espionage

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'Salt Typhoon' Hack May Have Compromised Nearly Entire US
'Salt Typhoon' Hack May Have
Compromised Nearly Entire US
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Sep 7, 2025 7:00 AM CDT

'Salt Typhoon' Hack May Have Compromised Nearly Entire US

Coordinated breach via Chinese hackers hit global telecom, government, infrastructure networks

(Newser) - Chinese hackers operating under the group name "Salt Typhoon" have reportedly carried out one of the largest cyberespionage campaigns to date, according to Western security officials. The group is thought to be behind an operation that breached networks across more than 80 countries, including the United States, and...

NYT Reveals Failed Secret SEAL Mission in North Korea

In 2019, SEAL team aborted mission to plant listening device, killed apparent civilians on boat

(Newser) - The New York Times is for the first time revealing a secret mission by Navy SEALs in North Korea that unraveled in dramatic fashion back in 2019. It reads like an espionage thriller, though one with fatal consequences for up to three North Korea fishermen. Under a top-secret plan approved...

Report: Russian Drones Are Tracking Supplies to Ukraine

Surveillance flights raise alarms over potential sabotage on European routes used by US

(Newser) - US and European officials say Russian surveillance drones are being flown over key military supply routes in eastern Germany, gathering intelligence that could help Moscow's sabotage efforts in its war in Ukraine. The activity along routes used by the US and its allies, described as "straight-up espionage"...

Feds: US Soldier Tried to Give Russia Secrets on Battle Tank

Taylor Adam Lee allegedly hoped to trade details on tank used in Ukraine for citizenship

(Newser) - A US Army soldier from Texas is accused of trying to trade classified tank secrets for Russian citizenship. Federal authorities say Taylor Adam Lee, a 22-year-old service member stationed at Fort Bliss, attempted to hand over sensitive information about America's main battle tank, the M1A2 Abrams, per CBS...

In Iran, a Rare Execution of a Nuclear Scientist

Executed scientist accused of leaking nuclear secrets to Israel's Mossad

(Newser) - In a rare move, Iran has executed a top nuclear scientist accused of spying for Israel—exposing just how deeply foreign intelligence may have infiltrated one of the country's most sensitive programs, the New York Times reports. According to Iran's judiciary, Roozbeh Vadi worked at a sensitive...

FBI Chief Hails 'Historic Moment' in New Zealand

US agency's new office in Wellington will target cybercrime, regional security threats

(Newser) - The FBI has established its first permanent office in New Zealand, aiming to strengthen cooperation on cybersecurity and counter China's influence in the Indo-Pacific region. FBI chief Kash Patel, who inaugurated the Wellington office at the US Embassy on July 24, described the move as a "historic...

KGB Spies May Have Done a Huge Favor for Successors

Investigators believe they obtained Brazilian birth certificates for next generation of spies

(Newser) - As the Soviet Union started to collapse, KGB spies in Brazil may have done their Russian successors a huge favor. Investigators trying to determine how Brazil became an "assembly line" for deep-cover Russian agents believe KGB agents in the country obtained birth certificates for nonexistent babies in the final...

Brazil Was 'Assembly Line' for Deep-Cover Russian Spies

Their job wasn't to spy on Brazil, but to become Brazilians with perfect cover stories

(Newser) - Russia is known to have deep-cover spies in numerous countries—but the ones it sent to Brazil were different. According to a New York Times investigation, Moscow used the country as an "assembly line" for spies whose job it was "not to spy on Brazil, but to become...

It's the Most Famous Lemon in Spy History

New exhibit features 110-year-old fruit used by a German spy to write 'invisible ink' letters

(Newser) - It's the stuff of spy novels, except in this case it's the stuff of actual spycraft. A new exhibit opening in London features a 110-year-lemon—now desiccated, of course—used by a German spy to write messages in invisible ink about British troop movements during World War I,...

MI6 Could Get Its First Woman Spy Chief

It seems that the James Bond series got there a lot faster than the real-world British spy agency

(Newser) - Real-life spies say their world is nothing like that of James Bond, but the AP reports that in one way, truth may soon follow fiction: MI6 could be about to get its first woman leader. Britain's foreign intelligence agency launched a search for its next chief on Tuesday, and...

