by D S Kane
Misha Kovich. Uncle of Cassandra Sashakovich and brother of Kiril Sashakovich.
Victor Kreslin. Leader of a Russian assassination team.
Stuart Ley, Manager of C++ programming for Ann’s DARPA AI contest team.
Blanche Longstein. Associate Professor of Finance at NYU’s Stern School of Business and Director of NYU’s Angel Investor Group.
Gary McHahn. Manager of Python programming for Ann’s DARPA AI contest team.
Samuel Meyer. Director-in-chief for Israel’s Mossad.
Igor Nelovich. Second in command on Victor Kreslin’s assassination squad.
Dave Nordman. Programming director for Ann’s DARPA AI contest team.
Prozac92: Independent black hat hacker with Indigenous.
Nikolai Puchenko. Russian FSB officer.
Bertrand Rackal. Finance major at Stanford University’s MBS program.
Glen Sarkov. Stanford University senior, entrant into the DARPA Sentient AI contest, and Ann Sashakovich’s former boyfriend.
Ann Sashakovich. Stanford University junior and entrant into the DARPA Sentient AI contest. She is the adopted daughter of Lee Ainsley and Cassandra Sashakovich.
Cassandra (Cassie) Sashakovich. Founder of Swiftshadow Consulting Group and Ann Sashakovich’s adoptive mother.
Kiril Sashakovich. Grandfather of Cassandra Sashakovich and brother of Misha Kovich.
Harry Schofield. Manager of database management for Ann’s DARPA AI contest team.
Ken Simon. Human resources manager for Ann’s DARPA AI contest team.
Slashdot14. Independent black hat hacker with Indigenous.
Jon Sommers. Former Mossad operative and current director of United Nations Paramilitary Operations Group.
Avram Shimmel. Israeli United Nations ambassador.
Daniel Strumler. Successful businessman who won the US presidential election.
Ivan Tranovich. Russian spymaster and director of the FSB.
Samantha Trout. Stanford University senior and Glen Sarkov’s former girlfriend. Sam’s mother is being held hostage in a political prison located in Beijing.
Edgar Turnbull. Student-research project director, Stanford University.
William Wing. Hacker for the United Nations Paramilitary Operations Group, reporting to Jon Sommers. Married to Betsy Brown.
Peter Zhou, Major. Head of the Chinese CSIS hacker group, located in the suburbs of Shanghai.
Glossary B.
Terms Used in the Spies Lie Series
AFI. Intelligence branch of the Israeli Air Force.
air-gapped. A computer with no external connections to WiFi or CAT5e connections is referred to as “air-gapped.”
aleph. Lead kidon, the assassin leading an execution mission for the Mossad.
Aman. Intelligence branch of the IDF (Israeli Military Intelligence).
asset. A civilian assisting a foreign country’s intelligence service. A person who claims to have valuable contacts or information useful to a case officer. The primary objective of most case officers is to develop in-country assets.
ayin. Tracker (surveillance) for the Mossad.
backstopping. Fake identification papers.
bat leveyha. Female agent for the Mossad specializing in seductions to learn the secrets of targets.
better world, send to a. Euphemism for murdering an enemy agent.
blind dating. Meeting place chosen by an agent to meet his or her handler.
bodel. Courier for the Mossad.
BP. Israeli paramilitary Border Patrol.
Bug-Lok. Also called DeathByte, the device is a nanobug that can be ingested or injected into a subject. Bug-Lok was developed by the Ness Ziona in Herzliya on contract with Gilbert Greenfield’s intelligence service. When ingested or injected, the nanobug then finds its way to the medulla oblongata of the subject and attaches itself to the neural bundles that carry visual and auditory signals into the subject’s brain. The nanobug transmits these signals to the nearest local area network (LAN) and from there to the handler, who gathers video and audio of the subject’s activities, in addition to the subject’s GPS location. Bug-Lok can be fitted with a tiny concentrated ricin dose to kill the subject, activated by a remote when the handler no longer needs the subject. NOTE: When I first crafted the features and functions of this device, it was pure fiction, but was based on several devices then in development. I have recently been told that a device similar to this has since been specified and may have completed its development.
burn notice. A termination notice for an official operative or an NOC; the burned spy has his or her bank accounts confiscated and identity documents redacted, and, in extreme cases, is subject to a terminate-on-sight order.
