CIA spy tech from Amazon is John Kiriakou’s account of the agency’s mostly commercial, off-the-shelf approach to surveillance equipment. Asked about the coolest spy technology he ever used, Kiriakou said there is “kind of a dirty little secret” about it: roughly 95% of CIA spy tech is purchased from Amazon.com, because it is cheaper and quicker to buy something online than to invent it from scratch.[1] He identifies AWS — Amazon Web Services — as the specific unit of Amazon that does business with the CIA.[2]
The Pakistani-market briefcase
Kiriakou’s own favorite piece of tradecraft was a $10 leather briefcase bought in a Pakistani market. Over three days, a colleague rigged it with a listening-device wire and tiny batteries sewn into the lining. Kiriakou carried the briefcase — empty of anything visibly incriminating — into a meeting; his colleagues, positioned half a mile away, were able to listen to the entire conversation.[3]