Alleged Russian spies used WiFi and pre-paid cellphones, got caught anyways
By Joseph L. Flatley 
posted July 5th 2010 6:29PM
posted July 5th 2010 6:29PM
Are the new crop of Russian spies nerds like us? We doubt it (we probably have more in common with Lil Wayne than a certain "Anna Chapman," if that is her real name). How do they do their dirty work, then? Apparently their kit is mostly off-the-shelf: including laptops and flash memory cards. According to the FBI, two of the recently accused perps would meet at a coffee shop in Manhattan every Wednesday, where one would sit inside, while they other passed by in a van. When in range, they would connect over WiFi and transfer encrypted communications over their network. (The FBI was able to sniff this out using commercial software. Had they used ultra-wideband radio, however, the investigator's task would probably have been all but impossible). It's also believed that the spies used pre-paid cellphones to communicate. One such unit, purchased by Chapman, had the following listed for her address: 99 Fake Street. It just goes to show you that all the gadgetry in the world will not protect you from your lack of common sense.
Yay mother Russia. Your language and yoyr women are beautiful.
on another note, I never watched spies like us. is it worth watching?
@jappleng
The movie is funny as hell!
@jappleng
yes.
@lrn2swim @pspitts that's good enough for me :) But I swear if it's all a lie I will force you both to watch lost in translation twelve times in a row.
Amazing how we can find these spies but we can't seem to deal with the 14 million illegals in this country. Complete GOP crap!!!!!
Seems like you could gather a lot more intel off the interwebs than trying to get invited to a cocktail party.
Seriously, I think all the post 9-11 monitoring is catching more than just would-be terrorists.
Ed
"commercial software"?.........backtrack lol
"anyways" "Did you even graduate from elementary school, making "anyway" plural shows what a moron you are Joseph L. Flatley. The internet generation is getting dumber and dumber, thanks to morons like you.
@cafields thanks. I was going to say something.. but you summed it up nicely.
@cafields
And the internet generation is getting more and more rude, thanks to people like you who can't make a point without barking insults and making assumptions about other people with no filter whatsoever. What happened to polite and courteous ?
@MarcO
"What happened to polite and courteous ?" I think it can be pretty easily summed up with John Gabriel's Greater Internet Fuckwad Theory.
http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2004/3/19/
Maybe the russians should hire some drug dealers. They certainly know how to beat a wiretap. I mean, how can you get all this training and not know to dump the phones after a few days of use, not to mention that because they always went to the same wifi hotspots, the FBI was very easily able to get a warrant to use software to track usage.
@dasfer o rly?
but we all have to admit anna chapman is pretty looking
Gosh, everyone is so dumb to believe this FBI story? These people were claimed to be working for 10 years and didn't gather anything useful? It is clear, that they were not spies, it was just a show off to display that FBI is doing smth. So for 10 years they arrested 10 people who didn't actually gather any information? Nice try.
Apparently, these spies were low-level, and just "forgotten" about, per se, so continued in their roles...I imagine Russia has far more advanced and entrenched spies in the USA/elsewhere.
@ Jenjaman, spies don't suddenly retrieve useful information. They have to play their role first...it's not a Bond movie where Bond simply goes to a poker table and discovers a diabolical plot...
I like this , they make out the russians to be a bunch of hapless dumbasses who are pretty useless at being spies and were easily caught using prepay phones and normal laptops .. but hang on a mo , the FBI were using commercial software to catch them .. no hi tech superfandango men in black type stuff .. just run of the mill off the shelf software, doesnt make them out to be much better
In all fairness, these weren't really "spies". They were just agents who didn't file the paperwork Uncle Sam demands foreign nationals fill out. Spies steal stuff and conduct espionage. These people were just living in the USA and trying to discern policy and trends in America the same way any of us do. Seems like they were only "busted" because that anti-Russian faction of the Obama administration wanted to embarrass the pro-Russian faction on the eve of the President's big diplomatic overture.
Dear Russia,
Please send more hot spies.
Thanks,
Loonie.