C-6. A more powerful and concentrated form of the C-4 explosive.
Chinese Secret Intelligence Services (CSIS). Chinese Secret Intelligence Service. The Chinese version of the FBI and one of the Chinese government’s many espionage and technical research organizations.
CHIPS. The Clearing House Interbank Payments System, used by money-center banks to settle all outstanding transactions between them at the end of their day.
Collections Department. Intelligence gathering espionage group.
cutout. An intermediary, usually an innocent person, either a volunteer or paid by a covert operative to deliver or retrieve something valuable such as a message or a gadget, from a covert operative or an asset.
DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency). Defense Department’s agency for advanced research projects, charged with development of weapons systems.
daylight alert. Highest-priority alert.
DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service). A brute-force method of bringing down a website, by overloading it with traffic. Rarely used successfully by any except the most desperate and skillful of hackers.
dry cleaning. Countersurveillance techniques.
ECHELON. An identity-tracking system developed by contract programmers and used by the United States as its primary terrorism-prevention system prior to 9/11. There are currently in excess of forty systems developed since 9/11, used by the NSA to track the identities of US citizens and foreigners.
EFT (Electronic Funds Transfer). The basic term denoting a non-check payment.
EMP (Electromagnetic pulse). A high-energy discharge that fries all electronic devices within its range.
exfiltrate. To retrieve an agent from hostile territory.
false flagging. An operation falsely made to appear mounted by another country.
Farm, The. A camp in Virginia used to train CIA case officers and the case officers of intelligence services friendly to the United States.
Fifth Estate. A sociocultural reference to groupings of outlier viewpoints in contemporary society, and is most often associated with bloggers, journalists publishing in non-mainstream media outlets, and the social media. (WikiPedia)
FISA (Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act). The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC, also called the FISA Court) was established and authorized under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) of 1978 to oversee requests for surveillance warrants against suspected foreign intelligence agents inside the United States by federal law enforcement agencies.
Five Eyes. The intelligence alliance of the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand.
FSB. The Russian internal security and counterintelligence service, created in 1994 as one of the successor agencies of the Soviet-era KGB.
fumigate. Sweeping an area for electronic bugs.
GNU Radio. Developed by Eric Blossom, it is a free and open-source software development toolkit that provides signal-processing blocks to implement software radios. It can be used with readily available low-cost external radio-frequency hardware to create software-defined radios, or without hardware in a simulation-like environment. Prior to his involvement with software radio, Blossom was the cofounder and CTO of Starium, Ltd., where he oversaw the design and development of a line
of cryptographic equipment for the commercial marketplace. He is also the founder of an international consulting company called Blossom Research.
go bag. A lightweight luggage carrier used by covert operatives to carry travel essentials, including emergency clothing, sundries, and weapons and ammunition. When not being used, it is typically stored, fully loaded, near a door or under a window for fast access.
heth. Logistician for the Mossad.
honey trap. Sexual entrapment for intelligence purposes.
IDF. Israel Defense Forces; the Israeli army.
InTelQ. CIA’s wholly owned venture capital firm.
katsa. Case officer for the Mossad.
KGB. The Soviet Union’s secret police, the Komitet Gosudarstvennoy Bezopasnosti was established in March 1954 in Moscow and was attached to the Council of Ministers, but operated independently. With over 500,000 employees, it was the largest spy agency in the world.
kidon. Operative specializing in assassination for the Mossad. (plural: kidonim.)
Krav Maga. Martial art developed by Aman, the Israeli military intelligence directorate, and used by IDF and Mossad. Now taught to many of the global spy agencies.
