Internet Giving Rise To "Citizen Spies" 93
reporter writes "According to a startling report by the Wall Street Journal, the Internet has empowered ordinary people to be part-time intelligence officers, uncovering secrets like military facilities and prison camps across the landscape of North Korea. The report states, '[Curtis] Melvin is at the center of a dozen or so citizen snoops who have spent the past two years filling in the blanks on the map of one of the world's most secretive countries. Seeking clues in photos, news reports and eyewitness accounts, they affix labels to North Korean structures and landscapes captured by Google Earth, an online service that stitches satellite pictures into a virtual globe. The result is an annotated North Korea of rocket-launch sites, prison camps and elite palaces on white-sand beaches. "It's democratized intelligence," says Mr. Melvin. More than 35,000 people have downloaded Mr. Melvin's file, North Korea Uncovered. It has grown to include thousands of tags in categories such as "nuclear issues" (alleged reactors, missile storage), dams (more than 1,200 countrywide) and restaurants (47). Its Wikipedia approach to spying shows how Soviet-style secrecy is facing a new challenge from the Internet's power to unite a disparate community of busybodies.'"
Some books on the subject (Score:5, Informative)
Some books on the subject:
Re:And what of other "open" countries? (Score:5, Informative)
None? At least in the U.S.
Head on over to Google Maps and start looking up things like Bangor, WA, which is a major Trident Nuclear Sub base. Feel free to explore both the street map and the satellite view to compare.
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=bangor,+wa&sll=44.662793,-68.720169&sspn=0.363355,0.892639&ie=UTF8&ll=47.715537,-122.739601&spn=0.085929,0.22316&t=h&z=13 [google.com]
Notice what Microsoft's mapping gathered from there? Oopsie!
http://tech.blorge.com/Structure:%20/2007/09/04/microsofts-mapping-service-uncovers-top-secret-us-submarine/ [blorge.com]
Maybe browse a website dedicated to secret U.S. military bases?
http://www.anomalies-unlimited.com/Bases.html [anomalies-unlimited.com]
The U.S. and the rest of the world, especially the major powers, have dealt with satellite overviews since the 1960s. Anything real interesting is underground and out of view.
Re:And what of other "open" countries? (Score:5, Informative)
Granted, but it's not like we've never heard or seen Bangor naval base before. Or Area 51. Or any of the other major military installations.
But what exactly is being hidden here?
A ~25 x 3 mile black strip in Canada and Alaska ... [google.com]
Re:And what of other "open" countries? (Score:5, Informative)
Nothing. It was a camera glitch. Notice, because Alaska isn't high priority, that all levels of zoom are from the same photo set? Watch the clouds, they never move.
Then check other sources like Microsoft's Virtual Earth and see what is "hidden".
http://maps.live.com/default.aspx?v=2&FORM=LMLTCP&cp=62.244908~-141.222382&style=h&lvl=12&tilt=-90&dir=0&alt=-1000&phx=0&phy=0&phscl=1&encType=1 [live.com]
Re:Not _SPIES_, intel analysts (Score:3, Informative)
No, you're not a real spy until you actually become a part of the North Korean military in order to report on what it's up to and what kind of orders you're getting.
Our intelligence agencies have lost their edge precisely because they don't want to do that kind of thing. But that's what real spies do and where useful intelligence comes from.
And citizens could get involved in this if there were people who lived in North Korea wanted to do something horribly risky because they wanted to make their government look bad. I actually hope the Internet does spawn this kind of spying.