In 1999, two Chinese colonels wrote a book called Unrestricted Warfare, about warfare in the age of globalization. Their main argument: Warfare in the modern world will no longer be primarily a struggle defined by military means — or even involve the military at all. They were about a decade and a half before their…
Category: Cyber Espionage
The Surveillance State: The CIA is Investing in Firms that “Mine” Your Twitter and Instagram Data
SOFT ROBOTS THAT can grasp delicate objects, computer algorithms designed to spot an “insider threat,” and artificial intelligence that will sift through large data sets — these are just a few of the technologies being pursued by companies with investment from In-Q-Tel, the CIA’s venture capital firm, according to a document obtained by The Intercept….
Espionage Files: Why Computers May Never Replace Human Spies
If legendary British spy-turned-KGB mole Kim Philby was alive to offer arrested U.S. Navy officer Edward Lin advice — regardless of his guilt or innocence — we know what it would be. Despite repeatedly coming under suspicion, Philby fed British and American secrets to Moscow for three decades before ultimately defecting in 1963. His…
Cyber-Warfare Front: NSA Chief Makes ‘Secret’ Israel Trip to talk Iran, Hezbollah Cyber-Warfare
Admiral Rogers said to meet with IDF intelligence officials, including head of 8200 unit, during visit last week The director of the US National Security Agency, Admiral Michael Rogers, reportedly paid a secret visit to Israel last week to discuss cooperation in cyber-defense, in particular to counter attacks by Iran and its Lebanon-based proxy Hezbollah….
Espionage Files: The Brave New World of Drone Hacking
The Israel Police and Shin Bet security service arrested a Gaza resident suspected of hacking into the feeds from Air Force drones and collecting information on troop movements and civilian flights for the Palestinian Islamic Jihad terror group, police said Wednesday. A police statement named the suspect as Majd Ouida, 22, describing him as an…
Crusader Corner: Tracking Down Salah Abdeslam
Man Hunting, The Sport of Security Forces Bottom Line Up Front Intelligence agencies must cooperate more rapidly and proactively to counter ISIS’ rapid and haphazard operational tempo. Clandestine operatives must rely on support networks that include overt members of the public. These networks are easily mapped out based on metadata available to nation state…
Espionage Files: Watch Thy Neighbor
To prevent whistleblowing, U.S. intelligence agencies are instructing staff to spy on their colleagues. Elham Khorasani was sitting in her car at a stoplight in Northern Virginia when she got the call. It was April 16, 2013. “I’m with the FBI,” a man on the line said, “and we’re at your home executing a search…
“Predictive Policing”: The Cyber Version of “Stop and Frisk”
Thanks America! How China’s Newest Software Could Track, Predict, and Crush Dissent Armed with data from spying on its citizens, Beijing could turn ‘predictive policing’ into an AI tool of repression. What if the Communist Party could have predicted Tiananmen Square? The Chinese government is deploying a new tool to keep the population from uprising. Beijing is building…
Espionage Files: ‘Spy-Plane’ Crashes in Iraq
When Talal Abdulqadir woke up on March 5, he probably didn’t expect his farm in northern Iraq would end up crawling with American troops guarding a crashed aircraft. In an instant, the green field outside the town of Kawrgosk put on full display some of the more shadowy elements of Washington’s fight against Islamic State….
Inside “Eligible Receiver”
The NSA’s disturbingly successful hack of the American military Excerpted from Dark Territory: The Secret History of Cyber War by Fred Kaplan. Out now from Simon & Schuster. On Wednesday, March 9, Kaplan will discuss his book in New York; for more information and to RSVP, visit the New America website. On June 9,…