Share:
How foreign spies use radio to broadcast secret messages
This is one of the coolest things I’ve learned recently: Foreign intelligence agencies still use good ol’ radio to share top secrets. Even with all the powerful tech at their fingertips, radio use in espionage has actually gone up in popularity since the 2010s. Pretty wild.
Russia in particular loves this technique. Why? Intelligence agencies don’t trust the internet. Makes sense.
A brief history of spy radio
Foreign agencies have been using shortwave radio frequencies to broadcast coded messages for decades.
Starting in the mid-1960s, if you tuned your radio to shortwave frequencies between 5.422 and 16.084 megahertz (MHz), you might hear music … or you might hear a woman’s voice with an English accent reading number combinations.
The U.K.’s MI6 intelligence agency and other spy networks used these “number stations” until at least 2008 to talk to operatives in the field. Whoa.
Old tech, new tricks
This tactic is still very much alive and well. In 2020, the FBI discovered messages being sent to Russian deep-cover officers living in Massachusetts. Just this past March, researchers caught Russia’s foreign intelligence agency, SVR, broadcasting a test transmission in French.
So what’s the advantage of old-school radio? Even encrypted phones can be hacked. It’s also easier than ever to plant spyware on an internet-connected device.
Number stations aren’t so easily cracked
In each broadcast, the sender and receiver use what’s called a “one-time pad” to encrypt and decrypt the message. It’s basically a matching list of random numbers, no fancy spy gear required.
Of course, anyone listening could pick up on other patterns and blow up an agency’s spot. For example, a broadcast pattern could reveal how many agents there are and when or where they’re active.
When the FBI discovered the 2020 broadcasts, they realized the messages corresponded to the specific rooms active operatives were in!
Maybe try a homing pigeon instead
The moral of the story: Sometimes old stuff is more reliable than the new. Even in today’s AI-powered digital and internet age, spies trust radio!
If you really want to geek out and slide into the underground world of secret radio messages, check out Priyom, a group of international radio enthusiasts who track number stations around the world. They have chatrooms to swap stories, and their website follows intelligence, military, and diplomatic communication via shortwave radio. Happy listening!
😂 The FBI is raiding an alleged spy’s apartment when they discover a hard drive labeled “KGB”. One of the agents holds it up and asks, “Why wouldn’t he just write 1TB?” (Oh, geek humor … Sometimes, it’s harder to get than a ground-floor hotel room in Moscow for a Russian operative!)
Don’t get left behind – Stay tech ahead
Award-winning host Kim Komando is your secret weapon for navigating tech.
- National radio show: Find your local station or listen to the podcast
- Daily newsletter: Join 575,000 people who read The Current (free!)
- Watch: On Kim’s YouTube channel
- Podcast: “Kim Komando Today” – Listen wherever you get podcasts
Tags: history, internet, school, tech
Share: