Numbers Stations Move From Shortwave To VoIP 228
IO ERROR writes "For decades, intelligence agencies have been sending secret messages to their agents in the field using shortwave numbers stations broadcasting encrypted messages for all to hear and puzzle over. Now someone is putting numbers stations on VoIP telephone numbers for anyone to call, and posting messages to Craigslist to alert the recipients to the existence of their messages. One of them went up last month and now a second one has appeared. Will there be a third? Who's behind them? And can you crack the code?"
Numbers Station here on slashdot - OUTGOING! (Score:5, Interesting)
OUTGOING
(Score:-1, Offtopic)
by Anonymous Coward on 21:04 1st August, 2005 (#13217474)
HELLO WORLD
38836 38836
HELLO WORLD
98481 98481 14101 14101 27700 27700 35003 35003 78743 78743
55984 55984 36482 36482 48376 48376 17577 17577 25568 25568
41432 41432 33120 33120 71600 71600 37482 37482 72016 72016
18165 18165 97172 97172 06235 06235 09179 09179 66815 66815
39131 39131 02234 02234 37138 37138 05015 05015 18609 18609
15481 15481 26568 26568 76909 76909 14869 14869 84844 84844
98467 98467 15173 15173 91438 91438 01957 01957 83393 83393
55263 55263 02335 02335 39565 39565 33152 33152 48263 48263
85656 85656 69752 69752 84232 84232 87361 87361 24560 24560
98390 98390 28772 28772 59461 59461 31312 31312 14942 14942
68574 68574 70946 70946 49109 49109 19694 19694 45323 45323
65157 65157 98866 98866 64012 64012 72983 72983
K-BYE
They have been an oddity until now, but hearing about these numbers stations makes me think our very own slashdot is being used as a covert channel.
Certainly piqued my curiosity more than once, it would be good to get to the bottom of it.
Couple of examples here [slashdot.org] and here [slashdot.org], I've seen a few more, but they get lost quickly due to moderation.
The second one I posted has a bit of info about its origins here and links to a user and an apparent initial source of the messages.
Cryptanalysts in love (Score:2, Interesting)
Cool. Not everyday you learn about an international conspiracy to broadcast numbers. If it were me, I would set up one of these to broadcast from SEALAND!!! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sealand [wikipedia.org]
01010010 01101111 01110011 01100101 01110011 00100000 01100001 01110010 01100101 00100000 01110010 01100101 01100100 00101100 00100000 01110110 01101001 01101111 01101100 01100101 01110100 01110011 00100000 01100001 01110010 01100101 00100000 01110000 01110010 01100101 01110100 01110100 01111001 00001101 00001010 01110011 01101111 01101101 01100101 01110100 01101000 01101001 01101110 01100111 01110011 00100000 01100111 01101111 01101001 01101110 01100111 00100000 01100100 01101111 01110111 01101110 00100000 01101001 01101110 00100000 01110100 01101000 01101001 01110011 00100000 01100110 01100001 01101001 01110010 00100000 01100011 01101001 01110100 01111001 00001101 00001010 00001101 00001010 01000011 01110010 01111001 01110000 01110100 01100001 01101110 01100001 01101100 01111001 01110011 01110100 01110011 00100000 01101001 01101110 00100000 01101100 01101111 01110110 01100101 00111111 00100000 01101000 01101111 01110111 00100000 01100011 01110101 01110100 01100101 00101110 00001101 00001010 00001101 00001010 01001001 01101101 00100000 01101001 01101110 01110100 01110010 01101001 01100111 01110101 01100101 01100100 00100000 01100010 01111001 00100000 01110100 01101000 01101001 01110011 00100000 01110011 01101000 01101111 01110010 01110100 01110111 01100001 01110110 01100101 00100000 01101110 01110101 01101101 01100010 01100101 01110010 01110011 00100000 01110011 01110100 01100001 01110100 01101001 01101111 01101110 00100000 01110100 01101000 01101111 01110101 01100111 01101000 00101100 00100000 01110110 01100101 01110010 01111001 00100000 01100011 01101111 01101111 01101100 00101110
(for some help with the above: http://nickciske.com/tools/binary.php [nickciske.com])
Re:Eh, ok (Score:3, Interesting)
The other problem is that shortwave radio recievers are incriminating devices in some dark places that you would want to have spies in. Cell phones pretty much universally are not.
Silly (Score:3, Interesting)
Cheers,
Ian
Re:Numbers Station here on slashdot - OUTGOING! (Score:5, Interesting)
The person who originally added that to Wikipedia also added info to the "Islamic extremist terrorism" entry: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special
Re:hmmm.... (Score:5, Interesting)
So its not the best way of doing it if you are really trying ot create a secure comms network. What would be better (though just as traceable) would be posting here, like first post said.
but the shortwave system still trumps it.
Lets analyse it:
What do you want from a secure comms network aimed (as these are supposedly meant to be) at undercover agents
1. Untraceable to the sender
2. Untraceable to the reciever
3. Universally Accessible
4. Undecodable
So we need something that is hard to find, easy to access and secure but hard to trace. Using something as logged and monitored as the internet would probably be a bad decision unless you use something like a coin operated internet kiosk to post and to retrieve, making it less accessible (in the here and now sense, a radio can arguably recieve information anywhere).
