US nuke sub plans leaked on SD card hidden in peanut butter sandwich, claims FBI The United States Department of Justice has announced a leak of information pertaining to the design of the nuclear-powered Virginia-class submarine, and the arrest of the alleged leakers. A court filing and announcement allege that a chap named Jonathan Toebbe, an employee of the Department of the Navy who served as a nuclear …
This isn't even the first time people have posted classified docs to the War Thunder forum over dick-swinging about how things should Actually be.
The one you posted was about France's Leclerk tank, but just months before a commander of the UK Royal Tank regiment posted pages from the Challenger 2 tank manual in the forum to support his bitching about the tank mantle. Cue the UK Ministry of Defense getting involved. https://www.pcgamesn.com/war-thunder/challenger-2-classified-documents
Meanwhile, here these geniuses are smuggling SD cards in peanut butter sammiches and then trying to sell the info on craigslist.
The typically British thing to do is to eat the bacon sarnie and not even notice the SD card due to the splendour of the bacon-and-bread combo. Add brown sauce and you wouldn't even notice if the SD card removed a tooth filling..
There ain't nothing better than a bacon sarnie..
"There ain't nothing better than a bacon sarnie.."
The lack of HGV drivers means all the pigs can't go to slaughter. The lack of abattoir butchers means the bacon can be made from the pigs that do get there. The lack of HGV drivers means the bacon that does get made can't be delivered to the shops.
The BACONOPOLYSE is upon us!!! Don't panic! Don't Panic!
(Yes, do panic! Go stock up on bacon before it runs out!!)
"France's Leclerk tank,"
Is that the one with the super duper camoflage that pops up and says "It is I, Leclerk!!"
If he was insisting that his buyers retrieve information at dead drops, there's very little chance he sold it to anyone but the FBI. They'd have had him under surveillance the whole time, and if he did drop something it's likely that it was intercepted and perhaps substituted as part of a larger intelligence operation. It's safe to assume that his ProtonMail account was also tapped, and his personal computers thoroughly penetrated. Of course, whatever communication he had, if any, with actual foreign powers isn't essential to the case against him and thus will not be revealed. But no, considering how unprofessional the would-be agent's efforts were, it doesn't seem all that risky. Probably they were hoping some other players would enter the game and when none did (I have to imagine most intelligence agencies take a dim view of volunteers-by-email, for all the obvious reasons) and they had ample evidence they shut it down and charged him.
Big if **MAYBE** not the content, but certainly all the metadata which with something as leaky as SMTP is a LOT of info or did the t+c changes pass you by?
What buggers belief here is that double o fail and presumably wife as they both charged did a physical drop, then provided a decrypt key....
Why not just encrypt the blobs, as many times as they presumably felt secure upload somewhere like pastebin or mega, or even usenet from proton mail via tor or similar then provide the key, or hell just for spy movie shits and giggles steganography and then sell the image as an NFT to boot...
physical drop = under surveillance, i mean ffs would have been better posting it at least that would have been trickier to pin on him
Dumbass
I don't know how he became a nuclear engineer but it seems doubtful that intelligence was involved all that much.
Agreeing to use the buyer's dead letter box was dumb, he ought to have refused and used his own and only once at that.
Still, he will have plenty of spare time to reflect on how to do it better.
"I don't know how he became a nuclear engineer but it seems doubtful that intelligence was involved all that much."
I think we have at least one ex-USN nuclear engineer or operator posting here. No doubt he'll be along soon to explain :-)
His attempts weren't as good as he would want, but I must warn you that yours have lots of problems and as stated would likely fail.
"Why not just encrypt the blobs, as many times as they presumably felt secure upload somewhere like pastebin or mega, or even usenet from proton mail via tor"
You know how big some files can be? If you upload gigabytes to an anonymous system, they may log how you did it. If you're under surveillance, which they were, they would notice a large upload through Tor. And Usenet? You can't store that large a chunk on Usenet. Using someone else's dead drop location is a bad idea, but using your own and then telling them about it is less likely to be immediately obvious.
