Slashdot Mirror
Air Force Wants Hundreds of Fake Online Identities
bizwriter writes "Bad enough that spammers are creating fake Facebook accounts that acquire connections with unsuspecting people, then inundate them with crap. Now, the US military wants software and services to manage upwards of 500 fake online personas designed to interact with social media, presumably including such sites as Facebook and Twitter."
It's not like they're trying to scam you like spammers. More than anything this is a good thing so normal people can use fake identities with social networks too.
You know, like @Area51 or a Facebook page for The Marines or whatever. This is what organisations do.
"But everyone should know everything." -markab
The funniest thing is that this document wasn't classified (not that THAT means anything these days :P)
There's an article about that at arstechnica. It seems the air force can dial up a company called HBGary to purchase such account services, presumably using an analog line and PSTN number in order to reach HBGary. Still, I wouldn't bet that even the phone is operational.
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2011/02/black-ops-how-hbgary-wrote-backdoors-and-rootkits-for-the-government.ars
So after the Egyptian rioting the US feels a need to keep a close eye on public communications being posted on through social networks? What are they going to do with it is the question. Do they simply want to be aware of what political public climate changeos are occurring or will the power become abused as they start pulling down accounts that post links to politically sensitive issues they'd rather not have spread around.
Why not just talk to NSA?
Since when does being a Socialist mean 'someone who has a different opinion than me'?
If somebody with no personality "friends" you, then you know he is a government agent. Just like the guy at the G-twenty summit in Toronto who carried a sign saying "Down with the Oil Sands" was an obvious right winger with the police force, and just like Aaron Barr was found out by Anonymous long before he bragged about "exposing" them. These people are too "smart" for their own good.
Maybe instead of trying to harass people they should try to make the world a better place. Like for example instead of the United States giving billions of dollars a year to the Egyptian dictatorship (which ended up collapsing, thus wasting huge amounts of U.S. dollars), maybe they could have given that money to organizations like Wikileaks that will make a better world for us by exposing corruption.
Unfortunately people in power are corrupt and incompetent. I don't know why. It just seems that people who are most interested in gaining power do so by corrupt means, and continue to be corrupt when they have already achieved power. It's sad and pathetic and is an indictment of our Leadership.
Try reading the facebook Statement of Rights and Responsibilities, By using or accessing Facebook, you agree to this Statement., section 4.1: You will not provide any false personal information on Facebook, or create an account for anyone other than yourself without permission.
Presumably a law upholding (ahem) organisation like the US government and its agencies will want to abide with agreements that they enter in to ???
Why can they just lie and expect to get away with it. So does that imply that I can lie on my tax form and also expect to get away with it ? I am sorry: this is not acceptable. Governments seem to regard the law and good morals as something that others need to obey, not themselves. What about the individuals who manage these fake accounts, if I ordered an employee of mine to lie they would be liable to prosecution just as I would be; why should government employees be any different ?
500 astroturfers ?
John Barnett, John Bigboote, John Camp, John Careful Walker, John Chief Crier, John Cooper, John Coyote, John Edwards, John Fish, John Fledgling, John Gomez, John Grim, John Guardian, John Icicle Boy, John Jones, John Joseph, John Kim Chi, John Lee, John Littlejohn, John Many Jars, John Milton, John Mud Head, John Nephew, John Nolan, John O'Connor, John Omar, John Parrot, John Rajeesh, John Ready to Fly, John Repeat Dance, John Roberts, John Scott, John Smallberries, John Starbird, John Take Cover, John Thorny Stick, John Two Horns, John Whorfin, John Wood, John Wright, John Ya Ya
I don't know what the authors of this film were smoking, but I want some . . .
Schroedinger's Brexit: The UK is both in and out of the EU at the same time!
They are already on most social networking sites. You really think anyone would be supportive of the US government unless they were getting a paycheck out of it? All this software is trying to do is make Goverment Trolls lives easier, so they can troll even more sites more effectively.
There's a recent trend of prosecuting people for "unauthorized use of online systems" when all they did was violate the terms of agreement of Facebook or the like. It's a real stretch to call that "hacking" but they sure tried hard in the 2008 Lori Drew case:
http://hackaday.com/2008/05/27/violating-terms-of-service-equals-hacking/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_v._Lori_Drew
They actually failed in that case:
http://www.burneylawfirm.com/blog/tag/hacking/ ...but it was *federal* prosecutors who argued that the same thing the Air Force wants to do is in fact illegal if private citizens do it. And that wasn't the only such case - two more are discussed on this 2010 page:
http://econsultancy.com/us/blog/6189-can-terms-of-service-turn-you-into-a-criminal
On top of all those issues, there might be something else illegal about this, something unique to government actors. Is it constitutional for the state to lie to influence public opinion? Seriously, are we a "democracy" (yeah, I know, technically a Constitutional Republic) anymore, if public opinion can be systematically shifted via...well, bullshit? We have "freedom of information" laws - doesn't that at least imply that information coming from government sources not be a total fraud from top to bottom?
