An informant working for the F.B.I. coordinated a 2012 campaign of hundreds of cyberattacks on foreign websites, including some operated by the governments of Iran, Syria, Brazil and Pakistan, according to documents and interviews with people involved in the attacks…
The details of the 2012 episode have, until now, been kept largely a secret in closed sessions of a federal court in New York and heavily redacted documents. While the documents do not indicate whether the F.B.I. directly ordered the attacks, they suggest that the government may have used hackers to gather intelligence overseas even as investigators were trying to dismantle hacking groups like Anonymous and send computer activists away for lengthy prison terms.
The attacks were coordinated by Hector Xavier Monsegur, who used the Internet alias Sabu and became a prominent hacker within Anonymous for a string of attacks on high-profile targets, including PayPal and MasterCard. By early 2012, Mr. Monsegur of New York had been arrested by the F.B.I. and had already spent months working to help the bureau identify other members of Anonymous, according to previously disclosed court papers…
One expert said that the court documents in the Hammond case were striking because they offered the most evidence to date that the F.B.I. might have been using hackers to feed information to other American intelligence agencies. “It’s not only hypocritical but troubling if indeed the F.B.I. is loaning its sting operations out to other three-letter agencies,” said Gabriella Coleman, a professor at McGill University and author of a forthcoming book about Anonymous…
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I just got the first four volumes of Skin Horse in bound paper (yes, I’ve read the whole series online, but for an Old like me paper is just better). So I know what I’m doing this evening — what else is on the agenda?
Baud
What a dumb statement.
Pogonip
Is the character on the left supposed to be male or female?
What am I doing this evening? Pondering useless things like androgynous cartoon characters. But yesterday I cleaned out a closet.
I used to have a terrible time deciding what to keep until I remembered J.R.R. Tolkien’s “He who cannot cast away a thing at need is in fetters.”. Thanks, Professor.
Mnemosyne
@Baud:
I’m also waiting to find out why I’m supposed to be outraged that the US gathers foreign intelligence about foreign countries. If anything, the troubling part is them pressuring people into becoming informants, not that the US is — gasp! — spying on foreign countries.
ranchandsyrup
pato on a product My wife loves.
WereBear
There was some talk here recently about the car service with the pink moustache. Here’s the lowdown:
The Car Mustache Entrepreneur
Pogonip
I think we got upstaged by Kareem.
Baud
@Pogonip: n
It’s for the best.
kc
First of all, she’s not a goddamned victim, and secondly, HE’S RIGHT.
Never rely on a fucking TPM headline.
dmbeaster
@Mnemosyne: Not only that, but most spying involves illegal activities. Burglary, wiretapping, bribery, fraud; now add hacking to the spymasters toolkit. Using suspects for spying by promising leniency can endanger suspects, except hackers probably face the least degree of exposure.
kc
@kc:
Wrong damn thread, sorry.
RobertDSC-Power Mac G5 Dual
Say thankya big-big.
Jeffro
I was all worried about Palin’s evilness yesterday, and so here’s the closing from an article in today’s WaPo about her waning influence in the GOP, even among the faithful:
Cruz is gonna blow the GOP to smithereens, I tell ya…
Frankensteinbeck
I lurves me some Skin Horse.
SiubhanDuinne
@Pogonip:
Not sure what difference it makes. Why does it matter?
Villago Delenda Est
This is not new. In Russia, the Tsarist secret police had agents who led marches against the Tsar.
Another Holocene Human
There’s a lot more on Sabu at Jester’s blog:
http://jesterscourt.cc/
forked tongue
Whatever, I’m just so grateful it wasn’t Ted Rall.
John Weiss
@ranchandsyrup: Are you nuts? The world is going to Hell in a hand basket (you probably know what a hand basket is) and you’re all about fake candles? Mercy!
Shinobi
The information the government has access to about you is like, nothing, compared to what google, facebook, your credit card company and your cell phone company have, and they are using it to profile to you and market to you and resell that information. So I have a hard time getting up in arms about the government having it. Here’s a great article on TP about a woman who tried to keep her pregnancy a secret from the internet.