyzing what foreign-morale data may come in, for instance— but someplace out at the fringes of the enterprise, as indeed Pirate finds himself here tonight, acting as go-between for Mexico and his own roommate Teddy Bloat.
There's now been no word of Slothrop for nearly a month, since the fumbling asses in military intelligence lost him in Zurich. Pointsman is a bit browned-off with the Firm. His clever strategy appears to've failed
No one has ever left the Firm alive, no one in history—and no one ever will.
The Firm know perfectly well that you've come here. They'll expect a full report from you now. Either voluntary or some other way.
They will not understand, the gently bred maniacs of S.O.E. ah very good, Captain rattling sitreps, shuffling boots, echoes off of Government eyeglasses jolly good and why not do it actually for us sometime at the Club. . . . Pirate wants Their trust, the good-whisky-and-cured-Latakia scent of Their rough love.
Well: he guesses They have euchred Mexico into some such Byzantine exercise, probably to do with the Americans.
Like every young man growing up in England, he was conditioned to get a hardon in the presence of certain fetishes, and then conditioned to feel shame about his new reflexes. Could there be, somewhere, a dossier, could They (They?) somehow have managed to monitor everything he saw and read since puberty . . . how else would They know?
Everybody was waiting around for a Captain Prentice from S.O.E. (those
prickly bastards take their time about everything), who does presently show up. Slothrop
gets a glimpse— windburned face, big mean mother. Prentice takes the cylinder, drives
away, and that's that.
Pirate Prentice of the S.O.E. came back with the first hard intelligence that
there were indeed in Germany real Africans, Hereros, ex-colonials from South-West
Africa, somehow active in the secret-weapons program
Squalidozzi did show up again though, in Bremerhaven. He had just been chased
across what was left of Germany by British Military Intelligence, with no idea why.
For some reason now, she who never laughs has become the top surface of a deep,
rising balloon of laughter. Later as she's about to go to sleep, she will also whisper,
"Laughing," laughing again.
He will want to say, "Oh, They let you," but then again maybe They don't. But the Katje
he's talking to is already gone, and presently his own eyes have closed.
Pirate Prentice is a strange talent for—well, for getting inside the fantasies of others: being able, actually, to take over the burden of managing them, in this case those of an exiled Rumanian royalist who may prove needed in the very near future. It is a gift the Firm has found uncommonly useful: at this time mentally healthy leaders and other historical figures are indispensable. What better way to cup and bleed them of excess anxiety than to get someone to take over the running of their exhausting little daydreams for them ... to live in the tame green lights of their tropical refuges, in the breezes through their cabanas, to drink their tall drinks, changing your seat to face the entrances of their public places, not letting their innocence suffer any more than it already has ... to get their erections for them, at the oncome of thoughts the doctors feel are inappropriate
So of course when Pirate makes the mistake of verifying the fantasy with Loaf, it's not very long at all before higher echelons know about it too. Into the dossier it goes, and eventually the Firm, in Their tireless search for negotiable skills, will summon him under Whitehall, to observe him in his trances across the blue baize fields and the terrible paper gaming, his eyes rolled back into his head reading old, glyptic old graffiti on his own sockets. . . .
The first few times nothing clicked. The fantasies were O.K. but belonged to nobody important. But the Firm is patient, committed to the Long Run as They are.
Novi Pazar, anyhow, was still a croix mystique on the palm of Europe, and EO. finally decided to go to the Firm for help. The Firm knew just the man.
Early in 1939, he was discovered mysteriously suffocated in a bathtub full of tapioca pudding, at the home of a Certain Viscountess. Some have seen in this the hand of the Firm.
It's as useful to him as he is to the Firm—who, it is well known, will use anyone, traitors, murderers, perverts, Negroes, even women, to get what They want. They may not've been that sure of Pirate's usefulness at first, but later, as it developed, They were to grow very sure, indeed.
His best guess is that Mexico only now and then supports the Firm's latest mania, known as Operation Black Wing, in a statistical way—analyzing what foreign-morale data may come in, for instance— but someplace out at the fringes of the enterprise, as indeed Pirate finds himself here tonight, acting as go-between for Mexico and his own roommate Teddy Bloat.
There's now been no word of Slothrop for nearly a month, since the fumbling asses in military intelligence lost him in Zurich. Pointsman is a bit browned-off with the Firm. His clever strategy appears to've failed
No one has ever left the Firm alive, no one in history—and no one ever will.
Well: he guesses They have euchred Mexico into some such Byzantine exercise, probably to do with the Americans.
Like every young man growing up in England, he was conditioned to get a hardon in the presence of certain fetishes, and then conditioned to feel shame about his new reflexes. Could there be, somewhere, a dossier, could They (They?) somehow have managed to monitor everything he saw and read since puberty . . . how else would They know?
Everybody was waiting around for a Captain Prentice from S.O.E. (those
prickly bastards take their time about everything), who does presently show up. Slothrop
gets a glimpse— windburned face, big mean mother. Prentice takes the cylinder, drives
away, and that's that.
Pirate Prentice of the S.O.E. came back with the first hard intelligence that
there were indeed in Germany real Africans, Hereros, ex-colonials from South-West
Africa, somehow active in the secret-weapons program
Squalidozzi did show up again though, in Bremerhaven. He had just been chased
across what was left of Germany by British Military Intelligence, with no idea why.
For some reason now, she who never laughs has become the top surface of a deep,
rising balloon of laughter. Later as she's about to go to sleep, she will also whisper,
"Laughing," laughing again.
He will want to say, "Oh, They let you," but then again maybe They don't. But the Katje
he's talking to is already gone, and presently his own eyes have closed.
[Gravity's Rainbow, Thomas PYNCHON, ]
Also there, to Lloyd’s surprise, was Major Lowther, who had been in charge of the intelligence
course at Tŷ Gwyn, and had been snootily disapproving – or perhaps just envious – of Lloyd’s
friendship with Daisy.
Lloyd knew that Lowthie had been posted to the British Embassy in Madrid, and guessed he
worked for MI6, the Secret Intelligence Service, but he would not have expected to see him this far from the capital.
[Winter of the World, Ken FOLLET]
The argument of this post is related to the ones contained in Maps & Secret Services, The Art in the Agency and in SIS, aka MI6...A little bit of History.
Also there, to Lloyd’s surprise, was Major Lowther, who had been in charge of the intelligence
course at Tŷ Gwyn, and had been snootily disapproving – or perhaps just envious – of Lloyd’s
friendship with Daisy.
Lloyd knew that Lowthie had been posted to the British Embassy in Madrid, and guessed he
worked for MI6, the Secret Intelligence Service, but he would not have expected to see him this far from the capital.
[Winter of the World, Ken FOLLET]
The argument of this post is related to the ones contained in Maps & Secret Services, The Art in the Agency and in SIS, aka MI6...A little bit of History.
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