Recommended High-Profile Espionage Movie for Watching!

Dear blog readers,

Remember the DVD of the Weekend blog post series? I've decided to resume posting high-quality YouTube video and movies worth watching with the idea to continue the series. In this post I've decided to share the Red Joan movie trailer which is a high-profile espionage movie which you should definitely consider watching.

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Exposing Bulgaria's "Durzhavna Sigurnost" - The Complete Technical and Scientific Collection Archive During the Cold War - An OSINT Analysis

Dear blog readers,

Have you ever wanted to take a peek inside Bulgaria's "Durzhavna Sigurnost" archive? It's currently available on Cryptome.org including in particular - "State Security and the Scientific and Technical Intelligence" where you can check out the original - "Exposing Bulgaria - Or Who Build the Soviet Union's Virus Factories in the 90's? - An OSINT Analysis" including the original "Exposing Bulgaria's Involvement in Cold War Espionage - Who Stole the PC and Build a Fake Pro-Western Empire? - An OSINT Analysis" including "Exposing the "KGB Hack" a.k.a Operation EQUALIZER - An OSINT Analysis".

Stay tuned!

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Exposing the "KGB Hack" a.k.a Operation EQUALIZER - An OSINT Analysis

Have you ever heard of Project RAHAB or Operation EQUALIZER also known as the first instance of cyber espionage in the form of having German citizens compromise U.S based networks to actually supply the information to the KGB? Keep reading. In this post I'll provide actionable intelligence and I'll discuss in-depth the infamous "KGB Hack" and include an in-depth and never discussed perspective on how Germany's Intelligence Services at the time began outsourcing their cyber espionage needs to third-parties in particular the production of viruses at the time. What is Project RAHAB? Project RAHAB was among the first international campaign to utilize hackers for cyber espionage including possible disruptive activities internationally courtesy of Germany's Intelligence Service largely relying on public sources of information in particular Germany's Chaos Club that was widely known to have been working with and consisting of hackers which later on matured into a separate project called Operation EQUALIZER which aims to supply the KGB with cyber espionage secrets by compromising U.S based government and proprietary networks with the group consisting of German hackers who successfully managed to compromise the networks but eventually got caught which led to the first known case of cyber espionage with German hackers supplying information and U.S government secrets to the KGB.

An excerpt:

"The Germans appear to have taken their cue from the success of such amateur hacker groups as the "Chaos Club" and the "Hannover Hackers" that worked with the KGB. According to Schweizer, the Germans created "Project Rahab," named after the biblical character who helped the Israelites infiltrate Jericho, in the mid 1980s to develop a "professional" hacking capability. The project was developed by the Bundes Nacrichten Dienst's (BND) Christian Stoessel, who wrote the initial "point paper" proposing hacking into foreign data bases for intelligence purposes. The project was joint effort between BND's Division I (HUMINT), Division II (SIGINT) and Division IV (HQ). In addition to the intelligence professionals, other technical experts from a variety of outside institutions were recruited, resulting in a staff of approximately 70 people. While focused initially on retrieving information, the Project Rahab staff soon turned to offensive measures that could be of use in a time of conflict, including a variety of viruses that could be inserted in to target computers. Schweizer claims that the Project has "accessed computer systems in the Soviet Union, Japan, France, the United States, Italy, and Great Britain,"67 Included in the "hacks" of the Rahab staff is penetration of the SWIFT network, a dedicated international banking network that carries there majority of worldwide bank transfers. The implications of this information falling into terrorist hands are clear."

Including the following excerpt:

"Bulgaria has been a "breeding ground" for computer viruses during and after Communist rule. In the early 1990s, the Bulgarians had developed thirty unique viruses with more than 100 different variations and were releasing them at a rate of one per week.60 The "Hannover hackers" of Cuckoo's Egg fame also identify the Bulgarians as active in computer intelligence. Madsen cites the National Intelligence Service (foreign and domestic intelligence), and Razuznavatelno Upravleniye na Ministerstvoto (RUMNO) (Military intelligence) as the Bulgarian intelligence organizations most likely to be involved in computer intelligence gathering.61 It has also been rumored that a new "virus library" that allows anyone, not just a skilled programmer, to write a virus by "picking and choosing" among several options was first developed in Bulgaria. This system has the potential to produce thousands of new viruses to be unleashed at random or specific targets. A cyberterrorist bent on bringing a system down could single-handily generate a flood of viruses to infect the targeted computer. Even if virus detection software was installed, the chances are good that a virus could be created to evade detection."

Consider going through the original "Exposing Bulgaria's Involvement in Cold War Espionage - Who Stole the PC and Build a Fake Pro-Western Empire? - An OSINT Analysis" analysis here.

Stay tuned!

