Dead Drops - An Introduction

[Music] in the world of intelligence there are very few things that draw as much intrigue as dead drops in fact whenever someone thinks of intelligence and operational tradecraft the dead drop is one of the first things they think of and for good reason the dead drop has been a tool and a toolbox for spies for centuries and has been quite effective in that role even up to and including present day operations however many aspects of the dead drop are overlooked or over hyped in hollywood so let's take a look at what a dead drop actually is in the simplest of scenarios a dead drop is a physical item usually a container of some kind or a small hiding place that is usually located in a neutral and commonly accessible area that is used to physically pass communications between two people without them ever actually having to make physical contact with each other this system was more or less perfected by western and soviet powers during the cold war and most of the tradecraft that is still used by spies today was developed during that conflict so how exactly does a dead drop work this is the simplest form of a dead drop in this example a person needs to send an envelope with a text docume ct so how exactly does a dead drop work this is the simplest form of a dead drop in this example a person needs to send an envelope with a text document in it to another person so what they're going to do is take it to a dead drop location in this case the location is underneath the underside of a park bench so once they take it to this neutral location they're going to hide it and then once they have hidden this package or parcel or whatever they're going to do what's called signaling so they're going to go to another location in this case it is the side of a post office box and they're going to leave a mark most of the time this mark is going to be made with chalk so that it can easily be rubbed away or fade away with time but in any case they're going to leave some kind of mark or signal to let the case officer know that there's something to be picked up once they've dropped that signal they can now go about their day then the next person in this case it's the case officer walks by the post office box which they normally do every day or twice a day or whatever along a predetermined schedule they're going to see that chalk mark and understand aha there's something in the dead dro ay or twice a day or whatever along a predetermined schedule they're going to see that chalk mark and understand aha there's something in the dead drop for me today so they're going to then go to the dead drop recover the package and then go about their day that's the most simple explanation of a dead drop as one can see this system while mostly reliable can also be a death sentence if either party gets caught arrested or turned that physical dead drop location is a great way to catch spies as a result most people that use dead drops have special duress symbols so let's look at how that might work in this example the agent or asset or whatever you want to call them has been turned by an exterior force in this case they've been caught and they're being used to lure out and a case officer or another asset or an agent or whatever so if the asset does not want to go along with this and does not want to rat out their fellow agents and they're being forced to do this under some kind of duress an easy way to do this is using a duress code so the normal procedure goes through as normal they take their hot message in this case it's evidence of a person's espionage activities and they drop i the normal procedure goes through as normal they take their hot message in this case it's evidence of a person's espionage activities and they drop it in the dead drop like normal and then they go to make their signal but instead of leaving the normal signal they change the symbol to the duress symbol and in this case it's a star so they're going to leave a star-shaped mark on the side of the post office box like normal and then go about their day while the surveillance van hides around the corner and waits for the case officer to show up so the case officer shows up to the signal location sees the duress symbol and instead of going to the dead drop to incriminate themselves and get caught they simply walk away that's how duress symbols can be used to add an extra layer of security to an already pretty secure system so based on that example one can see the dead drops are mostly simple but can get quite complex in some situations and despite all of these security precautions dead drops are still one of the riskiest tradecraft tools that we have at our disposal from a nation-state perspective far more spies are caught servicing dead drops and changing batteries on surveillance devic at we have at our disposal from a nation-state perspective far more spies are caught servicing dead drops and changing batteries on surveillance devices than by any other means as such a level of extra effort and security is required to be as safe as possible when it comes to dead drops laziness and complacency are most certainly fatal for example in recent years russian spies in the u.s have been observed to exhibit rather poor tradecraft many russian case officers have been observed servicing dead drops in a rather amateurish fashion such as placing dead drops in locations that are easily surveilled and highly suspicious for a person to be at in the first place a good example of this is this surveillance video of russian deep cover spy michael zotoli who was surveilled by the fbi as part of operation ghost stories way back in 2006 this dead drop is quite amateurish because it's in a populated area and the effort required to service it for instance if you were walking down a hiking trail and saw a guy in the bushes digging up a package wouldn't that be a bit suspicious it's common knowledge in the espionage world that the location of dead drops should always offer plausible deniab ge wouldn't that be a bit suspicious it's common knowledge in the espionage world that the location of dead drops should always offer plausible deniability for the case officer or the asset up until the very last moment a good dead drop has to be quick to service and located in an area that is hard to surveil and easy to explain why you're there if you get caught on the way to the dead drop in this example this guy would have aroused suspicion long before he actually even got to the dead drop and remember this is russia arguably the only other superpower in the world and these guys are supposed to be deep cover agents the best of the absolute best and yet amateurish tactics and laziness are their downfall but let's not forget our friends over in mi6 oh no they have been caught napping from time to time as well almost 15 years ago an mi6 agent in moscow was caught servicing an electronic dead drop that was hidden inside a rock that was left beside a street in moscow these days digital dead drops are all the rage since a person doesn't need to physically interact with them but they have one fatal flaw they have batteries that need to be changed which is just how this cocky mi6 agent need to physically interact with them but they have one fatal flaw they have batteries that need to be changed which is just how this cocky mi6 agent got caught so while dead drops are a critical tradecraft tool one must not forget that this isn't as simple or as easy as in the movies and is very high risk but if you take the time to do your research in your local area the dead drop is a timeless and highly effective way of passing information or supplies in a non-permissive environment [Music] [Music] you