"steganography and then sell the image as an NFT to boot..."
Steganography is great, but it's not efficient. You have to post a lot of material in which your data is hiding, which is much easier for a key or a short message but quite hard for submarine plans. Then, you have to tell somebody about where all your data is, which leads you to the same problem you had with uploading it. That's if you managed to find enough material which doesn't identify you, since this is supposed to be anonymous.
If you're considering a life of crime involving lots of data exchange, you need better methods.
I know, that's an abomination.
Peanut butter, tart cherry jam, and cream cheese is my favorite.
Or a crunchy PB and sharp cheddar toastie...
I still wonder why they strung along for a year and transferred so much currency of any type. Seems sliiiiiiightly like they were looking to get a bigger catch?
They were making really sure they caught him, and he can't weasel his way out of it.
He can't argue mistaken identity, they will have photos of him & his car at multiple dead drops. Where he had no other reason to go.
He can't argue it was a "one off lapse of judgement". He did it multiple times.
He can't argue it was "worthless information". The seller believed what he had already delivered was worth $100k to a foreign government and he was paid that. And he asked for $5 million total for all the information he had.
> An FBI legal attaché obtained a letter sent by Toebbe in April 2020 that included some US Navy documents and instructions on how to establish a secure channel between a foreign nation and Toebbe
But this means that post to embassies is being intercepted! I'm shocked I tell you, shocked.
>>But this means that post to embassies is being intercepted!
Not necessarily - Embassies may send this sort of stuff directly to the local security service as a goodwill gesture. its not like the FBI are a particularly secret service after all.
The embassies already know that their real contacts are (presumably) successful - they don't want some amateur screwing things up by mistake!
It doesn't mention which country he thought he was trying to sell the plans to? Maybe the country already had a mole who could get them the plans so they thought they would give their real asset some extra protection, by hanging this amateur out to dry, by handing him over the the feds.
The letter was sent in April. It sounds like the foreign government looked at it, and decided they weren't interested, so they passed it to the FBI at the start of December. (Though that isn't explicitly stated anywhere I saw. But there doesn't seem to be another plausible explanation).
According to the first line of para.3 of the article "That foreign power shared the communication with an FBI legal attaché,"
So, no interception needed. The "foreign power" decided to act itself for whatever reason. Maybe they were in a good mood that day. Or maybe the amateur spy didn't realise that not all "foreign powers" are enemies and chose to contact one who, if not an actual ally, was relatively neutral.
While previously working for "Abrams HQ" (same as Stryker HQ), I -- like all employees -- had access to the vehicle operation manuals from the Technical Publications department: basic power-up, driving, maintenance, etc. (Nothing about weapons systems, though, so don't even think it.) They clearly weren't classified like our UK and French counterparts, but they were probably labelled "FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY (FOUO)" or "CONTROLLED UNCLASSIFIED INFORMATION (CUI)" -- if so, they were NOT for public release. (And no, I didn't send/take home a copy! Shame on you for asking!)
Doesn't matter, though, because when it comes to automotive performance you're better off just checking Wikipedia than the "tanker" manual!
Weapon performance? Maybe somewhere else online. (Armor performance? Forget it; that's bona fide classified.)
I don't know whether the US has the same document classification as the UK, but over here "Resrtricted" is the lowest security classification commonly in use. Documents under that heading hold no confidential informatio whatever, of any use to a potential enemy. About the best you'd get out of it is that it's about so long , and so far around.
when I was in the Navy it was like this:
For Official Use Only (just don't go and disclose it, seriously nobody needs to know this)
Confidential (power plant info and engineering specs were usually Confidential)
Secret (may be a few of these on a sub, like current position may be Secret, depending)
Top Secret (cannot confirm nor deny - that's what they tell you to say)
and whatever else they need, "eyes only" and whatnot. You had to have a need to know, and a clearance.
'Restricted' is like 'Confidential' I guess...
