AC the USA does not have a fully integrated, digital networked voting system. Locals results are counted locally and then sent up to the national level.
Staff and volunteers, sets of political party staff at a local level would see a difference or change between their very local count and some new "altered" all "digital" state and federal numbers.
So any efforts would have to be very local and any new mil looking strangers wondering secure voting areas around would get noticed.
Gerrymandering https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... is always reported on.
The different US political parties do track the vote counts, do exit polls and within their own party have a full understanding for each part of the USA, the votes been counted and the vote count flowing up into the US election system.
Its too late to use "hackers" from another nation federally later. Too many smart people have see the local numbers and can do the math.
The only way around that is per device per voting location. That needs an unnoticed sneaker net of new people getting in, altering devices, sneaking out and none of the really interested party political locals been aware of strangers and unexpected results.
Fly into the states between the East and West elite coast.
Give a speech that the people in the fly over states enjoy and tell their friends who vote about.
Have some ability to connect to people all over the USA, talk and listen to their issues in each state.
Give a good speech and people will notice the difference and that political difference worked all around the USA.
More wars in other nations, sending more jobs outside the USA will not resonate with voters after decades of job losses and distant wars.
A party has to select someone who can give a really good speech anywhere in the USA.
Thats a political skill per city, per state, talking, charming, listening.
Another nations military grade hacking of a final tally when each city and states results would not match....
Hacking the vote all over the important states in the USA would need an army of "new" staff to be trusted in secure locations. Its too late to change the US vote nationally.
US election staff kind of know the system after many years and another nations military grade hackers wondering around per city and town would get noticed.
Strangers taking jobs from the locals to get to secure areas to alter local voting results? Volunteers and staff like their election related work, are protective of it and would notice another nations mil grade strangers getting all the work.
The other test is the US spending per student on education over the decades. Not many other nations had the funds to try and spend on new methods.
On computer labs, new books, lots of funding, support by experts in emerging educational computer languages, arts, languages, math, science, computer networks per school, new robot kits, GUI code, US wide math and science funding since the 1950's, extra staff per class.
Better daily food, generations of well educated teachers, the ability to be granted easy access to the best US universities.
All the correct inputs have been made for decades that few other nations could afford. The expected academic result over the decades in different parts of the USA should have been counted and tracked.
If just spending ever more on education worked, the world would have seen really dramatic results all over the USA in past decades and emulated the easy big spending trends that raised all US students on average.
Big spending and a good educational environment, generations of better than average teachers did not result in nation wide amazing results.
Easy (no merit testing) and free access to a good university does not seem to help much later.
So now Russian military hackers have the skills to go wondering around city, state and parish election sites with "code" using a sneaker net?
The FBI never noticed all the "new" embassy workers flying into the USA and then flying and driving out all over the USA?
Every person working with or near the Russian embassy is on file and always tracked all over the USA.
The FBI surrounds everyone connected with the Russian embassy with a lot of and constant surveillance.
Any Russian embassy staff wondering around a Louisiana would get noticed and be of great interest to the FBI.
All the Russian GRU applicants to get into secure election areas in most US states?
Or Russia flooded the US election system secretly with its own staff over the decades and the FBI never noticed?
The US election system is still stuck in groups doing local vote counts and then a final count.
AC Russian military hackers (GRU) wondering around every state in the USA would be noticed by both political parties, the US gov, US mil and the FBI.
AC also read up on the history of the GRU in Soviet Union and Russia. GRU is not the KGB or its successor.
Not many nations use or risk their military intelligence in areas well outside the military.
The US election system is local, regional and still very much hands on with staff who are well known.
Anyone with good security and good router setup support. Move all data via the VPN. OS level software e.g. browsers and networks could be requested into giving out a real IP.
The 5 eye security service are all over VPN users but all network use is now less readable to the ISP.
The CIA has a few ways into and out of China.
The "internet".
A person who is spying for the US in China gets to go on holiday and meet their CIA handlers.
Someone in China the CIA trusts collects messages. Embassy, long term educational, faith, private company or brand.
The problems are the internet is well understood by China in and out of China. Every VPN or other connection is tracked to its origin and destination by China.
Use encryption and that is noted. Try and hide encryption and China gets really interested.
Travel out of China by people China trusts is not easy. Its a risk to meet US officials in a third nation or the USA and then return.
Meeting or been friends with US officials, US faith groups or US workers in China is not easy.
The final issues is that of social media. China can now track every US gov worker, tourist in China and considers their social media use.
Does a US person in China have a past that suggests a low level embassy worker, person of faith, company worker for a big US brand?
Or did they graduate from a very different and expensive US university course usually selected by people seeking advancement into the US mil and gov?
