Showing posts with label Spying. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Spying. Show all posts

February 5, 2023

Stopping China's Spy Balloon

Please see my new article in The Times of Israel called "Stopping China's Spy Balloon."

Unfortunately, the longer we gazed up at the sky, procrastinated, and let this Chinese surveillance craft collect and send important information to China, the worse it was for our global reputation, vital national security, deterrence for future military engagement, and priceless sovereignty and freedom. That balloon should have been found, shot down, and caught in real time off the Alaskan coast, not days later after traversing our country and so near our capital. This has been a national embarrassment and has presumably damaged vital global security interests.

(https://static.timesofisrael.com/blogs/uploads/2023/02/Balloon.jpeg)

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April 27, 2019

Top Secret Tinseltown

So this is a city with a lot of secrets. 

I'm not talking about just the run-of-the-mill, non-disclosure agreement (NDA).

This is Top Secret Tinseltown!

And even the stuff that comes out in the news--whether it's clandestine transfers of $1.7 billion to the Ayatollahs in Iran or the Uranium One deal with the Russians, there is plenty of dirty little games going on. 

What was hilarious is when when saw this huge industrial shredding truck in the parking lot:


Paper Shredding * Electronic Destruction * Medical Waste Disposal

And there were a line of cars waiting to get rid of their little secrets.

I kid you not when I say that on a Saturday morning, there were at least 25 cars in line to dispose of their "stuff."

Now who do you know in what city that waits 25 cars deep in line for an industrial shredder on a Saturday morning.

And the cars are pulling up, the trunks are popping open, and boxes and boxes of paper and electronic files are being handed over. 

Gee, I hope the Russians or Chinese aren't getting into the shredding business...and inside the truck isn't a large shredder but a bunch of analysts waiting for you to hand it all over. ;-)

(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal) 
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August 27, 2018

How Do You Lock A Tree


So this is one of the craziest things in Washington, D.C. 

There is a tree with a lock on it. 

Yes, with a Master Lock on it. 

Hidden in plain sight. 

It has letters and numbers or symbols on each button. 

Have you ever seen anything like that before?

Uh, what do you think that is:

- A lock to prevent the tree from being stolen?

- A Maxwell Smart (shoe) phone?

- A surveillance device in the tree bark or along the limbs?

- A secret compartment?

Hmm, is there something locked in the tree?

What could it be?  ;-)

(Source Photo: Dannielle Blumenthal)
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October 5, 2017

Reading Your Emails

So you know you typically get a message when you log on your computer at work that there is "no expectation of privacy."

Meaning...you're on the corporate network and so remember that you can be monitored. 

Well we all read that warning and sort of know it by heart.

But do you really think that someone is watching you.

Well be assured that they are!

Talking to one of my colleagues and friends recently and this is what happened.

He had to fire one of his senior guys. 

And I asked him why?

He said:
"Because he was dead wood."

I asked what he meant as this was a senior person in the organization that was being let go.

So he said:
"Well I read the last few days of his emails on his account and he was doing absolutely nothing!"

And I was like hmm, that's amazing that you actually go into his account and read his stuff.

Yeah, I know it's not really his employees--the guy is at work--but still it's his email account that he uses, seriously.

So it's not just some corporate spooks sitting in the bowls of the building in a darkened security operations center behind a lot of cool looking screens monitoring your accounts for suspicious activity.

It's your management too that can logon and see and read your stuff, whenever.

So this guy that was fired wasn't just dead wood, he was actually dead meat. 

"Smile you're on camera" in more ways then one.

So if you decide to write some juicy emails today or save some salacious files on "your" computer or on the network, the expectation surely is that they are being read--you can take that to your privacy bank. ;-)

(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
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January 14, 2017

Our Assets Are Compromised

So in the games that nations play, spy games is #1 on the hit parade.

Of course, it's about using information to get a strategic advantage. 

It runs the gamut from pure espionage in terms of stealing state secrets and intellectual property to conducting stealthy subversive acts to undermine enemies and competitors. 

