MetaFilter posts tagged with espionage

GhostNet

homunculus — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 22:55:33 -0800

Tracking GhostNet: Investigating a Cyber Espionage Network. "A vast electronic spying operation has infiltrated computers and has stolen documents from hundreds of government and private offices around the world, including those of the Dalai Lama, Canadian researchers have concluded. In a report to be issued this weekend, the researchers said that the system was being controlled from computers based almost exclusively in China, but that they could not say conclusively that the Chinese government was involved." Another report does fault China: The Snooping Dragon: Social Malware Surveillance of the Tibetan Movement

Sixth generation warfare: boner pills.

mek — Fri, 26 Dec 2008 21:07:12 -0800

The little blue pill goes to war.

Spy Pigeons

up in the old hotel — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 20:08:02 -0800

Iran says it caught two pigeons spying on it's nuclear reactor. It sounds crazy, but it's not as farfetched as you might think. The lowly pigeon has been used in military operations since the 12th century. Commando the Pigeon flew 90 missions in German-occupied France during WWII. Pigeons like Commando, Winkie, and Paddy had a lock on the Dickin Medal for animal bravery during WWII. Then again, maybe it's just crazy. Last year Iran said it had arrested 14 squirrels for espionage.

Aleksander Wolszczan

up in the old hotel — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 16:30:57 -0800

In 1992, Aleksander Wolszczan discovered the first planets outside our solar system. Now, the Penn State professor been accused of spying for SB, the Polish Secret Police. He calls it a "smear campaign."

The Umbrella Killer

up in the old hotel — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 16:38:51 -0800

Scotland Yard thinks it knows who killed Bulgarian dissident writer Georgi Markov with a ricin-tipped umbrella on the streets of London 30 years ago this month. Police are hoping to press charges against the man known as Agent Picadilly, who received a secret medal for his services. Interest in the case was sparked by "Kill the Wanderer", a book by journalist Hristo Hristov, who gained access to the archives of the former Bulgarian security service. Bulgaria has extended its own investigation, just as the statute of limitations on the Markov murder was set to expire.

Who Watches the Watchmen?

scalefree — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 09:51:26 -0800

In February President Bush issued an Executive Order changing the role & reporting structure of the PFIAB, the President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board. At the time the order was criticized & analyzed as a move to consolidate power within an organization that was already full of Bush cronies. But it now looks like all the pundits were wrong. The real reason? There was a spy in the PFIAB.

A Tale of Two Airplanes

kurmbox — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 11:35:34 -0800

"Once Upon A Time... there were two very special airplanes that lived.... far.... far.... away on a tiny island in the Bering Sea. One was named Rivet Ball and the other was named Rivet Amber. Very few people knew anything about these two planes or the men that flew them. Even family members knew very little. That's because their mission was... TOP SECRET." (some photos and language within are NSFW) [via the wonderful PointNiner]

Church Committee 2.0: TSP, Main Core & PROMIS?

scalefree — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 13:12:14 -0800

Is Congress gearing up to hold a new American Truth Commission? What new horrors would they find if they did? The last time we tried this we uncovered MK/ULTRA, plots to kill Castro & Project SHAMROCK. One of the most significant outcomes was a little thing called FISA. After 30 years it may finally be time to wash out our national dirty laundry again.

¡Atención!", "1234567890"

rongorongo — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 06:31:28 -0800

Find a short wave radio and before long you should be able to tune into The Lincolnshire Poacher - the station plays an introduction comprising part of the eponymous folk tune followed by a robotic female voice reading strings of numbers: listen! So called Numbers Stations have been a mysterious constant of short wave radio for several decades. The Conet Project [previously 1, 2, 3] has made a collection of the recordings available allowing you to listen to "Ready! Ready! 15728", "The Buzzer" (especially mysterious), "Gong Station Chimes", "Magnetic Fields" and many others.... Nobody will admit to owning or running these stations - but, since the 70s, a small community of followers has been gathering information on them in sites like Spynumbers, in books like Simon Mason's "Secret Signals" and as samples that have made their way into tracks like "Gyroscope" from the Boards of Canada. NPR recorded the spooky "Shortwave Numbers Mystery" and The Washington Post profiled Londoner Akin Fernandez who was behind the Conet CDs. The most credible theory is that the stations are for the benefit of spies (for MI6 in the case of the Lincolnshire Poacher) and that they are broadcasting messages for use with one time pads. In the UK, by the way, you are breaking the law by listening to these transmissions - and, as a spokesperson from the British ministry of defence said (quoted by Wired), "These [numbers stations] are what you suppose they are - people shouldn't be mystified by them. They're not, shall we say, for public consumption." That's OK then. Message ends.

