Defend yourself in this digital world. No one else will do it for you
September 7, 2018 12:24 PM   Subscribe

A Security Expert Tied to WikiLeaks Vanishes, and the Internet Is Abuzz (NYT): "In a remote Norwegian town north of the Arctic Circle, a cybersecurity expert with ties to WikiLeaks checked out of a hotel, dressed in khaki hiking gear and carrying heavy baggage. That was on Aug. 20. No one has reported seeing him since."

Arjen Kamphuis, a 47 year old Dutchman who is well known and respected in the hacker scene and in the infosec community, has not returned from his vacation in Norway as expected. He was supposed to travel from Bodø, in the north of Norway, to Trondheim where his flight would be leaving on the 22th. But he missed that flight and his current whereabouts are unknown.

An abandoned tent has been found in the north, which may or may not belong to Arjen; his telephone was reportedly switched on for 20 minutes on the 30th, and after that, the Dutch SIM was replaced with a German one. There have been some unconfirmed sightings in Norway and Denmark. And so far, that is pretty much all that is known.

In the Netherlands, the news of Arjen's disappearing broke around a week ago. It began on Twitter, where Ancilla, a good friend, alerted people first. Her signal was boosted by the Wikileaks account in a tweet that described Kamphuis as @JulianAssange associate and author of "Information Security for Journalists". It snowballed from there. There is an article on Heavy.com and the Huffington Post ran one on Sept 3.
Most media coverage tends to play up the Wikileaks angle; LeMonde even called him a 'co-founder of Wikileaks'.

Watch Arjen's TED talk 'Defend yourself in this digital world' here.
posted by Too-Ticky (35 comments total) 22 users marked this as a favorite
 
Jack Ryan: Ghost Signal. Seriously, this sounds like the start of some sort of techno thriller.
posted by Old'n'Busted at 12:29 PM on September 7, 2018 [1 favorite]


In regards to the Wikileaks tweet, why would anyone take anything tweeted out by Wikileaks seriously? It's become a platform for spreading disinfo. The Heavy.com article appears to be written by someone who either has no insights about Kamphuis, or has not interest in providing such insights to readers.

Could it be that he fell down a ravine while on a hike? Or just wanted to disappear for whatever reason?
posted by JamesBay at 12:46 PM on September 7, 2018 [13 favorites]


Crossed the border to Russia.
Fell down a ravine while crossing the border to Russia.
Meeting someone crossing the border to Russia.
Met someone who crossed the border from Russia and fell down a ravine.
posted by Artw at 12:52 PM on September 7, 2018 [14 favorites]


Nothing so far suggests that he went anywhere near Russia.
posted by Too-Ticky at 12:53 PM on September 7, 2018 [1 favorite]


Assured from it being the part of the country with the border with Russia.

When someone one-step-removed works for Russian intelligence that seems notable.
posted by Artw at 12:56 PM on September 7, 2018 [6 favorites]


I dunno, unless you're a journo or activist in Russia, or a spy in the UK, etc, it just seems like so much of the Russia stuff seems like goggle-eyed conspiracy theories, or self-important puffery.

Couldn't this fellow just hop on a flight to Moscow?

If he was targeted by "Russian agents" for whatever reason, wouldn't it be easier to just run him over in a crosswalk rather than going on a yomp in the Norwegian back country?
posted by JamesBay at 1:04 PM on September 7, 2018 [7 favorites]


In regards to the Wikileaks tweet, why would anyone take anything tweeted out by Wikileaks seriously?

A sufficient number of people still do. Especially the more extreme parts of the less savoury sections of the Internet, both left and right. Also, amplify any message enough, have one respected paper/blog/podcast pick it up and repeat it without sufficient checking, and it becomes True. As we can see everywhere nowadays. He's even become a WL founder that way.

Dutch media are generally rather matter-of-factly about it all, mostly because they have easier access to people who actually know him and work with him. The national fishwrap however is, predictably, strong on the WL angle.

Could it be that he fell down a ravine while on a hike?

