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British Spy Agency GCHQ Used URL Shortener To Honeypot Arab Spring Activists (vice.com)
The British spy agency GCHQ used a custom URL shortener and Twitter sockpuppets to influence and infiltrate activists during the Iran revolution of 2009 and the Arab Spring of 2011, reports Motherboard, citing leaked documents by Edward Snowden. From the article: The GCHQ's special unit, known as the Joint Threat Research Intelligence Group or JTRIG, was first revealed in 2014, when leaked top secret documents showed it tried to infiltrate and manipulate -- using "dirty trick" tactics such as honeypots -- online communities including those of Anonymous hacktivists, among others. The group's tactics against hacktivists have been previously reported, but its influence campaign in the Middle East has never been reported before. I was able to uncover it because I was myself targeted in the past, and was aware of a key detail, a URL shortening service, that was actually redacted in Snowden documents published in 2014. A now-defunct free URL shortening service -- lurl.me -- was set up by GCHQ that enabled social media signals intelligence. Lurl.me was used on Twitter and other social media platforms for the dissemination of pro-revolution messages in the Middle East.
The leaked information shows the edge of the map, not the map. Look at political turmoil world wide, not just in what is convenient. Look at oppression world wide, not just the edge of the map. This is not some specific high tech attack that takes huge funding and technical skills. It's easy and cheap, and only requires the desire to influence other Governments.
Here, the UK is called out for influencing other Governments. If you believe it was only in those two countries you are a fool, sorry.
By the way people in the US, isn't this the same thing people are claiming Russia is doing and we are so offended by it? Spitting in the wind often leaves your face messy.
-The wise argue that there are few absolutes, the fool argues that there are no probabilities.
"using "dirty trick" tactics such as "
Ah! Ah! Stop right there.
You *do* realise that they're *spies*, right? It's their *job* to use *all* the dirty tricks to get the information they need. Saying that they're using such dirty tricks is redundant!
Every powerful or wannabe country in the world have foreign intelligence services whose goal is to promote their state interests above all others using any methods deemed to work. The CIA doesn't have to obey any foreign country laws just like the FSB or MOSSAD. The only law these countries adhere to is don't get caught. That's why foreign embassy's are staffed by foreign intelligence operatives so when they do get caught they can claim diplomatically immunity and be asked to leave the country. It's the stupid fuckers like yourself who seem to think the US intelligence agencies are some how unique and all the other countries are just poor little victims of the big ole bad USA. It's this ignorant mindset that has allowed the Russian and Chinese foreign intelligence agencies to go about their business being totally ignored because after all it's only the CIA who actually spy and run foreign operations. Russia invades and annexes a country and tells the world that it wasn't their forces involved and those with their heads shoved so far up their assess trying to track down the nefarious CIA activities believe them. Do you know why you will never see anyone dumping reams of data from Russia or China on the internet? The populations in both countries have grown up in societies where the punishment for such activities are death for both the perpetrator and the perpetrators families. The authoritarian and outright dictatorships around the world are living large because everyone is spending all their time and effort trying to convince the world that it is the US that is the bad guy and therefore all the worlds problems should be laid at their doorstep. It lets the true despots of the world sleep better at night knowing they get a pass for anything they want to do.