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Insecure CIA Web System Led to the Deaths of Many Agents in Iran, China, Middle East

posted by takyon on Monday November 05 2018, @04:10PM   Printer-friendly
from the only-the-shadow-knows...-and-has-head-up-its-ass dept.

An Anonymous Coward writes:

The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) used a quick and dirty web-based system to communicate with its agents around the world. Easy-to-use but not sophisticated. Iran and China used this system to find U.S. spies and convert or kill many agents, including entire national spy networks, starting around 2008.

Once you recognized the system, counter-spies could simply use Google to find the CIA's communication sites. They could then use standard traffic analysis to find out who visited the sites, identifying the spy networks.

Iran found spies using the system, converted some to double agents, while killing dozens of others. Iran may have passed the info to China, who wiped out the CIA network there, turning and killing 30+ agents. Iran then went spy hunting across the Middle East, too.

The absolute kicker: a CIA tech contractor identified the problem, that the network was compromised and spies were disappearing due to it, and reported it up the chain in 2008. He was ignored, punished and fired. Part of the reason we know this all happened is because he filed a federal whistleblower protection lawsuit.

So many/most of these U.S. agents would not be dead if CIA management AND the CIA inspector general had listened and acted on the report of a technical/security problem. Instead they denied they had a problem, burying their heads and their agents in the sand. Not only is the CIA riddled with terrible torture monkeys, but also deadly, incompetent, and inept management.

Article: The CIA's communications suffered a catastrophic compromise. It started in Iran.

Previously: CIA Informants Imprisoned and Killed in China From 2010 to 2012
Ex-CIA Officer Arrested, Suspected of Compromising Chinese Informants

Original Submission

 
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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 06 2018, @01:34AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 06 2018, @01:34AM (#758307)

    Assuming for a second this is true... then why is it true? I mean both the Democrats as well as the Republicans have significant levers of power. They've each controlled at least one of the houses of congress, if not the presidency as well. If there was systemic rigging in favor of one party over the other, I'd expect official inquiries and reforms.

    I'm ideologically agreed about campaign finance reform, and I've heard enough anecdotal evidence that I can believe voter suppression (although honestly I'm not sure why there haven't been national inquiries about that if it is true). I'm curious to hear your explanation about how electronic voting and voting manipulation could have survived unacknowledged for over 20 years, though.