MetaFilter posts tagged with espionage

On Medical Neutrality

painquale — Tue, 21 May 2013 07:47:33 -0800

In 2011, the CIA reportedly hired a doctor in Pakistan to conduct espionage while giving vaccinations to children. In response, Pakistan expelled Save the Children from the country. The New England Journal of Medicine comments on military operations masquerading as humanitarian relief. Don't miss the audio interview on that page too.

Stop the killer robots before it's too late!

Sleeper — Sat, 27 Apr 2013 11:50:58 -0800

Nobel laureate's campaign calls for pre-emptive ban on autonomous weapons. As our technology advances, it becomes more and more feasible to give more and more autonomy to our drones. A new campaign led by 1997 Nobel laureate Jody Williams calls for an international ban on the design of autonomous weaponized drones. The future often arrives from directions you didn't expect. Some sci-fi writers of the past expected Moon colonies and manned missions to Mars by now, but had no inkling that the world would be revolutionized by a global network of devices thousands of times more powerful than the room-sized computers of the day. We've both disappointed and exceeded expectations. Asimov's robots never came to be, but today flying robots that are (in different ways) both less and more ambitious are in the early stages of becoming a part of everyday life, mostly for imaging and surveillance. The FAA currently bans commercial use of drones in the US, but that will soon change:

In five years, experts predict, more than 10,000 drones will be working overhead for American businesses. Some say the number might soar as high as 30,000. That’s a lot of cameras staring down, some with infrared imaging, swiveling to see ever more. Every day advancements are made in the technology. As the machines become more weather-proof, with longer battery life, lighter, smaller, even bug-sized, the list of possible uses — and concerns — grows.

Drones have become an essential part of America's way of war.

an overwhelming reliance on killing terrorism suspects, which began in the administration of George W. Bush, has defined the Obama years. Since Mr. Obama took office, the C.I.A. and military have killed about 3,000 people in counterterrorist strikes in Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia, mostly using drones. Only a handful have been caught and brought to this country; an unknown number have been imprisoned by other countries with intelligence and other support from the United States.

(A visualization of the drone war in Pakistan, previously linked on the Blue) This is all scary-sounding, but drones have many sensible and peaceful uses. Mesa County, Colorado recently cut the cost of an annual landfill survey from $10,000 to $200 by using a drone instead of a piloted craft. We're not yet at a stage where automated weapons are feasible, but we will be within a couple decades. Should we ban them pre-emptively? Or is that just Luddite thinking?

"North Korea is a not a state, it's a cult."

puffl — Wed, 10 Apr 2013 03:07:09 -0800

A former top female North Korean spy gives an exclusive interview, saying Kim Jong-un is posturing on the world stage because he is too young and too inexperienced to gain control of the military. She also reveals how she was groomed by the country's spy masters to plant a bomb on a South Korean passenger plane - an attack which killed 115 people in 1987.

Durango Unchained

Charlemagne In Sweatpants — Thu, 21 Feb 2013 14:52:46 -0800

The Australian Raid On SuperDaE And How A Prank Over The Next Xbox Ended In Corporate Espionage

All Your Nets Are Belong to the PLA

bfranklin — Tue, 19 Feb 2013 07:20:50 -0800

The Mandiant security firm has released a report attributing a number of hacking events to Advanced Persistent Threat (APT) activity perpetrated by China's 2nd Bureau of the People's Liberation Army General Staff Deparment's 3rd Department. They have also released an appendix containing multiple artifacts that can be used to detect intrusions on networks.

The Spy Novelist Who Knows Too Much

Rustic Etruscan — Thu, 31 Jan 2013 09:33:51 -0800

"De Villiers has spent most of his life cultivating spies and diplomats, who seem to enjoy seeing themselves and their secrets transfigured into pop fiction (with their own names carefully disguised), and his books regularly contain information about terror plots, espionage and wars that has never appeared elsewhere. Other pop novelists, like John le Carré and Tom Clancy, may flavor their work with a few real-world scenarios and some spy lingo, but de Villiers’s books are ahead of the news and sometimes even ahead of events themselves." (SLNYT)

You are carrying: A licence to kill

Egg Shen — Wed, 07 Nov 2012 08:58:10 -0800

Whenever a new Bond film is released, the promotional push for it is huge. Sony, which is distributing the movie in many territories, has taken the bull by the horns with this one and commissioned a text adventure game loosely based on the character of James Bond.

The "50-50" Proposition

Artw — Mon, 29 Oct 2012 20:44:07 -0800

Inside Osama Bin Laden's final hours

James Bond will return in...

Artw — Sun, 21 Oct 2012 15:50:14 -0800

Bond 50 - SFX Magazine has been recapping all 22 "official" Bond films, from Dr. No to Quantum of Solace in the run up to Skyfall (critical reation, trailer).

