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CIA, FBI Push Social Networking for Spies
Posted by
Soulskill
on Fri Sep 05, 2008 06:52 PM
from the because-spies-love-to-share dept.
from the because-spies-love-to-share dept.
node7 writes "The FBI, NSA, and CIA are jointly supporting a newly created 'MySpace' for the intelligence community. Named 'A-Space,' the site will contain highly classified material, so naturally, it won't be available to the public. From CNN: '[Michael Wertheimer, assistant deputy director of national intelligence for analysis] demonstrated the program to CNN to show how analysts will use it to collaborate. "One perfect example is if Osama bin Laden comes out with a new video. How is that video obtained? Where are the very sensitive secret sources we may have to put into a context that's not apparent to the rest of the world?" Wertheimer said. "In the past, whoever captured that video or captured information about the video kept it in-house. It's highly classified because it has so very short a shelf life. That information is considered critical to our understanding."'"
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Submission: CIA, FBI push 'Facebook for spies' by Anonymous Coward
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A-Space music video? (Score:5, Funny)
Honeypot (Score:4, Insightful)
Maybe it's just because I'm a sick bastard, but I'd leave a single access point open to this network on the internet. Protect the living hell out of it, so only the leet could get in. And then make it a honeypot, not connecting to anything real.
But instead hosting video of alien autopsies, fake Apollo moon landing movie sets, documents about how the CIA shot JFK, letters from the Bavarian Illuminati ordering the war in Iraq...stuff like that.
Parent
unfortunate or appropriate? (Score:3, Funny)
Re: (Score:2)
I dunno, all I could think of when I read "A Space" was South Park and "Project: Imagination Doorway"
Just Plain Wrong... (Score:4, Funny)
MySpace is for kids who want to play the latest emo music and pointless clicky things. I can just imagine spies with anime icons.
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Clearly you have never met any intelligence analysts. More and more they tend to be younger geeks.
Re:Just Plain Wrong... (Score:4, Funny)
Of course I haven't met 'em. If I had then they would have had to kill me. Though I think one might be hiding in the tree out back.
Parent
Re:Just Plain Wrong... (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
Re:Just Plain Wrong... (Score:4, Funny)
Parent
Re:Just Plain Wrong... (Score:4, Funny)
Well, you know there's going to be spies who try to be friends with EVERYBODY, regardless of weather or not they know each other. Then the constant unsolicited friend requests from the CIA's latest emo-folk-rock band.
Members of A-Space will have to deal with messages like "Are you the Agent Schwartz who graduated from black ops school in Langley back in '84? OMG it's been so long! What have you been up to?"
Finally, you'll get generals commanding their subordinates to join their gang in Mob Wars so they can put the smack down on the mob run by some rival admirals.
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
I can see it now...
AnimeFan: Oh hai! I joined today for the lulz.
ColSanders: Tits or GTFO!
AnimeFan: WTF?
ColSanders: newfag is new
AnimeFan: I am sitting at the desk right beside you.
ColSanders: STFU n00b
AnimeFan: You are a shitty boss.
ColSanders: Yes but on the intarwebs no one knows I'm a cat
Naming? (Score:3, Funny)
Is there a logic behind the name? Do they mean A-Space as in "a space" as in "it's a space, somewhere, but we won't tell you where or whose it is."
Or, do they mean a space for the A-Team.
(Please say it's the second option)
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Hacker Target (Score:2, Insightful)
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
It's not clear from the article whether it's actually on the web, or whether it's on a private network. I'd hope the latter.
On another note, I can imagine some of the standard social networking tropes: "Current Music: Mission Impossible Theme."
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Because nothing of that nature should ever be exposed to the public internet, should have no way to connect to the protocols that we even have available. I am all for keeping some information open but, as an example, I don't think we have an intrinsic right to get a copy of the latest and greatest fighter jet simply because we're tax paying citizens.
I figure putting it on secure servers in a format that can't be accessed via any technology that we have available is the best/added layer way to ensure a great
Re:Hacker Target (Score:4, Informative)
It will be in a private restricted network operated by the government. You can't even send packets on that network without a top secret security clearance. Despite all the screwups of most of government, there are a few things they do right. And you will never come near it.
Parent
Re:Hacker Target (Score:4, Insightful)
It's always cute when people have such faith in their government/military/intelligence institutions.
In the real world, they do take a bit more care than most, but somebody will screw up sooner or later.
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
If getting in was even a little easier than that, we'd have a lot more information than we do.
Re: (Score:2)
Except ... (Score:2)
Except for a-space.gov [a-space.gov] and a-space.mil [a-space.mil].
Re:Hacker Target (Score:5, Informative)
It would not be on the web - it would be on SIPRnet, the governments own secure IP network that (at least in theory) doesn't touch the public web.
I expect that they will actually have multiple different systems. Top Secret really isn't all that secret. It's once you get to eyes only levels above that things are interesting.
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
This could also be a giant honeypot to try and catch intruders. Or not. Not like many of us will see this anyway (unless it all ends up on Wikileaks).
Re:Hacker Target (Score:4, Funny)
you can get in the just use the login Joshua but you need to find the phone # to get in.
