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As a followup to the previous story on Soylentnews about the hacking of CIA Director John Brennans' AOL account, the head of the CIA's personal info has now reached WikiLeaks.
Though all of the documents predate Brennan's time in the Obama administration and reveal no classified data, information such as Social Security numbers, passport numbers and addresses of his family and associates is causing great concern within the agency.
Among the documents released online is Brennan's incomplete SF86, a questionnaire federal employees must fill out in order to gain security clearance. Along with personally identifiable information, this document includes personal information about his health, criminal history, questions about whether he's used drugs and associations with foreign governments.
In other words, he is now experiencing up close and personal what the rest of the US's (and the world's) citizens have been experiencing first hand.
https://wikileaks.org/cia-emails/
(Score: 5, Informative) by VortexCortex on Saturday October 24 2015, @05:35AM
You're implying this piddling social engineering of unused AOL email, and release of (likely already) public info isn't just a PSYOP.
It's like you don't even consider Snowden worked for the CIA before the "NSA Leaks" which are likely Panopticon-like acclimation via a limited hangout operation. Most of the JTRIG strategies have been known among hackers for quite a while, and the other capabilities (simply extensions of Five Eyes / ECHELON, Omnivore / CARNIVORE, etc.) have been either known about or directly inferred (see also AT&T Room 641A). Read the PATRIOT Act and esp. the parts where it grants RETROACTIVE immunity to telcos for their helping with collection of US citizen information without a warrant. So, Snowden leaks didn't really reveal much shit. What they did do is play a part in the inter-agency jockeying for control of the intelligence apparatus... Not to mention wear the public down with news release after release until they're sick of hearing about state sponsored spying.
After all, isn't it interesting how the biased consensus forming media is now claiming the public doesn't seem all that concerned with massive spying programs? That's what they want us to think, anyway.
Taking anything the government says about their INTEL at face value is retarding to the understanding of what's really going on. As you said, security is a solved problem. If they didn't want the docs to get out they wouldn't be giving essentially peons the access to them and allowing the data to allegedly stored / shared on central file hubs within the system -- there'd have been no way to get them data moved there in the first place.
So, I put it to you: Mightn't the narrative of stoner hacker kids being dangerous cyber threats conveniently manufacture consent to pass some current legislation? Oh, idunno, say CISA?
It's like when Newscorp was "hacked" and their financials "leaked" conveniently showing the valuation was worth their asking price. Right around the same time PSN and MS were "hacked", and "Gamergate is worse than ISIS" and Phil Fish got "doxed" and "hacked" (with D/L & U/L speeds faster than any connection on earth), also revealing his "Fez" financials were worth the 2 million he was asking for as he rage quit the indie game scene. Cyberbullying was the narrative to further there, and now, what do you know, the "victims" have gov funded cyberbullying company and speak at the UN about the horrors of online trolling. I say this to point out: The media lies, the government lies, take everything with a ton of salt.
Incompetence runs deep, but you just can't explain the level of stupidity required to get Hanlon's Razor sharp enough to cut this bullshit. Covert ops & false flags make Occam's Razor moot as well. Such rhetorical gimmicks are simply discussion enders and critical thought killers anyway. Honest thinking men should not fall for or utilize such linguistic tricks. You can't know what the simplest explanation is without having all the facts. That said: The simplest explanation given the history of such things is that the officials of DHS and CIA hacked themselves for the propaganda or at least spun this non-event into a dangerous cyberthreat as propaganda.
If it were up to me, I'd run things using the scientific method: Propose a system and hypothesize what benefits it will provide. Test the hypothesis. If it doesn't provide the benefits, remove the program. No NSA data collection program has ever led to the prevention of a terrorist threat -- If you believe the FBI (who could be lying, but it's not my place to get their story straight -- more infighting). So, we either remove the system or tell the public what the true intent of such programs is: To monitor US citizens for politically incorrect speech and help silence dissent. That's what "National Security" really means: Securing the status quo, even against the will of the nation's civilians.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 24 2015, @04:10PM
yep, they're always pushing the incompetence angle. A lot of this stuff is just too stupid, even for these jackasses.