The US tries to clean up the online pasts of most of their clandestine workers but China can buy into the US private detective databases that kept all the early social media and university online image collections. No well educated face trying to pass as just a US worker in China can be sure that their more skilled past and education in the US has not been traced back by China. So meetings with US individuals with complex pasts by people in China with interesting work is always very carefully watched.
What happened? The USA leaked from the US database side? Globally more activity would be seen, as such data would been shared with a lot of other nations. Or used in very long term and complex ways.
Someone from the USA got talking to someone interesting in China and their once removed US online social media did not match their resume used in China?
China saw a hidden pattern of US friendships in China?
China saw digital online chatter going to very interesting servers been used by the USA?
Someone from China took a holiday and met in some nation with the US gov? China looked back for the same holiday patterns.
The US hopes a few officials in China will read the "news" and start talking a lot so the GCHQ and NSA pick up the media induced chatter?
Would China risk a well placed person in the US gov or mil for this? The US likes to test all its trusted staff with bait. A lot of names, projects, complexity thats created just for a person been tested and is so vital to another nation it has to be reported. If another nation takes the bait that person is detected based on the unique information passed on.
The US hopes to flush out any spies with their work load. Most other nations active in the USA are now aware of such methods and have learned never to respond to such methods.
Communist nations do not send spies to the USA to get caught passing messages.
Communist agents are in the USA to set and alter US policy. No communications needed for decades of work.
The US tried that with the Pentagon papers. Once in the hands of the US media, press its protected. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
So its very hard for the USA to go after the press in the USA, a profession that has constitutional protection.
The clandestine agencies get around that by going after the whistleblower. Anyone working for the US gov, mil has to consent to a lot of color of law efforts to keep them away from US courts, media, investigations.
Any issues are to be reported internally. Investigations are secret and kept internal to the US gov, mil.
The ability by the CIA to work domestically on security issues surrounding US citizens was also interesting during the Vietnam war.
The legal thinking was that as Vietnam was external to the USA, anyone in the USA not wanting war had to be connected to another nation. That showed international support and allowed the CIA to investigate domestic anti war issues inside the USA.
Operation CHAOS https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
The US mil tried to save money and advance with Ada. The contractors soon get back to projects using the kinds of code they wanted to submit and be paid for.
The Soviet Union went for the mids and politics of US/UK gov/mil/contractors. Someone to talk to, some cash, some politics.
Classic spy offers.
The UK and later the US tried to counter that with better working conditions, better wages and more testing of trusted staff to see if they had been turned.
From the 1920-1970's the UK leaked everything interesting to the Soviet Union.
The US tried to counter such efforts by fully understanding the past and politics of every applicant. That worked until the USA did not walk the past of every applicant and hired on contractor trust or because a vital skill was needed. The FBI and other agencies would also test trusted US staff with undercover cash offers and see if they reported any security contacts outside work.
The US needed translators, experts for Korea, Vietnam, France, China, the Soviet Union, its Middle East occupations. Generations of very interesting people got clearances based on skill not security. They did their job well and reported back US methods and got to understand how the US looked for staff and then how to move up the ranks of the US clandestine services.
The US could have stopped all that by not using contractors but that was not an option politically. Any new security that blocked a contractor was removed by US party political efforts to allow contractors back into the most secret parts of the US gov and mil.
It took China a long time to understand how the CIA, NSA and GCHQ spy in China.
Dont have radio, data networks or any chatter from base to base to a command structure, everything is been collected on by the NSA and GCHQ.
MI6 and the CIA used a different approach. Invite a lot of students from China to top US and UK universities and try and get the students to enjoy freedom and democracy. When they returned to the Communist gov in China they would recall the fun freedoms and might just consider working for the CIA, MI6 later in China.
What the CIA and MI6 did not consider is that China would flood the West with trusted Communists that would enter the US and UK educations systems, learn and take everything back to China.
China started to notice the efforts to turn its graduates in the UK and US. China allowed some of its graduates to be turned and waited, watched and slowly understood what the West needed and wanted from spies in China over the years.
It took a few decades but China finally saw the pattern of the US and UK spy efforts in China, different to NSA and GCHQ collect it all.
China now understands when and how the approach will take place and has flooded the West with people who seem to want to spy for the CIA and MI6.
What the West saw as very smart people finally wanting freedom, wanting to change politics in China was just China flooding the West with its own spies.
The other issue for the GCHQ and NSA is the quality and amount of data collected in China and translation needed. Local staff at US and UK collection sites, later working on material all needed China experts. The secure hiring of expert staff over generations was always an issue given the skills needed and the time needed for results, Korea, Vietnam, handover of Hong Kong and later decades.
