To avoid leaks, Russia turns to… typewriters

[DaBees-Knees]

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2013/07/to-avoid-leaks-russia-turns-to-typewriters/

Leave it to the Russians to return to Cold War-era document security tactics.

According to the Agence France Presse and the Moscow Times, the agency in charge of securing communications from the Kremlin now wants to spend 486,000 rubles (about $14,800) to buy 20 electric typewriters... as a way to avoid digital leaks.

The Russian newspaper Izvestia (Google Translate) noted that the government already favors (Google Translate) the German-made Triumph-Adler Twen 180 model. (Although if the Kremlin is paying $740 each, it might want to consult German shopping websites—at least one is only charging $162.)

"After scandals with the distribution of secret documents by WikiLeaks, the exposés by Edward Snowden, reports about Dmitry Medvedev being listened in on during his visit to the G20 summit in London, it has been decided to expand the practice of creating paper documents," the Russian newspaper quoted an unnamed FSO source as saying. Izvestia also noted that each typewriter can link a particular typed document to the machine that produced it.

But it’s unclear if the renewed interest is actually a response to recent events.

"This purchase has been planned for more than a year now," a source at the service, known by its Russian acronym FSO, told the AFP on Thursday.

At least one German website is still selling the Triumph-Adler Twen 180 electric typewriter.

[GhostShip]

As a point of interest it is actually possible to tell whats being typed once a typewriter machine is a little older as a microphone and digital sampling can work out the difference in the sounds the keys make on the paper, a golfball model thus makes perfect security sense as its extra noise makes it too hard to parse the noise of the motors from the keystrike noise.
The sounds of older machines can be recorded and due to the fact that repeated pressing of the same key cause mechanical wear and tear the levers shift slightly as does the print head with time, using simple analysis of frequency of letters its possible to tie the keystrokes up to an individual character, so older types of  machine would definitely not be such a good idea.

I wonder how much money would be saved if all governments stopped being so selfish and underhand.

[silicon_toad2000]

if governments stopped being selfish and underhanded.... why they'd become service departments