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ABSTRACT
Both intelligence operatives and criminals have a constant need to be able to communicate clandestinely, circumventing surveillance efforts carried out by highly capable adversaries. The recent highly-publicized breaches of internet-based clandestine communications technology and targeted malware attacks, in combination with increasingly sophisticated methods for surveillance of internet traffic has arguably resulted in a cyber-denied environment. This paper employs a red-teaming approach to explore how clandestine communications can be structured using platforms that are physically separated from the internet and thus not vulnerable to internet-based surveillance or attacks. Recent developments in computer-based radio software can be combined with legacy radio technology to provide robust solutions for clandestine communications in a cyber-denied environment. Drawing on case studies from the Cold War, contemporary observations of clandestine radio networks in use today, and technical tests carried out by the authors, this paper stresses the importance for counterintelligence and law enforcement to be prepared for a potential shift in how clandestine communications are implemented by both hostile intelligence services and organized crime. Finally, the paper addresses the issue of proactively countering these techniques by presenting concrete methods for use by counterintelligence and law enforcement to detect radio-based clandestine communications and secure evidence.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1 In 2010, the FBI surveillance of Russian spy Anna Chapman detected her use of Wi-Fi transmissions to set up private ad-hoc wireless networks, showing how vulnerable and predictable the use of this kind of technology is (Laptop from Operation Ghost Stories, Citationn.d.).
2 Interestingly, the allegedly Ukrainian station designated as S06s has, according to the station schedule, ceased operations due to the Russian invasion (Priyom.Org, Citation202Citation2).
3 A one-time pad is a random encryption key of the same length as the message to be encrypted. While it is difficult to produce truly random keys, the process provides a very secure and simple encryption method. See for example Rubin (Citation1996).
4 This output power (1 watt) matches that of the American CDS-501 clandestine short-range communications device used during the 1980s (Bury, Citation2012b, p. 122).