A shadowy unit of the British intelligence agency GCHQ tried to influence online activists during the 2009 Iranian presidential election protests and the 2011 democratic uprisings largely known as the Arab Spring, as new evidence gathered from documents leaked by Edward Snowden shows. The GCHQ’s special unit, known as the Joint Threat Research Intelligence Group…
Category: Cyber-Crime
Understanding 4th Generation Warfare: The Real Paranoia Inducing Purpose of Russian Hacks
For six months, starting in the fall of 2014, I investigated a shadowy online Russian propaganda operation called the Internet Research Agency. The agency has been widely reported in Russian media to be the brainchild of Evgeny Prigozhin, an oligarch and ally of Vladimir Putin. At the time, it employed hundreds of Russians in a…
Examining Terrorist Tactics: The Jihadist Comms Toolkit
A new report documents how extremist groups’ use of secure digital tools software has evolved. “I don’t think that there are too many [makers of encrypted communication tools who] can say that bad guys don’t use their stuff, accurately,” NSA deputy director Richard Ledgett said during the recent Defense One Tech Summit, describing ISIS’ use…
The Surveillance State: Drones and The End of Society
The human race is on the brink of momentous and dire change. It is a change that potentially smashes our institutions and warps our society beyond recognition. It is also a change to which almost no one is paying attention. I’m talking about the coming obsolescence of the gun-wielding human infantryman as a weapon of…
Modern Crime: Is This A Vast Government Conspiracy or Just A Simple Story About Revenge?
This is a really good object lesson in adhering to the old adage by Edgar Allen Poe: “Believe only HALF of what you SEE and NOTHING that you HEAR.” -SF Who is this man who seems to die in every terrorist attack? If you’ve clicked on any articles about the victims of recent terror…
Deconstructing Terrorism: World-Check Terrorism Database Exposed
A financial crime database used by banks has been “leaked” on to the net. World-Check Risk Screening contains details about people and organisations suspected of being involved in terrorism, organised crime and money laundering, among other offences. Access is supposed to be restricted under European privacy laws. The database’s creator, Thomson Reuters, has confirmed an…
Espionage Files: Surveillance For Hire In Africa
In July 2012, one year after the Arab Spring shook Arab regimes around the world, an email appeared in the inbox of Mamfakinch, a Moroccan online publication critical of the government. Under the subject line “dénonciation” — French for “denunciation” — was a single sentence. “Please don’t use my name or anything else, I don’t want any trouble.” And…
Surveillance State: Biometrics Coming To A Bank Near You Very Soon
The banking password may be about to expire — forever. Some of the nation’s largest banks, acknowledging that traditional passwords are either too cumbersome or no longer secure, are increasingly using fingerprints, facial scans and other types of biometrics to safeguard accounts. Millions of customers at Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo routinely…
Cyber-War: The Big Hack of NYC
A scenario that could happen based on what already has. On December 4, 2017, at a little before nine in the morning, an executive at Goldman Sachs was swiping through the day’s market report in the backseat of a hired SUV heading south on the West Side Highway when his car suddenly swerved to the…
Surveillance State: The F.B.I.’s Growing Surveillance Gap
There are more homegrown jihadists than the feds can actually watch. And not everyone likes what the FBI is doing instead. A day after Omar Mateen killed 49 and wounded 53 in an Orlando nightclub, purportedly under the banner of the Islamic State or other terrorist groups, the FBI announced that it had repeatedly scrutinized…