Super-targeted spear phishing attacks

gemmy — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 20:34:53 -0800

The recent cyber attacks on pro-Tibet groups in the U.S. (attack details, technical data) and on the Save Darfur Coalition, among others, have managed to catch the attention of some in the mainstream media. Such super-targeted spear phishing attacks have been on the rise for several years, and have become an important tool for corporate espionage and military infiltration attempts. Teaching users to recognize such attack emails is probably the most effective deterrence, as technology solutions have shown to not be particularly effective. Some companies and government agencies even conduct sting operations to ferret out which internal users fail the test, targeting them for additional training. Thanks to homunculus for encouraging me to post on this.

Stop Spyin'

telstar — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 01:09:51 -0800

Stop the Spying! Don't just tell Congress to stop the spying -- show them.

Amazing discoveries in plain-text Tor exit traffic.

Anything — Tue, 04 Dec 2007 18:04:45 -0800

This is an ironic tale of the consequences of inept application of cryptographic tools. Or is it? Dan Egerstad, a Swedish hacker, gained access to hundreds of computer network accounts around the world, belonging to various embassies, corporations and other organizations. How did he do it? Very easily: by sniffing exit traffic on his Tor nodes. Egerstad ran exit nodes on the Tor anonymity network, used as links from the network to the rest of the world. He looked at the traffic going through his nodes and found that many users were logging in to sensitive accounts without using end-to-end encryption. From the Sydney Morning Herald article:

After a couple of months sniffing and capturing information, Egerstad was faced with a moral dilemma: what to do with all the intercepted passwords and emails. If he turned his findings over to the Swedish authorities, his experiment might be used by his country's intelligence services to continue monitoring the compromised accounts. That was a little too close to espionage for his liking. So Egerstad set about notifying the affected governments. He approached a few, but the only one to respond was Iran. "They wanted to know everything I knew," he says. "That's the only response I got, except a couple of calls from the Swedish security police, but that was pretty much all the response I got from any authority." Frustrated by the lack of a response, Egerstad's next step caused high anxiety for government staffers - and perhaps intelligence services - across the globe. He posted 100 email log-ins and passwords on his blog, DEranged Security. "I just ended up (saying) 'Screw it, I'm just going to put it online and see what happens'."

He later removed the information from his blog, says the hard drives are "long gone"; also, there don't appear to be any public mirrors of the data. Nonetheless, the incident got him arrested and his hardware confiscated. One curious angle in this story is the question of which of the plain-text logins sniffed by Egerstad were made by unauthorized third party attackers instead of unwitting legitimate users.

However, Egerstad now believes the victims of his experiment may not have been using Tor. It's quite possible he stumbled on an underground intelligence gathering exercise, carried out by parties unknown. "The whole point of the story that has been forgotten, and I haven't said much about it, (is that) many of these accounts had been compromised," he says. "The logins I caught were not legit users but actual hackers who'd been reading these accounts."

Here's Bruce Schneier's commentary on the case. Here's the Tor FAQ, which tells you what it's good for and how to use it properly.

If at first (or second) you don't succeed...

scalefree — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 17:27:24 -0800

Operation PLIERS. An internal CIA memorandum has been obtained by Venezuelan counterintelligence from the US Embassy in Caracas that reveals a plan to destabilize Venezuela during the upcoming constitutional referendum. The plan, titled "OPERATION PLIERS" was authored by CIA Officer Michael Middleton Steere and was addressed to CIA Director General Michael Hayden in Washington. The full text of the memo will be released soon for verification purposes. Many previously.

Why He Went Nuclear.

chunking express — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 12:25:43 -0800

Why He Went Nuclear. Before he was the infamous father of the "Islamic bomb," A.Q. Khan was just another midlevel scientist working at a research job in Amsterdam. Here, the story of how he betrayed his employer and set out to create a worldwide bazaar in lethal weapons.

a suburban counterterrorist

dhruva — Tue, 23 Oct 2007 20:34:00 -0800

Behind Enemy Lines With a Suburban Counterterrorist "In fact, it's distinctly possible that Rossmiller, alone at her computer, has a better track record than the Justice Department. "

John Young of Cryptome: The man behind the world's most dangerous website

deern the headlice — Mon, 03 Sep 2007 08:51:01 -0800

When journalists from Radar Magazine interview John Young of Cryptome.org, Young suspects he is actually being double-crossed by MI6 agents.

