
How the FBI Cracked a Chinese Spy Ring - danso
http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/newsdesk/2014/05/how-the-fbi-cracked-a-chinese-spy-ring.html
======
fiatmoney
For all the description of the investigation itself, the ring was "cracked"
because:

"The investigation began when the F.B.I. was tipped off..."

Which is something about which there are no details.

~~~
rdtsc
Remember how someone leaked a presentation on how DEA was using "parallel
construction" to prosecute cases when they were initially tipped off of
illegal surveillance. They (DEA) might follow the subject and try to weave a
chain of evidence that would make seem plausible that an agent accidentally
stumbled on the crime somehow (so as to obscure the real source of the
information).

Well spy agencies do this very often. For example if a an agent defects (say
in this case someone from the Chinese intelligence agency). And they give up
the names of 10 agents working for China in US. Well, if FBI goes to their
homes immediately and starts arresting them, it will most likely disclose who
that original source is. Presumably that kind of information is
compartmentalized in China (or any intelligence organization) and once leaked
it is trigger a mole hunt on a relatively small group of people (who have been
read into that program).

So FBI might start monitoring those spies, and maybe only pick the ones that
can do the most damage (or are about to leave the country, for example) and
choose to prosecute them. Or I don't know turn them into double agents.

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mbreedlove
> Fuk and Tai were arrested at the Los Angeles airport after security agents
> searched their luggage and found an encrypted disk containing the files that
> Chi Mak had copied.

I would imagine someone working for Chinese intelligence would be using a
robust encryption method. The article makes it seem like recovering the
information from the disk was trivial.

It makes me wonder if the Chinese are just sloppy about secrecy, or if the US
is just skilled at data recovery. I lean towards the latter.

~~~
Zigurd
I'm leaning toward sloppy reporting: The reporter swallowed the assertion that
the disk contained what the FBI said it contained, without questioning how
they know.

~~~
silvestrov
FBI had a camera installed above the dining-room table. They might have seen
him typing the password.

Snowden is more professional: he puts a blanket over his head and computer
when typing a password.

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bayesianhorse
I sometimes wonder about the economics of these activities. Apparently China
lets well educated, highly intelligent Chinese work for US companies, to spy
on them, rather than working "genuinely" for a Chinese company. So either the
secrets are extremely valuable, or they can't do R&D worth a damn at home.

~~~
humbledrone
Most highly educated people employed by companies tend to work on teams of
varying sizes (but rarely consisting of just one person). Thus if a spy could
report back significant details about the work of even a small team (maybe
5-10 people) it seems like the economics would work out quite well. Bigger
teams would pay off proportionately more.

~~~
bayesianhorse
That would be true, if the spy can transfer all the results of the team, and
doesn't need any supporting infrastructure or agents...

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xwei
How to start a legal world war against the biggest enemy (China)? 1) They were
spying us. 2) They are killing our people. 3) They bombed our ship. For the
justice and revenge!! easy job..

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MrRoger
I'm probably gonna get down voted for this on HN.

For anyone who pays attention to this kind of stuff, you would know China has
an aggressive spy campaign against the US primarily for its technology. So I
earnestly ask how in the world would China pass up the opportunity to get hold
of the documents Snowden held? He was in their territory with the highest US
secrets, and they just let him go? For just nothing in return? Just like that?
Snowden said they never got anything (other than what has already been
leaked), but there's no way I can honestly believe that when China has so much
to gain.

~~~
orik
You have a new account, so I'd like to point out the Hacker News guidelines.
[http://ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html](http://ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html)

" Resist complaining about being downmodded. It never does any good, and it
makes boring reading.

Please don't bait other users by inviting them to downmod you. "

~~~
ma2rten
As someone who has been a member of HN, longer than most I would say you
should not apply that rule too broadly. Unless I am missing something, he just
said "I'm probably gonna get down voted.". There is nothing wrong with that.
People say that all the time on HN. [1]

That guideline talks about the case when someone explicitly complains about
getting downvoted after the fact. Even comments that say "I don't know why I
have been downvoted" are okay imho. Everyone should be allowed to ask why they
are being down voted.

[1] As a site note: Usually types of comments actually get up voted. HN rarely
down votes for unpopular opinions if they are well founded.

EDIT: See if you don't believe me:

[https://hn.algolia.com/?q=I+am+probably+going+to+get+downvot...](https://hn.algolia.com/?q=I+am+probably+going+to+get+downvoted#!/comment/sort_by_date/0/%22will%20probably%20get%20down%20voted%22)

You can try other variations of that phrase as well.

