CIA, FBI Push Social Networking for Spies

node7 writes "The FBI, NSA, and CIA are jointly supporting a newly created 'MySpace' for the intelligence community. Named 'A-Space,' the site will contain highly classified material, so naturally, it won't be available to the public. From CNN: '[Michael Wertheimer, assistant deputy director of national intelligence for analysis] demonstrated the program to CNN to show how analysts will use it to collaborate. "One perfect example is if Osama bin Laden comes out with a new video. How is that video obtained? Where are the very sensitive secret sources we may have to put into a context that's not apparent to the rest of the world?" Wertheimer said. "In the past, whoever captured that video or captured information about the video kept it in-house. It's highly classified because it has so very short a shelf life. That information is considered critical to our understanding."'"

Comments

A-Space music video?

[Narnie]

Did I read that right? You can put Osama bin Laden's newest music video on your A-Space profile page?

Re:A-Space music video?

[Anonymous Coward]

Well it would explain This.

Re:A-Space music video?

[megamerican]

You might want to try searching under his performance name, Tim Osman (not to be confused with one of the Osmond brothers)

Re:A-Space music video?

[Anonymous Coward]

This won't be kept on a regular secure site on the open internet. This will be on the standard SIPRnet or on JWICS behind hardware and software encryption.

Besides aside from curiosity this information won't mean much to anyone who isn't in that line of work.

Re:A-Space music video?

[Anonymous Coward]

Obviously, this needs to be tagged "SpySpace".

Sensitive data over HTTP? Four words

[Anonymous Coward]

All I have to say:

"Man in the Middle"

Re:Sensitive data over HTTP? Four words

[Annymouse Cowherd]

Most government networks require employees to use encrypted VPNs. This includes government agencies that do work that is not confidential, e.g. the NIH. So the FBI and CIA most definitely use secure connections if not private connections for everything.

unfortunate or appropriate?

[timmarhy]

depending on your outlook "A"-space is asking for them to be the butt of a lot of jokes. pun intended

Re:unfortunate or appropriate?

[shotgunefx]

I dunno, all I could think of when I read "A Space" was South Park and "Project: Imagination Doorway"

Re:unfortunate or appropriate?

[Anonymous Coward]

Pun intended you say? http://www.thebestpageintheuniverse.net/c.cgi?u=puns

Just Plain Wrong...

[KGIII]

MySpace is for kids who want to play the latest emo music and pointless clicky things. I can just imagine spies with anime icons.

Re:Just Plain Wrong...

[tenchiken]

Clearly you have never met any intelligence analysts. More and more they tend to be younger geeks.

Re:Just Plain Wrong...

[KGIII]

Of course I haven't met 'em. If I had then they would have had to kill me. Though I think one might be hiding in the tree out back.

Re:Just Plain Wrong...

[PsychoElf]

No, thats just me. *waves*

Re:Just Plain Wrong...

[interstellar_donkey]

Well, you know there's going to be spies who try to be friends with EVERYBODY, regardless of weather or not they know each other. Then the constant unsolicited friend requests from the CIA's latest emo-folk-rock band.

Members of A-Space will have to deal with messages like "Are you the Agent Schwartz who graduated from black ops school in Langley back in '84? OMG it's been so long! What have you been up to?"

Finally, you'll get generals commanding their subordinates to join their gang in Mob Wars so they can put the smack down on the mob run by some rival admirals.

Re:Just Plain Wrong...

[Tubal-Cain]

Get off of my WiFi!

Re:Just Plain Wrong...

[KGIII]

I can see it now...

AnimeFan: Oh hai! I joined today for the lulz.
ColSanders: Tits or GTFO!
AnimeFan: WTF?
ColSanders: newfag is new
AnimeFan: I am sitting at the desk right beside you.
ColSanders: STFU n00b
AnimeFan: You are a shitty boss.
ColSanders: Yes but on the intarwebs no one knows I'm a cat

Re:Just Plain Wrong...

[joib]

No, it's just you who's getting older.