The Business of Bond

Egg Shen — Wed, 01 Aug 2012 19:10:49 -0800

Like James Bond movies? And box office grosses? And visualized data? Then today is your lucky day.

An unauthorized certificate could be used to spoof content, perform phishing attacks, or perform man-in-the-middle attacks. This issue affects all supported releases of Microsoft Windows.

mek — Fri, 08 Jun 2012 11:13:00 -0800

"Flame" is the name of a newly-identified malware program which utilizes a previously unknown MD5 collision attack to successfully spoof Microsoft Terminal Services, and install itself as a trusted program using Windows Update, Microsoft has confirmed. The program appears to have targeted computers in the Middle East, and specifically Iran; analysts have alleged it is likely created by the same entity that designed Stuxnet. Flame has been live and actively spying since 2010, but went undetected until recently, due to sophisticated anti-detection measures. While anonymous US officials have claimed responsibility for the program, officially both the USA and Israel have denied any involvement.

The FBI has a "Do Not Contact" List?

zarq — Wed, 06 Jun 2012 14:55:59 -0800

The Feynman Files. For the first time, FBI records for Dr Richard Feynman have been released to the public. They document the Bureau's apparent obsession in the 1950's with outing him as a communist sympathizer, and include notations from several background checks as well as interviews with his colleagues, friends and acquaintances.

In the name of Defense.

zarq — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 15:32:55 -0800

In December 1974, New York Times reporter Seymour Hersh's front-page account (paywall) of the CIA's MK-ULTRA program documented their illegal domestic intelligence operations against the antiwar movement and other dissident groups in the United States. The article eventually prompted investigations by the Rockefeller Commission and the Church and Pike committees. "There have been other reports on the CIA's doping of civilians, but they have mostly dished about activities in New York City. Accounts of what actually occurred in San Francisco have been sparse and sporadic. But newly declassified CIA records, recent interviews, and a personal diary of [George H. White,] an operative at Stanford Special Collections shed more light on the breadth of the San Francisco operation." SF Weekly: "Operation Midnight Climax: How the CIA doped San Francisco citizens with LSD." MK-ULTRA: Previously on Metafilter. (Via)

Kuang Grade Mark Eleven

Artw — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 21:06:07 -0800

He leaves his cellphone and laptop at home and instead brings "loaner" devices, which he erases before he leaves the US and wipes clean the minute he returns . In China, he disables Bluetooth and Wi-Fi , never lets his phone out of his sight and, in meetings, not only turns off his phone but also removes the battery , for fear his microphone could be turned on remotely. He connects to the Internet only through an encrypted, password-protected channel, and copies and pastes his password from a USB thumb drive. He never types in a password directly, because, he said, "Chinese are very good at installing key-logging software on your laptop." - Travel precautions in the age of digital espionage.

American sentenced to death in Iran for espionage

2bucksplus — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 13:21:06 -0800

Iran announced today that it had sentenced Amir Mirzaei Hekmati, 28, to death on charges of spying for the CIA. Hekmati, an American of Iranian descent who formerly worked as a translator for the U.S. military, claims that his trip to Iran was to visit his grandmother. Hekmati is the first U.S. citizen to be sentenced to death by Iran since the 1979 Revolution and has been imprisoned since August. Among other charges, Iran claimed that Hekmati worked for Kuma Reality Games, a New York City based developer of videogames designed to "manipulate public opinion in the Middle East" under the CIA's direction and payroll. One such game, "Assault on Iran" speculated about a future U.S. military response to the Iranian nuclear weapons program. The State Department denies claims that Hekmati worked for, or was sent to Iran by the CIA.

RINOA SUR

jeffburdges — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 15:01:40 -0800

A leaked memo by India's Military Intelligence indicates they eavesdropped on a U.S. government department (USCC) that reports to congress on "the national security implications of the bilateral trade and economic relationship [between the U.S. and China]" using "lawful intercept" backdoors provided to the Indian government by Apple, RIM, and Nokia. (previously) An Indian hactivist group Lords of Dharamraja front man Yama Tough said, "As of now we start sharing with all our brothers and followers information from the Indian Military Intelligence servers, so far we have discovered within the Indian Spy Programme source codes of a dozen software companies which have signed agreements with Indian TANCS programme and CBI". Apparently, Yama Tough also claimed they accessed Symantec AV's source code as well, but the group only published some Symantec API documentation. Android isn't explicitly mentioned but conceivably the Indian telecoms implement "lawful intercept" backdoors/spyware themselves, although users could replace the carriers' instillation themselves (previously). And Android has an impressive selection of cryptography tools listed on guardianproject.info, btw.

