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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: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 05 2019, @08:47PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 05 2019, @08:47PM (#796899)

    They were coworkers at a government contractor here in the USA, doing that kind of stuff for America.

    Most of my coworkers would say "fuck no" to assisting any foreign government. In company meetings, we've openly threatened management with quitting if our company does non-US work. Evidently, that feeling isn't universal, at least when tempted with money and travel adventure. Rumor is that the traitors got in excess of $200,000 per year.

    I've heard back from them indirectly, via other coworkers. Now back in the USA, they'd like to return to their old jobs but obviously can't. Their security clearances, which had been unusually high, are now really screwed. I doubt they can work for us ever again. IMHO, they are lucky to not end up in prison.

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