An astounding 4.2 million Americans have access to the US’s most sensitive secrets - and that doesn’t include the spies, hackers, and whistleblowers playing their dangerous game of thievery and revelation. From the Oval Office to millennial gamers, data breaches are igniting the fire of federal criminal charges. This week, SPYSCAPE opens the top-secret file on clearance and classification.
President’s Daily Brief
The PDB may not share the heart-pounding intensity of Katherine Heigl in State of Affairs, but it’s hard to imagine a more urgent brief. The president is updated daily on SIGINT, analysis, covert ops, and reports from sources and allies. The brief includes CIA, NSA, FBI, and Defense Department input. Despite high-level security, there have been sensational leaks though. Today, we’re reading you in on 10 PDB secrets.
How do classified files go missing? Sometimes they just walk out the door. Ten years ago this month, NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden stored top-secret intel on a memory stick reportedly hidden in the Rubik's cube he carried through security. To mark the anniversary, SPYSCAPE runs through Snowden’s top reveals and exposes a few of his own secrets buried in court docs and his biography Permanent Record.
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SPYGAMES is coming to SPYSCAPE in Manhattan, Summer 2023
Presidents and spies aren’t the only people with access to top-level intel. Valets are also privy to the Oval Office secrets. Known as ‘confidants of the wardrobe’, valets may look after the Commander-in-Chief’s clothing but they are also surrogate nurses, PR agents, messengers, and confidants. With the swirl of interest around Walt Nauta, SPYSCAPE dug into the secrets of seven presidential valets.
Classified docs are at the heart of the unprecedented federal indictment involving Donald Trump but there’s a mind-boggling array of acronyms to wade through. Take Doc 19, for example, marked ‘FRD’ (a classification given to intel involving military use of nuclear weapons). If you’re having trouble unraveling the secret cipher, our glossary can help you separate your FVEYs from your SCIFs.
Information is the world’s most valuable commodity but what happens when the person you trust to keep it safe secretly works for the enemy? In the ‘70s, US Sergeant Clyde Lee Conrad was the gatekeeper of a vault of top-secret files in Bad Kreuznach, Germany. Conrad was also a psychopath and Soviet spy. FBI agent Joe Navarro was on the case as the Doomsday Clock ticked closer to midnight.
Cryptanalyst Herbert O. Yardley was awarded the Distinguished Service Medal in 1923, the Army's highest non-combat decoration. A few years later, he was broke and unemployed when State Department funding for his program dried up. Yardley, a keen poker player, decided to cash in his chips. He wrote an explosive book about breaking the Japanese code, strong-arming Western Union into turning over cables, and the dark arts of gentlemen who read each other’s mail.