Whatever spies do, it's all about compromising assets...whether they be human, information, or critical infrastructure. 

From turning patriots into traitors, words into info warfare, or critical infrastructure in trojan horses ready to im/explode...whatever leads to getting the upper-hand or advantage. 

What one nation comes to rely on for their sustainment and survival is instead exploited and turned against them like a trojan horse or modern-day malware.

And with people, using money, sex, ideology, compromising material (Kompromat), or threats against loved ones--it's simply about appealing to either opportunism or extortion. 

So truly defense means protecting not only what before one's eyes, but also what in the rear and at the flanks. 

When the over 21 million personnel records and background investigations where stolen from OPM on virtually all federal employees (civilian, military, and intelligence personnel) a door was left open and the demon is still hiding and waiting to cross the threshold, infiltrate, exfiltrate, and compromise. 

As an society that meaningfully values an open and transparent democracy, we can perhaps too easily become lured or lax to common sense safeguards and vigilance, but that does not excuse negligence, incompetence or stupidity.

Rich people and countries around the world can unknowingly falter by becoming overly comfortable and full of themselves...to the point where many don't fully care about their jobs or their country, as they sit in their mansions, designer clothes, and with busting bellies.

From the need to vastly improve our competencies in cyberwarfare to defending ourselves from a tidel wave of global terrorism to upgrading the U.S. nuclear triad against resurgent superpowers and dangerous rogue dictators, we have let our guard down to compromise. 

Is expelling 35 Russian diplomats an effective strategy against their technical attempts to subvert our free and democratic elections or does it just underscore how vulnerable we continue to be?

When as a country and with our leadership, we decide to get serious rather than stay scared and war weary then we will not only stand firm again, but fight against weakness and compromise of ourselves. ;-)

(Source Photo: Rebecca Blumenthal)
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November 19, 2015

Vetting The Refugees--Do You Think It'll Work?

So not that anyone was so thrilled with the Syria and Iraq refugee idea post 9/11 to begin with...

But now 31 States have come straight out refusing to take these refugees post the terror attack that happened just last week in Paris--where at least one of the terrorists was...

Guess what?

That's right!  A fake refugee from Syria

But what about the "intensive vetting process" that is being promised for these 10,000 refugees?

Well what can be more intensive than the vetting that the American government does on employees working for highly sensitive agencies like the CIA, FBI, and NSA? 

So how has that worked out?

Probably not too bad, but the problem is that no vetting no matter how thorough is foolproof, hence major spies have infiltrated these organizations for years or even decades and caused immense harm to national security:

Robert Hanssen (former FBI--spied for the Soviets for 21 years)

Aldrich Ames (31-year veteran of the CIA, compromised 2nd largest number of CIA agents after Robert Hanssen)

Edward Snowden (leaked classified information from the NSA on our surveillance programs)

The point is that no matter how well we vet 10,000 or more refugees from Iraq and Syria, with ISIS vowing "to strike America at its center in Washington"--there certainly can be some errors in the screening and final adjudication process.

Again no vetting process is perfect--especially when the refugees themselves are admitting that fake ideas are being given out to them like candy in a candy store. 

So that's the dilemma we now face:

HEART--do what our heart tells us to and help people in need by taking in the refugees.

OR 

HEAD--follow our heads not risking another one or more potentially devastating terror attacks on the U.S. homeland. 

The choice is heartbreaking or headache producing! ;-)

(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
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July 12, 2015

The "Real" OPM Data Breach

A lot has been made and should be made of the theft of over 21 million federal employees' sensitive personnel records and security clearances. 

Everyone rightly, although somewhat selfishly, is worried about identity theft and the compromised privacy of their information.

The government is worried about hostile nation states using the pilfered information to bribe or coerce military, intelligence, high-level politicals, and others to turn and work for them or otherwise to use against them. 