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Travel Without Moving - Georgi Markov's KGB Assassination Spot

In the spirit of the previous hot spot in the Travel Without Moving series, here's another one, this time Georgi Markov's KGB Assassination spot. Georgi Markov was killed in London, in 1978, using a tiny pellet fired from an umbrella containing 0.2 milligram dose of poison ricin.

You may also find this Time Out's briefing on London's espionage locations interesting. Continue reading →

Travel Without Moving - KGB Lubyanka Headquarters

Yet another hot spot in this week's Travel Without Moving series - this time it's Lubyanka Square's KGB Headquarters. There are still lots of Cold War sentiments in the air among yesterday's and today's super powers and you just can't deny it. Today's FSB, the successor to the KGB, is taking a very serious approach towards counter-intelligence, and offensive scientific intelligence practices in a much more synergetic relationship with the academic world compared to years ago. While the CIA is undisputably the most popular foreign intelligence agency, and more of a front end to the NSA itself from my point of view, the KGB still remains reponsible for very important and "silent" moments in the world's history.There were moments in the very maturity of the Cold War, when both, the CIA, and the KGB were on purposely disinforming their operatives in order to keep them motivated and fuel the tensions even more, but compared to the CIA with its technological know-how, KGB's HUMINT capababilities didn't get surpassed by technologies. Among the key success factors for the intelligence agency was the centralized nature of the command of chain, total empowerment, common and obsessive goal, and clear enemy.

Today's trends mostly orbit around :

- information sharing, that is less complexity among different departments and agencies
- win-win information sharing among nations
- offensive and defensive CYBERINT, harnessing the power, or protecting against the threats posed by the digital era
- automated and efficient mass surveillance practices- eliminating "safe heavens"

In case you really want to go in-depth into what has happened during the last couple of decades, Vasilli Mitrohih's KGB Archives are worth reading. And the true-retro gamers can take the role of "Captain Maksim Mikahilovich Rukov, recently transferred to the Department P from the GRU after three years' duty to investigate possible corruption inside the KGB (after a former agent turned private eye was found murdered). However, as the plot progresses, Rukov finds himself investigating a party hardliner anti-perestroika plot that threatens the life of General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev" while playing KGB - Conspiracy game. Continue reading →

Security quotes : a FSB (successor to the KGB) analyst on Google Earth

"Lt. Gen. Leonid Sazhin, an analyst for the Federal Security Service, the Russian security agency that succeeded the K.G.B., was quoted by Itar-Tass as saying: "Terrorists don't need to reconnoiter their target. Now an American company is working for them." A great quote, and I find it totally true. The point is, not to look for high-resolution imagery, but to harness the power of OSINT, improve their confidence by observing the targets "from the sky", and actually plan and coordinate its activities on huge territories. AJAX anyone? :)

However, the public has always been good at bringing the real issue to the rest of the world. There have been numerous attempts to spot sensitive locations, and I wouldn't be myself if I don't share the joys of the Eyeball Series with you. Of course, in case you haven't come across the initiative earlier. However, the way it gives terrorists or enemies these opportunities, it also serves the general public by acting as an evidence for the existence of espionage sentiments, here and there. Echelon's Yakima Research Station was spotted on GoogleMaps, originally by Cryptome, see the dishes there? Any thoughts in here? Can Microsft's Local Live with its highly differentiated bird eye view on important locations turn into a bigger risk the the popularity of Google's services?

Technorati tags :
Google Earth,Google Maps,satellite imagery,OSINT,security,terrorism Continue reading →

Security quotes : a FSB (successor to the KGB) analyst on Google Earth

"Lt. Gen. Leonid Sazhin, an analyst for the Federal Security Service, the Russian security agency that succeeded the K.G.B., was quoted by Itar-Tass as saying: "Terrorists don't need to reconnoiter their target. Now an American company is working for them." A great quote, and I find it totally true. The point is, not to look for high-resolution imagery, but to harness the power of OSINT, improve their confidence by observing the targets "from the sky", and actually plan and coordinate its activities on huge territories. AJAX anyone? :)



However, the public has always been good at bringing the real issue to the rest of the world. There have been numerous attempts to spot sensitive locations, and I wouldn't be myself if I don't share the joys of the Eyeball Series with you. Of course, in case you haven't come across the initiative earlier.
However, the way it gives terrorists or enemies these opportunities, it also serves the general public by acting as an evidence for the existence of espionage sentiments, here and there. Echelon's Yakima Research Station was spotted on GoogleMaps, originally by Cryptome, see the dishes there? Any thoughts in here? Can Microsft's Local Live with its highly differentiated bird eye view on important locations turn into a bigger risk the the popularity of Google's services?



Technorati tags :

Google Earth,Google Maps,satellite imagery,OSINT,security,terrorism Continue reading →