Re:Just Plain Wrong...

[Anonymous Coward]

Clearly you have never met any intelligence analysts. More and more they tend to be younger geeks.

You do realize that geeks and myspace users are polar opposites, don't you?

I don't know what your comment means...or why anyone would mod it informative.

Re:Just Plain Wrong...

[Anonymous Coward]

wifi? I'm connected to your switch via serial.

Naming?

[Kesch]

Is there a logic behind the name? Do they mean A-Space as in "a space" as in "it's a space, somewhere, but we won't tell you where or whose it is."

Or, do they mean a space for the A-Team.

(Please say it's the second option)

Re:Naming?

[SomeJoel]

Neither, they just know that the first few iterations won't work quite, and it'll make eSpace seem less trite.

Re:Naming?

[Roane]

A -> Analyst

Re:Naming?

[Anonymous Coward]

Or, do they mean a space for the A-Team.

(Please say it's the second option)

A is for Anal Probe

Well, maybe that would be the TSA...

Re:Naming?

[Fumus]

A -> Analyst

Or just Anal for short.

Hacker Target

[Sparton]

Couldn't this become a huge target for hackers/terrorists/people with nothing better to do to try and find out classified secrets? Somehow I think that putting this sort of information on the web (and I don't care how you think you can lock it down) isn't a smart idea.

Re:Hacker Target

[Kelson]

It's not clear from the article whether it's actually on the web, or whether it's on a private network. I'd hope the latter.

On another note, I can imagine some of the standard social networking tropes: "Current Music: Mission Impossible Theme."

Re:Hacker Target

[Skapare]

It will be in a private restricted network operated by the government. You can't even send packets on that network without a top secret security clearance. Despite all the screwups of most of government, there are a few things they do right. And you will never come near it.

Re:Hacker Target

[PPH]

All of the variants and misspellings of the a-space.com domain name have been grabbed by now.

Re:Hacker Target

[tenchiken]

It would not be on the web - it would be on SIPRnet, the governments own secure IP network that (at least in theory) doesn't touch the public web.

I expect that they will actually have multiple different systems. Top Secret really isn't all that secret. It's once you get to eyes only levels above that things are interesting.

Re:Hacker Target

[snl2587]

This could also be a giant honeypot to try and catch intruders. Or not. Not like many of us will see this anyway (unless it all ends up on Wikileaks).

Re:Hacker Target

[Joe The Dragon]

you can get in the just use the login Joshua but you need to find the phone # to get in.

Re:Hacker Target

[Anonymous Coward]

I believe "it's a trap" is appropriate here.

This isn't a tool for spies. It's a tool to catch morons.

Lets apply the most basic logic... would the intelligence community announce anything of the sort to the public?

Like the last dozen or so technological or organizational strides they announced.... but wait.... no.

Re:Hacker Target

[Anonymous Coward]

It would be on JWICS, which is the TS version of SIPRNET (which, as the S implies, is for Secret information not Top Secret).

Re:Hacker Target

[Nursie]

It's always cute when people have such faith in their government/military/intelligence institutions.

In the real world, they do take a bit more care than most, but somebody will screw up sooner or later.

Re:Hacker Target

[Zibri]

I think i found the site: http://www.the-aspace.org/

Re:Hacker Target

[IanHurst]

Yeah, leaks still happen. But the parent is basically right. Access to these systems in the real world tends to be limited to (1) people who really are supposed to get it or (2) people doing state-level espionage.

If getting in was even a little easier than that, we'd have a lot more information than we do.

Re:Hacker Target

[WillRobinson]

cant help myself

Government security - Na never been broken into ...
Military Intelligence - No explanation needed ...
Government efficiency - Yawn, we know how efficient they are..
Government organization - Ya right ...

which can only be topped by:

Homeland security!

Re:Hacker Target

[Narnie]

So... you're telling me it's not a good idea to haX0r into a-space and setup my own profile page?

damn....exit, exit, quit, no, bye, q, y, exit, Alt+f4, ctrl+alt+del, yank cord from wall, leave coffee shop...