Espionage

jeffburdges — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 23:34:32 -0800

There is a growing realization that U.S. cyberwar efforts resemble all its other 'war' rhetoric in being a boondogle aimed primarily at limiting its own citizens civil rights. China's breathlessly vaunted capsbilities are "fairly rudimentary" in particular (pdf, campus, previously).

Do you want to know a secret?

Spike — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 21:36:27 -0800

If you met Phil Pressel at a party anytime over the past half-century, he couldn't tell you what he did for a living. If you were his wife, you didn't even know where he was staying on those mysterious business trips. Today, after 46 years, the man who made the camera that prevented a war finally got to show off his magnum opus.

Zimmerman Telegram 2.0?

Rhaomi — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 13:00:13 -0800

Following a months-long investigation, the Department of Justice has announced the existence of a well-funded plot "conceived, sponsored and directed" by "high-ranking members of the Iranian government" to assassinate Saudi Arabian ambassador Adel Al-Jubeir on U.S. soil in conjunction with informants in Mexican drug cartel Los Zetas. The "Hollywood" plot, revealed in an afternoon press conference and described in a detailed 21-page complaint [PDF], is alleged to have involved an attack on the Saudi and Israeli embassies in Washington, D.C. One suspect, naturalized American citizen Arbab Arbabsiar, has been arrested, while co-conspirator and Quds Force member Gholam Shakuri remains at large. Iranian officials were quick to label the charges a "fabrication" intended to distract from America's economic troubles.

Cyberwar

homunculus — Sat, 06 Aug 2011 01:46:04 -0800

Enter the Cyber-dragon. "Hackers have attacked America’s defense establishment, as well as companies from Google to Morgan Stanley to security giant RSA, and fingers point to China as the culprit. The author gets an exclusive look at the raging cyber-war—Operation Aurora! Operation Shady rat!—and learns why Washington has been slow to fight back. Related: Michael Joseph Gross goes inside Operation Shady Rat."

Bot-a Hari Lives

Diablevert — Thu, 09 Jun 2011 07:28:09 -0800

Facebook Espionage. Weiner did it to himself. But that doesn't mean there aren't people out there looking to do it to you. Henry Copeland, blogads founder, has uncovered suggestive evidence of bot-spies on facebook being used to track personal information of influential people. All you need is the photo of a hot chick.

"An institution full of intelligence but devoid of wisdom"

Artw — Thu, 12 May 2011 05:44:34 -0800

Whose side is Pakistan's ISI really on?

Tell me more about these Finns

IvoShandor — Sun, 13 Feb 2011 03:37:38 -0800

Winston Burdett, one of the original Murrow's Boys, was a reporter for CBS Radio. He covered World War II, the invasion of Norway, the Axis retreat in North Africa (mp3), the invasion of Sicily (mp3), the invasion of Italy (mp3) and the capture of Rome (mp3). But from 1940 - 1942 Winston Burdett was also a spy for the Soviet Union. In Stockholm a "Mr. Miller" gave him $200 and orders to report on Finnish morale. Burdett was visiting Finnish army positions when Finland capitulated three weeks later. When he went back to Stockholm, he met his contact, Miller. "Well," Miller asked, "how did the Finns take the end of the war?" Burdett said that they "were prepared to go on fighting." "Well, Mr. Burdett," said Miller, handing him $400, "thank you very much. That's everything. Here is your money to go back to the U.S. Burdett revealed his tale of international espionage during a hearing before the Senate Internal Security Subcommittee in 1955. He also named names, and subpoenas were issued. Dozens of journalists and newsroom employees were forced to testify about their affiliation with the Communist Party. The New York Times' Melvin Barnet lost his job. Burdett left the party, and the spygame, in 1942, the year his wife, anti-fascist Italian journalist Lea Schiavi, was murdered. Winston Burdett died in 1993 at age 79.

Octopus II: The Revenge.

darth_tedious — Tue, 08 Feb 2011 14:23:37 -0800

Come for the Homicide, Stay for the Top Secret Beam-Weaponry Research: The daughter of a man killed along with two others in a slaying some link to the murder of Octopus researcher Danny Casolaro digs into the Web's conspiracy subculture; creates an elaborate online persona; succeeds, nearly thirty years after the murder, in tracking down a suspect via the Web; and then gets him arrested, put in orange jumpers, and hauled into court. Then, on the day of the hearing, Something Happens...

Icky Leak

infini — Thu, 06 Jan 2011 19:49:11 -0800

The French government today said it was the victim of an "economic war" after Renault, the partially state-owned car maker, suspended three top executives over suspected leaks of secret electric car technology. The French industry minister, Eric Besson, told French radio: "The expression 'economic war', while often outrageous, is for once appropriate here." He said the case illustrated "the risks our companies face in terms of industrial espionage, and economic intelligence".