Beware of Canadian spy coins!

[BoMac]

Pocketful of espionage: Beware the spy coins

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Money talks, but can it also follow your movements?

In a U.S. government warning high on the creepiness scale, the Defense Department cautioned its American contractors over what it described as a new espionage threat: Canadian coins with tiny radio frequency transmitters hidden inside.

The government said the mysterious coins were found planted on U.S. contractors with classified security clearances on at least three separate occasions between October 2005 and January 2006 as the contractors traveled through Canada.

Intelligence and technology experts said such transmitters, if they exist, could be used to surreptitiously track the movements of people carrying the spy coins.

The U.S. report doesn't suggest who might be tracking American defense contractors or why. It also doesn't describe how the Pentagon discovered the ruse, how the transmitters might function or even which Canadian currency contained them.

Further details were secret, according to the U.S. Defense Security Service, which issued the warning to the Pentagon's classified contractors. The government insists the incidents happened, and the risk was genuine.

"What's in the report is true," said Martha Deutscher, a spokeswoman for the security service. "This is indeed a sanitized version, which leaves a lot of questions."

Top suspects, according to outside experts: China, Russia or even France -- all said to actively run espionage operations inside Canada with enough sophistication to produce such technology.

The Canadian Security Intelligence Service said it knew nothing about the coins.

"This issue has just come to our attention," CSIS spokeswoman Barbara Campion said. "At this point, we don't know of any basis for these claims." She said Canada's intelligence service works closely with its U.S. counterparts and will seek more information if necessary.

Experts were astonished about the disclosure and the novel tracking technique, but they rejected suggestions Canada's government might be spying on American contractors. The intelligence services of the two countries are extraordinarily close and routinely share sensitive secrets.

"It would seem unthinkable," said David Harris, former chief of strategic planning for the Canadian Security Intelligence Service. "I wouldn't expect to see any offensive operation against the Americans."

Harris said likely candidates include foreign spies who targeted Americans abroad or businesses engaged in corporate espionage. "There are certainly a lot of mysterious aspects to this," Harris said.

Experts said such tiny transmitters would almost certainly have limited range to communicate with sensors no more than a few feet away, such as ones hidden inside a doorway. The metal in the coins also could interfere with any signals emitted.

"I'm not aware of any (transmitter) that would fit inside a coin and broadcast for kilometers," said Katherine Albrecht, an activist who believes such technology carries serious privacy risks. "Whoever did this obviously has access to some pretty advanced technology."

Experts said hiding tracking technology inside coins is fraught with risks because the spy's target might inadvertently give away the coin or spend it buying coffee or a newspaper. They agreed, however, that a coin with a hidden tracking device might not arouse suspicion if it were discovered in a pocket or briefcase.

"It wouldn't seem to be the best place to put something like that; you'd want to put it in something that wouldn't be left behind or spent," said Jeff Richelson, a researcher and author of books about the CIA and its gadgets. "It doesn't seem to make a whole lot of sense."

Canada's largest coins include its $2 "Toonie," which is more than 1-inch across and thick enough to hide a tiny transmitter. The CIA has acknowledged its own spies have used hollow, U.S. silver-dollar coins to hide messages and film.

The government's 29-page report was filled with other espionage warnings. It described unrelated hacker attacks, eavesdropping with miniature pen recorders and the case of a female foreign spy who seduced her American boyfriend to steal his computer passwords.

In another case, a film processing company called the FBI after it developed pictures for a contractor that contained classified images of U.S. satellites and their blueprints. The photo was taken from an adjoining office window.

 

[europop2005]

i KNEW it! Canada is spying on our tollbooths and vending machines! how dare them!

 

[elevated_u2_fan]

Yah eh,

It's a huge conspiricy, even as we speak Canadians are massing along the border sharpening our hockey skates preparing to invade!

 

[BoMac]

Yah eh,

It's a huge conspiricy, even as we speak Canadians are massing along the border sharpening our hockey skates preparing to invade!

Then in the second wave an army of beavers and moose will attack from the ground with cover from Canada geese.

"We're aiming for shock and awe," said army commander Lumberjack John.

 

[Vincent Vega]

Relax!
You only have to fear Canada.
Mexico will be made harmless by the fence.

We have to fear the dangerous likes of Denmark, Holland, Luxembourg, Belgium, France, Switzerland, Austria, Czech Republic and Poland.

 

[MadelynIris]

Lol. You guys realize how scary this is?

 

[redhotswami]

just another reason for me to feel angry and cheated when i receive Canadian currency. this shirt says it all.

 

[verte76]

I never thoght they could fit a spy into a damn coin. Sheesh............

