Fox detailed how CIA spies use Starbucks gift cards to signal each other for surreptitious meetings: "He gives one [gift card] to each of his assets and tells them, 'If you need to see me, buy a coffee.' Then he checks the card numbers on a cybercafé computer each day, and if the balance on one is depleted, he knows he's got a meeting. Saves him having to drive past a whole slew of different physical signal sites each day [to check for chalk marks and lowered window blinds]. And the card numbers aren't tied to identities, so the whole thing is pretty secure."
Although Fox liked and employed this spy technique regularly during her time in the CIA, others weren't so keen on the new generation's tech. Some of the old fogies from the Cold War days preferred those old school chalk marks and lowered blinds over the newfangled thingamajigs the young whippersnappers use today. "We learn quickly which Cold War veterans demand chalk marks from their students and which modern warriors prefer silicon and Wi-Fi," she said. So next time you stop in for your pumpkin spice latte, take a look around. You just might be surrounded by spies.