The US and UK so needed staff and spies in China that they never had the time to fully consider the idea that hiring a lot of people without the best security practices was not a good idea.
Decades later the results are the same that the UK faced with spies from the Soviet Union in the 1920-1980's.
Is the CIA leaking from computer databases? If any nation had that easy access deep within the CIA they would not act. They would watch and alter the flow of information and use it as a disinformation strategy to flush out more spies. Why act now and get the CIA to consider its issues and then be totally locked out?
The data flow back from spies in China could be a weak point. Using the "internet" or contact with a foreigner in China.
China understands every network in and out and the server
The data walked out from a US political party. Its an internal US issues, like the Pentagon papers or other released to the US media. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
"Julian Assange: 'A lot more material' coming on US elections" http://edition.cnn.com/2016/07... (July 27, 2016)
""Perhaps one day the source or sources will step forward and that might be an interesting moment some people may have egg on their faces." http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new... (15 December 2016)
"..at a D.C. park by an intermediary for 'disgusted' Democratic whistleblowers"
AC Re slow productivity vs security?
Have new designs, patent work, staff lists and prototypes walked out by other agencies and the clandestine services.
To make this work the UK will have to mandate junk NSA standard encryption all over the UK. Everything networked in the UK will revert to plain text, be sorted, collected and tracked ready for legal action.
Nobody interesting has to use the internet but in the past felt it was not a huge risk. The winners are the contractors, installers, people who have the over time to keep collection working and the courts and police who decide who to investigate.
The part the UK of all nations should understand is that they had it all and how unsuspecting populations change communications methods when told of a collect it all policy.
The moment lawyers, human rights groups, police start to see methods and logs presented in any open or closed court setting, every one interesting will be told and change their communications.
The UK could have won every decade using methods it pioneered in Ireland. Track the investing people, their support from the USA, their funds, their lawyers, supporters. Nobody would have thought to stop talking on phones or with todays modern networks.
Fake stories about informants and informants https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... would have kept everyone guessing about actual information gathering. A government totalitarian hell hole on a small budget and real results. Just the GCHQ, mil and something secure like what was the RUC Special Branch.
The question is then why the need for a change? Past methods worked, did not need any public support and no court found out.
What are UK net users doing that needs methods beyond police services and will see the methods of the security services in court?
Once a few people have their chat logs, and messages played back in court, most interesting people will just change their patterns.
The UK collected every call into and out of Ireland. The best part of that was never telling any UK court, police officer, human rights group, member of the press or lawyer about that collection.
The GCHQ and UK mil got on with tracking and collect it all outside of the UK courts. Interesting supporters of Ireland in the US kept on raising funds and talking to interesting people in Ireland.
As no open/secret court action was taken people kept on talking, meeting, supporting, funding, mentioning names.
The GCHQ/UK mil thought it was more productive never to mention methods in pubic, to the UK police or in any court setting.
Collection was Ireland wide, in the UK, Irish supporters in the USA with access to the US mil (globally) and UK collection methods stayed secret.
The UK gov could then act on information in the UK, Ireland or USA and the results never got published.
Making collection court friendly and part of the internet will just ensure interesting people never use the internet or their phone. They will meet in person, go on holiday or for a trip back to some nation or take up faith. The wider faith based community will pass on messages in person.
The UK had a great success with the Soviet embassy codes in the UK before WW2. Political leaders talked in public and the Soviet embassy then quickly updated its codes in the UK.
The GCHQ and UK mil later learned from that and never trusted UK politicians, courts, police for decades.
Now everything interesting is going to face open or secret UK courts. UK human rights groups will get access and the UK press will report on methods.
Political leaders will want good news stories and wins in courts. Most people once accepted that collect it all was technically impossible and that a phone call or internet connection was too random. A Soviet official in the Soviet Union or East Germany would face the NSA and GCHQ but that was very special tasking and collection.
The UK has now told the world that every network in the UK is been collected on for court use. Not many very interesting people are going to stay on UK networks.
Stop storing important files on any Microsoft product.
Build a walk in secure vault and hold meetings well away from any devices, Microsoft, Apple or other products.
Consider access your vault area? Elevator, common areas, areas open to the public, areas open to clearers, other contractors, other workers in the same building or secure complex.
Building doors, office doors can be held open, waited until opened.
Take notes on paper, use a typewriter. Secure all paperwork after an important meeting.
Do not have a photocopier near the vault. Ensure all photocopies are secure under CCTV, have a camera to image all copied pages and track paper counts.
No user digital devices should be near your most vital work so secure anything in an office setting that can make a copy.
Air gap any networks that deal with users, your nations courts wanting user details, all US brands, services. Keep your company secrets away from any US brands or users, networks that are open to other requests.