But what is grossly missing in this discussion is not what information presumably the Chinese stole and how they will use it against us, but rather what information they inserted, altered, or otherwise compromised into the OPM personnel and security databases when they got root access to it.

Imagine for a moment what could hostile nations or terrorists can do to this crown jewel database of personnel and security information:

- They could insert phony records for spies, moles, or other dangerous persons into the database--voila, these people are now "federal employees" and perhaps with stellar performance records and high level security clearances able to penetrate the depths of the federal government with impunity or even as superstars!

- They could alter personnel or security records taking prominent or good government employees and sabotaging them to have questionable histories, contacts, financial, drug or criminal problems and thereby frame or take-down key government figures or divert attention from the real bad guys out there and tie our homeland security and law enforcement establishment in knots chasing after phony leads and false wrongdoers and villains.

Given that the timeline of the hack of OPM goes back to March and December 2014, this was more than enough time for our adversary to not only do to our data what they want, but also for the backup tapes to be affected by the corrupt data entering the system. 

The damage done to U.S. national security is unimaginable. As is typically the case with these things, "An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure." Instead of investing in security, now we can invest in "credit monitoring and identity theft protection" for a very sparse three years, while federal employees will go a lifetime in information jeopardy, and the federal government will be literally chasing its tail on personnel security for decades to come. 

With the price so low to our adversaries in attacking our systems, it truly is like stealing and much more. ;-)

(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
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February 13, 2015

tURNING yOUR dEVICE aGAINST yOU!

So interesting article in BBC about the Samsung's "Listening TV."

This TV has voice activated controls and they don't just take commands, but...


"If your spoken words include personal or other sensitive information, that information will be among the data captured and transmitted to a third party."


So aside from hackers (and spies) being able to turn your phone and computer mics, cameras, and GPS location data on and off to surveil and eavesdrop on you, now the dumb television set can listen in as well. 


You can be heard, seen, and found...whether you know it or not. ;-)


(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal with eyes and ears from here and here with attribution to Firas and Simon James)

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May 10, 2014

The *S*p*y* Named Snowden

So was Edward Snowden a whistleblower (some even call him a patriot) or one of the most ruthless spies this country has ever known?

An editorial in the Wall Street Journal by Edward Jay Epstein makes a strong case that Snowden was a spy galore, and the whistleblowing was his cover.
  1. What he stole? - 1.7 million documents from the NSA with "only a minute fraction of them have anything to do with civil liberties or whistleblowing." Instead, the vast majority "were related to our military capabilities, operations, tactics, techniques, and procedures"--otherwise known as the "keys to the kingdom." Moreover, it seems clear that a "top priority was lists of the computers of U.S. adversaries abroad that the NSA has succeeded in penetrating."
  2. When he stole them? - Snowden took the Booz Allen Hamilton job as a contractor for NSA in March 2013--this was at the "tail end of his operation." Moreover, the Foreign Surveillance Intelligence Act (FISA) court order for Verizon to provide metadata on U.S. phone calls for 90 days had only been issued in April 2013. And Snowden told reporter James Rosen in October 2013, that his last job at NSA gave him access to every active operation against the Chinese and "that is why I accepted the position."
  3. Where did Snowden end up? - First in Hong Kong and then under the protection of the FSB (aka the old KGB) in Russia, which "effectively compromises all the sources and methods" and ties all too nicely with what he stole. A former cabinet official has indicated that the Snowden heist was either Russian espionage, Chinese espionage, or a joint operation. 
If Snowden really was a spy as indicated, then the Whistleblowing of domestic surveillance in the U.S. was a most brilliant ploy by his operators to distract our nation from the true nature of the exfiltration and the harm done to our national security. In a way, it falls right in line with Russia's creative storyline/coverup in taking Crimea in saying that they were only protecting ethnic Russians. Score 2 for Russia!

Are we so easily lied to and manipulated...is public opinion really just jello in the hands of the global spymasters.  