Re:Hacker Target

[qbzzt]

Couldn't this become a huge target for hackers/terrorists/people with nothing better to do to try and find out classified secrets?

Sure. If you use information, you risk it getting leaked. However, if you do not use it, it does you no good. A lot of information probably comes from sources that are publicly available, or that aren't that secret. Sharing it, along with analysis and meta-data, makes sense.

Re:Hacker Target

[KGIII]

I hope that it is not on the "web" at all - including any protocols that we, as civilians, have access to. To access it should, hopefully, never require http:/// or https:/// but rather *should* be something like SomeReallySuperSecretProtocol:// but maybe a little bit longer.

Re:Hacker Target

[Anonymous Coward]

Why exactly?

Re:Hacker Target

[Dan541]

Couldn't this become a huge target for hackers/terrorists/people with nothing better to do to try and find out classified secrets? Somehow I think that putting this sort of information on the web (and I don't care how you think you can lock it down) isn't a smart idea.

and we thought the MySpace photo leakage was bad!

Re:Hacker Target

[Dan541]

there are a few things they do right.

Same security isn't one of them.

Re:Hacker Target

[ion.simon.c]

WRT Eyes Only:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classified_information_in_the_United_States#Handling_Caveats

IE: Wikpedia knows more than you about this.

Re:Hacker Target

[Anonymous Coward]

No, I doubt it would be on SIPRnet. If we're talking truly high-priority intel, we're dealing with JWICS. Not to say that there wouldn't be a SIPRnet version, but the article makes it sound like its an TS/SCI sort of affair.

Re:Hacker Target

[KGIII]

Because nothing of that nature should ever be exposed to the public internet, should have no way to connect to the protocols that we even have available. I am all for keeping some information open but, as an example, I don't think we have an intrinsic right to get a copy of the latest and greatest fighter jet simply because we're tax paying citizens.

I figure putting it on secure servers in a format that can't be accessed via any technology that we have available is the best/added layer way to ensure a greater level of security. I don't think it should use TCP/IP, I don't think it should even be readable in any format with any software (perhaps even hadware) that we have available to us as private citizens.

I simply don't want the security of state secrets to be trivial, I want as great a chance as possible of preventing security incidents. Whilst some information should be available to any citizen who wants to know I would say that, if this project is actually effective and does what it is supposed to do, this information is not the kind that needs to be shared.

Re:Hacker Target

[ohzero]

Funny... our government and military installations have arguably the longest history of being extremely bad at information security. We also have the nasty habit of leaking information. Screenshots to follow within 12 months guaranteed.

Re:Hacker Target

[Anonymous Coward]

Is anyone going to fight this? Surely it's a bad idea for the government to become even more secretive. We're losing all possible leverage we have for regulating them.

Hell, what am I saying? We wouldn't even impeach Bush. Of course nothing will happen. *sigh*

Re:Hacker Target

[Anonymous Coward]

The most important layer of security here will be physical; you or I will probably never even find out where this network can be accessed, and to access it will require God knows how many layers of badges, guards with guns and locked doors. Outside of those doors, the network will likely be encrypted by black boxes.

However, I would bet that every access point to the network will be via Windows Vista machines with Internet Explorer.

Re:Hacker Target

[littlewink]

Nobody needs to send packets on that network. All they need to do is monitor packets on that network. And that's very likely to be done and very difficult to prevent if the network is of any significant size.

Unless the network is on a single floor of a single building it will be difficult to keep unvetted persons from coming near it.

Re:Hacker Target

[PalmHair]

There, there, you should not become too upset about that. Remember what we were taught - if somebody doesn't like our networks, he's a terrorist. Btw, Vladimir sends his regards, he's in Washington, operation Red Dawn going better than planned. The bastard's heading for a promotion no doubt.

Re:Hacker Target

[MK_CSGuy]

It just means that information that the government already secretly has will be better organized, not that it will be more secretive

Re:Hacker Target

[Anonymous Coward]

...Despite all the screwups of most of government, there are a few things they do right. And you will never come near it.

