Slashdot Mirror
Hacking Online Polls and Other Ways British Spies Seek To Control the Internet
Advocatus Diaboli writes The secretive British spy agency GCHQ has developed covert tools to seed the internet with false information, including the ability to manipulate the results of online polls, artificially inflate pageview counts on web sites, "amplif[y]" sanctioned messages on YouTube, and censor video content judged to be "extremist." The capabilities, detailed in documents provided by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, even include an old standby for pre-adolescent prank callers everywhere: A way to connect two unsuspecting phone users together in a call. The tools were created by GCHQ's Joint Threat Research Intelligence Group (JTRIG), and constitute some of the most startling methods of propaganda and internet deception contained within the Snowden archive. Previously disclosed documents have detailed JTRIG's use of "fake victim blog posts," "false flag operations," "honey traps" and psychological manipulation to target online activists, monitor visitors to WikiLeaks, and spy on YouTube and Facebook users.
Whenever I saw someone write something retarded on the internet in the past, I just chalked it up to the person in question genuinely being retarded. The idea that a government agency might intentionally be contributing retardation to poison genuine discussion seemed ridiculous on the face of it. Now, every time I read something and think "no one can really be that stupid, can they?" I've begun to wonder. Maybe no one CAN really be that stupid...
I am shocked, SHOCKED, at the gambling that goes on in this establishment!
http://youtu.be/SjbPi00k_ME
The secretive British spy agency GCHQ has developed covert tools to seed the internet with false information, including the ability to manipulate the results of online polls
Right now on Slashdot, you can see the results of this blatant manipulation in the service of their sinister paymasters in the energy-saving lightbulb industry...
End all spy organizations.
Swamp donkey: is a tool that will silenty locate all predefined types of file and encrypt them on a targets machine.
And I'm guessing when they've done that they jail the person for failing to decrypt the files under that nasty little RIPA act?
They act like reddit, then?
b/ was taken.
Only one word for it: Vandalism
How to avoid being manipulated by online poll results
Short answer: don't buy into online poll results.
Polls are one of the worst methods of "information gathering" known to man, in terms of accuracy; online polls, doubly so. Not only do you have to be concerned with how the polls are worded, how large a sample size is used, and what group of people were used for the sample, you also have to consider that not every poll respondent is answering honestly 100% of the time. Take the "drug use" polls, many of which are now saying that marijuana use is up in teens. Is usage really up? Is the question just worded in a different way than the last poll? Or has the recent bi-state decriminalization caused more people to be willing to be honest in a poll that asks them if they're doing something that may be illegal where they live?
Trouble is, it seems, is that most people will ignore flawed methodology if the result of the poll is confluent with their pre-existing beliefs.
An enigma, wrapped in a riddle, shrouded in bacon and cheese
I don't believe GCHQ is involved in anything of the sort and you shouldn't either. This story simply reeks of falsehood.
Edit: Hey, that's not what I wrote...
Peter predicted that you would "deliberately forget" creation 2000 years ago...
http://cryptome.org/2012/07/ge...
(originally titled: The Gentleman's Guide To Forum Spies)
Oh how I'd love to sit in front of several monitors at once, watching the world's secrets fly by.
I support the NSA.
No, say it isn't true.
If the GCHQ is doing it, then the NSA is doing it.
to what my buddies do.. and they make 5 figures a day from doing this stuff.
you can't trust online polls at all.
It could never happen, and yet it does
If they have some kind of program where they plant child pornography on someone's computer to discredit them. (Political opposition, etc.)
After all, if they have a bunch of other nefarious programs, the sky's the limit!
makes a decision based on an online poll, page count, or anything to do with YouTube deserves what they get.
But V was all about killing all the members of congress. Fawkes was a hero for trying. That is why his kind is so great and the Republicans are such morons. They don't want to clean house. There's no way to fix the current broken system without cleaning house. Even the moron Tom Clancey recommended the Muslims do it. That is why there is no hope for this country. The Republicans have destroyed it.
Snowden is a traitor. We (NSA) were doing all these things to make the world a better place, and then he had to ruin the surprise.
Remember that guy who betrayed Neo in Matrix? How he explained the whole rationale to Agent Smith, using a piece of steak?
Remember Daleks? How resistance is futile?
We are at the same crossroads, people. Just give in. Don't make us come after you. We both know how it'll end. Just relax. Use FB, twitter, instagram, pinterest and all the tools of procrastination. Give us the information, don't make us go after it. It will be easier for both parties
Did I mention that Snowden is a traitor and you don't count if you happen to be outside our country? Just accept it. Don't make me liberate you.
A firm hand on the rudder is required at troubled times such as these. We should gladly accept
NO WAIT THIS IS BS, I DI
[LOST CONNECTION]
You turn scumbag government spying into "alien lizards live among us"? I think you're wearing your tinfoil hat for the wrong reason.
Fuy Fawkes was no hereo. He was hyper-religious loser.
...including the ability to manipulate the results of online polls, artificially inflate pageview counts on web sites, "amplif[y]" sanctioned messages on YouTube,
Snowden has documents showing GCHQ was also behind those page widening posts in the early days of Slashdot as well as posting countless goatse and tubgirl links and other assorted crapflooding.