When a product or service is ready for the public, use US brands for later global integration but keep all emerging and work in progress away from any US products, hardware, software, experts and services.
Dont hire workers that are not trustworthy. That foreigner left their own nation to work for any good wage, who else are they working for?
If the clandestine services cant get into your secure and air gapped networks, expect staff to be approached. Have your security ready for once trusted staff to be turned by offers of cash or US paperwork.
Look back over the education of your staff, are they local, smart, loyal, happy, have issues, addictions, faith or cult? Did they tell the truth in their resume? Are they political, have any hidden issues in their past that could be used to make them spy for another nation? Find out before other nations clandestine services make a cash offer. Would they respond to their own faith more than protecting your nation or company?
Start looking over your logs, past average "malware" intrusion attempts, hire good experts to look at network security and improve it given the Microsoft OS issues.
Hide your brands real secrets, and then use Microsoft products to create a fiction on your brands networks.
Get a few staff members to write up fictional projects, busy work, ideas, support, project names, patents, new crypto, software, hardware, amazing advancements.
Put that disinformation strategy on Microsoft computers and have it face your open networks. See who comes looking given the attractive keyword fiction created. Use very unique project names.
Use US approved crypto, OS, network standards for the creative fictional digital files. Keep up with anti virus software and log everything.
Also read up on past projects (1920-2000) against brands and nations that create products, services and that advanced crypto, science, technology of interest to the USA.
What offer got made to staff or methods used to walk out documents.
Wait and see if perfect new applicants seem to be a prefect fit for the fictional projects in the skill sets they present.
Understand that if your brand is able to out smart US brands and bring new, better, cheaper, faster, more secure products to the world your brand is been watched.
Fix the software, network, OS and hardware issues, understand what could motivate trusted staff to sell, give away, copy or trade your brands secrets. Dont allow a stranger or best "new" "friend" of a staff member to just wonder around your company. No all long term collection methods need internet access. Never hire people your security team cant find information on. Make sure all staff resumes match reality not just a quick look over other altered digital databases.
Hire only local quality workers for all work. Buying networked hardware on the open market in your brands own name and then having it imported is a risk for hardware alteration.
Thats why real smart nations track it all, from the community dr, into all their hospitals and then all the test results, autopsy.
Put all that back together and most smart nations can find their skilled dr's, best hospitals and experts.
Peer review looking over lab results, surgery done and the track record per doctor.
Average it out over every teaching hospital in a nation and all the once hidden results really stand out.
Many nations fear such results as the very average doctors get found out.
The other issue nations try to hide is getting a patient to a hospital in time. Fly the patients in with a helicopter at night?
No budget for that and why find pilots with night flying skills? Dont go looking at ambulance times and any existing methods look good.
Dont want to go looking to deep into results around a nation? Just consider one hospital...
A lot of central hospitals only see people when they have real issues.
Doctors on call at a central hospital who see a patient might see a lot of different patients.
So follow the trail back up into the community to the Dr the person saw for years of longer.
Is that Dr young or old....
Some nations fly lots of different patients in at night as their pilots have real skills and are allowed to.
That time difference could make a lot of difference.,br>
All kinds of factors can add up to strange numbers in huge teaching hospitals.
Who is on call, on holiday, who can get back to a hospital as they are the only person to perform a complex operation in time.
That expert might be on duty or both experts might be working that night and patients have to wait a while. What some other young/old surgeon to attempt something?
Some teaching hospitals have the very best education for decades. Only the best staff have the skills to see patients. Other hospitals have any random staff they can find and keep.
Follow the care from a home, to a dr in the community to the hospital. See what other nations do. See how long it takes for any old patient to get to a very good hospital, see an expert and get the best possible care.
Some nations put in the money into helicopters, pilots that enjoy flying at night, the best ambulances and have experts waiting at the best hospitals that have decades of teaching the best drs..
A young Dr can also be very selective in the areas they want to practice. Only the best local schools for their children, good services and a nice, safe local community. A good part of a city for their children and later the best university.
An older doctor might serve a poor area with a lot of complex industrial conditions that now present in very, very sick older groups of workers.
Been one of the few local Dr they have to see a larger amount of very complex conditions.
A younger Dr moving into a nice area of a city may not see a huge amount of classic industrial exposure cases as their more wealthy patients on average had decades of safe middle class or management lifestyles. Good diet, lifestyle, holiday conditions, stress, golf and tennis issues.
Slashdot Mirror
AC the USA does not have a fully integrated, digital networked voting system. Locals results are counted locally and then sent up to the national level.
Staff and volunteers, sets of political party staff at a local level would see a difference or change between their very local count and some new "altered" all "digital" state and federal numbers.