Unless you have friends/family in Israel.

Re:Hacker Target

[Anonymous Coward]

Um, there's no such thing as "above top secret". Codewords at the TS level (such as EYESONLY) provide that functionality.

In other news

[Anonymous Coward]

A Chinese security team has thanked the NSA very much for making their life much easier.

In the spirit of cooperative effort, they have also added some of their own entries and contact info to Chinese spies.

The NSA was surprised to learn that the Dali Lama has been a member for over 40 years now.

James Bond in the 21st Century.

[BitterOldGUy]

Now, all he has to do is go to these sites and he can hook up with the hot Chinese and Russian spies.

But, he'll have to be careful! You never know if the profile picture is faked and it's really Dr. Evil posting!!

Re:James Bond in the 21st Century.

[meta-monkey]

If the hot Chinese "spy" says she's 14, James can be pretty sure it's really Chris Hansen.

"Have a seat, Mr. Bond."

Good idea?

[ceoyoyo]

I was under the impression that the identity of the sources of information in the intelligence world were very carefully guarded to protect those sources. Even some of the information is often not distributed because it might give clues to the identity of the source.

Myspace for spies doesn't sound like anything a self respecting (non-suicidal) spy would want anything to do with.

Analysts, on the other hand, talking about things they see on TV, might love it.

Re:Good idea?

[tenchiken]

99.9% of what intelligence agencies do is actually analyst, not spies. The covert(operations) side of the house is a completely different world from what I have read.

Re:Good idea?

[lexDysic]

Analysts, on the other hand, talking about things they see on TV, might love it.

Hence, A-Space.

Re:Good idea?

[Anonymous Coward]

dude... stfu... There's no need to advertise you work in intel.... If I can find you then so can other people.

Re:Good idea?

[tenchiken]

I don't work for any agency that has initials.

Re:Good idea?

[Anonymous Coward]

Just an aficionado then eh? :P

Applications?

[darinfp]

Will they be able to compete with the Naughty Meter and send Karma to each other? Will there be a friends group for Gitmo?

Re:Applications?

[Skapare]

They should create a parallel site like Slashdot, called Spydot, where intelligence can be moderated (Score 5: Funny).

Re:Applications?

[Anonymous Coward]

in KGB Russia, intelligence moderates you.

Re:Applications?

[freakdiablo]

How do you know they don't? They could have some interspy network/blog where theres news on the latest terrorist threats, wars, conspiracy, etc.

Re:Applications?

[Anonymous Coward]

Uh, I'd say /. does a pretty good job of keeping intelligence moderate ... ducks

Re:Applications?

[Eli Gottlieb]

They already did. The Iraq war got started because some idiot modded "OMG IRAQ TOTALLY HAS WMDZ!!1" up to +3 Funny, +1 Insightful, and +1 Justification to Invade Country That Fucked with Daddy.

Interesting

[tenchiken]

They have been up to some interesting things. Sharing information really isn't the CIA or NSA's normal routine.This is a organization that still calls spies "collaborators" after all.

I do know that they also have a Wiki system up for sharing information. It's going to make tracking down leaks much much harder, but it will help eliminate the kind of intellegence gotcha's that hurt us on 9/11. Some of the other restrictions - thoose in laws will still be a issue, but hopefully this well help address things.

Don't look for the domestic groups to get too involved though - the chain of evidence rules would restrict them too much, which is a shame.
 

Re:Interesting

[kramer2718]

I am concerned about the civil liberties implications of this wiki (or whatever they're calling it). There is quite a great risk that information gathered for foreign intelligence purposes could be used against US citizens in unrelated investigations.

