The secretive British spy agency GCHQ has residential concealed tools to seed the internet with false in turn, together with the capability to manipulate the results of online polls, artificially overestimate pageview counts on netting sites, “amplif[y]” endorsed messages on YouTube, and censor capture on tape content judged to be present “extremist.” The capabilities, detailed clothed in papers provided by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, even include an old stick up for on behalf of pre-adolescent prank callers all over the place: A way to tie two unsuspecting phone users at once clothed in a call.
The tools were formed by GCHQ’s hang out warning explore aptitude crowd (JTRIG), and constitute round about of the nearly everyone startling methods of propaganda and internet deception limited inside the Snowden archive. Previously disclosed papers cover detailed JTRIG’s expend of “fake victim blog posts,” “false flag operations,” “honey traps” and psychological manipulation to target online activists, television visitors to WikiLeaks, and spy on YouTube and Facebook users.
But in the same way as the U.K. Parliament at present debates a fast-tracked cost to provide the government with greater surveillance powers, single which Prime Minister David Cameron has justified in the same way as an “emergency” to “help keep us safe,” a newly released top-secret GCHQ keep a record called “JTRIG Tools and Techniques” provides a thorough, birds-eye observe of scarcely how sly and insidious this unit’s operations are. The document—available clothed in extensive here—is designed to notify other GCHQ units of JTRIG’s “weaponised capability” as soon as it comes to the dark internet arts, and serves in the same way as a sort of hacker’s beat on behalf of wreaking online havoc.
The “tools” cover been assigned overweening code names. They include insidious methods on behalf of online surveillance, in the same way as well in the same way as round about of the very techniques with the aim of the U.S. And U.K. Cover harshly prosecuted early online activists on behalf of employing, together with “distributed denial of service” attacks and “call bombing.” But they besides illustrate previously unknown tactics on behalf of manipulating and distorting online taking sides discourse and disseminating state propaganda, in the same way as well in the same way as the ostensible capability to actively television Skype users clothed in real-time—raising foster questions approximately the magnitude of Microsoft’s cooperation with spy agencies or else possibility vulnerabilities clothed in its Skype’s encryption. Here’s a keep a record of how JTRIG describes its capabilities:
• “Change outcome of online polls” (UNDERPASS)
• “Mass transfer of email messaging to support an in turn Operations campaign” (BADGER) and “mass transfer of SMS messages to support an in turn Operations campaign” (WARPARTH)
• “Disruption of video-based websites hosting extremist content through resolute target discovery and content elimination.” (SILVERLORD)
• “Active skype capability. Provision of real occasion call records (SkypeOut and SkypetoSkype) and bidirectional minute messaging. Besides write to lists.” (MINIATURE HERO)
• “Find concealed photographs of targets on Facebook” (SPRING BISHOP)
• “A tool with the aim of willpower permanently disable a target’s tally on their computer” (ANGRY PIRATE)
• “Ability to artificially rise traffic to a website” (GATEWAY) and “ability to overestimate sheet views on websites” (SLIPSTREAM)
• “Amplification of a prearranged message, normally capture on tape, on general multimedia websites (Youtube)” (GESTATOR)
• “Targeted Denial Of Service anti netting Servers” (PREDATORS FACE) and “Distributed denial of service using P2P. Built by ICTR, deployed by JTRIG” (ROLLING THUNDER)
• “A suite of tools on behalf of monitoring target expend of the UK mart situate eBay (www.Ebay.Co.Uk)” (ELATE)
• “Ability to spoof several email speak to and send out email under with the aim of identity” (CHANGELING)
• “For concerning two target phone at once clothed in a call” (IMPERIAL BARGE)
While round about of the tactics are described in the same way as “in development,” JTRIG touts “most” of them in the same way as “fully operational, tested and trustworthy.” It adds: “We solitary advertise tools at this point with the aim of are either game to fire or else very close to being game.”
And JTRIG urges its GCHQ colleagues to think huge as soon as it comes to internet deception: “Don’t consider this like a catalogue. If you don’t go out with it at this point, it doesn’t mean we can’t build it.”
The keep a record appears clothed in a massive Wikipedia-style archive used by GCHQ to internally discuss its surveillance and online deception activities. The sheet indicates with the aim of it was survive modified clothed in July 2012, and had been accessed almost 20,000 time.
GCHQ refused to provide several comment on the data clear of its standard boilerplate, clothed in which it claims with the aim of it acts “in accordance with a strict authorized and document framework” and is topic to “rigorous mistake.” But both claims are questionable.
British watchdog Privacy International has filed pending authorized combat anti GCHQ on the agency’s expend of malware to spy on internet and cellular phone phone users. Several GCHQ memos in print survive fall by The protector revealed with the aim of the agency was eager to keep its activities secret not to guard countrywide security, but for the reason that “our highest relate to is with the aim of references to agency practices (ie, the dimension of interception and deletion) may well go in front to negative known discussion which might go in front to authorized challenges anti the current regime.” And an EU parliamentary inquest earlier this time concluded with the aim of GCHQ activities were likely illegal.
In the same way as on behalf of mistake, serious questions cover been raised approximately whether top countrywide security officials even know pardon? GCHQ is liability. Chris Huhne, a earlier cabinet minister and organ of the countrywide security ruling body until 2012, insisted with the aim of ministers were clothed in “utter ignorance” approximately even the prevalent GCHQ intelligence work encode, famous in the same way as Tempora—not to allusion “their extraordinary capability to hoover up and hoard individual emails, voice write to, social networking bustle and even internet searches.” clothed in an October protector op-ed, Huhne wrote with the aim of “when it comes to the secret humankind of GCHQ and the [NSA], the depth of my ‘privileged information’ has been dwarfed by the in turn provided by Edward Snowden to The protector.”
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