Ryan Fogle, an alleged CIA officer being detained by Russian counterintelligence after his cover was "blown" (Source: AFP) |
A recent display of good "cover" discipline came coincidentally during an exchange with a "hacktivist" known as The Jester and Jeff Bardin, a leading information security expert. The Jester and Bardin engaged in a phony confrontation regarding The Jester's alleged betrayal of Bardin's "cover" during an information security intelligence operation. The "feud" ended with Bardin "revealing" The Jester's "real" name which was actually a "cover" he developed for this operation over two years ago. It was very elaborate but according to those involved, it was a success.
Here's a snippet from The Jester and Bardin's "feud":
@th3j35t3r Fix in DM my ass. YOU blew my op and and exposed my resources. It is time your shit was blown.The Jester posted this with regards to his "cover" on another website:
— Treadstone 71 (@Treadstone71LLC) May 9, 2013
For just such an occasion.....
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On the 1st July 2011 - I myself left this on pastebin >> http://goo.gl/JtI46
I also purposely left this in source code of my blog: http://goo.gl/8lwUC
Later I created this: http://goo.gl/S0UAb
and to bolsert I also created this http://goo.gl/O7EtX
It's taken almost 2 years for anyone to spot the deliberate mistake. Well Done.
He doesn't exist. It's a decoy. Good to know who's who though. Thanks.
You will notice the meticulousness of the preparation involved in developing a good cover. The Jester has been active for a few years and has yet to be successfully unmasked because of his adherence to good "cover discipline".
I'm not an intelligence expert nor have I ever claimed to be. However, I have studied intelligence gathering and espionage for quite some time. What I have learned is that spies on rely on secrecy, deception, and disguise to conduct clandestine operations. In order to be successful, spies must "live, eat, and breathe" their cover story. As it's stated in this article, "Cover is a mosaic, it's a puzzle," said James Marcinkowski, a former CIA case officer who attended the dinner. "Every piece is important [to protect] because you don't know which pieces the bad guys are missing."
For more information on "cover":
http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/explainer/2003/09/how_deep_is_cia_cover.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-official_cover
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4757713
http://seattletimes.com/html/nationworld/2002400477_ciaculture25.html