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Former CIA Operative Explains How Spies Use Disguises | WIRED

WIRED · 17.4M views · 2018-10-22 · 9:25

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Overview

Jonna Mendez, former CIA Chief of Disguise, explains how disguises are used in intelligence work and what makes deception effective, including changing one's gait.

On Hacker News

Cited in surveillance and facial or gait recognition threads for tradecraft such as putting a pebble in the shoe.

Discussed on HN; no positive recommendation is recorded in this export · HN mentions 2018–2020

Topics

Military history & warfarePrivacy, surveillance & cybercrime
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ciadisguisegait recognitionsurveillance evasionespionage

What people said

ardy42 · 2020-01 · Reference

> Chinese ‘gait recognition’ tech IDs people by how they walk [LINK] An ex-CIA disguise specialist said that you can change your gait by putting a pebble in your shoe: [VIDEO] Her comments were targeting human recognition, and I speculate that one of the reasons she was allowed to share her disguise techniques is that maybe they're ineffective against automated facial recognition and therefore obsolete.

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ShorsHammer · 2019-06 · Reference

Somewhat tangential: Do you think there are no spies operating in China whom are known to the current government? Why would China choose some random Westerners over known intel assets while knowing full well the case will appear so prominently on the world stage? Tourism makes up 10% of their economy. Nations tolerate this stuff and are well aware of who is who, it's how it is. Kicking out a known operative means another unknown will replace them. Better the enemy you know and such. There's a recent video from the CIA on the lengths they go to disguise embassy-tasked folk and how they get them out into the _world_. [VIDEO]

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eganist · 2018-11 · Reference

Mitigation strategies discussed in an unrelated (but relevant) conversation between WIRED and Jonna Mendez - [VIDEO] (if you're not auto-jumped, find 4:38 in the video)

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Sources

Video by WIRED, played through YouTube.

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