If we let government actors spread BS at will...ummm...we have some really ghastly examples of where that leads. North Korea is probably the worst of the worst possible endgames there but there's a ton of others worldwide.
pilots get shot down and forced to eject over hostile territories, it's a very good idea to provide them with plausible fake identities which include a rich plausible background.
this can save lives and help our solders buy enough time to get rescued.
also, if a spook wants to contact, let's say, the nsa or the cia from a hostile territory, i doubt he'll go over the phone.
plus in many places encryption is a sign of wrongdoing, so using facebook and even slashdot commentary might be a good way to communicate home.
dear mods, next time you see a troll, it's just might be a coded message from a secret agent.
Get real. USA is not a democracy.
There is no correlation between votes and president. GWB was declared president even though Al "I invented internet" Gore had more votes.
In the last 2 general elections there has been several reported cases of election fraud.
A number of government "letter" agencies have powers to violate citizens as they see fit
The Egyptions protests have demonstrated the incredible utility of social networking sites in enabling a large pool of people to organize around a common idea. Furthermore, the online presence of these discussions stipulates that many of the individual contributing their thoughts have not actually met in person. It is a group of anonymous souls with a common idea attempting to reach out to as many people as possible. I'm do not claim to be an expert in the group dynamics or how revolutions begin, but it is quite clear that the pool of people draw from mutual influence. Now, I can imagine a system of hundreds of fake, (semi-)automated profiles capable of infiltrating these discussion with IBM Watson type NLP precision and disrupting their progress. The exact method in how this is accomplish is quite complicated but with current technology it is not far from reality. The group dynamics would be quite different from reality and perhaps disturbed enough to prevent reaching a critical mass. I can parallel such a system to the effect of the news generated by CNN and Fox News--far from reality but quite influential. The opinions of those articulating reality is effectively be muddled, and now even in the social networking forum.
Propaganda is used to extract compliance and MONEY. I dont like my own money being used against me and my fellows to extract even more money.
-NavyTakesItUpTheAss
I didn't believe this until my current job. Even though I've pretty much always worked Navy sponsored programs, the amount that it appears that they have to deal with in terms of operating under impossible budgets/manning surprised the hell out of me.
ie: You have to train 10 men, here 2 trainers. Training takes 4 days per person. You have 1 week.
Out of modpoints but really liked a post? 1BDkF6TtmmeZ3yqXbz9yhdYVqRYnwFoXDj
OH get off it. We have a Constitution which defines how our officials are elected and the President is selected.
Don't bitch and moan that the government followed the Constitution, Following the rules and limitations set forth in the Constitution is EXACTLY what we need the government to do. It is the rules that WE place on the government. You can't get mad for the government following the rules.
This is the reason why a lot of us (advocates of limited government) when people work to have the government do things it isn't authorized to do. Even if it is a 'good' thing to do, we shouldn't let them do it if it isn't in their authorization. If we think they should do it, then we need to give them the authorization by amending the Constitution. Otherwise, the Constitution is pointless. And advocating that the government should ignore the Constitution no matter how 'noble' the cause would be just like advocating for the government to ignore the Bill of Rights.
Out of modpoints but really liked a post? 1BDkF6TtmmeZ3yqXbz9yhdYVqRYnwFoXDj
you could still get jailed if you took this assigment, offered it to them as a professional and then ran the services - the actual id fraud on major social networking companies- online.
world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
like everyone else does?
If your Facebook privacy settings are up all the way (i.e., friends only) then what is there to worry about?
âoeQuestion with boldness even the existence of God.â - Thomas Jefferson
I want to know when the Air Force will quit wasting money on the F-35 and F-22, these programs serve no purpose than to keep Air Force pilots flying fast with their scarves blowing in the wind - a complete and total waste - spend the money on better UAV's and ISR platforms - I see no future war on the horizon where having the best multi-role fighter will be any kind of advantage - the wars of the future are asymmetric and will be fought on different battlefields ....
Don't bitch and moan that the government followed the Constitution,
That's not really what it does, though. For example, the constitution specifies free trade and NAFTA is not a constitutional amendment yet it conflicts sharply with the constitution. The government does whatever it can get away with on behalf of its customers, the major corporations who pay for the campaigns to re-elect the incumbent, or before that, to elect their pet congresscritters.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
It's funny how this used to be conspiracy theory, now it's conspiracy fact.
Who didn't know that folks posting pro US Constitution Anti-DHS threads we're getting buried?
It's more than just the USAF pulling this. Remember the poll that got pwned, where the first letter of each account name spelled out a small sting, "Marblecake, also the game."
If you speak truth to this fucking fascist tyranny of oath breakers, they will try to fuck your post up, bury it so it disappears.
Bad USAF. go concentrate on shit that doesn't fuck with THE CITIZENS OF THE UNITES STATES!
In the words of Bill Hicks "Sit back and relax America! Your government is in control..."
