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to a remote public pay phone in New York City and use a prepaid phone card to dial the number of a digital pager she carried and transmit his message using a three-digit number code. Montes had also been instructed to anonymously purchase a prepaid phone card and proceed to a remote public pay phone in Washington, D.C. She was to enter the phone card’s 800 number, touch-tone the card’s unique PIN number, and dial a telephone number linked to a digital pager carried by the Cuban intelligence officer posing as a diplomat at the United Nations. With the connection made, Montes would enter a three-digit code to communicate secretly with her handler. Though the CuIS system provided anonymity to the users and the calls were un-traceable, her pattern of activity was alerting to FBI surveillance after she came under suspicion. Montes was known to carry a mobile phone, so there was no legitimate reason for her to seek out a remote pay phone to make a call after receiving a pager message. In this instance the covcom system was technically successful, but failed to mask the existence of the communication to well-trained counterintelligence officers.

Advancements in personal digital assistants (PDAs) in the late 1990s made it easier for information to be transmitted using SRAC techniques. FBI Special Agent Robert Hanssen, who “retired” from his role as a Russian spy when the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, reactivated himself in 1999 and wanted to incorporate the latest digital technology for his secret communications. In a message to his handlers dated June 8, 2000, Hanssen wrote:

One of the commercial products currently available is the Palm VII organizer. I have a Palm III, which is actually a fairly capable computer. The VII version comes with wireless Internet capability built in. It can allow the rapid transmission of encrypted messages, which if used on an infrequent basis, could be quite effective in preventing confusions if the existence of the accounts could be appropriately hidden as well as the existence of the devices themselves. Such a device might even serve for rapid transmittal of substantial material in digital form.28

Advances in microelectronics and personal computers added to the capabilities and effectiveness of constantly improving covcom systems. Former MI6 officer Richard Tomlinson described a system known as “Garfield the Cat” issued only to long-term and highly trusted British agents in countries such as Russia and South Africa:

The agent writes a message on a laptop computer, then downloads it into the SRAC transmitter, a small box about the size of a cigarette pack. The receiver is usually mounted in the British Embassy and continually sends out a low-power interrogation signal. When the agent is close enough, in his car or on foot, his transmitter is triggered and sends the message in a high-speed burst of VHF. The transmitter is disguised as an innocent object. For many years “Garfield” stuffed animals were popular, as their suction feet allowed the agent to stick the transmitter on the side window of his car, giving an extra car signal as he drove past the embassy.29

In 2006, a spokesman for Russia’s Federal Counterintelligence Service announced on Moscow television that British diplomats had been photographed servicing an “electronic dead-letter box” hidden inside a fake, hollowed-out rock in a city park. A hidden video camera planted by the FSB photographed two men identified as British diplomats as they attempted to activate their nonworking “rock.” Concealed inside the rock were a receiver, transmitter, computer, and power supply designed for secret communication with a Russian agent. To activate it, the agent would secretly input his reports using only the keypad of a standard cell phone or other personal electronic device. Once prepared, the PED was placed in a transmit mode by using a combination of key strokes known only to the agent. The PED would then continuously send out a low-power signal, similar to Bluetooth technology, until it was within the range of the rock.