Unlikely, and definitely not near Bodø. A) Bodø is quite popular as a wilderness hiking area, and there are people about specifically keeping an eye out for people falling down ravines. B) People who have fallen down a ravine rarely get to switch on their phone a few days later and a serious distance further south. He's an Infosec pro, some random person who's found his phone won't be able to switch it on just like that, and I can't see the upside for a more capable entity to switch it on and have it connect to a cell network. You isolate it, read the memory and analyse that. If you need that info, that is.
posted by Stoneshop at 1:15 PM on September 7, 2018 [2 favorites]


A sufficient number of people still do.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯
posted by JamesBay at 1:18 PM on September 7, 2018


Couldn't this fellow just hop on a flight to Moscow?

Maybe he has Cold War nostalgia and likes to keep it old school? Also would not exactly be out of character for an infosec guy/spy, especially one connected with Assange, to be a raging paranoiac and also to want to do things the most ostentatiously macho way possible.

Like going to a place Russia is hikable from and then just doing it.
posted by Artw at 1:22 PM on September 7, 2018 [3 favorites]


Crossed the border to Russia.

Have you looked at a map? Have you looked at the terrain? Have you consulted that map to figure the distance he'd have to cover? It took me two days on a motorcycle.

He's on foot.

It's easier to travel from the Netherlands to any of the former Eastern Bloc countries and from there to Russia, and do so comparatively incognito, than to do so from Bodø.

Fell down a ravine while crossing the border to Russia.

Haven't seen much ravine-y things around there.
posted by Stoneshop at 1:30 PM on September 7, 2018 [7 favorites]


wouldn't it be easier to just run him over in a crosswalk rather than going on a yomp in the Norwegian back country?

The Norwegian backcountry is not that hard to get around, especially in summer. In Norway you have the right to roam, which includes uncultivated private property. You can camp a certain distance from homes (150 metres), and don't even have to ask for permission so long as you only stay one day. If someone wanted to go incognito, geez, northern Norway and Sweden would be ideal. Vanishingly few people there would bother nosing around your business.
posted by fraula at 1:36 PM on September 7, 2018 [6 favorites]


Maybe Meuller had him picked up for some reason. Tongue only partially in cheek...is there any chance he knows or has anything to do with the Russian interferance in the election?
posted by Rufous-headed Towhee heehee at 1:50 PM on September 7, 2018


Question, were there black helicopters in the area?
posted by sammyo at 1:53 PM on September 7, 2018


It took me two days on a motorcycle.

He's on foot


Yes, the logistics of obtaining some kind of wheeled conveyance are daunting.
posted by ChurchHatesTucker at 2:01 PM on September 7, 2018 [4 favorites]


Yes, the logistics of obtaining some kind of wheeled conveyance are daunting.

Renting a car would have been something that the police would have tracked down by now.

Trains only run south from Bodø and he would have had a ticket to Trondheim anyway; buses run north as well, but you are one of a few passengers. See above. Hitchhiking? Not a reliable way to get where you want to go, but that would probably not matter much if you wanted to disappear.
posted by Stoneshop at 2:19 PM on September 7, 2018 [5 favorites]


it just seems like so much of the Russia stuff seems like goggle-eyed conspiracy theories, or self-important puffery.

“Goggle-eyed conspiracy theorist consumed with self-important puffery” is a pretty fair descriptor of everyone associated with this farce, tbh
posted by schadenfrau at 2:33 PM on September 7, 2018 [9 favorites]


So is this guy going to be made into the next Seth Rich?
posted by edheil at 3:00 PM on September 7, 2018 [4 favorites]


The Heavy.com article appears to be written by someone who either has no insights about Kamphuis

you're talking about the blowflies of the clickbait ecosystem, there.
posted by prize bull octorok at 3:05 PM on September 7, 2018 [6 favorites]


MetsFilter: Nothing so far suggests that he went anywhere near Russia.
posted by GenjiandProust at 4:50 PM on September 7, 2018 [1 favorite]


I couldn’t help but notice that the NYT couldn’t stop themselves from including “the Clintons” among theoretical conspiracies.
posted by TedW at 6:14 PM on September 7, 2018 [7 favorites]


It's very like a Dorothy Sayers murder mystery...
posted by jrochest at 8:18 PM on September 7, 2018


MetsFilter: so far from the playoffs they might as well be in Russia.
posted by rokusan at 1:44 AM on September 8, 2018 [4 favorites]


I couldn’t help but notice that the NYT couldn’t stop themselves from including “the Clintons” among theoretical conspiracies.

