Podcast Nuggets Episode 7

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We're back with another selection of excellent podcasts to spoil the ears.  The first one is a fascinating two-part insight in the recruiting, training and deep cover life of former KGB illegal Jack Barsky in the United States. Next is a national bank robbery that counts, literally, into to billions. Finally, the story of project Cybersyn, the creation of Cybernet to modernise Salvador Allende's Chile.

COLD WAR CONVERSATIONS - I was a deep cover KGB spy Part 1 is an interview with Jack Barsky about his remarkable career as a spy. In this first part he talks about his early childhood and life in East Germany. As a bright student at the university of Jena he was scouted by the Stasi and recruited by the KGB. After two years of training in Berlin he was sent to Moscow to be trained as a deep cover illegal and develop his new identity. The legendary Soviets spies Morris and Lona cohen, also known as Peter and Helen Kroger, helped him to become American.

COLD WAR CONVERSATIONS - I was a deep cover KGB spy - Part 2 continues with Jack Barsky's arrival in the United States. He had to build a new fictitious life and a succesful career. He regularly received encrypted radio messages from the KGB. His assignment was to develop contacts with people of interest. Ten years later, married and having a daughter, he decided to break with the KGB. It took the FBI almost ten years to catch him. To learn more about Jack Barsky's life and spy career I can highly recommend his book Deep Undercover with a very detailed account of his life and work as a KGB spy in the United States.

DARKNET DIARIES - Bangladesh Bank Heist is a guide to rob a billion dollars without anyone ever noticing. At least, that's the plan. Jack Rhysider interviewed investigative journalist Geoff White about the National Bank of Bangladesh who had a foreign currency reserve in the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. To work with that reserve, the bank used SWIFT, an international bank transfer network to send payment orders between banks all over the world. This is where the troubles start.

DAMN INTERESTING - Nineteen Seventy Three brings the story of Chilean president Salvador Allende and British theorist Stafford Beer. The world-renowned cybernetician proposed to develop a network with thousands of terminals that feed the complete Chilean economy and industry into a central mainframe computer with software that would optimize the country's resources and economy. However, this promising boost for Allende's socialist economy was not met with enthusiasm by U.S. president Nixon and the CIA.