So why leave shortwave?
You wouldnt.
Thus this is probably a hobbyist, or a practical joker, or a viral marketing meme, or an elaborate hoax.
blog comment spam (Score:3, Interesting)
The numbers are always in 5 digit blocks too, just like the ones that another poster observed occuring here on slashdot [slashdot.org].
This is either genuinely weird, or just someone playing an elaborate prank.
I for one am intrigued, as I've seen the link-free spam messages crop up in all sorts of weird places...
Re:Doesn't that defeat secrecy? (Score:5, Interesting)
Also, the VoIP method is missing another point of the stations: with a radio station, you can remain tuned for as long as you wish, without the risk of detection increasing. Staying connected to a "number station" via VoIP means that you have to stay connected for prolonged amounts of time, increasing chances of detection, if only by a hotel employee who notes that someone was sitting on the hotel's wifi network for 24 hours. Besides, if one wants to use "number stations" over the Internet, one can simply post the numbers in any amount of places. It is easier and probably also safer to grab one text file off some FTP server, than it is to stay connected somewhere for a longer time. You might not get the message as fast then, but at least you're not sitting in a van next to your local Motel 6 for 3 days.
Re:The Numbers? (Score:2, Interesting)
Could it be that on Lost the radio broadcast is a play on the Number Stations stuff?
I am a bit behind on Lost because I live in Australia so I may be behind on the current theories.
or it's just a creative troll... (Score:4, Interesting)
Or it's just a creative troll, hoping someone will spend hours or days trying to figure out meaning behind what's really just the numeric output of /dev/random or something.
I've honestly always though "number stations" were pretty much the same thing...someone having their jollies. Has anyone actually tried to get a fix on them? I thought HAMs loved doing "hunts"...why don't they do a "hunt" on some number stations some time?
Conet Project (Score:3, Interesting)
I bought a 4 (or maybe 6?) CD set of numbers stations recordings several years ago, call The Conet Project. Since i'm big into experimental music, the idea intrigued me. While some of the recordings were downright spooky and disturbing (not necessarily a bad thing), I found it mostly to be soothing in a weird way (though after listening to 2 or 3 CDs of these recordings non-stop, it started getting a bit ... too weird).
Regards,
John
Re:Doesn't that defeat secrecy? (Score:4, Interesting)
So, basically, instead of using a fairly innocuous radio, which is easy to explain away if apprehended, you propose that the secret agent go around carrying stolen cards and stolen ID and wardrive? I think the general idea is for spies to not call attention to themselves, and engaging in two or three activities that might be illegal even if not connected with spying is probably not the best procedure!
It's much harder to pinpoint the source than a radio signal. RF Direction equipment can triangulate a HF signal quite quickly.
The numbers stations broadcast on shortwave frequencies whose signals carry very far, with plenty of bounces off the ionosphere. You can triangulate them to approximately what quarter-hemisphere they come from. And even if the exact location were found, it wouldn't help catch the spy receiving the signal, nor even give any indication that the signal is for a spy in your country.
Re:Numbers Station here on slashdot - OUTGOING! (Score:3, Interesting)
There's something fishy about these messages.
Have you noticed that every group is sent twice? That would make a lot of sense if you were transmitting over the radio, because a group might arrive garbled. Posting each group twice on slashdot, however, makes no sense. The message will arrive correctly every time.
This is fun! (Score:3, Interesting)
Not Havana, but New York? (Score:3, Interesting)
The first message was was listed in the the New York classifieds. Now it is possible the author simply placed it there for obscurity reasons, but it could also be that he/she was targetting someone who resides specifically in New York. Also, area code 212 is in New York City, which could be so their contact in New York wouldn't have to dial long distance to reach it.
The second message was in the San Francisco classifieds, and there too the area code, 415, of the number matches with the city. It could be that the author of the message is trying to make it easier on their contacts in those specific areas, as dialing local does not leave nearly as much of a trace as dialing long distance.
The next one should be in Boston (Score:5, Interesting)
Anyway, my prediction: The next message will be posted on Craigslist for Boston. The first message announced Group 415, and the second message was posted on Craigslist for San Francisco.
The second message announces group 617, which means the next message will probably show up on Craigslist for Boston. If that proves to be true, it is 99% certain that this is just a prank, or something being done by amateurs having a bit of fun. There's no way a real spook or someone sending messages of any importance would use a scheme that some piker like me can figure out.
So what's going on here? Eh. If there's anything really in there, now that it's been on Slashdot and boingboing, it's quite likely to be cracked within a few days, unless it's encrypted with a one time pad. Whatever it is, part of me is afraid that it's part of that stupid DaVinci Code promotion, and the same part of me hopes that it's somehow related to the Hanso Foundation.
Or maybe Publius has finally returned . . . are there any Pink Floyd albums coming out soon?
Re:or it's just a creative troll... (Score:4, Interesting)
As another poster said one of the most infamous numbers station, the Lincolnshire Poacher, has been traced to an RAF base in Cyprus and a number of others have been triangulated, all of them leading to some sort of military or security service base.