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
I believe "it's a trap" is appropriate here.
This isn't a tool for spies. It's a tool to catch morons.
Lets apply the most basic logic... would the intelligence community announce anything of the sort to the public?
Like the last dozen or so technological or organizational strides they announced.... but wait.... no.
James Bond in the 21st Century. (Score:4, Funny)
But, he'll have to be careful! You never know if the profile picture is faked and it's really Dr. Evil posting!!
Re:James Bond in the 21st Century. (Score:5, Funny)
If the hot Chinese "spy" says she's 14, James can be pretty sure it's really Chris Hansen.
"Have a seat, Mr. Bond."
Parent
Good idea? (Score:3, Insightful)
I was under the impression that the identity of the sources of information in the intelligence world were very carefully guarded to protect those sources. Even some of the information is often not distributed because it might give clues to the identity of the source.
Myspace for spies doesn't sound like anything a self respecting (non-suicidal) spy would want anything to do with.
Analysts, on the other hand, talking about things they see on TV, might love it.
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
99.9% of what intelligence agencies do is actually analyst, not spies. The covert(operations) side of the house is a completely different world from what I have read.
Interesting (Score:3, Interesting)
They have been up to some interesting things. Sharing information really isn't the CIA or NSA's normal routine.This is a organization that still calls spies "collaborators" after all.
I do know that they also have a Wiki system up for sharing information. It's going to make tracking down leaks much much harder, but it will help eliminate the kind of intellegence gotcha's that hurt us on 9/11. Some of the other restrictions - thoose in laws will still be a issue, but hopefully this well help address things.
Don't look for the domestic groups to get too involved though - the chain of evidence rules would restrict them too much, which is a shame.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
I am concerned about the civil liberties implications of this wiki (or whatever they're calling it). There is quite a great risk that information gathered for foreign intelligence purposes could be used against US citizens in unrelated investigations.
This illustrates the biggest problem with the US intelligence agency/law enforecement: the schizophrenic nature of the FBI. The FBI has several mandates:
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Given that the information is classified, to do so would break federal law.
I agree with your analysis, but can you imagine anything more scary to the tin foil crowd here?"
US created agency for domestic spying" ZOMG, Bush is coming to eat you.
meh (Score:3, Funny)
Bin Laden is going to kill himself in a few days. Probably on the 11th... and it most likely won't be a suicide bombing attempt. He's going to leave a long video or note to go with it. Don't know why I've been thinking this recently...
Social networking?? (Score:5, Funny)
Aldrich Ames and the the CIA are now friends
Robert Hanssen and The FBI are now friends
Aldrich Ames and The KGB are now friends they found each other through the soviet consulate in Washington D.C.
Robert Hanssen and The KGB are now friends they found each other through The GRU
Robert Hanssen is sharing The FBI's secrets with The Espionage Application
The FBI is wondering why his business is all in the streets.
Aldrich Ames is going to Moscow!!!
Aldrich Ames just got busted (Aspace Mobile)
Robert Hanssen LOL @ Aldrich Ames, amateur
Aldrich Ames has joined Allenwood Federal Correctional Complex
Robert Hanssen is wondering what took the FBI so long (Aspace Mobile)
High Value Target or Honeypot (Score:3, Insightful)
This will go one of two ways: it will either be the highest-value target for enemy spy agencies in history ("Your enemy's information, delivered" to paraphrase AT&T) or it will end up as a nothing-really-here honeypot.
Re: (Score:2, Informative)
Intellipedia also has a less sensitive version out on the WWW, though I don't know how far they'd go with A-Space.
Some more info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intellipedia [wikipedia.org]
Dumb dumb dumb (Score:3, Interesting)
Not the idea itself, which, I suppose, is OK. Life tends to imitates fiction, anyway (esp. in tech).
But why exactly is USA Spooks, Inc. publicizing this thing? Does not seem prudent to me....
A Space? (Score:5, Funny)
Re: (Score:2)
How come I never have mod points when a comment truely deserves modding up...
I'm not surprised (Score:2)
Social Networking (Score:2)
Two Letters.... (Score:2)
...B. S.
What middle? (Score:4, Funny)
What middle? It will be on an internal government network that is isolated from the internet. The "man in the middle" will be whatever agency is managing this (CIA? NSA? If I were to tell you I'd have to kill you).
Parent
Re: (Score:2)
Just sit in the Pentagon parking lot with a wardriving kit and you will have no problem getting in.
Re: (Score:2)
Re:What middle? (Score:4, Informative)
Ha, ha! Silly boy. You've obviously never been to the Pentagon. If you try this, within a few minutes a very nice gentleman with a very large automatic weapon will politely ask you what you are doing. And you had better be able to satisfactorily explain yourself.
Parent
Re: (Score:2, Informative)
Most government networks require employees to use encrypted VPNs. This includes government agencies that do work that is not confidential, e.g. the NIH. So the FBI and CIA most definitely use secure connections if not private connections for everything.
Re:Applications? (Score:5, Funny)
They should create a parallel site like Slashdot, called Spydot, where intelligence can be moderated (Score 5: Funny).
Parent
Re: (Score:2)
They could have called it "I-Spy", but I think that name has been taken, already.