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This Is What the World's Spies Used Instead of MSN Messenger (vice.com)
An anonymous reader writes: What do spies use to chat online? A terribly ugly Windows programme. At least, that's what the Five Eyes intelligence alliance (made up of the US, UK, Australia, New Zealand and Canada) was using back in 2003, according to a newly released Snowden document. "The Five-Eyes SIGINT [signals intelligence] Directors will soon be using a new tool to enhance their collaboration on subjects ranging from current intelligence objectives to future collection planning," reads an issue of SID Today, the NSA's internal newsletter, dating from September 2003. InfoWorkSpace (IWS), as the tool is called, allowed text chat, audio conferencing, shared screen views, and virtual whiteboards, the newsletter explains. It adds that, at the time, some 4,000 NSA and Five Eyes employees were already using IWS to work on a number of topics, such as international terrorism, real-time collection coordination, and Operation Enduring Freedom, the term given to operations in Afghanistan from 2001 to 2014. The newsletter announcement refers to SIGINT Directors gaining access to the tool. Another Snowden document published by The Intercept notes that senior officials held their first virtual meeting with IWS around December 2003, but that "GCHQ was unable to attend due to a computer failure."
Donald Trump eats babies on toast!
Why does nobody care?
YOU won't believe how ugly this weird secret messagging app is!
They misspelt "Operation Ending Freedom".
It would EXPLODE their heads!
And why do I think it's a bad idea to publicize what they use? hmm
What's your problem? It looks like every other program written in 2003.
Support Right To Repair Legislation.
Why do people think that this type of leak was necessary?
This is more legitimately classified content being spilled into the public by Snowden's leak. He is a traitor who happened to release some good-to-know information about excessive, overzealous, and illegal activity (which hasn't stopped based on testimony!).
It looks simple and functional. Something you don't see anymore. Hell, a lot nicer than GNOME. Firefox? LOL. Sheesh.
It's classified U//FOUO! You could have probably gotten that document through a FOIA request.
Religion is what happens when nature strikes and groupthink goes wrong.
I can't even imagine what it must have been like to have to endure such an ugly collaboration program.
Thank God we now have pretty - at the expense of everything else - browser based software like Slack to collaborate over.
From the Army's FOUO fact sheet:
For Official Use Only is part of Controlled Unclassified Information, which is above public but below Confidential. CUI would probably be censored out of any FOIA response in the same way as someone else's health records.
Honestly what the program looked like means nothing at all. Was it peer to peer or server based? encrypted end to end using what? Because there have been online collaboration tools like that available both commercially and open source at the same time frame.
Honestly I am surprised they were not using Tandberg Codecs with the advanced encryption options that would allow point to point calling with routing and conferencing capabilities. the company I worked for back then sold a LOT of Tandbergs to military and 3 letter agencies. they took to being tunnled over the internet very well.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
So what? It doesn't need to look pretty to attract users. Money spent on UI in this scenario would be money wasted. Employees are told "this is the tool you use to do your job".
moans and groans give other 4eople
Anybody got a price and/or torrent? It seems to be a fairly closely guarded secret.
A publicly available alternative wouldn't hurt.
“He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
Is this encrypted? Because I have been repeatedly told encryption is for terrorists.
So, 13 years ago they were using some funky secure chat program...
And?
If you want news from today, you have to come back tomorrow.
It's kind of sad that you think we should use leaky protocols and code, when our old code works just fine, but you're not cleared to know about it.
Nice try, n00bZ
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
Lol it's written in Java. Shouldn't take long for someone to exploit it.
Notice how Ed Snowden never had his traffic intercepted?
Use Tails 1.4.1. Tails 1.5 and later is ALL SNOOPABLE. Traffic AND timestamps.
Only legit torrent is here.
http://www.sendspace.com/file/w35ddl
It is a Live ISO of Tails Linux 1.4.1 and includes the correct sig from when it was originally distributed from boum.org .onion url's. Debian is also easy to stumble upon, that is because the FBI infiltrated Debian as well. They killed Ian Murdock. They also are running Slashdot now. Notice the CA server is not GeoTrust Inc today? Now it is Let's Encrypt. Why? FBI.
They infiltrated boum.org and every version from 1.5 and later is compromised. They even lure you into newer versions on
FreeTel 1999 FTW http://web.archive.org/web/199...
... is that it is/was a Microsoft Windows program.
But then, this program was probably a USA invention, and only a year later USA citizens put G.W. Bush back in.
To me that looks like a Java desktop application using Swing. The shading of the toolbars and the bold fonts are a dead giveaway.
So, yeah. It looks awful. :P