This illustrates the biggest problem with the US intelligence agency/law enforecement: the schizophrenic nature of the FBI. The FBI has several mandates:

1. Counter intelligence
2. Pursuit of terrorists
3. Pursuit of organized crime
4. Pursuit of other serious federal crimes
5. Assistance to local law enforcement agencies

Because of the constitution, those roles have different civil liberties requirements. You have to get warrants to gather evidence to pursue crimes inside the US, but not to pursue terrorists abroad plotting to attack the US or other countries' spies trying to steal US military secrets.

The 9/11 commission recommended breaking the FBI up into a federal law enforcement agency and a counter intelligence/counter terrorism agency. That way, the counter intelligence work would be hindered less by the trappings of domestic law enforcement and the domestic law enforcement would be less likely to violate the liberties of American citizens. The Bush Administration and Congress have ignored this suggestion.

If the FBI were split--as it properly should be--then, I would have no problem with this A space. As it is, I have reservations.

Re:Interesting

[wronskyMan]

If all LE and intel agencies were granted access to the same wiki, info could flow from the LE to intel agencies just fine. LE agencies could also read the intel provided by the CIA, etc; however, if they attempted to introduce this in court, it would most likely not work because: 1. The information would still be classified. While the govt has taken measures to allow classified evidence to be introduced in criminal trials in the terror/espionage arena, getting clearances for the attorneys/jurors/etc and other logistics would most likely not make it profitable in the case of some drug dealer from Detroit. In addition, the LE agencies may face resistance from the intel side seeking to protect their sources - if they were reluctant previously to share with the FBI, they would be even less likely to want judges and lawyers to see it. 2. Defense lawyers are very good at finding holes in the chain of evidence; if the first link in the chain of a scanned invoice, for example, is "Agent Schmuckatelli printed it off a G-14 classified wiki", the goverment would be hard pressed to explain how it was obtained from the defendant.

Re:Interesting

[tenchiken]

Given that the information is classified, to do so would break federal law.

I agree with your analysis, but can you imagine anything more scary to the tin foil crowd here?"

US created agency for domestic spying" ZOMG, Bush is coming to eat you.

Re:Interesting

[failedlogic]

I'm expanding here to get some clarifications and I'm making a few leaping, uninformed statments here .....

But, if there are elements of the FBI gathering intelligence on domestic terrorists and a separate for international, then doesn't that mean, technically that that info could go on A-Space? And, wouldn't that also put Dept. Homeland Security in a conflicting state of interest since its under the umbrella of CIA and FBI (where the CIA isn't supposed to get domestic information)? Maybe under DHS it changed or maybe through compartmentalization of FBI?

Without knowing any specifics what-so-ever, technically the 9-11 attacks could only have been "stopped" if the FBI used its domestic collection of intelligence (the guys only wanting to fly but not land planes) with the CIA which would then relate that to international intelligence collection that would then pass it to the FBI to use domestically? If the intelligence was so darned classified would the CIA still act domestically or would it still have to forward it to the FBI? Or is it different if they dont get caught?

Maybe my ideas are crossing too many fences but as the policies are/were setup isn't there a huge problem with how the system is setup?

Re:Interesting

[oodaloop]

I think you're talking about Intellipedia, the classified Wikipedia. It doesn't have stuff that would be useful for leaks. It has bios on important personalities, country profiles, threat weapon system specs, definitions of acronymns, etc. It's very useful, but needs to expand and get more contributors. There are still people who don't even know it exists, and still probably people who don't even know that Wikipedia is in the intel community.

Re:Interesting

[IchNiSan]

Since when is maintaining certain standards of justice "a shame"!

Re:Interesting

[Anonymous Coward]

...but it will help eliminate the kind of intellegence gotcha's that hurt us on 9/11.

Yeah, like having dual-citizens like "Wertheimer" (and Yoran) in our Intelligence Apparatus.

Lookie Here.

Re:Interesting

[Anonymous Coward]

not only a wiki but also digg like sites and social bookmarking of reports

Facebook^w Myspace site???

[drpimp]

A-space??? Why not Fedbook, or MyCIA, FACIASBIN (CIA-FBI-NSA some combination thereof) or some shit like that. wtf does A-space mean? How feeble! ... knock knock knock ... one sec let me get that ...............