Liquid armor, or shear thickening fluid (STF). Developed by the US Army in 2003, STF can stop a .38-caliber bullet, but improved versions can stop anything up to a .50-caliber shell.
MI-6. Also known as Great Britain’s Secret Intelligence Service.
Mossad. The Institute for Intelligence and Special Operations; originally called the Institute for Coordination; called “the Office” by those who work there.
Ness Ziona. Israeli weapons laboratory, located in Herzliya, Israel.
neviot. Surveillance specialist for the Mossad.
NI. Intelligence branch of the Israeli navy.
NOC (non-official cover). The status of a contractor working with the CIA in-country and without sanction or cover from the Agency.
NSA (National Security Agency). Formed under the Truman administration and used as the technology management arm of the United States government.
Office, The. The name of the Mossad used by most of its case officers (katsas).
qoph. Communications officer for the Mossad.
RAID (redundant array of independent disks). Used as a physical non-cloud device for backup of high-value data.
RSA. An encryption algorithm, or key, used to safely send messages between parties on the Internet.
S-13 Russian World War II Submarine. S-13 was a Stalinets-class submarine of the Soviet Navy. Her keel was laid down by Krasnoye Sormovo in Gorky on 19 October 1938. She was launched on 25 April 1939 and commissioned on 31 July 1941 in the Baltic Fleet, under the command of Captain Pavel Malantyenko. At about 840 tons, this sub carries 12 torpedoes and 6 torpedo tubes, and has a mounted 100mm machine gun and a 45mm cannon on its deck. S-13 was decommissioned on 7 September 1954. (Wikipedia.)
S-56 Russian World War II Submarine. S-56 was a Stalinets-class submarine of the Soviet Navy. Her keel was laid down by Dalzavod in Vladivostok on 24 November 1936. She was launched on 25 December 1939 and commissioned on 20 October 1941 in the Pacific Fleet. During World War II, the submarine was under the command of Captain Grigori Shchedrin and was moved from the Pacific Fleet to the Northern fleet across the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans via the Panama Canal. At about 840 tons, this sub carries 12 torpedoes and 6 torpedo tubes, and has a mounted 100mm machine gun and a 45mm cannon on its deck. Now decommissioned. (Wikipedia.)
safe house. Apartment or house used covertly for a base of operations.
sayan. A helper for the Mossad. (plural: sayanim.)
Shabak. Also known as GSS or Shin Bet; the Israeli agency responsible for internal security and defense of Israeli installations abroad, including embassies, consulates, and other organizations.
siloviki. Russian word (the term silovik, literally translates as “person of force”) for politicians from the security or military services, often the officers of the former KGB, GRU, FSB, SVR, the Federal Drug Control, or other security services who came into power. It can also refer to security-service personnel. Siloviki are used to run errands between the Russian mafiya and the Russian government. Some work for the Russian mafiya.
sitrep. Situation report.
slick. Hiding place for documents.
souk. A Middle Eastern marketplace, usually an open-air farmer’s market that also sells craft items.
surveillance detection route (SDR). A method used by covert agents, walking back and forth several city blocks, looking at reflective surfaces to discern if they are being followed.
SVR. The Foreign Intelligence Service of Russia, charged with maintaining intelligence and foreign operations outside the Russian Federation.
SWIFT (Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication). A European agency that sets standards for global financial messages used by banks for near-real-time settlement of electronic funds transfers. The transaction types (debit memo, credit memo, etc.) have numbers to identify them; for example, MT100 is a credit memo sent by one bank to another to indicate payment via real-time book entry.
systema. Martial art used primarily in Russian military and covert operations.
Tze’elim. Israel’s Urban Warfare Training Center in the Negev Desert.
Va’adet Rashei Hasherutim. The committee of the heads of service in Israel’s intelligence community. Mossad is a prime member.
Glossary C.
Terms Related Specifically to Hacking
(From Motherboard)
Attribution. The process of establishing who is behind a hack. Often, attribution is the most difficult part of responding to a major breach since experienced hackers may hide behind layers of online services that mask their true location and identity. Many incidents, such as the Sony hack, may never produce any satisfactory attribution.