Apparently nuclear information is controlled under a specific US law. That's what they are being prosecuted for, since it is nuclear reactor information. Not the usual "classified information" law. So this is not related the various classification levels.
From the court filing:
> “Restricted Data” consists of “all data concerning (1) design, manufacture, or utilization of atomic weapons; (2) the production of special nuclear material; or (3) the use of special nuclear material in the production of energy,” but does not include data that has been declassified or removed from the Restricted Data category. 42 U.S.C. §2014(y).
This post has been deleted by its author
I work with a lot of ex-military folks who had/have TS clearances and above. Every one of them has said that the process to get one is such a pain because it really is so easy to compromise someone, then it's super easy for people with the right access to sneak off with secrets if no one suspects them. Even the simple public trust position clearance I had to obtain was pretty thorough - full background/credit check, interviewing my neighbors and former bosses, etc. -- and it's not like I'm working with nuclear secrets. It's all because the only thing someone has to do in some cases is so simple, like copy a few documents/take a few photos, to severely undermine certain operations. A former nuclear officer I've worked with said it's drilled into their heads from Day 1 in the program that this is the case and while there are safeguards, there's also a lot of scrutiny of personnel because they can't prevent everything.
They're trying to ferret out people who are easier than normal to compromise. Except for drugs and iffy foreign contacts, they don't really care about deep dark secrets as long as someone doesn't feel the need to pay to keep them secret. They're mostly looking for compulsive gamblers, people who are horrible with their finances, people with drug problems or blackmailable secrets, anyone who would happily dead-drop a top-secret peanut butter sandwich for $100K.
I'd love to see how this shadowy FBI investigation even got started. It's not like you can just post an ad on Craigslist offering your warez. Even just walking into a foreign embassy probably isn't the best way either. I'm guessing there's a passive level of surveillance on the people with the most access, but I guess we'll never know. I've always thought it odd that sophisticated spies and would-be terrorists come up in the case filings as having made contact with an FBI agent. You'd think they would know they're not dealing with the real deal...
Gamblers, bankruptcies, drugs... and psychotherapy / psychiatry / etc.
"Here's the burden of keeping secrets even from your spouse. No, you can't even talk about the stress to a professional."
This pandemic has taken a mental toll on a vast majority of western civilization, but I'm sure many folks are avoiding seeking therapy lest they lose their clearances and their jobs, and then REALLY need therapy (but can no longer afford it).
Agreed -- there are a lot of cleared individuals that self-medicate because they'd instantly lose their jobs/careers. Nuclear stuff has a personnel reliability program that requires anyone seeking any sort of mental health treatment to be removed from duty.
Another interesting outside-the-military one is air traffic controllers. From what I've heard, either you have the mental aptitude and skills for the job or you don't, and they spend years training from zero knowledge in a job that's not exactly transferrable skills-wise. I'm sure ATC supervisors don't want to lose anyone given how hard it is to replace someone, so anything that would take someone out of the rotation is frowned upon. And, I'm sure ATCs don't want to lose all that effort they spent learning this job.
But, the way it should be working is secret information is only given to people who need to know. If only 20 people know something, the fact that there are another 799,980 people with a TS clearance is irrelevant.
Just because you have a TS clearance, that doesn't mean you get to know all the US Top Secret information. It just means you CAN be told the bits of it if you need to know.
The time to process a clearance to TS in the UK is typically 18 months; this is known as DV (developed vetting) and used to be CV (continuous vetting).
It really is continuous as a DV clearance is usually reviewed every 18 months.
Having had such a clearance many years ago I can vouch for the fact that the various agencies are always asking neighbours, bank managers and various acquaintances questions about you. I sometimes thought that they had a better record of my life than I did (and that was probably correct).
The overall process is much the same for the various clearances as it always was and the reasons for revoking them are also much the same but those are not as automatic as they once were.
An NCO of my acquaintance declared bankruptcy in the mid 70s; at the time that was an automatic security risk so he lost his secret clearance immediately and as you needed (and still do as far as I know) a secret clearance (minimum) to be a serving member of the armed forces, he was sent a letter that said 'Services no longer required' (SNLR).