Re:Facebook^w Myspace site???

[Skapare]

They could have called it "I-Spy", but I think that name has been taken, already.

Re:Facebook^w Myspace site???

[KGIII]

The combination of letters made me think of anagrams. All that I could come up with was single words and they didn't use all nine letters. Some searching led me to this site:

http://www.sternestmeanings.com/

It came up with "If in scabs."

For "the slashdot effect" it came back with "the affected sloths."

meh

[afxgrin]

Bin Laden is going to kill himself in a few days. Probably on the 11th... and it most likely won't be a suicide bombing attempt. He's going to leave a long video or note to go with it. Don't know why I've been thinking this recently...

Naming...

[Anonymous Coward]

They missed their chance to call it SpySpace or even SpookSpace...

What middle?

[Skapare]

What middle? It will be on an internal government network that is isolated from the internet. The "man in the middle" will be whatever agency is managing this (CIA? NSA? If I were to tell you I'd have to kill you).

Re:What middle?

[the eric conspiracy]

Just sit in the Pentagon parking lot with a wardriving kit and you will have no problem getting in.

Re:What middle?

[Anonymous Coward]

What could possibly go wrong? It's not like someone is going to attach a WiFi router to it, or, you know, bridge it with their shiny Vista networking control wizard thing. Or forward screen shots, or copy/paste.

If you have to kill people because they know too much, let me offer you some real simple advice: Don't go blabbing about how easy to use your latest homegrown IT source of leaks is, okay?

Re:What middle?

[NotQuiteReal]

That parking lot is freaking huge - you might have break your diet, eat some Pringles, and gin up a cantenna.

Re:What middle?

[Dan541]

Exactly,
It only takes one asshole to leave a WiFi point open.

Re:What middle?

[Foobar of Borg]

Just sit in the Pentagon parking lot with a wardriving kit and you will have no problem getting in.

Ha, ha! Silly boy. You've obviously never been to the Pentagon. If you try this, within a few minutes a very nice gentleman with a very large automatic weapon will politely ask you what you are doing. And you had better be able to satisfactorily explain yourself.

Re:What middle?

[b4upoo]

If it is a mechanical isolation then it might be secure. But if it's a software form of isolation I'll wager it will be cracked soon enough.And since it is a social site for spies they will need to connect from home and that probably does indicate that the isolation is software based.

Missing Tag

[Anonymous Coward]

Is there a reason this isn't tagged with whatcouldpossiblygowrong?

Re:Missing Tag

[Anonymous Coward]

Because it's being run by the government, you doofus! It'll be rock solid, just you see.

Social networking??

[Chineseyes]

The KGB is a pirate become a pirate today.
Aldrich Ames and the the CIA are now friends
Robert Hanssen and The FBI are now friends
Aldrich Ames and The KGB are now friends they found each other through the soviet consulate in Washington D.C.
Robert Hanssen and The KGB are now friends they found each other through The GRU
Robert Hanssen is sharing The FBI's secrets with The Espionage Application
The FBI is wondering why his business is all in the streets.
Aldrich Ames is going to Moscow!!!
Aldrich Ames just got busted (Aspace Mobile)
Robert Hanssen LOL @ Aldrich Ames, amateur
Aldrich Ames has joined Allenwood Federal Correctional Complex
Robert Hanssen is wondering what took the FBI so long (Aspace Mobile)

Re:Social networking??

[Keebler71]

Masterful...well done!

Re:Social networking??

[jagdish]

Make someone's day by giving the Lektor cryptographic device virtual gift. Today's new gift is a limited release of 350,000.

Thanks for the add...

[Anonymous Coward]

suckers!

High Value Target or Honeypot

[sehlat]

This will go one of two ways: it will either be the highest-value target for enemy spy agencies in history ("Your enemy's information, delivered" to paraphrase AT&T) or it will end up as a nothing-really-here honeypot.

