I made an off-hand comment a while back to my Facebook friends that I wondered how it was the “Mata Hari of the 21st century” had been working for years to infiltrate American social circles for her Russian spymasters and somehow ended up with less than 200 Facebook friends.
Anna could have taken lessons from American security consultant Thomas Ryan of Provide Security. Ryan created a profile for a fictitious 25 year-old MIT alum named Robin Sage with a job as a “Cyber-Threat Analyst.” “Robin” proceded to “acquire social network connections with more than 300 professionals in the National Security Agency, DoD, and Global 500 corporations.” Her Facebook total is on par with Anna’s, but “Robin’s” connections appear more valuable.
Of course, the Feds aren’t talking, so it’s tough to tell how “well” Anna did in comparison. Her social networking does not appear to have been up to “Robin’s” standards. And the fact that she had been under surveillance for a while tends to indicate there were no great worries she was passing highly sensitive information.
