Radio Treason: The Trials of Lord Haw-Haw, the British Voice of Nazi Germany

Radio Treason: The Trials of Lord Haw-Haw, the British Voice of Nazi Germany by Rebecca West

I felt the book was short and episodic. A later learned that it was expanded from four New Yorker articles. That explained things well. Lord Haw-Haw was a British voice for the Nazi Germany. When he was caught, he was tried for treason. He nearly was able to let away scott free. His defense was that he could not be arrested for treason since he was not a British subject. He was born in America and immigrated to Germany, becoming a German citizen at a time when the US was at peace with Germany. Alas, he had secured a British passport and renewed it right after hostilities had started. He was executed, but was able to get a reprieve for his wife.

Family of Spies

Family of Spies: A World War II Story of Nazi Espionage, Betrayal, and the Secret History Behind Pearl Harbor by Christine Kuehn

Grandpa was Nazi spy with interesting history in Hawaii. There were rumors of "baby spy" in the family that would go try to get intel. This book is part memoir and part family history. The author explores the skeletons in his family's closet. They were raised as an all American family. However, Grandpa was executed as a spy. (Though the family gives other reasons for what happened.) The book is an interesting exploration of interrelated bits of World War II history.

The Spy in Moscow Station: A Counterspy's Hunt for a Deadly Cold War Threat

The Spy in Moscow Station: A Counterspy's Hunt for a Deadly Cold War Threat by Eric Haseltine

The Russians and Americans were always trying to out-spy each other. The local embassies were a central point. This is both the "hub" of spying activity as well as a location in the land of the enemy. They each tried to spy as much as possible without getting caught. This book details some intricate tricks they used based on physics. Sound waves travel through the air and can be "caught" by antennas. Similarly radio waves can be used to send signals over various distances. Less known is the waves that are produced from physical activity. A computer may emit a small wave when turned on. Even the most minute signal can be picked up to some extent. Russia had been very keen on exploiting signals and various techniques are taught.

This book details the case of bugged embassy typewriters. The electronic typewriters had small transmitters in them which would encode and transmit the keystrokes made. They would transmit in a bandwidth typically used by local television to help evade detection. An antenna (which was eventually discovered by the Americans) was in the building to pick up these transmissions. The "spyware" was so carefully engineered that it evaded detection for years and only a persistent analyst was able to finally detect it. 

The engineering problem is only part of the story. The human factor was almost more of a challenge. Both sides were walking a diplomatic fine line. The Soviets knew they could often sew descent within the US to let various groups fight amongst themselves.  This continues to remain a challenge today. Russia can simply polarize Americans and let them fight each other.

The Cuckoo's Egg: Tracking a Spy Through the Maze of Computer Espionage

Cliff Stoll was an Astronomy grad student working on managing the lab's computers. One of his tasks was to manage the billing. Little did he know that this would lead to him tracking down international espionage.

He saw a difference of less than a dollar in the billing. Tracing this, he uncovered logins from a former administrator. He decided to try a few means to track the hacker. He discovered they were coming in from an off site modem. He was able to put in an intercept to catch the traffic before it made it to the computer. This allowed him to print out all the activity without the hacker realizing he was being trapped. By doing so, he was able to continue to track the activity for many months.

The hacker was using the server as a jumping off point to look at many scientific and military computers. Stoll involved the phone companies and network providers to try to trace the origin of the hacker. There were some bits (like different unix commands used and network latency) that indicated they were coming from far away. To help keep the hacker on line for a long time, they planted a honeypot of fake important documents to entice the hacker. The tracing involved multiple government entities and countries along with plenty of bureaucratic challenges. Eventually, the hacker was found (in Germany) and Stoll could marry his girlfriend and live happily in Berkeley.