So bankrupt and out of a job.
Currently, that is still grounds for suspicion but in many cases the security people will interview the person involved. They may or may not lose the clearance.
"...anyone who would happily dead-drop a top-secret peanut butter sandwich for $100K."
I'll argue that the compromised or at-risk folks would *unhappily* trade info for $100K to get out of a financial hole or to stave off a blackmailer. Those are indeed the ones the process is designed to catch. There are a few people out there who will happily dump info for $100k, those are harder to prevent.
When I first read about this last week the report included the information about the peanut butter sandwich but didn't have anything about Monero and so on. What It did say was that he'd initially sent sample information with the note to "a representative of a foreign government" with a note stating “Please forward this letter to your military intelligence agency. I believe this information will be of great value to your nation. This is not a hoax.” This packet found its way to the FBI which set the sting in motion.
Since this initial report was on the "Russia Today" website its a good guess which "foreign power" he sent it to. Its likely that they'd immediately bounce it because they wouldn't want to get involved with amateur spies and information from a such a source may well be useless or tainted.
"Since this initial report was on the "Russia Today" website its a good guess which "foreign power" he sent it to. Its likely that they'd immediately bounce it because they wouldn't want to get involved with amateur spies and information from a such a source may well be useless or tainted."
Or even, potentially, a sting to see who or what pops out of the woodwork to respond, eg a fishing expedition to see if any new faces show up from the embassy doing jobs outside of the official job description.
The time I found TS SCI information on a memory card sold online, when most of the others seemed to be either blank or defective.
It was serious enough that when I did a Google search and found the same data on a hidden site, emails got sent to 4 letter agency.
as well as an agency in the UK.
They did eventually get my message it seems because the page got taken down.
Still have a copy here, on an isolated HDD locked in a safe waiting for the MIB to come and collect it.
He should just posted it all over the damn net.
Still wouldn't have made money in the end, But Then there'll be no way for them to put the cat back into the bag.
One day the stupid Empire will fall. Eventually they will run out of innocents and scape goats to subsidize their illusions and turn on eachother.
Like any other security system I guess its all about reducing risk of leakage of your information the same as many on here already do every day. Siloing access to specific topics, to specific people and for set periods in time. Also randomly monitoring input and output through software and physical means, so just an expansion on being a system admin.
As to the " foreign power" dobbing them in, I guess if you already have access to these systems handing someone over makes you look clean as fairy snow and saves getting an agent burnt on a set up operation.
Regarding the dead drop ,given they performed this over many months they could have drip fed the details onto many of the storage sites already used by dodgy software and video providers worldwide. Im also thinking rather than uploading documents they could have just made videos of them to upload.
Not to brag TOO MUCH but I'm so smart, that I already KNOW HOW to refine U235 from a mere 520 tonnes of common crushed rock to get common yellowcake and then build my own nuke by spinning uranium hexaflouride into my self-built ceramic-lined Aluminum Tube with a Tube centerfuges laser drilled with microholes spinning at 35,000 RPM on my custom built (Easy to make too!) magnetic bearings. This will let me enrich U235 to 95% perfection for my nuclear fission needs! I don't even NEED that many separator tubes! I just make 1000 or so running in a small warehouse powered by a common propane fuel cell generator system so I don't arouse any of the local housing council's suspicion.
From there, I will take two slabs of 7 kg 95% enriched U235 and make a GUN-SLAM detonation device using my fancy self-built two tonne magnetic induction rail to slam one 7 KG U235 slug installed on a ferrous (i.e. magnetic) slug backed with a tungsten Neutron Reflector into the other end ALSO containing a 7 kg chunk encased in a tungsten based neutron reflector at the end of a long tube so that it all goes super-critical and starts the around 10 to 15 kiloton FISSION-based detonation process! No need for explosives to slam chunks of U235 together when modern rail gun tech (or even high-pressure pneumatic or hydraulic RAM technology!) will work just as well to start the fission process!
