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I'll preface this by saying that I can't support this with a source, so take it with a grain of salt. An acquaintance of mine knew someone who worked in that Ge
by V__ 2y ago
I'll preface this by saying that I can't support this with a source, so take it with a grain of salt. An acquaintance of mine knew someone who worked in that German embassy. Apparently, the extreme isolation of North Korea also made it extremely difficult to have any kind of opsec inside the embassy. Since anything could only be brought in through diplomatic pouches it created an attack vector of one.
A few days after said person had a meeting in the German equivalent of a scif, there was a meeting with North Korean officials. One official let something slip, which meant a bug had somehow gotten into the scif. He didn't say anything about what the consequences were, just that one should not underestimate the North Koreans.
- bagels 2y agoscif = sensitive compartmented information facility A room that is supposed to be highly secure with secure communication channels where it is safe to handle or transmit secret information.
- 77pt77 2y agoA real life "cone of silence" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cone_of_Silence_%28Get_Smart%29 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cone_of_Silence_%28Get_Smart%2...
- RGamma 2y agoThere's a kajillion ways to extract info via analog hole from a well-known room. Unless this room has counter-measures (that are unlikely to be accepted by an authoritarian government) this ain't surprising really.
- l33t7332273 2y agoSCIF construction procedure is made explicitly to counter analog (and digital) intelligence collection. I highly suspect that if the government of a host country didn’t let a guest country follow standard construction procedures like the use of high density construction materials, then the guest country would either not continue construction of the diplomatic outpost or at the very least they would not proceed with using their (now) vulnerable storage closet as a scif.
- dgfitz 2y agoYou must be very naive as to the general Conops of the NK government.
- l33t7332273 2y agoCan you elaborate?
- dgfitz 2y agoYou think the NK government doesn’t have every possible room in every possibly interesting room in their country bugged?
- 31carmichael 2y agoA SCIF is not a magic box. You can penetrate almost anything, especially a nation who really wants to hear what you are doing.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- Salgat 2y agoI wonder if a trusted laptop with VR goggles and a VPN would be sufficient to transmit and read most information. For added security, use an external modified keyboard that is not vulnerable to being tapped.
- influx 2y agoWhich do you think is more likely, the scif was compromised, or one of the people in the scif was?
- V__ 2y agoHe didn't specify whether the scif itself was bugged or they planted a bug on someone, just that it wasn't a leak.
- Gunax 2y agoSorry I really want to understand this comment. Can you help? > Since anything could only be brought in through diplomatic pouches it created an attack vector of one. Are you presenting that as a good or bad thing? If there is only one attack vector, that makes it easier to defend against, right? > One official let something slip, which meant a bug had somehow gotten into the scif. You mean the North Korean or German official?
- mathsmath 2y agoEven in the US, nothing is technically stopping you from walking into a SCIF with a phone most of the time. We used the honor system. I would almost automatically assume that any SCIF in a foreign country was compromised to some degree.
- lolinder 2y agoWhich would completely invalidate the entire purpose of the SCIF, no? Unless it exists to feed fake info to the locals?
- bell-cot 2y agoIt's government. Security Theater/"Look, we're trying" is usually more important than reality.
- Propelloni 2y agoIt's weird. On the one hand governments are devious and brutal oppressors of freedom, on the other hand governments are calculating masters of subterfuge faking moon-landings and implanting microtransmitters by vaccination, on a third hand governments are money-wasting incompetent douches who can't even tie their shoes, and on a fourth hand governments are morally bankrupt and do everything to get re-elected. A strange beast, with four hands, no less!
- bell-cot 2y agoMost people's "knowledge of government" is more like "knowledge of stereotypes & tropes about government". Also, it can be more about the emotions of the humans doing the attributing than about the real governments. Just look at all the bizarre, contradictory, and fridge-test-flunking attributes which humans have attributed to gods and related mythical beings.
- mcmoor 2y ago"Enemy is strong and weak" seems like a universal trait for any propaganda, I really have no idea why some want to say that it's a special fascism trait.
- sho 2y agoI'm not sure what you mean about the NK situation making the diplomatic pouch an attack vector? Can you elaborate? Fun fact, those "pouches" don't have to be a pouch or even a bag. They can be boxes or even crates and have been used for smuggling in the past, including drugs, weapons, gold and even - allegedly - people.
- samus 2y agoTA mentions that they shipped in construction materials via diplomatic containers.
- sho 2y agoYeah. I'm still not sure how to parse the GP's comment, "it created an attack vector of one". On its face, that sounds like a good thing, less attack vectors! I mean, not like sourcing materials locally alleviates things. Apparently the US embassy in Moscow was discovered to have listening devices mixed in the concrete used to construct it...
- snypher 2y agoThe person who was bugged, brought the bug into the embassy via the bag. Probably some generic item was modified to contain the spy gear and then supplied to the person. I don't think the person brought it into the secure area intentionally.
- samus 2y ago> I mean, not like sourcing materials locally alleviates things. Apparently the US embassy in Moscow was discovered to have listening devices mixed in the concrete used to construct it... I think this was the main reason why they shipped construction materials in. And then it makes sense to use containers that are tamper-resistant enough to be able to trust its contents.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- cm2187 2y agoIn a french documentary about the DGSE (French foreign intelligence service), some former DGSE officials explained that when France took delivery of their new embassy in Poland during the cold war, they found it riddled with bugs. The cabling was hidden inside the concrete. They had to dig a several meters deep trench all around the embassy and severe all cables to isolate it before they could test each cable one by one. I don't know how they ever got comfortable they found every one of them.
- lukan 2y ago"I don't know how they ever got comfortable they found every one of them" If you take opsec serious, you should never be too comfortable. And as far as I know with embassies and alike, there is the compromise of at least one room, that is very surveillance proof and checked regulary.
- Vilian 2y agomaybe not underestimate, but no one can really know if the truly culpride got caught