 

[BVS]

See all of you "build a wall on the south border" people are overlooking the real threat.

 

[Canadiens1131]

 

[BonosSaint]

Take us over, please. I surrender.

 

[redhotswami]

I'd be up for some new leadership!

 

[Mr. Green Eyes]

I always knew that Canada was too friendly to us Americans. The truth finally comes out. Their going to be coming down in little packs, all yelling "EH?", and armed with huge bottles of pure maple syrup.

 

[SpaceOddity]

Lol. You guys realize how scary this is?

All jokes aside... this whole situation is kind of disturbing. I mean, really, WTF? Who made these things and what are they for?

 

[BVS]

All jokes aside... this whole situation is kind of disturbing. I mean, really, WTF? Who made these things and what are they for?

To figure out how pocket lint forms, duh.

 

[deep]

All jokes aside... this whole situation is kind of disturbing. I mean, really, WTF? Who made these things and what are they for?

it is kind of like -
that "yellow cake nuclear stuff" that Saddam was supposed to be going after

I think this may hearing about this
because W needs an excuse to launch a war he can win

 

[Billy Rotten]

This is probably another story George Dubya made up so he could invade another country.

 

[elevated_u2_fan]

All jokes aside... this whole situation is kind of disturbing. I mean, really, WTF? Who made these things and what are they for?

I'm just impressed this is being done by Canadians... I had no idea we had the technology or the balls to try something like this..

 

[MadelynIris]

This was not done by Canadians. As much as everyone likes to joke about it being Canadian, it was not the Canadians.

Seriously, weird.

 

[BVS]

Then who? Are you speculating or are you to privy to info others aren't?

 

[MadelynIris]

From article:

Top suspects, according to outside experts: China, Russia or even France -- all said to actively run espionage operations inside Canada with enough sophistication to produce such technology.

 

[A_Wanderer]

Well obviously it was the Canadians, if it was the Russians they would have given these contractors their change in Roubles.

 

[BVS]

I still think the article is speculating on who. And I love how they threw France in there

 

[MadelynIris]

We share with Canada so the motivation would be kind of weird, especially if the contractors were in Canada to work on a project with Canada. We don't share with France, Russia as much. I think that is an accepted fact.

 

[Vincent Vega]

Funny, if it's somehow negative France is always included

 

[elevated_u2_fan]

This was not done by Canadians. As much as everyone likes to joke about it being Canadian, it was not the Canadians.

Seriously, weird.

Damn, and here I thought we were all badass and shit...

 

[trevster2k]

Problem solved, here is a picture of the spy coin. Rick Mercer would be pleased.

Poppy quarter led to spy coin warnings
Last Updated: Monday, May 7, 2007 | 10:18 AM ET
The Associated Press

The surprise explanation behind the U.S. government's sensational but false warnings about mysterious Canadian spy coins is the harmless poppy quarter, the world's first colourized coin.

The odd-looking coins were so unfamiliar to suspicious U.S. army contractors travelling in Canada that they filed confidential espionage accounts about them.

The worried contractors described the coins as "anomalous" and "filled with something manmade that looked like nanotechnology," said once-classified U.S. government reports and e-mails.

The 25-cent piece features the red image of a poppy inlaid over a maple leaf. The quarter is identical to the coins pictured and described as suspicious in the contractors' accounts.

The supposed nanotechnology actually was a conventional protective coating the Royal Canadian Mint applied to prevent the poppy's red colour from rubbing off. The mint produced nearly 30 million such quarters in 2004 commemorating Canada's 117,000 war dead.

"It did not appear to be electronic [analog] in nature or have a power source," wrote one U.S. contractor, who discovered the coin in the cup holder of a rental car.

"Under high-power microscope, it appeared to be complex consisting of several layers of clear but different material, with a wire-like mesh suspended on top."

The confidential accounts led to a sensational warning from the U.S. Defence Security Service, an agency of the Defence Department, that mysterious coins with radio frequency transmitters were found planted on U.S. contractors with classified security clearances on at least three separate occasions between October 2005 and January 2006 as the contractors travelled through Canada.

One contractor believed someone had placed two of the quarters in an outer coat pocket after the contractor had emptied the pocket hours earlier.

"Coat pockets were empty that morning and I was keeping all of my coins in a plastic bag in my inner coat pocket," the contractor wrote.

http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2007/05/07/tech-poppy-quarter.html

 

[BVS]

How embarassing

 

[GibsonGirl]

This thing has had me laughing the whole day. Next thing you know, those breast cancer quarters that came out in 2006 will be deemed weapons of mass destruction...

(Run for your lives, America!)

 

[Angela Harlem]

How embarassing

Or paranoid!