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Snowden Docs Show UK's Digital Spies Using Viruses, Honey Traps

An anonymous reader writes "At the start of this week, documents released by whistleblower Edward Snowden detailed DDOS attacks on chatrooms by a British online intelligence unit dubbed the Joint Threat Research Intelligence Group (JTRIG). Now he has released a new trove showing that JTRIG is about much more than purely online annoyances. According to the documents, released to NBC News, JTRIG's role is to "deny, disrupt, degrade and deceive" by any means possible. These techniques include destroying an individual's computer with a custom virus dubbed "Ambassador's Reception", setting up social media honey traps to harvest embarrassing information, actively attacking companies online and off, and planting data on people's systems."

19 of 92 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Running out of mod points by arth1 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Oh, I won't make them money because I am allowed "to have ads disabled"...

    Even with ads disabled, you make them money by writing posts that others come to see. If the contributors cease to contribute, there will be no ad-viewing audience either.

    What upper management need to realize, is that without the contributors and deep discussions they have, Slashdot is nothing.

  2. reasonable doubt? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    "planting data on people's systems."

    I don't know what the laws are in the UK. I would imagine that could get many "cyber crimes" tossed. How can it be proven that any evidence wasn't planted now?

    1. Re:reasonable doubt? by richlv · · Score: 2

      so actually... slashdot media is not responsible for beta, it's JTRIG/GCHQ !

      --
      Rich
    2. Re:reasonable doubt? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Good question, all police forces are told to never plant evidence as this will invalidate all their cases that involve computer crimes, secret services evidence isn't allowed to be shown in courts though so they probably don't get to even challenge it, this smacks of a kangaroo court and people should stop burying their heads in sands and start paying attention to what Mr Snowden has to say..

  3. Homework Assignment For This Story by djupedal · · Score: 1

    The more people that repeatedly search on 'Ambassador's Reception', the more fun the security wonks will have trying to figure out why the spike and which ambassador :)

    1. Re:Homework Assignment For This Story by fridaynightsmoke · · Score: 1

      The more people that repeatedly search on 'Ambassador's Reception', the more fun the security wonks will have trying to figure out why the spike and which ambassador :)

      Of course they all want to watch this 'classic' tv ad... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v...

      Maybe the 'honeytrap' involved bribing people with offers of aspirational confectionary?

      --
      This is a substitute for a clever sig that fits within the maximum number of characters.
  4. Re:Spy on me, AND give me a virus? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    It all makes perfecy sense once you realize who the beneficiaries and enemies really are.

  5. Planting Data? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Like say, Child Pornography?

    How the hell is planting data legal? When did we start seeing that framing people for prosecution and incarceration was acceptable in ANY way?

    1. Re:Planting Data? by fustakrakich · · Score: 2

      When did we start seeing that framing people for prosecution and incarceration was acceptable in ANY way?

      The afternoon of 11th of September, 2001. Except now, we skip the incarceration and legal prosecution part and cut straight to the execution.

      --
      “He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
  6. What did shills say about "conspiracy nutters"? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    How many times in the last twenty years did people try to warn you about the extent of operations by the establishment in the West? And how many times did the usual vile shills warn you to ignore the "tinfoil hat wearing conspiracy nutters"? Indeed, how hard did the mainstream media work to discredit anti-government types in the dramas presented to the sheeple?

    Snowden has revealed that the forces of Obama and Blair go infinitely further than you might have imagined in your worst nightmares, and yet Snowden has not been allowed to even scratch the true surface of current projects that target the entire populations of nations.

    -You'll hear nothing from Snowden about the inBloom project set up by Bill Gates and Rupert "Fox News" Murdoch in the USA.
    -You'll hear nothing from Snowden about the creation and deployment of the NSA Kinect II spy platform in Microsoft's Xbox One console.
    -You'll hear nothing from Snowden about the intimate connection between Google and the NSA.
    -You'll hear nothing from Snowden about how all the 'self-driving car' nonsense is simply designed to groom the general populace to accept autonomous robotic war-machines.

    Snowden is an unwilling dupe- everything he leaks was carefully vetted, and represents what is known as an "INOCULATION PLOY". Citizens of previous authoritarian regimes, like East Germany, could explain. You see, in a ruthless police state, there is no point lying to the sheeple about the nature of the world they live in. Instead, you use propaganda to remind them that everything in their life is subject to police-state interference, and they better get used to the fact.

    In other words, you use aspects of the truth to inoculate them against dangerous 'concerns' about the nature of state abuses.

    "Yes, of course Obama spies on us, and of course I don't like it. But what are you going to do? Computers keep getting better, and the government is always going to use the toys available to it. Our kids will be so used to it, it won't even bother them."

    GET A CLUE, YOU CRETINOUS SHEEPLE. There is NOTHING to prevent the US Constitution from being amended to add fundamental Rights to Privacy that take precedence over all forms of potential pre-emptive full surveillance spying by the US government. And for the dirty dirty shills who will reply that such an amendment would hamstring the ability of the government to fight 'terrorism', let me ask you this.