So any efforts would have to be very local and any new mil looking strangers wondering secure voting areas around would get noticed.
Gerrymandering https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... is always reported on.
The different US political parties do track the vote counts, do exit polls and within their own party have a full understanding for each part of the USA, the votes been counted and the vote count flowing up into the US election system.
Its too late to use "hackers" from another nation federally later. Too many smart people have see the local numbers and can do the math.
The only way around that is per device per voting location. That needs an unnoticed sneaker net of new people getting in, altering devices, sneaking out and none of the really interested party political locals been aware of strangers and unexpected results.
Fly into the states between the East and West elite coast.
Give a speech that the people in the fly over states enjoy and tell their friends who vote about.
Have some ability to connect to people all over the USA, talk and listen to their issues in each state.
Give a good speech and people will notice the difference and that political difference worked all around the USA.
More wars in other nations, sending more jobs outside the USA will not resonate with voters after decades of job losses and distant wars.
A party has to select someone who can give a really good speech anywhere in the USA.
Thats a political skill per city, per state, talking, charming, listening.
Another nations military grade hacking of a final tally when each city and states results would not match....
Hacking the vote all over the important states in the USA would need an army of "new" staff to be trusted in secure locations. Its too late to change the US vote nationally.
US election staff kind of know the system after many years and another nations military grade hackers wondering around per city and town would get noticed.
Strangers taking jobs from the locals to get to secure areas to alter local voting results? Volunteers and staff like their election related work, are protective of it and would notice another nations mil grade strangers getting all the work.
The other test is the US spending per student on education over the decades. Not many other nations had the funds to try and spend on new methods.
On computer labs, new books, lots of funding, support by experts in emerging educational computer languages, arts, languages, math, science, computer networks per school, new robot kits, GUI code, US wide math and science funding since the 1950's, extra staff per class.
Better daily food, generations of well educated teachers, the ability to be granted easy access to the best US universities.
All the correct inputs have been made for decades that few other nations could afford. The expected academic result over the decades in different parts of the USA should have been counted and tracked.
If just spending ever more on education worked, the world would have seen really dramatic results all over the USA in past decades and emulated the easy big spending trends that raised all US students on average.
Big spending and a good educational environment, generations of better than average teachers did not result in nation wide amazing results.
Easy (no merit testing) and free access to a good university does not seem to help much later.
So now Russian military hackers have the skills to go wondering around city, state and parish election sites with "code" using a sneaker net?
The FBI never noticed all the "new" embassy workers flying into the USA and then flying and driving out all over the USA?
Every person working with or near the Russian embassy is on file and always tracked all over the USA.
The FBI surrounds everyone connected with the Russian embassy with a lot of and constant surveillance.
Any Russian embassy staff wondering around a Louisiana would get noticed and be of great interest to the FBI.
All the Russian GRU applicants to get into secure election areas in most US states?
Or Russia flooded the US election system secretly with its own staff over the decades and the FBI never noticed?
The US election system is still stuck in groups doing local vote counts and then a final count.
AC Russian military hackers (GRU) wondering around every state in the USA would be noticed by both political parties, the US gov, US mil and the FBI.
AC also read up on the history of the GRU in Soviet Union and Russia. GRU is not the KGB or its successor.
Not many nations use or risk their military intelligence in areas well outside the military.
The US election system is local, regional and still very much hands on with staff who are well known.
Anyone with good security and good router setup support. Move all data via the VPN. OS level software e.g. browsers and networks could be requested into giving out a real IP.
The 5 eye security service are all over VPN users but all network use is now less readable to the ISP.
The CIA has a few ways into and out of China.
The "internet".
A person who is spying for the US in China gets to go on holiday and meet their CIA handlers.
Someone in China the CIA trusts collects messages. Embassy, long term educational, faith, private company or brand.
The problems are the internet is well understood by China in and out of China. Every VPN or other connection is tracked to its origin and destination by China.
Use encryption and that is noted. Try and hide encryption and China gets really interested.
Travel out of China by people China trusts is not easy. Its a risk to meet US officials in a third nation or the USA and then return.
Meeting or been friends with US officials, US faith groups or US workers in China is not easy.
The final issues is that of social media. China can now track every US gov worker, tourist in China and considers their social media use.
Does a US person in China have a past that suggests a low level embassy worker, person of faith, company worker for a big US brand?
Or did they graduate from a very different and expensive US university course usually selected by people seeking advancement into the US mil and gov?
The US tries to clean up the online pasts of most of their clandestine workers but China can buy into the US private detective databases that kept all the early social media and university online image collections. No well educated face trying to pass as just a US worker in China can be sure that their more skilled past and education in the US has not been traced back by China. So meetings with US individuals with complex pasts by people in China with interesting work is always very carefully watched.