Couple on Round-the-World Trip Charged as Spies in Iran

Lindsey and Craig Foreman are from the UK

(Newser) - The last social media post from a British couple who entered Iran on an epic motorcycle journey read, "What a wonderful place." Craig and Lindsay Foreman may be rethinking that sentiment from Jan. 3. Iran has arrested the pair and charged them with espionage, reports the BBC . The...

Charges: Adviser Leaked Fed Secrets to China

John Harold Rogers faces espionage count

(Newser) - An economist who was a senior adviser to the Federal Reserve Board of Governors has been arrested, charged with stealing insider data to provide to China. John Harold Rogers, 63, was taken into custody on Friday, CNBC reports. The information could help China manipulate the American market "in a...

Russia Sentences American to 15 Years for Spying

Eugene Spector was previously convicted of bribery in Russia

(Newser) - A US citizen is to spend the next 15 years in a high-security Russian prison following a spying conviction on Tuesday. Eugene Spector, who was born in the former Soviet Union and later moved to the US and received US citizenship, is already serving a three-and-a-half year sentence in Russia...

Prince Andrew: I've 'Ceased All Contact' With Accused Spy

Chinese national was invited by Andrew himself to royal residences, as revealed in court hearing

(Newser) - A businessman who's been accused of being a Chinese spy has had quite a tour of Britain's royal residences—all at the behest of Prince Andrew, according to recent reports. Per the UK Times , which cites info that emerged at a Thursday hearing, the 64-year-old younger brother of...

Spy Agency's Xmas Card Is 'Riddle Wrapped in an Enigma'

GCHQ's annual greeting features 'fiendishly difficult' puzzles to excite the minds of UK kids

(Newser) - What does a spy agency give for Christmas? How about a riddle wrapped in an enigma inside a mystery? GCHQ, Britain's electronic and cyberintelligence agency, on Wednesday published its annual "Christmas Challenge" —a seasonal greeting card that doubles as a set of fiendishly difficult puzzles designed to...

UK Official: Putin Had to Have Ordered Hit on Skripals

Jonathan Allen testified that assassination attempt on ex-spy, daughter was 'a warning' from Russia

(Newser) - While America celebrated Thanksgiving, the UK's senior official responsible for Russia policy was testifying across the pond about the assassination attempts against former spy Sergei Skripal and daughter Yulia Skripal . Among the biggest revelations from Jonathan Allen, who spoke in London at the inquiry into the 2018 Novichok poisonings:...

Russia Is Really Cranking Out the Spying Charges

Prosecutors seek 39-month sentence for French national Laurent Vinatier

(Newser) - Prosecutors asked a Russian court on Monday to deliver a prison sentence of three years and three months to a French citizen arrested on charges of unlawfully collecting information on military issues. Laurent Vinatier, who was arrested in Moscow in June, earlier admitted guilt, setting the stage for a fast-track...

Russia Boots 6 UK Diplomats for Spying

Britain denies espionage accusations, calling them 'completely baseless'

(Newser) - Russia on Friday accused six British diplomats of spying and said it decided to expel them, an announcement that comes as tensions between Moscow and the West grow during an intensified push by Ukraine to loosen restrictions on using weapons provided by the US and Britain to strike Russia. Russia'...

Sons: Memo Proves Ethel Rosenberg 'Wasn't a Spy'

Document from what later became the NSA indicates she did not engage in husband's work

(Newser) - A top US government codebreaker who decrypted secret Soviet communications during the Cold War concluded that Ethel Rosenberg knew about her husband's activities "but that due to illness she did not engage in the work herself," according to a recently declassified memo that her sons say proves...

The Secret Trial of Evan Gershkovich Has Begun

The US and 'WSJ' vehemently deny the reporter was spying

(Newser) - Fifteen months after his arrest in the Russian city of Yekaterinburg on espionage charges, Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich's closed-door trial has begun. The AP reports the 32-year-old attended court in a padlocked glass defendants cage, his head shaved. Details:
  • The charges: Both the US government and the
...

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