Dead letter drop

Drama in Russia over spying by British diplomats which involved 'beaming' secret information to a rock. The device was apparently used as a 21st-century version of a dead-letter drop, in which an informant surreptitiously places secret documents at a spot, such as behind a loose brick in a wall, where his handlers can later recover them.

A report stated "In the case of the dummy rock, the Russian informant would use a palm-held computer to beam the secret data to the device in the rock. The British spies could retrieve the data from the rock using their own palm device.

A man identified as an FSB agent said the spies had used "new spying technology" that could download data within one or two seconds, from a distance of up to 20 metres."

Bluetooth/ RFID gets 007 credibility.