What happened? The USA leaked from the US database side? Globally more activity would be seen, as such data would been shared with a lot of other nations. Or used in very long term and complex ways.
Someone from the USA got talking to someone interesting in China and their once removed US online social media did not match their resume used in China? China saw a hidden pattern of US friendships in China?
China saw digital online chatter going to very interesting servers been used by the USA?
Someone from China took a holiday and met in some nation with the US gov? China looked back for the same holiday patterns.
The US hopes a few officials in China will read the "news" and start talking a lot so the GCHQ and NSA pick up the media induced chatter?
Would China risk a well placed person in the US gov or mil for this? The US likes to test all its trusted staff with bait. A lot of names, projects, complexity thats created just for a person been tested and is so vital to another nation it has to be reported. If another nation takes the bait that person is detected based on the unique information passed on.
The US hopes to flush out any spies with their work load. Most other nations active in the USA are now aware of such methods and have learned never to respond to such methods.
Communist nations do not send spies to the USA to get caught passing messages.
Communist agents are in the USA to set and alter US policy. No communications needed for decades of work.
The US tried that with the Pentagon papers. Once in the hands of the US media, press its protected.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
So its very hard for the USA to go after the press in the USA, a profession that has constitutional protection.
The clandestine agencies get around that by going after the whistleblower. Anyone working for the US gov, mil has to consent to a lot of color of law efforts to keep them away from US courts, media, investigations.
Any issues are to be reported internally. Investigations are secret and kept internal to the US gov, mil.
The ability by the CIA to work domestically on security issues surrounding US citizens was also interesting during the Vietnam war.
The legal thinking was that as Vietnam was external to the USA, anyone in the USA not wanting war had to be connected to another nation. That showed international support and allowed the CIA to investigate domestic anti war issues inside the USA.
Operation CHAOS https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
The US mil tried to save money and advance with Ada. The contractors soon get back to projects using the kinds of code they wanted to submit and be paid for.
The Soviet Union went for the mids and politics of US/UK gov/mil/contractors. Someone to talk to, some cash, some politics.
Classic spy offers.
The UK and later the US tried to counter that with better working conditions, better wages and more testing of trusted staff to see if they had been turned.
From the 1920-1970's the UK leaked everything interesting to the Soviet Union.
The US tried to counter such efforts by fully understanding the past and politics of every applicant. That worked until the USA did not walk the past of every applicant and hired on contractor trust or because a vital skill was needed. The FBI and other agencies would also test trusted US staff with undercover cash offers and see if they reported any security contacts outside work.
The US needed translators, experts for Korea, Vietnam, France, China, the Soviet Union, its Middle East occupations. Generations of very interesting people got clearances based on skill not security. They did their job well and reported back US methods and got to understand how the US looked for staff and then how to move up the ranks of the US clandestine services.
The US could have stopped all that by not using contractors but that was not an option politically. Any new security that blocked a contractor was removed by US party political efforts to allow contractors back into the most secret parts of the US gov and mil.
It took China a long time to understand how the CIA, NSA and GCHQ spy in China.
Dont have radio, data networks or any chatter from base to base to a command structure, everything is been collected on by the NSA and GCHQ.
MI6 and the CIA used a different approach. Invite a lot of students from China to top US and UK universities and try and get the students to enjoy freedom and democracy. When they returned to the Communist gov in China they would recall the fun freedoms and might just consider working for the CIA, MI6 later in China.
What the CIA and MI6 did not consider is that China would flood the West with trusted Communists that would enter the US and UK educations systems, learn and take everything back to China.
China started to notice the efforts to turn its graduates in the UK and US. China allowed some of its graduates to be turned and waited, watched and slowly understood what the West needed and wanted from spies in China over the years.
It took a few decades but China finally saw the pattern of the US and UK spy efforts in China, different to NSA and GCHQ collect it all.
China now understands when and how the approach will take place and has flooded the West with people who seem to want to spy for the CIA and MI6.
What the West saw as very smart people finally wanting freedom, wanting to change politics in China was just China flooding the West with its own spies.
The other issue for the GCHQ and NSA is the quality and amount of data collected in China and translation needed. Local staff at US and UK collection sites, later working on material all needed China experts. The secure hiring of expert staff over generations was always an issue given the skills needed and the time needed for results, Korea, Vietnam, handover of Hong Kong and later decades.
The US and UK so needed staff and spies in China that they never had the time to fully consider the idea that hiring a lot of people without the best security practices was not a good idea.
Decades later the results are the same that the UK faced with spies from the Soviet Union in the 1920-1980's.