If you're talking about the electoral college, that and the Senate representation (two per state regardless of the size of the state) was a compromise to keep the big states from completely dominating the small states. That's part of the rulebook and it's necessary.
If however you're talking about electronic ballot fraud, hey man, right there with ya! Google my name with "Diebold" or the like.
Jim March
Member of the Board of Directors,
http://blackboxvoting.org/
Actually, it is not legal for an intelligence operation to strategically or otherwise intentionally lie to Americans in America - that's why the Office of Strategic Influence (oh, I mean Information Operations Task Force) was chartered. It is legal to intentionally and strategically spread false and seditious information as neatly packaged organic truth in foreign theaters - if those stories happen to circulate back into the American press, well, that's nothing that the originating US agency is legally responsible for occurring.
This stuff is generally broken into three categories of propaganda - white, grey, and black operations. The government can legally feed the US population white stuff "anytime", grey stuff "most of the time" depending on haw it is prepared, but coordinated black campaigns cannot target Americans in America directly. One way around that is by pumping it out on foreign wires and it kinda just ends up in the US media. Another is if the message and key points of the campaign are "leaked" (plausible deniability and/or seemingly organic - who could prove what). Anyway, maybe not what's going on here, but I thought it an interesting contextual add to your observations.
We live in an authoritarian republic, its like a oligarchic pseudo-representative quasi-democratic military state where the president is the top general in the military and the legislation is backed by the "military-industrial complex" and other prominent industrial interests.
Uhh, isn't this illegal in California?
"...pointed out an AP investigation showing that the U.S. military spends billions to affect public opinion, both domestic and international," ...this is just Comando Solo: online. a bunch of twitter/fb accounts are cheaper to maintain than an EC-130
propaganda is to Government as marketing is to everyone else.
(http://tech.military.com/equipment/view/89727/ec-130j-commando-solo-iii.html)
The EC-130J Commando Solo, a specially-modified four-engine Hercules transport, conducts information operations, psychological operations and civil affairs broadcasts in AM, FM, HF, TV and military communications bands. A typical mission consists of a single-ship orbit offset from the desired target audience -- either military or civilian personnel.
Propaganda is a menu of dogma-tarts for salivating idiots, all seeking to bake-people and eat ash.
DoD-GO, C*O, globally politicians...clergy some are good and most are bad. The way to tell is listen for any dogma.
Sadly, the salivating idiots and fearful majority only know how to irrationally and dangerously regurgitate dogma upon US, EU, RU....
Unaccountable leaders are masters, and unrepresented people are slaves. How do US and EU fare?
What a fucking waste of taxpayer dollars
Who formed their own BOY BAND!
yvan eht noij!
So put on your nerd hats and figure out a way to detect these personae.
The reason we subjugate ourselves to law is to better procure justice. If law does not accomplish this purpose then it m
Very informative links, thanks.
Who doesn't have a facebook account you ask? Hell I don't and never will. Especially being a guy on the net since we were gophering around in ARP, there is no way in hell I would post my life to that gaping vulnerable hole called Facebook, nor any other social network. For business there is definitly a purpose. Anyone I want to know in my personal life can call me on my telephone to get me. If you don't have my number then I don't want to know you. Facebook is hardly for all of us. Who doesn't have a facebook account? Many, many, wise people. Not calling myself wise, just aware and educated, but screw that man.
Looks like some 4 star general needs some more Farvmville friends. Isn't the Zynga limit 501?
He must be going for the biggest cyberfarm in history.
21st Century Renaissance Man
Just tell every airman to have a separate online alter ego.
My guess? Next time a pretty face friends you and you accept so you can check out her bod, the government will scan and catalog your profile information. You'll be like, wtf? Fake facebook page. And the fed will be like, "TROLLED!"
Its nice & heavy.watchonlinemoviesite
(yeah, I know, technically a Constitutional Republic)
technically a Constitutional Fascist State
There fixed that for ya!
regardless of just how good these fake personas are, they still need real friends, and real communication to look real, and unless this new "app" they are creating is an AI intelligent enough to simulate real conversation and real posts, I would say the flag will go up real quick as to what is fake (or useless) and what is real.
They forgot to mention the software needs to be highly scalable on the amount of personas it can manage.
I'm sure the military can be relied upon to not do anything bad. Oh wait,
"Last Thursday, ThinkProgress revealed that lawyers representing the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, one of the most powerful trade associations for large corporations like ExxonMobil and CitiGroup, had solicited a proposal from a set of military contractors to develop a surreptitious campaign to attack the Chamber’s political opponents, including ThinkProgress, the Change to Win labor coalition, SEIU, StopTheChamber.com, MoveOn.org, U.S. Chamber Watch and others. The lawyers from the Chamber’s longtime law firm Hunton and Williams had been compiling their own data set on some of these targets. However, the lawyers sought the military contractors for assistance."
http://www.readersupportednews.org/off-site-news-section/69-69/4996-plan-solicited-by-chamber-of-commerce-included-hacking-of-activist-computers