Re:High Value Target or Honeypot

[unfasten]

Or they'll have it on the same network as Intellipedia, their intelligence wiki for analysts. SIPRNet is designed specifically for classified information and never touches an unsecured network. If enemies are able to infiltrate that then we have much bigger problems.

Intellipedia also has a less sensitive version out on the WWW, though I don't know how far they'd go with A-Space.

Some more info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intellipedia

Except ...

[Skapare]

Except for a-space.gov and a-space.mil.

Re:Except ...

[PPH]

Yeah, but you know those CIA guys will just go to the first thing that comes up when they Google +A-Space +"top secret stuff"

These are the same folks that need a sign to warn their undercover agents visiting the CIA gift shop in Langley not to use their credit cards.

Re:Except ...

[bsDaemon]

You would think that, equally as important, they'd want to warn their undercover agents that wearing CIA t-shirts, or giving CIA bears to their nieces, nephews, or investigative reporters might blow their cover, too.

CIA gift shop?! Seriously?!

Dumb dumb dumb

[DreadfulGrape]

Not the idea itself, which, I suppose, is OK. Life tends to imitates fiction, anyway (esp. in tech).

But why exactly is USA Spooks, Inc. publicizing this thing? Does not seem prudent to me....

A Space?

[fishthegeek]

Does this mean that 13 year old girls are going to pretend to be FBI agents now?

Re:A Space?

[billnapier]

How come I never have mod points when a comment truely deserves modding up...

Re:A Space?

[Quasimodem]

FBI agents pretending to be 13-year-old girls can urge all their 13-year-old friends to log on to A-Space as FBI agents, thereby qualifying for a 20-year career at Prison-Sweat-Shops-R-Us.

Re:A Space?

[Anonymous Coward]

Vice versa.

I'm not surprised

[pickyouupatnine]

that no one uploaded profile pictures.. haha.

Social Networking

[siliconbunny]

MySpace? For /.'rs, it'd be more like [ EmptySpace ] Nothing to see here, move along...

Two Letters....

[3seas]

...B. S.

Browsers, referrer info, and log fun

[Anonymous Coward]

The first guy or gal to click a posted link in A-Space pointing to a bad guy's content will get their Referrer URL snarfed from a web log and then its open season on A-space. Public or not, its public unless the computers and/or networks in use scrub or omit referrer info.

Re:Browsers, referrer info, and log fun

[lordofwhee]

If they're using a protocol that similar to HTTP, every single one of them needs to be shot (well... they need to be shot MORE, at least).

It stands for

[XHIIHIIHX]

Ass-Clowns

Re:It stands for

[rtb61]

Somehow oddly appropriate when they through the whole principle of need to know out of the windows. For counter espionage a nightmare, now where did that information get leaked from. Of course for the, well, professionally paranoid, use and it and have your mistakes exposed, use it and obviously be tracked for when, what and why and, use it and be contaminated with bad intelligence from politically motivated sources.

The only thing it will end up being used for is tacking competing intelligence agencies, their mistakes and poor judgement as well as their motivation behind the intelligence they are willing to put up. The other thing of course will be to dump all those useless bits of intelligence in a cover your own arse fashion, we put in up but, no one else did anything about it.

What they are trying to mimic is the ability of the open community to put together accurate conclusions from 'bits' of information drawn from all over the world, the catch with that is the actual intelligence of those people versus the 'lack of intelligence' community as well as the inherent psychological nature of those who voluntarily choose a career in the intelligence services, how they like to keep their secrets while prying into everyone else's and the competition for promotion within an agency as well as the competition across agencies.

we're in trouble

[Anonymous Coward]

now all our agents are going to waste their time playing FluffFriends and Scrabulous when they should be busy spying

Should have named it SpySpace...

[kabocox]

I think that they'd have been better to have named it something nicer like SpySpace.

Of course, it could have been worse and been something like asspace.

Video of J. Edgar Hoover in his sexy black tutu?

[billstewart]

That's probably on Youtube already, but this would let the government post the hai-rez versions.

Right....

