It was only a matter of time before we learned that the NSA has managed to thwart much of the encryption that protects telephone and online communication, but new revelations show the extent to which the agency, and Britain’s GCHQ, have gone to systematically undermine encryption.

Without the ability to actually crack the strongest algorithms that protect data, the intelligence agencies have systematically worked to thwart or bypass encryption using a variety of underhanded methods, according to revelations published by the New York Times and Guardian newspapers and the journalism non-profit ProPublica, based on documents leaked by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden.

These methods, part of a highly secret program codenamed Bullrun, have included pressuring vendors to install backdoors in their products to allow intelligence agencies to access data, and obtaining encryption keys by pressuring vendors to hand them over or hacking into systems and stealing them.

Most surprising, however, is the revelation that the agency has worked to covertly undermine the encryption standards developers rely upon to build secure products. Undermining standards and installing backdoors don’t just allow the government to spy on data but create fundamental insecurities in systems that would allow others to spy on the data as well.

Read more at Wired.

For obvious reasons, spies need to keep their messages secret. This is usually done by encrypting or ciphering a message. One method for encrypting is to use something called a one-time pad, invented by Frank Miller, a banker, CIvil War veteran and amateur cryptographer. Miller cooked up the one-time pad idea behind  back in 1882 as a way to keep telegraph messages secret (Miller was a banker, so there was probably money involved, not state secrets).

A one-time pad is a random crypto-key that is only used once. Both the sender and the recipient have the key, often in the form of a pad of paper. Each sheet on the pad is a different random number key. The two sides must have an agreed upon protocol for how the sheets are used, i.e., on July 9, use sheet #1 and then move on to the next sheet each day (you’ll need a thick pad of crypto sheets!).

You, as a spy, encrypt your message using sheet #1 and then transmit that message to your headquarters. They then use sheet #1 on their duplicate pad to decrypt your message. Both of you tear sheet #1 off the pad and destroy it. The next day, you use sheet #2, which has a different arrangement of random letters or numbers. This is what makes a one-time pad so secure: instead of sending a stream of messages with the same encryption scheme, you change the scheme every day. There is no pattern for code crackers to latch onto.

In my upcoming Perry Helion thriller, The Ceres Plague, Dr. Taylor Crandee is in Federal custody, working on special viral products at a government lab. His compatriots outside the lab send him messages using a freely available one time pad: the daily NY Times crossword puzzle.  For more on how it works, grab The Ceres Plague  later this year.

In the meantime, catch up on Perry Helion’s first battle with Dr. Crandee in Antarctica in The Atlas Fracture. 

“Subplots and conspiracies abound within the coalition, adding to the suspense and intrigue…and the fun. ”

Steve Konkoly, author of Blacked Flagged Vektor, on The Atlas Fracture

Black Flagged is the first book in Steve Konkoly’s Black Flagged series (the sequels being Black Flagged Redux and Black Flagged Apex). In this first book Konkoly introduces us to a complex, high-energy world of special ops and intelligence personnel engaged in a chess game that often plays out in bloody mayhem. Two things immediately stand out about Black Flagged.

The first is that Konkoly doesn’t make this an easy, bad guys versus good guys morality play. There are plenty of questionable motives and devious maneuvering to go around and, initially at least, we have to pay close attention to discern who the real heavies are in the book. This approach by Konkoly not only cleverly underlines the dangers of this special ops world but also treats the reader as a partner in the process of unwrapping the story. Nothing is simple black and white here.

The second intriguing element of Black Flagged is Konkoly’s main character Daniel Petrovich. The larger sense of moral quicksand is crystallized in Petrovich. He is a man with a heavy history who is reluctantly drawn back into his former murderous profession — a profession he excels at — by larger forces. But once Petrovich is back in, he is in with a furious vengeance. As a writer, Konkoly has the confidence to give us a guy who we respect, but who clearly is a resident of the black ops swamp. Konkoly doesn’t try too hard to make the reader like Petrovich. He has faith that once we get to know Petrovich better, we’ll understand his demons and his motivations. And we do. By the end of Black Flagged I had a deep appreciation for Petrovich as a maestro of special ops violence but also saw the wounded human side of the character under the tactical vest.

And for lovers of “thriller procedurals” Black Flagged doesn’t disappoint. Konkoly, a former U.S. Navy officer, knows his weapons and his tradecraft inside and out. The details are plentiful and fascinating. From edged weapons to submachine guns to grenade “specials”, there is plenty of gear and great action to keep the hardcore thriller fan turning pages.

My only quibble with the book is the flip side of the complex world Konkoly presents: there are enough characters that I was challenged a few times to keep track of who was who (Konkoly does provide a helpful cast of characters list). Overall, however, this is a rousing tale with great action and a well woven plot that will keep you on the hook to the end. I look forward to the next books in the Black Flagged series.

Black Flagged is available on Amazon.com 

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