Anti-phishing and Email Hygiene Journalists and newsrooms are increasingly the victims of hacking and malware, and often hackers target them through their email. Virtually every “sophisticated” hack of an individual reporter or entire newsroom starts with a relatively simple attack: phishing and spear phishing. Phishing is a social-engineering attack where an adversary crafts an email…
Category: Intelligence Tradecraft
Espionage Files: OSS Living Legend Hugh Montgomery
I am currently writing a series of short stories about the OSS during WW2. Here are some of my inspirations. -SF WASHINGTON — Hugh Montgomery never wrote a memoir. That just wasn’t done among his generation of spies. But his exploits as a World War II combat veteran, CIA cold warrior and Washington power player…
Giving Thanks to the OSS
As today’s security depends increasingly on intelligence and special operators, Congress should act to honor those who paved their way. What do attorney James Donovan (portrayed by Tom Hanks in “Bridge of Spies”), the “French Chef” Julia Child, Virginia Hall (the only American civilian woman to receive the Distinguished Service Cross during World War II),…
Intel Tradecraft: Geo-Tagging and Identifying a Picture by it’s Background (Similar Image Search)
In the most recent episode of Homeland, Carrie while trying to figure out what direction to go in searching a stolen laptop for intel, is distracted by the computer’s screen saver which is a picture that shows the suspect in a beachfront bar in what appears to be a tropical location. Thinking back, Carrie remembers…
OPSEC and Burner Phones
This was published in several places, but I wanted to re-post it for reference..some good stuff in here. Original Source Article can be found HERE
The Truth about Terrorist and Encryption Technology
Terrorists were using encryption technology to evade detection long before Snowden and the Paris attacks By Natasha Bertrand A wave of coordinated terror attacks that killed at least 130 people in Paris last week have had experts grappling with how French intelligence could have missed an operation that was most likely months in the making….
The Civilian Guide to Fighting ISIS Online
Anonymous Publishes Guide to ‘Fighting ISIS Online’ Since the FBI and CIA Won’t In the wake of the Paris terror attacks, and several high-casualty acts of terrorism from the so-called Islamic State in the past week, Anonymous has come out with a series of guides for getting involved in the hacktivist group’s Operation ISIS…
Cold War Files: Terror’s KGB Roots
A year ago today, my friend Alexander Litvinenko died in a London hospital, leaving behind a wife and young son. Sasha was poisoned by a tiny nuclear device containing polonium-210 — which, the British Crown Prosecution Service concluded, was planted on him by Russian secret agents. In its way, his murder was an act of…
Espionage Files: The tradition of Russians Dying in D.C. Hotels under Murky Circumstances
The other day a former Putin spokesman died in a DC hotel. He was 57 years old. Seems young to me for a heart attack. This reminded me of poor old Walter Krivitsky, a top Soviet intelligence official who defected after his friend and colleague Ignace Reiss was machine gunned in Switzerland in 1937. American…
Tradecraft: Geo-Locating by Photos
They say photos say a 1,000 words; well in the 21st Century they can also tell your exact location. -SF Russian soldiers geolocated by photos in multiple Syria locations, bloggers say By Maria Tsvetkova MOSCOW (Reuters) – Three serving or former Russian soldiers have been geolocated by photographs in Syria, including locations near Hama, Aleppo…