A dead drop is a way for two people to exchange information without meeting in person. It can be a public place or use technology, and offers benefits such as minimizing suspicion and protecting spy group members. Signs are left to alert the receiver, and modern dead drops can be electronic.
A dead drop or dead letterbox is a place that two people can use to peddle information without ever meeting in person. A classic dead drop is a common public place where comings and goings would not be observed, with information hidden in things like trash cans, toilet tanks, holes in tree trunks, and so on. The spy community has also developed more sophisticated dead drop systems that rely heavily on technology, theoretically making them harder to identify.
There are a number of benefits to using a dead drop, which explains why dead drops have been used for centuries by people who want to exchange information quietly and efficiently. One of the main benefits of using a public dead drop instead of meeting to exchange information is that dead drop users can minimize the appearance of suspicious activity. For example, taking a walk in a park and occasionally sitting on a bench is a perfectly normal activity that might not arouse much suspicion, while ducking into a bush and talking to someone might be perceived as unusual.
Dead Drop can also be used to protect members of a spy group. For example, two cells could pass information through a dead drop without ever meeting, thus ensuring that if members of one cell are caught, they cannot reveal the identity of the members of the other cell. Dead drop users can also visit at any time, thus avoiding a regular schedule that could be noticed by observers.
When people leave information in a dead drop, they often leave signs in the area to alert the person they are communicating with that there is something in the dead drop. These cues can take the form of chalk marks, strategically placed rocks, and other subtle changes in the environment that would be difficult for outside observers to interpret. Intelligent agents also periodically change their signals and dead drop locations, to avoid creating a pattern that could be used to identify them.
The modern dead drop tends to be much more sophisticated than a node in a tree. Many dead drops today are entirely electronic, creating a situation where no one needs to visit a physical site. For example, agents might use a wireless router as a dead drop, encrypting messages that can be picked up by users who know how to access them.
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