U.S. warns about Canadian spy coins By TED BRIDIS, Associated Press Writer
Thu Jan 11, 4:16 AM ET
Money talks, but can it also follow your movements?
In a U.S. government warning high on the
creepiness scale, the Defense Department
cautioned its American contractors over what it
described as a new espionage threat: Canadian
coins with tiny radio frequency transmitters hidden inside.
The government said the mysterious coins were
found planted on U.S. contractors with classified
security clearances on at least three separate
occasions between October 2005 and January 2006
as the contractors traveled through Canada.
Intelligence and technology experts said such
transmitters, if they exist, could be used to
surreptitiously track the movements of people carrying the spy coins.
The U.S. report doesn't suggest who might be
tracking American defense contractors or why. It
also doesn't describe how the Pentagon discovered
the ruse, how the transmitters might function or
even which Canadian currency contained them.
Further details were secret, according to the
U.S. Defense Security Service, which issued the
warning to the Pentagon's classified contractors.
The government insists the incidents happened, and the risk was genuine.
"What's in the report is true," said Martha
Deutscher, a spokeswoman for the security
service. "This is indeed a sanitized version, which leaves a lot of questions."
Top suspects, according to outside experts:
China, Russia or even France — all said to
actively run espionage operations inside Canada
with enough sophistication to produce such technology.
The Canadian Security Intelligence Service said
it knew nothing about the coins.
"This issue has just come to our attention," CSIS
spokeswoman Barbara Campion said. "At this point,
we don't know of any basis for these claims." She
said Canada's intelligence service works closely
with its U.S. counterparts and will seek more information if necessary.
Experts were astonished about the disclosure and
the novel tracking technique, but they rejected
suggestions Canada's government might be spying
on American contractors. The intelligence
services of the two countries are extraordinarily
close and routinely share sensitive secrets.
"It would seem unthinkable," said David Harris,
former chief of strategic planning for the
Canadian Security Intelligence Service. "I
wouldn't expect to see any offensive operation against the Americans."
Harris said likely candidates include foreign
spies who targeted Americans abroad or businesses
engaged in corporate espionage. "There are
certainly a lot of mysterious aspects to this," Harris said.
Experts said such tiny transmitters would almost
certainly have limited range to communicate with
sensors no more than a few feet away, such as
ones hidden inside a doorway. The metal in the
coins also could interfere with any signals emitted.
"I'm not aware of any (transmitter) that would
fit inside a coin and broadcast for kilometers,"
said Katherine Albrecht, an activist who believes
such technology carries serious privacy risks.
"Whoever did this obviously has access to some pretty advanced technology."
Experts said hiding tracking technology inside
coins is fraught with risks because the spy's
target might inadvertently give away the coin or
spend it buying coffee or a newspaper. They
agreed, however, that a coin with a hidden
tracking device might not arouse suspicion if it
were discovered in a pocket or briefcase.
"It wouldn't seem to be the best place to put
something like that; you'd want to put it in
something that wouldn't be left behind or spent,"
said Jeff Richelson, a researcher and author of
books about the CIA and its gadgets. "It doesn't
seem to make a whole lot of sense."
Canada's largest coins include its $2 "Toonie,"
which is more than 1-inch across and thick enough
to hide a tiny transmitter. The CIA has
acknowledged its own spies have used hollow, U.S.
silver-dollar coins to hide messages and film.
The government's 29-page report was filled with
other espionage warnings. It described unrelated
hacker attacks, eavesdropping with miniature pen
recorders and the case of a female foreign spy
who seduced her American boyfriend to steal his computer passwords.
In another case, a film processing company called
the FBI after it developed pictures for a
contractor that contained classified images of
U.S. satellites and their blueprints. The photo
was taken from an adjoining office window.
___
On the Web:
CIA hollow coin:
https://http://www.cia.gov/cia/information/artifacts/dollar.htm
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Received on Sat Mar 02 2024 - 00:57:21 CST