This explains a lot about slashdot polls. Now where's the CowboyNeal in a tin hat option?
The agency has been officially outed as GoatCHQ.
You don't really believe what you see on the Internet, do you? You don't really think for a second that content posted by random, unknown people can be counted on for anything, do you?
Of course there are government organizations manipulating what is on the Internet - *everyone* is manipulating what is there - other governments, companies, militant organizations, random idiots in their mom's basements, extremist groups, people who are just anti-social, criminals - the list goes on and on.
Just what, exactly, did you expect would happen when people created a world-wide mechanism to anonymously distribute whatever one can type on their keyboard? You don't believe what a random person standing on a soap box at the street corner shouts at by-passers, do you? So why do you believe what a random, anonymous person on the Internet shouts at you as your browser pass by them?
In terms of mining social media, well, again, what did you expect? If people are going to be so driven by narcissism as to post personal information on the internet, of course governments, militants, criminals, etc are going to go mine it. Would you put information about yourself on a billboard over the highway? No? Then why are you putting it on the Internet?
Honestly, really, what did you expect? If you don't like the results, stop being stupid...
Guy Fawkes, but you're correct.
SJWs are the new boogeyman. -Me
"The secretive British spy agency GCHQ has developed covert tools to seed the internet with false information, including the ability to manipulate the results of online polls, artificially inflate pageview counts on web sites, ..."
Wow they have duplicated what 12 year old trolls do every day.
'The ability to manipulate online polls' is usually just called 'just refuse cookies'.
...this explains the downward spiral of /. comments....
Even the moron Tom Clancey recommended the Muslims do it.
Actually it was an old and (so he believed) disgraced Japanese pilot who killed most of Congress, as well as the Supreme Court and most of the senior Executive Branch. Not a Muslim. Muslims have actually only killed a couple thousand people(mostly in Sum of All Fears-without that nuke the count is at best in the upper hundreds) combined in his books (unless you count Red Storm Rising where 3 Azerbaijani Muslims destroy an oil refinery thereby precipitating World War 3). The Russians and the Chinese have always been the larger threats in Tom Clancy novels.
Clearly, many of you missed the short PBS run of the BBC documentary, Spooks, which details the exploits of MI5 in the UK. Peter Firth as the lead, great casting.
Joking aside, I don't understand all of the shock and awe at post-Snowden revelations about how various security agencies around the world operate. I have yet to see anything that comes off as remotely new knowledge since the Cold War. Yes, computers have made it easier in the years since the Cold War to store, catalog, and search data as well as automate human tasks. That's what computers were made for. Did people really think that the security services were going to act like the IRS and use the computer as a poor substitute for paper forms as opposed to modernizing and stretching technology's legs? Are people really so naive as to not understand the extreme manner to which computing advances have been driven by the needs of various secret security agencies around the world?
This is nothing new for the UK. The only thing new is that it is done electronically rather than by old fashioned methods (ie, bribes, cajoling, blackmail). Just about every fucked up situation in the world today can be traced back to root causes that are result of UK colonial policies and the use of "intelligence" agencies from the late 1800's thru the late 1960s (when they finally became a has been).
You can't hide the truth from us any longer lizard overlord!
Just about every fucked up situation in the world today can be traced back to root causes that are result of UK colonial policies
I don't think DRM was from colonialism. Maybe you mean the banning of slavery?
I call bullshit. Only the USA could possibly do anything this evil. At least, that is what I have learned from reading /.
seems like a good candidate for a budget cut
Poll says he can.
Got them moderator blues I blieve I walk out the do', With these mod-points I been gettin', I 'most never post no mo'
I conducted an online poll, and the overwhelming consensus was that the GCHQ was not manipulating poll results. In fact, most of the people commenting said that the GCHQ were the greatest, most honest, and most trustworthy agency on the planet.
Don't waste your vote! Vote for whoever you want, unless you live in a swing state it won't matter anyways
Rounding errors, ballot stuffers, dynamic IPs, firewalls. If you're using these numbers to do anything important, you're insane.
Best Slashdot Co
This is why the volume of ads is higher than the programmes they're in. Damn you GCHQ, I don't want your new soft drink, I want my freedom from tyranny!
^F "Marblecake" comes up blank? In a thread about hacking internet polls? You guys are asleep at the wheel...
In fact, most of the people commenting said that the GCHQ were the greatest, most honest, and most trustworthy agency on the planet.
And the rest said "CmdrTaco."
Also, for the record, I might be okay with Beta if it didn't take a solid minute to preview a comment.
This is just one form of propaganda. Nothing new and it is not only limited to UK or the internet. All forms of media are being influenced by government, it's just a matter to what degree and if it were up the governments than your news (be it internet or TV or radio) would be provided to you like in "Good Morning Vietnam" and/or North Korea and with the least amount of public discussion allowed. Being in "Democracies", since you can't prevent public discussion, you do your best to steer it instead.
Good for the GCHQ. Just because the agenda is set by the government doesn't mean there aren't other forum stuffers and poll manipulators out there. That's a two decades old technology.
Unfortunately the people who its working on are also two decades behind in web savvy learnin' type stuffs.
Sadly, a Libertarian cannot force his views on another, and freedom cannot spread as does the cancer known as religion.