They probably didn't kook that up themselves; it appeared on Twitter shortly after WL got in on the act. Kidnapped, killed, undercover ops, it's all there.
posted by Stoneshop at 2:29 AM on September 8, 2018


there are people about specifically keeping an eye out for people falling down ravines.

Sprainspotting.
posted by srboisvert at 8:44 AM on September 8, 2018 [8 favorites]


In all likelihood it will be found he fell out of a window
posted by Ray Walston, Luck Dragon at 5:20 PM on September 9, 2018


Amsterdam is full of windows. Why would anyone make the extra effort to kill someone in a remote Norwegian town when he can at least as easily be done away with in Amsterdam?
posted by Too-Ticky at 8:10 AM on September 10, 2018


They probably didn't kook that up themselves...

Oh, I'm sure they didn't, but there are folks out there that would believe the Clintons were responsible for the Lindbergh kidnapping and the disappearance of Judge Crater; that doesn't mean they deserve to be taken seriously.
posted by TedW at 9:10 AM on September 10, 2018 [3 favorites]


Well, TBH, if I were the FSB/GRU and I wanted to eliminate some dude and not make a big polonium laced fuss out of it , saying to them “hey, come out to isolated spot and we’ll give you some cool shit/defect you to Russia” then watching them bound happily towards their doom like a puppy would totally be a way I’d do it.
posted by Artw at 9:15 AM on September 10, 2018


Discovery of belongings associated with Arjen Kamphuis

The police in Nordland was yesterday evening at 19.10 notified by a local recreational fisher that he had found some belongings floating in the sea near the shoreline at Kvænflåget. Kværnflåget is a small mountain, situated between Fauske and Rognan, just east of Bodø. The belongings are confirmed by the police to belong to the missing person Arjen Kamphuis. Due to the ongoing investigation the police does not at this time wish to release any information about which specific items that have been found. [sic]

Source
posted by Too-Ticky at 2:52 AM on September 12, 2018


Ancilla van de Leest:

I hate how overblown Arjen’s Wikileaks connection is becoming in the press. He advised many parties and journalistic organisations on infosecurity. In this light he was also a “REUTERS associate”.
posted by Zarkonnen at 6:09 AM on September 12, 2018 [2 favorites]


…if I were the FSB/GRU and I wanted to eliminate some dude and not make a big polonium laced fuss out of it…

I would bet that making a big fuss about political killings is a feature, not a bug. Much like lynchings in the US, there is a clear message being sent to dissidents that they and their family can be killed with impunity even where the government ostensibly can protect them.
posted by TedW at 7:19 PM on September 12, 2018 [1 favorite]


I could see that, but then I think it would be more effective to kill him on his front doorstep.
posted by Chrysostom at 9:13 PM on September 12, 2018 [1 favorite]


But you still need some plausible deniability, at least outside of Russia. Inside Russia, beating/stabbing/shooting critics seems more common.
posted by TedW at 2:00 AM on September 13, 2018


His ID papers have been found, and just now, the news was released that they also found his kayak. This is not looking good.

Source
posted by Too-Ticky at 5:12 AM on September 13, 2018


He's been seen in Vikeså on the 30th, the location where his phone was switched on briefly around the same time.

Norwegian
Google translate

There have been further, unconfirmed, sightings in the south of Norway and the north of Denmark.

So, not having fallen down a ravine and not trying to cross the Russian border. So far.
posted by Stoneshop at 10:25 PM on September 13, 2018 [1 favorite]


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