Is the CIA leaking from computer databases? If any nation had that easy access deep within the CIA they would not act. They would watch and alter the flow of information and use it as a disinformation strategy to flush out more spies. Why act now and get the CIA to consider its issues and then be totally locked out?
The data flow back from spies in China could be a weak point. Using the "internet" or contact with a foreigner in China.
China understands every network in and out and the server
The data walked out from a US political party. Its an internal US issues, like the Pentagon papers or other released to the US media.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
"Julian Assange: 'A lot more material' coming on US elections"
http://edition.cnn.com/2016/07... (July 27, 2016)
""Perhaps one day the source or sources will step forward and that might be an interesting moment some people may have egg on their faces."
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new... (15 December 2016)
"..at a D.C. park by an intermediary for 'disgusted' Democratic whistleblowers"
Depends what the staging server was used for and what was found in the wild. Everything or just Windows?
AC Re slow productivity vs security?
Have new designs, patent work, staff lists and prototypes walked out by other agencies and the clandestine services.
To make this work the UK will have to mandate junk NSA standard encryption all over the UK. Everything networked in the UK will revert to plain text, be sorted, collected and tracked ready for legal action.
Nobody interesting has to use the internet but in the past felt it was not a huge risk. The winners are the contractors, installers, people who have the over time to keep collection working and the courts and police who decide who to investigate.
The part the UK of all nations should understand is that they had it all and how unsuspecting populations change communications methods when told of a collect it all policy.
The moment lawyers, human rights groups, police start to see methods and logs presented in any open or closed court setting, every one interesting will be told and change their communications.
The UK could have won every decade using methods it pioneered in Ireland. Track the investing people, their support from the USA, their funds, their lawyers, supporters. Nobody would have thought to stop talking on phones or with todays modern networks.
Fake stories about informants and informants https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... would have kept everyone guessing about actual information gathering. A government totalitarian hell hole on a small budget and real results. Just the GCHQ, mil and something secure like what was the RUC Special Branch.
The question is then why the need for a change? Past methods worked, did not need any public support and no court found out.
What are UK net users doing that needs methods beyond police services and will see the methods of the security services in court?
Once a few people have their chat logs, and messages played back in court, most interesting people will just change their patterns.
The UK collected every call into and out of Ireland. The best part of that was never telling any UK court, police officer, human rights group, member of the press or lawyer about that collection.
The GCHQ and UK mil got on with tracking and collect it all outside of the UK courts. Interesting supporters of Ireland in the US kept on raising funds and talking to interesting people in Ireland.
As no open/secret court action was taken people kept on talking, meeting, supporting, funding, mentioning names.
The GCHQ/UK mil thought it was more productive never to mention methods in pubic, to the UK police or in any court setting.
Collection was Ireland wide, in the UK, Irish supporters in the USA with access to the US mil (globally) and UK collection methods stayed secret.
The UK gov could then act on information in the UK, Ireland or USA and the results never got published.
Making collection court friendly and part of the internet will just ensure interesting people never use the internet or their phone. They will meet in person, go on holiday or for a trip back to some nation or take up faith. The wider faith based community will pass on messages in person.
The UK had a great success with the Soviet embassy codes in the UK before WW2. Political leaders talked in public and the Soviet embassy then quickly updated its codes in the UK.
The GCHQ and UK mil later learned from that and never trusted UK politicians, courts, police for decades.
Now everything interesting is going to face open or secret UK courts. UK human rights groups will get access and the UK press will report on methods.
Political leaders will want good news stories and wins in courts. Most people once accepted that collect it all was technically impossible and that a phone call or internet connection was too random. A Soviet official in the Soviet Union or East Germany would face the NSA and GCHQ but that was very special tasking and collection.
The UK has now told the world that every network in the UK is been collected on for court use. Not many very interesting people are going to stay on UK networks.
"remains in the investigative state" (6 March 2015)
https://www.theguardian.com/me...
Stop storing important files on any Microsoft product.
Build a walk in secure vault and hold meetings well away from any devices, Microsoft, Apple or other products.
Consider access your vault area? Elevator, common areas, areas open to the public, areas open to clearers, other contractors, other workers in the same building or secure complex.
Building doors, office doors can be held open, waited until opened.
Take notes on paper, use a typewriter. Secure all paperwork after an important meeting.
Do not have a photocopier near the vault. Ensure all photocopies are secure under CCTV, have a camera to image all copied pages and track paper counts.
No user digital devices should be near your most vital work so secure anything in an office setting that can make a copy.
Air gap any networks that deal with users, your nations courts wanting user details, all US brands, services. Keep your company secrets away from any US brands or users, networks that are open to other requests.
When a product or service is ready for the public, use US brands for later global integration but keep all emerging and work in progress away from any US products, hardware, software, experts and services.
