Spying seems to be all the rage these days. Same goes for getting caught doing it.
An accused Russian spy couple has been sentenced to a few years in prison for conducting espionage operations in Germany over the span of 25 years, reports the BBC.
The couple, codenamed Andreas and Heidrun Anschlag, posed as Austrian citizens with origins from South America, and had a daughter in Germany who knew nothing of their activities.
From BBC:
At the time of their arrest, prosecutors allege, Mrs Anschlag was sitting in her study in front of a wireless transmitter that was receiving encoded messages on a shortwave frequency and was hooked up by cable to a computer.
They had apparently made a contact of someone in NATO and were allegedly siphoning secrets back to the Kremlin.
The sentencing follows what has been an extraordinary year for covert activities and getting caught conducting them.
There was the Mandiant report on Chinese espionage, the arrest of an alleged CIA agent in Moscow, followed by Edward Snowden's subsequent whistleblowing on supposed Constitutionally dubious snooping on behalf of the National Security Agency.
There were also a few other, lower visibility busts in recent months involving the transfer of military technology.
Indeed, the global spy story seems to get thicker by the day.