We've got to be smart enough (i.e. critical thinkers) to interpret the noise in the intelligence signals, political speeches, and news stories to unveil the truth of what is really going on. In advertising, when exposing the truth of products and companies, this is sometimes referred to as culture jamming. Can we apply this to the complicated intrigue of global politics and get past the storyline that is fed to us to expose truth?  

It's high time to outmaneuver those that may seek to manipulate the public (whether from outside or even sometimes from within) with some brilliance of our own--in not believing every snippet that is fed to us and instead looking at the bigger picture of political theater, special interests, and national security to see who is now zinging whom and why. ;-)

(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

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October 14, 2013

Listening Beyond The Superficial

"I know you hear me, but are you listening to me?"

That's something one of my teachers used to say to the class back in yeshiva day school. 

The New York Times reports on a company that is pioneering the study of "Emotional Analytics."

Beyond Verbal is helping to "reach beyond the verbal" and listen for mood, attitude, and personality of the speaker. 

The point is that if you listen carefully, you can decode a person's mood--almost like a "human emotional genome."

Beyond Verbal can already identify "400 variations" of emotions not based on the words chosen, but rather based on the tone and frequency of use. 

For example, is the person telling you over and over again about a products problems--and are they getting annoyed that you aren't getting it!

Through a speech analytics engine that examines patterns of verbal use, we can classify whether a person is dissatisfied, escalating, and so on.

This can be extremely useful, for example, in call centers that service (perhaps some irate) customers.

Also, speech analytics could help us with uncovering deception from terrorists or moles in the government by detecting threatening or nervous emotions that the subjects are trying to hide. 

Potentially, this software could be helpful in our personal lives as well in terms of identifying the context and providing the E.I. (emotional intelligence) to understand what a person is r-e-a-l-l-y saying to us, rather than just perhaps the superficial words themselves. 

If we can not only hear someone else, but listen better and perceive more precisely what they are trying to tell us and what they are feeling, then we can problem-solve and resolve situations better and more quickly.

Software like this could definitely help keep me out of the doghouse at home. ;-)

(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
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June 1, 2013

Why People Spy

There is an interesting article in the Wall Street Journal (31 May 2013) about why people spy.

The former CIA case officer, who recruited others to become traitors and wrote the article says, it comes down to MICES:


- Money: "We give you cash, and you steal secrets."


- Ideology: The person no longer believes in their system of government or has been abused by the system.


- Conscience: Someone who is looking to atone for the crimes/sins of the system or of themselves. 


- Ego: This is a person who responds to stroking of their self-esteem and sense of purpose.


- Sex: A fifth powerful motivator is sex or a relationship that may address people's feelings of isolation or loneliness. 


Thinking about the motivation for spying in terms of Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, I have connected the five techniques to turn someone with their basic needs, making the Pyramid of Spying:


- Money fulfills people's base physiological needs.


- Ideology appeals to someone who has been abused and hates the system and thus is tied to motivations for safety and security.


- Sex/relationships has to do with social needs.


- Stroking someone's ego fulfills his/her esteem needs. 


- Spying for reasons of conscience (e.g. what some would consider becoming enlightened) is driven by the need to self-actualize. 


The reason that I turned the pyramid/hierarchy upside down for the motivations of why people spy is that being "turned" and becoming a traitor to one's country is such an unnatural and abhorrent concept to normal people that they would generally not do it just for the money, revenge, or sex (lower-level needs), but rather they ultimately would need to be driven by reasons of conscience and ego (higher-level needs).


Of course, sprinkling in the money, ideology, and sex makes acting the traitor that much more appealing to some--and helps "grease the wheels" to go outside the bounds of what a normal person does and feels towards their nation--but those are not the primary drivers for committing the ultimate crime against one's country. 


Again, normal people are not motivated to be treacherous and treasonous, but given the wrong dose of motivations, people are turned--this means we know how to use the tools of the trade to our nation's advantage, but also to be mindful and watchful of those who motivations are being acted on. 


(Source Graphic: Andy Blumenthal)

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