Dont hire workers that are not trustworthy. That foreigner left their own nation to work for any good wage, who else are they working for?
If the clandestine services cant get into your secure and air gapped networks, expect staff to be approached. Have your security ready for once trusted staff to be turned by offers of cash or US paperwork.
Look back over the education of your staff, are they local, smart, loyal, happy, have issues, addictions, faith or cult? Did they tell the truth in their resume? Are they political, have any hidden issues in their past that could be used to make them spy for another nation? Find out before other nations clandestine services make a cash offer. Would they respond to their own faith more than protecting your nation or company?
Start looking over your logs, past average "malware" intrusion attempts, hire good experts to look at network security and improve it given the Microsoft OS issues.
Hide your brands real secrets, and then use Microsoft products to create a fiction on your brands networks.
Get a few staff members to write up fictional projects, busy work, ideas, support, project names, patents, new crypto, software, hardware, amazing advancements.
Put that disinformation strategy on Microsoft computers and have it face your open networks. See who comes looking given the attractive keyword fiction created. Use very unique project names.
Use US approved crypto, OS, network standards for the creative fictional digital files. Keep up with anti virus software and log everything.
Also read up on past projects (1920-2000) against brands and nations that create products, services and that advanced crypto, science, technology of interest to the USA.
What offer got made to staff or methods used to walk out documents.
Wait and see if perfect new applicants seem to be a prefect fit for the fictional projects in the skill sets they present.
Understand that if your brand is able to out smart US brands and bring new, better, cheaper, faster, more secure products to the world your brand is been watched.
Fix the software, network, OS and hardware issues, understand what could motivate trusted staff to sell, give away, copy or trade your brands secrets. Dont allow a stranger or best "new" "friend" of a staff member to just wonder around your company. No all long term collection methods need internet access. Never hire people your security team cant find information on. Make sure all staff resumes match reality not just a quick look over other altered digital databases.
Hire only local quality workers for all work. Buying networked hardware on the open market in your brands own name and then having it imported is a risk for hardware alteration.
1+ for https://www.haiku-os.org/ for an OS and file system thats not MS.
It was good for video and mic support over different OS, browsers.
https://objective-see.com/blog... has a good blog on that topic.
Thats why real smart nations track it all, from the community dr, into all their hospitals and then all the test results, autopsy.
Put all that back together and most smart nations can find their skilled dr's, best hospitals and experts.
Peer review looking over lab results, surgery done and the track record per doctor.
Average it out over every teaching hospital in a nation and all the once hidden results really stand out.
Many nations fear such results as the very average doctors get found out.
The other issue nations try to hide is getting a patient to a hospital in time. Fly the patients in with a helicopter at night?
No budget for that and why find pilots with night flying skills? Dont go looking at ambulance times and any existing methods look good.
Dont want to go looking to deep into results around a nation? Just consider one hospital...
A lot of central hospitals only see people when they have real issues.
Doctors on call at a central hospital who see a patient might see a lot of different patients.
So follow the trail back up into the community to the Dr the person saw for years of longer.
Is that Dr young or old....
Some nations fly lots of different patients in at night as their pilots have real skills and are allowed to.
That time difference could make a lot of difference.,br> All kinds of factors can add up to strange numbers in huge teaching hospitals.
Who is on call, on holiday, who can get back to a hospital as they are the only person to perform a complex operation in time.
That expert might be on duty or both experts might be working that night and patients have to wait a while. What some other young/old surgeon to attempt something?
Some teaching hospitals have the very best education for decades. Only the best staff have the skills to see patients. Other hospitals have any random staff they can find and keep.
Follow the care from a home, to a dr in the community to the hospital. See what other nations do. See how long it takes for any old patient to get to a very good hospital, see an expert and get the best possible care.
Some nations put in the money into helicopters, pilots that enjoy flying at night, the best ambulances and have experts waiting at the best hospitals that have decades of teaching the best drs..
AC India is doing just fine with their space technology sectors. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
More just for local tax issues. Build a factory and the local product gets a local tax rate. Fully imported and its a different tax in some nations.
Nets to catch workers?
A young Dr can also be very selective in the areas they want to practice. Only the best local schools for their children, good services and a nice, safe local community. A good part of a city for their children and later the best university.
An older doctor might serve a poor area with a lot of complex industrial conditions that now present in very, very sick older groups of workers.
Been one of the few local Dr they have to see a larger amount of very complex conditions.
A younger Dr moving into a nice area of a city may not see a huge amount of classic industrial exposure cases as their more wealthy patients on average had decades of safe middle class or management lifestyles. Good diet, lifestyle, holiday conditions, stress, golf and tennis issues.