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….
Category: Tradecraft
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…
Where Americans Can Be Tracked Without A Warrant
Since the Paris attacks, there is a growing concern by DHS and the FBI that ISIS are able to communicate via “Dark Comms” or communications that are so highly encrypted they cannot tracked or monitored, common sense would tell you that authorities are going to start casting the “Surveillance” net wider to compensate, meaning more…
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…
Why Your Secure Building Isn’t
Better Security through Penetration Testing My book, Red Team: How to Succeed by Thinking Like the Enemy, provides the first in-depth investigation into the work of red teams in the military, intelligence, homeland security and private sectors, revealing the best practices, most common pitfalls, and most effective applications of their work. Below is an adaptation….
Tradecraft Notes: The Use of Clothing Disguises and the Manipulation of “Perceived Authority”
By Hammerhead While watching the new series “Sherlock” on Netflix the other day with my better half, I had an epiphany, well, more like a “fantasy ideal” I guess; I realized that if the average person had the heightened awareness of both his surroundings and other people that the borderline autistic savant Sherlock Holmes has,…
Technology and Privacy: Signal, the Crypto App Comes to Android
SINCE IT FIRST appeared in Apple’s App Store last year, the free encrypted calling and texting app Signal has become the darling of the privacy community, recommended—and apparently used daily—by no less than Edward Snowden himself. Now its creator is bringing that same form of ultra-simple smartphone encryption to Android. On Monday the privacy-focused non-profit…
“Hamland” Security: Amateur Radio’s Place in Securing the Homeland
During times of disaster, homeland security resources at all levels of government are often stretched to capacity. The whole-of-government approach involving local, county, state and federal agencies is sometimes not enough, especially in the realm of communications. That is where a dedicated group of private hobbyists, known as amateur radio operators, or “hams” as they…
The Ignorance of Intelligence Agencies
This is a very short article, but worthy of your time nonetheless. It points out one of the glaring inadequacies of the current state of our Foreign Intelligence apparatus in this country. All of the sentences in italics are of my doing for emphasis on these points. -SF By Williamson Murray At the start of…
Being Anonymous in Public Just got a Little Harder
I would like to think my friend Mr. A for sending me this link and picture; he is always on the lookout for interesting “security” issues for the CO and I am grateful for his diligence!-SF This photo was taken in Canada and shows about 700,000 people. Pick on a small part of the …