
The spy asked the company employee to access confidential information from their home, take a photo of the computer screen with a digital camera, and then save the photo onto an SD card.īut the employee was then told to erase the computer monitor photo, and instead take and save a landscape photo onto the SD card. In this case, the way the information was taken from the Japanese company was very sophisticated. Letting one's guard down leads to information leaks, and is a blind spot."
#ESPIONAGE TECHNIQUES PROFESSIONAL#
"But professional spies are still using (such tactics). "In a time when cyberattacks are the norm, you might be disappointed to hear me mention these textbook tactics," Yoshida said. The perpetrator, a foreign national, pretended to have happened upon the communications company employee by chance, and reportedly asked them in fluent Japanese, "Do you know any good restaurants around here?" A man claiming to be a foreign government official enticed an employee from a major communications firm to give him trade secrets. He went over one example that took place overseas, and 10 that happened in Japan, without revealing the names of the countries that did the spying or the affected companies.Īmong Yoshida's domestic examples was a case whose perpetrator was apprehended in 2020. Yoshida then went on to introduce specific spy tactics. The National Police Agency's Tomoaki Yoshida calls on semiconductor-related business operators to be careful of information leaks during an online information session on Nov. China, therefore, takes a long-term, labor-intensive method. "A few grains of sand can be gained at once, but repeating this strategy over decades means that at some point the whole beach is stolen completely," he said. China would then apparently have them bring the sand stuck to their bodies back to China. Meanwhile, China would send in many families and tourists to the beach, and let them enjoy swimming in the ocean, according to Yoshida. Russia characteristically uses tactics trained professionals would, Yoshida explained. Once there, it would pour the sand into glass bottles to take back to Russia. Russia would set up a secret plan, and approach the beach by submarine in the middle of the night. He asked the session's participants to think of each grain of sand as a piece of confidential information. "Imagine you're on a sandy beach," Yoshida said. Of these, he used analogies to characterize the spying techniques of Russia and China known in the intelligence world. Yoshida cited Russia, China, and North Korea as three countries that even now are trying to gather companies' technical information on a statewide scale. But he stressed that "now, (private companies') technical information carries a lot of weight." According to him, gathering political and military information used to be espionage's primary battlefield. In the information session, Yoshida explained spy operations' current state of affairs. Yoshida heads the squad as its economic security measures officer. It offers information to business associations and companies on the tricks used to leak data, and is also available for consultations. The NPA established a full-time squad dedicated to outreach in October 2020. Some 40 companies participated through their computers. Who was he speaking to? Members of the Semiconductor Equipment Association of Japan (SEAJ), comprising semiconductor-related business operators.

#ESPIONAGE TECHNIQUES HOW TO#
It all comes together with the help of a detailed, yet easy-to-follow, 48-page book that covers the history of espionage and simple techniques including surveillance and infiltration spy skills like code creation, spy talk and blending into a crowd how to create cool tools like listening and surveillance devices and disguises biographies of master spies like Mata Hari, Nathan Hale and The Cambridge Five.Tomoaki Yoshida of the National Police Agency (NPA)'s Foreign Affairs Division was conducting an online information session from a building in Tokyo's Chiyoda Ward on Nov. The kit includes the following tools of the trade: A die-cut periscope Fake identity cards Spy glasses A secret code wheel A magnifying glass Fake passport Inside is everything a burgeoning master of espionage needs to get the job done. Don't be fooled by the compact size of this chunky little box.