Putins spy war on the West

jouke — Sun, 20 May 2007 04:54:53 -0800

Putins spy war on the West White House intelligence advisers believe no other country is as aggressive as Russia in trying to obtain US secrets, with the possible exception of China. In particular the SVR, as the former KGB’s foreign intelligence arm is now known, is using a network of undercover agents in America to gather classified information about sensitive technologies, including military projects under development and high-tech research.

Cold, hard spy devices. Or not.

Zinger — Mon, 07 May 2007 05:41:23 -0800

Updatefilter: Apparently a poppy was the cause of espionage accusations. As reported here on the blue, some US contractors were apparently freaked out by a novel Canadian coin which featured a red poppy. The coin was issued by the Royal Canadian Mint, an organization that makes Canadian cash as well as currencies for other countries. The Mint, which is definitely worth a tour if you're in Ottawa, won an award for the coin. The coin was issued to honour Canadian war dead; the poppy is the symbol of the Royal Canadian Legion.

Agent ZigZag

MuffinMan — Thu, 15 Feb 2007 05:26:08 -0800

James Bond eat your heart out - the name's Chapman, Eddie Chapman. A German spy who was awarded the Iron Cross and a yacht. A British spy who probably saved vast chunks of London from bombs. But above all, a conman with a penchant for "prostitutes, cognac, gambling, Savile Row tailoring and fast cars" according to his spymasters (warning - PDF). Read the book. Or the other book. Or see the biopic he reportedly didn't like. He died aged 83, in case you're wondering.

Canadian Espionage?

beta male — Thu, 11 Jan 2007 13:46:52 -0800

Canadian spy monies?! The Defense Department has issued a warning to its American contractor employees. Apparently, Canadian coins have been outfitted with embedded RFID transmitters. Not the first instance of RFIDs in monies either. Explosive consequences. Elsewhere, whats the point? RFID previously on Metafilter.

You can read this but then I'll have to kill you

scalefree — Mon, 02 Oct 2006 11:41:18 -0800

The NSA Bibliographies The NSA internally publishes thousands of papers every year, on every topic from spycraft to cryptography to physics & aliens (no, really!). Each year the titles of these papers gets indexed & those indexes are also published internally. The Memory Hole has made a successful FOIA request for a large number of these, spanning almost 50 years. We don't get to see the actual papers, but just the titles are fascinating - including such page turners as "Computer Virus Infections: Is NSA Vulnerable?", "KAL 007 Shootdown: A View from [redacted]", "NSA in the Cyberpunk Future", "Telephone Codes and Safe Combinations: A Deadly Duo", "Coupon Collecting and Cryptology", "Cranks, Nuts, and Screwballs" & my personal favorite, "Key to the Extraterrestrial Messages". When you're done browsing the titles, there's a sample form you can use to request some of the documents yourself!

"Watch what you say, what you do..."

Unregistered User — Thu, 10 Aug 2006 11:11:56 -0800

Recipients of "Leaks" May Be Prosecuted, Court Rules In a momentous expansion of the government's authority to regulate public disclosure of national security information, a federal court ruled that even private citizens who do not hold security clearances can be prosecuted for unauthorized receipt and disclosure of classified information. The ruling by Judge T.S. Ellis, III, denied a motion to dismiss the case of two former employees of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) who were charged under the Espionage Act with illegally receiving and transmitting classified information. The decision is a major interpretation of the Espionage Act with implications that extend far beyond this particular case. The Judge ruled that any First Amendment concerns regarding freedom of speech involving national defense information can be superseded by national security considerations.

Police infiltrates..or maybe more then just that ?

elpapacito — Fri, 28 Jul 2006 05:29:46 -0800

Newsfilter: Police officer infiltrates anti-war group obtains leadership position. Still no pacifist have infiltrated terror cell to discredit their activity by reducing terror.

A priest, a rabbi and a Hamas leader walk into a bar. .

Smedleyman — Mon, 03 Apr 2006 17:37:28 -0800

"If Hamas fails to agree to a permanent ceasefire, we will have to create another leadership, just as we did before with Sheikh Yassin." Former head of the double ISO (Mossad), Efraim Halevy Spoke at the Middle East Forum in Boston last week (yes, he's selling a book) and had some interesting things to say. Earlier post here. (More inside).

Above Ground Covert-Ops

panoptican — Sun, 04 Dec 2005 20:24:20 -0800

Global Options, Inc. Have you been unfairly attacked by: the media? trial lawyers? disgruntled workers? terrorists? overzealous federal regulators? competitors? hackers? industrial spies? one-issue activists? extortionists? intellectual property thieves? or even the Russian mafia? Global Options has your back. [warning: radar beeps.]