[MaverickMila]

So pretty much we're putting all of the information about our top-secret informants in one place. Isn't there a saying about putting all your eggs in one basket? Pretty much the only way I can figure the system itself would remain secure would be if you could only access it on-location. And not letting some idiot set their password to '123'. And monitoring users' brainwaves to make sure they're not only who they claim to be, but also still 100% loyal and not stupid enough to have internet explorer set to remember their password for the next time they login. And don't lose their government-issued laptop. And don't have a tendency to go to seedy bars and get drunk and spill their life stories to anybody within listening range. And...

Re:Right....

[chrisG23]

The info would likely only be accessible on the Governments JWICS network http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JWICS , which is pretty darned secure (or whatever network the government has that the public does not know about). You gotta remember that the cryptography that is publicly available is approved by the NSA, and that the better cryptography is kept by them for their own super secrect stuff. Also, to access a terminal connected to the JWICS network, one would need a Top Secret/SCI clearance, and those terminals are probably in locked rooms, with physical security and other security measures, which means the only ones that would be able to exploint this info are spies that are in deep. Which is possible of course, but if they are in that deep they would have access to this information in other ways, just not easily on one website.

Sounds like....

[Anachragnome]

......a Honeypot, to me.

Why the hell announce it, if it was anything BUT a Honey pot?

this is mid-information from the intelligence comm

[Anonymous Coward]

This is mis-information from the intelligence community. Don't you people learn?

Image,image,image

[Ostracus]

Probably because...let's face it. The intelligence community has an image problem. 9/11 and other incidents made them look like dinosaurs. They need to convince people that they're changing, and for the better. Both internally as well as externally.

Wikileaks

[linhares]

is offering to mirror the site, for free!

Slashdot

[linhares]

a site of moderate intelligence.

These ideas have been socializing for a while now

[Anonymous Coward]

There is a similar open source intel social network already at http://network.groupintel.com

How is it hosted?

[frank_adrian314159]

Is it hosted on Microsoft servers? I could have sworn I saw Bill Gates showing off his A-Space on that video with Jerry Seinfeld...

in Soviet Russia MySpace hacks KGB

[ivlad]

Can we, mere Soviet Russians spies^W bloggers join this community? Please-please-please. Have an invite to KGB torrent tracker to trade.

Honeypot

[Weaselmancer]

Maybe it's just because I'm a sick bastard, but I'd leave a single access point open to this network on the internet. Protect the living hell out of it, so only the leet could get in. And then make it a honeypot, not connecting to anything real.

But instead hosting video of alien autopsies, fake Apollo moon landing movie sets, documents about how the CIA shot JFK, letters from the Bavarian Illuminati ordering the war in Iraq...stuff like that.

7 yrs late, they figure out "talk to each other."

[gr8scot]

Priceless.

More info about the site

[Spy der Mann]

is available here.

Re:Guard, No Problem

[arthurpaliden]

Easy to get around, have a baby in the car when approached by the guard start changing the 'pre'-loaded diaper and say you are waiting for your wife and then ask the guard to hold the dirty diaper for a moment while you finish up. Of course you have to make sure you have feed the baby strained prunes a few hours previous.

Re:Star Trek Quote

[arthurpaliden]

"Military secrets are the most fleeting of all." -- Spock, The Enterprise Incident, stardate 5027.4, Episode 59

it won't be available to the public

[nurb432]

Give it a few days and it will be.

Um. Okay WTF?!

[nilbog]

They don't already have some way of sharing information?

How the hell have we survived this long?

Require analysts to learn SQL

[gr8scot]

"Data mining" just means writing intelligent queries, defined by retrieval of needed data, with little excess to review manually. If you can't learn to do that, you don't deserve any job with "analyst" in the title. I believe I read somewhere that the Internet is as cliquish as meat space, or more so. Considering the work I'm paying these analysts to do, I want them to use a more impersonal interface, one which is less prone to encourage the herd animal instinct to split into separate and distinct social units.

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[gr8scot]

s/distinct/exclusive