I HIGHLY SUGGEST creating a NEW swimming pool and underground home with this device since 10 to 15 kilotons is a pretty BIG BANG! I do suggest a radiation-suit and lead aprons for the day. After that, you could send in your innane/insane mother-in-law to scout the newly dug up surroundings before you take up residence and to test the local radiation levels! If her skin doesn't fall off and eyes don't melt out you are good to go!
---
AND FOR THE KICKER, I can also use my home built cyclotron to continuously slam heavy nuclei into a chunk of heavy metal such as tungsten, gold, cadmium, manganese and even plain old IRON at a continuous rate so that I create a METASTABLE STRUCTURAL ISOMER to just before its tip-over-point where it cannot absorb any more energy. That point lets the chunk of metal become and stay ONLY METASTABLE meaning its structural integrity can collapse at ANY time with the addition of a bare amount of extra energy. That structural integrity is at the molecular binding level so the inherent amount of cascade failure induced energy release is into the KILOTON range! A structural isomer can be created from ANY heavy metal and not just something like Hafnium!
And when you ADD that final tip-over energy input, a cascading-failure molecular binding energy collapse occurs and a supersonic detonation results that is about TWO KILOTONS of thermal and explosive shock wave all contained in a small space about the size of a common filing cabinet! Since there is NO RADIATION AT ALL in a structural isomer, it CANNOT be detected by normal means! Sooooooo, if you want to create your OWN 500 metre wide, 250 metre deep fishing lake in your favourite farming township, you may do so using a Metastable Structural Isomer!
Do remember to wear your sunglasses, some 60 SPF sunblock AND maybe a foil volcano suit whilst witnessing your NEW fishing hole creation event!
You can ALSO use this on you most hated Nth-Form bully to get a little more SATISFACTION out of this glorious event by inviting him/her for some FREE fishing at your as-of-yet unfinished lake!
Meh!
V
They were selling nuclear secrets to (what they thought was) a nation state for $110k?
How much do nuclear engineers get paid - is that not a year or two's salary? If you're going to commit treason then have a little self respect. It ought to be for seven to eight figures.
I built a working X-ray pulse assembly in a shed using a box of scraps and 1940s vintage vacuum tubes.
It *almost* worked but unfortunately could never iron out all the problems like the radiation spiking out of control and unwanted interference to other equipment.
In retrospect taking it apart was a wise choice, anything powerful enough to scramble the memory on my LCR from across a room through 2mm of lead and trash SPD chips on DDR modules etc was probably far too hazardous and risked long term damage.
Could clearly see the glowing blob on the scintillator through a Craplins project box though never got a decent image with it due to the lack of a collimator and image intensifier.
The experimental enrichment setup also worked quite well, and got a 3-4* increase just with sequential crystallization steps.
No doubt with some more effort I might have got it to a level equivalent to a couple of smoke alarm sources, though only for the on-axis gamma emissions.
https://hackaday.com/2018/05/12/a-vacuum-tube-and-barbecue-lighter-x-ray-generator/
You take a simple MASON JAR and use a laser cutter to drill/melt holes in the flat end for the power supply pins in your high-powered CRT tube-based assembly which you can insert just before you use an oxyacetylene torch to create your own CRT vacuum tube by slowly rotating the open end of the mason jar round-and-round until you pinch it fully off. After you attach a vacuum pump to the CRT side and fill the holes where the power supply pins go through with a non-gas-permeating glue and silicone rubber gasket, you can getting a decent vacuum.
The Soda Lime glass of a MASON JAR is completely transparent to X-RAYS and is thick enough to take a high vacuum! You can easily make a DIY 1200 KV CRT that will emit HARD X-RAYS
What's not to like!
P.S. I know this is a vaaaaast simplification BUT it's STILL a DIY project!
v
The Register 
Biting the hand that feeds IT
Copyright. All rights reserved © 1998–2025
