Opsec Details of Snowden Meeting with Greenwald and Poitras

I don’t like stories about the personalities in the Snowden affair, because it detracts from the NSA and the policy issues. But I’m a sucker for operational security, and just have to post this detail from their first meeting in Hong Kong:

Snowden had instructed them that once they were in Hong Kong, they were to go at an appointed time to the Kowloon district and stand outside a restaurant that was in a mall connected to the Mira Hotel. There, they were to wait until they saw a man carrying a Rubik’s Cube, then ask him when the restaurant would open. The man would answer their question, but then warn that the food was bad.

Actually, the whole article is interesting. The author is writing a book about surveillance and privacy, one of probably a half dozen about the Snowden affair that will come out this year.

EDITED TO ADD (8/31): While we’re on the topic, here’s some really stupid opsec on the part of Greenwald and Poitras:

Statement from senior Cabinet Office civil servant to #miranda case says material was 58000 ‘highly classified UK intelligence documents

Police who seized documents from #miranda found among them a piece of paper with the decryption password, the statement says

This password allowed them to decrypt one file on his seized hard drive, adds Oliver Robbins, Cabinet Office security adviser #miranda

You can’t do this kind of stuff when you’re playing with the big boys.

Posted on August 30, 2013 at 1:54 PM • 114 Comments