Backdoor. Entering a protected system using a password can be described as going through the front door. Companies may build “backdoors” into their systems, however, so that developers can bypass authentication and dive right into the program. Backdoors are usually secret, but may be exploited by hackers if they are revealed or discovered.
Black hat. A black-hat hacker is someone who hacks for personal gain and/or who engages in illicit and unsanctioned activities. As opposed to white-hack hackers (see below), who traditionally hack in order to alert companies and improve services, black-hat hackers may instead sell the weaknesses they discover to other hackers or use them.
BlackHat. One of the hacking conferences that takes place every summer in Las Vegas.
Botnet. Is your computer part of a botnet? It could be, and you might not know it. Botnets, or zombie armies, are networks of computers controlled by an attacker. Having control over hundreds or thousands of computers lets bad actors perform certain types of cyberattacks, such as a DDoS (see below). Buying thousands of computers wouldn’t be economical, however, so hackers deploy malware to infect random computers that are connected to the internet. If your computer gets infected, your machine might be stealthily performing a hacker’s bidding in the background without your ever noticing.
Brute force. A brute force attack is arguably the least sophisticated way of breaking into a password-protected system, short of simply obtaining the password itself. A brute force attack will usually consist of an automated process of trial-and-error to guess the correct passphrase. Most modern encryption systems use different methods for slowing down brute force attacks, making it hard or impossible to try all combinations in a reasonable amount of time.
Bug. A bug is a flaw or error in a software program. Some are harmless or merely annoying, but some can be exploited by hackers. That’s why many companies have started using bug bounty programs to pay anyone who spots a bug before the bad guys do.
Chip-off. A chip-off attack requires the hacker to physically remove memory storage chips in a device so that information can be scraped from them using specialized software. This attack has been used by l
aw enforcement to break into PGP-protected Blackberry phones.
Cracking. A general term to describe breaking into a security system, usually for nefarious purposes. According to the New Hacker’s Dictionary published by MIT Press, the words “hacking” and “hacker” (see below) in mainstream parlance have come to subsume the words “cracking” and “cracker,” and that’s misleading. Hackers are tinkerers; they’re not necessarily bad guys. Crackers are malicious. At the same time, you’ll see cracking used to refer to breaking, say, digital copyright protections—which many people feel is a just and worthy cause—and in other contexts, such as penetration testing (see below), without the negative connotation.
Crypto. Short for cryptography, the science of secret communication or the procedures and processes for hiding data and messages with encryption (see below).
Dark Web. The Dark Web is made up of sites that are not indexed by Google and are only accessible through specialty networks such as Tor (see below). Often, the Dark Web is used by website operators who want to remain anonymous. Everything on the Dark Web is on the Deep Web, but not everything on the Deep Web is on the Dark Web.
DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service). This type of cyberattack has become popular in recent years because it’s relatively easy to execute and its effects are obvious immediately. A DDoS attack means an attacker is using a number of computers to flood the target with data or requests for data. This causes the target—usually a website—to slow down or become unavailable. Attackers may also use the simpler Denial of Service (DoS) attack, which is launched from one computer.
Deep Web. This term and “Dark Web” or “Dark Net” are sometimes used interchangeably, though they shouldn’t be. The Deep Web is the part of the internet that is not indexed by search engines. That includes password-protected pages, paywalled sites, encrypted networks, and databases—lots of boring stuff.
DEF CON. One of the most famous hacking conferences in the US and the world, which started in 1992 and takes place every summer in Las Vegas.
Digital Certificate. A digital passport or stamp of approval that proves the identity of a person, website, or service on the internet. In more technical terms, a digital certificate proves that someone is in possession of a certain cryptographic key that, traditionally, can’t be forged. Some of the most common digital certificates are those of websites, which ensure your connection to them is properly encrypted. These get displayed on your browser as a green padlock.