    DOES THE CONSTITUTIONAL PROTECTION AGAINST HUMAN SLAVERY PREVENT THE GOVERNMENT FROM BEING ABLE TO SEND CONVICTED PEOPLE TO PRISON?

    The shills you see flooding forums like these at Slashdot would not bother if their actions were not effective to some degree. You sheeple, no matter how highly you regard your independence of thought, hold opinions 99.9% of which match those given to you by the mainstream media outlets you so cretinously trust.

    Let me ask you another question- if you are American with kids at school, what have YOU done to fight the inBloom spying operation on your children crafted by Gates and Murdoch? Have you visited your school to inform the management there that UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES may they enter data about your children into Rupert "Fox News" Murdoch's database? Of course not. They win, and will always win, because the things you CAN do as a citizen, you find every excuse under the sun to NOT do.

  7. Re:Spy on me, AND give me a virus? by davester666 · · Score: 1

    you are wasting valuable computing resources, with your pointless surfing the internets, watching the porn, playing the games, when those resources could be used by your country to ferret out the enemy and bring him/her/it to justice.

    And fuck beta.

    --
    Sleep your way to a whiter smile...date a dentist!
  8. Re:Running out of mod points by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    SLASHDOT AS YOU KNEW IT IS FINISHED.....IT IS OVER.....One look at the slashdotmedia.com webpage will confirm that for you.
    If you cannot stomach the BETA redesign, if you really love the classic site layout so much, YOU MUST fork the site code and start another site such as what "AltSlashdot" are attempting to do....no if's or but's about this anymore !!!!! Personally speaking, I think it may be a good idea if Joel Spolsky (co-founder of StackOverflow) got involved.

  9. Re:Running out of mod points by mikael · · Score: 2

    I am sure it would be possible for someone to create an Opera or Firefox plugin that filters downloads of slashdot beta articles and converts them back to slashdot classic.

    --
    Vintage computer adverts: http://www.vintageadbrowser.com/computers-and-software-ads
  10. Re: NSA Beta attack on /. community by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    "...and planting BETA on peoples systems.".

    FTFY ...Oh, and FUCK da /. BETA.

  11. Snowden should be given by Ralph+Spoilsport · · Score: 3

    a ticker tape parade and $10 million dollars. His revelations are critically important to our time. It is imperative the US Govt heed him and his supporters, on both the left and the right. Because if they continuing pulling this evil bullshit, eventually, there will be another Snowden. Only, the next Snowden might not be so nice or thoughtful.

    --
    Shoes for Industry. Shoes for the Dead.
  12. There goes ANY child porn conviction! by jraff2 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    The Government now will be the goto excuse for anyone with any type of computer hackery, virus, trojan, malwear, etc. including ilicit images and pornography. I am not to blame, the Gov.; NSA, FBI, CIA, other TLAs used "Ambassador's Reception" (http://yro.slashdot.org/story/14/02/08/1438242/snowden-docs-show-uks-digital-spies-using-viruses-honey-traps) to put it on my compuer. Prove me wrong! The Gov. reply will be some form of "we can neither confirm nor deny"... End of case,

  13. Re:Interesting read by maxwell+demon · · Score: 1

    Beta = British extra-territorial attack?

    But I can assure you: The proof is not in the pudding. Just try to eat it.

    --
    The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
  14. Stop the redirect to "beta", easily by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Stop /. redirecting you to it @ least, by adding THIS to your hosts file:

    216.34.181.45 slashdot.org
    216.34.181.45 beta.slashdot.org
    216.34.181.46 images.slashdot.org
    216.34.181.48 it.slashdot.org
    216.34.181.48 developers.slashdot.org
    216.34.181.48 yro.slashdot.org
    216.34.181.48 mobile.slashdot.org
    216.34.181.48 news.slashdot.org
    216.34.181.48 ask.slashdot.org
    216.34.181.48 tech.slashdot.org
    216.34.181.48 apple.slashdot.org
    216.34.181.48 books.slashdot.org
    216.34.181.48 games.slashdot.org
    216.34.181.48 hardware.slashdot.org
    216.34.181.48 interviews.slashdot.org
    216.34.181.48 linux.slashdot.org
    216.34.181.48 science.slashdot.org
    216.34.181.48 idle.slashdot.org

    * :)

    THAT will block out their ability to redirect you to it whatsoever - Especially the 2nd line item from the top/BOLDED entry line above...

    (You're welcome)

    APK

    P.S.=> To import, sort, deduplication, create & manage a custom hosts file easily that does not only THAT (secures you vs. redirects @ the DNS or even site level), but also gives you more speed, security, reliablity, & even anonymity, use this (shameless plug, details of what custom hosts give you in FULL are listed here) -> http://start64.com/index.php?o...

    ... apk

  15. Place CP on ones computer and by ralphaostrander · · Score: 1

    Say goodbye to them forever any means possible.