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posted by Fnord666 on Tuesday February 05 2019, @01:21PM   Printer-friendly
from the hack-your-resume-onto-their-server-to-apply dept.

Submitted via IRC for hopdevil

Special Report: Inside the UAE's secret hacking team of U.S. mercenaries

Two weeks after leaving her position as an intelligence analyst for the U.S. National Security Agency in 2014, Lori Stroud was in the Middle East working as a hacker for an Arab monarchy.

She had joined Project Raven, a clandestine team that included more than a dozen former U.S. intelligence operatives recruited to help the United Arab Emirates engage in surveillance of other governments, militants and human rights activists critical of the monarchy.

Stroud and her team, working from a converted mansion in Abu Dhabi known internally as "the Villa," would use methods learned from a decade in the U.S intelligence community to help the UAE hack into the phones and computers of its enemies.

Stroud had been recruited by a Maryland cyber security contractor to help the Emiratis launch hacking operations, and for three years, she thrived in the job. But in 2016, the Emiratis moved Project Raven to a UAE cyber security firm named DarkMatter. Before long, Stroud and other Americans involved in the effort say they saw the mission cross a red line: targeting fellow Americans for surveillance.

"I am working for a foreign intelligence agency who is targeting U.S. persons," she told Reuters. "I am officially the bad kind of spy."

The story of Project Raven reveals how former U.S. government hackers have employed state-of-the-art cyber-espionage tools on behalf of a foreign intelligence service that spies on human rights activists, journalists and political rivals.


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  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 05 2019, @04:47PM (4 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 05 2019, @04:47PM (#796739)

    There is a perception, outside of the US, that certain USians have a somewhat twisted moral code whereby USian or non-USian is more important than e.g. good or bad.

    The experiences of World War 2 have conditioned many Europeans to doubt the innate positivity of their country of citizenship, but in the US it is still "my country, right or wrong."

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  • (Score: 2) by nobu_the_bard on Tuesday February 05 2019, @09:15PM (3 children)

    by nobu_the_bard (6373) on Tuesday February 05 2019, @09:15PM (#796915)

    I think it helps that the US is huge and it's entirely possible to drive for 8 hours at 50 mph and never leave the US. It's easy to think badly of people you've never met, and never had a bad consequence of thinking badly of them. Every European I've met in the US has been blown away at the scale.

    • (Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 06 2019, @02:24AM (1 child)

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 06 2019, @02:24AM (#797018)

      Is "50 mph" fast?
      Down Under over here you can drive in a straight line at the max legal limit for a day straight and not run out of road

      • (Score: 2) by driverless on Thursday February 07 2019, @06:24AM

        by driverless (4770) on Thursday February 07 2019, @06:24AM (#797639)

        The Nullabor? You do have to watch for the speed bumps (roos) though.

    • (Score: 2) by datapharmer on Wednesday February 06 2019, @10:48AM

      by datapharmer (2702) on Wednesday February 06 2019, @10:48AM (#797118)

      Forget the US you can drive 12 and a half hours at the speed limit on highways in one direction and not even leave the state of Florida. (Pensacola to Key West)