Medals expose Russian center for cyber espionage

An old joke from the Soviet era went like this: “Did you hear Brezhnev had chest-expansion surgery? It was to make room for more medals.”

That’s how it’s told in a report by Check First, a company in Finland that trains its clients on OSINT — open source intelligence.

Using phaleristics — the study of medals, ribbons, and other awards — the company analyzed photos of hundreds of medals posted online by manufacturers and collectors.

From these images, they pieced together the history, organizational structure, and ten operating locations of Russia’s secretive 16th Center, a signals intelligence unit specializing in hacking and codebreaking.

“Even relatively overlooked sources—such as military insignia—can yield significant insights,” the report says.

U.S. military and intelligence agencies are just as invested in challenge coins— and just as vulnerable to the same investigative methods.