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Network Analysis of US Intelligence Community Released

posted by martyb on Friday May 08 2015, @05:36AM   Printer-friendly
from the watching-the-watchers dept.

An Anonymous Coward writes:

The resumes of over 27,000 people working in the US intelligence community were revealed in a searchable database created by mining LinkedIn.

Transparency Toolkit said the database, called ICWatch, includes the public resumes of people working for intelligence contractors, the military and intelligence agencies.

The group said the resumes frequently mention secret codewords and surveillance programs.

"These resumes include many details about the names and functions of secret surveillance programs, including previously unknown secret codewords," Transparency Toolkit said.

To create the database, Transparency Toolkit built search software, called LookingGlass, to make it easy to browse the data. Both Looking Glass and the ICWatch data have been released on Github.

I first saw this story on Slashdot, where it is no longer available. [Here it is on Slashdot]. As of this writing, the code used to do the analysis, along with the resulting data, was still available on GitHub.

[Editor's note] These can also be found by following the links on Transparency Toolkit's Tools page.

 
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  • (Score: 4, Interesting) by FatPhil on Friday May 08 2015, @07:38AM

    by FatPhil (863) <{pc-soylent} {at} {asdf.fi}> on Friday May 08 2015, @07:38AM (#180228) Homepage
    The thing is, if they're listing "Dropbox" as one of their skills on their LI profile, then they're no more competent than people who put "notepad" on their CV. Which probably means they're just throwing down arbitrary keywords on their profile. (And does "PUTTY" just refer to the ssh terminal program by Simon Tatham of the same name? If so, then they're not even smart ebough to get the capitalisation right.)

    OK, this is a good way of scouring for even more accidentally-leaked keywords, but that's not news, it was done years back. I seem to remember Greenwald or someone talking about what could be manually lifted off LI profiles (and thus the discover of a whole load of new project names) about the same time Snowdon first hit the mainstream press. OK, these guys have done it ON A COMPUTER, and therefore is a new invention.
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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 08 2015, @03:56PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 08 2015, @03:56PM (#180350)

    The thing is putting that junk (and it is junk) on your resume is a good idea.

    Stay with me...

    What does a HR person look for? They look for the list of junk some middle manager spewed out. They then match it up. Thats it. They do not do any more thinking than that. Missing XYZ even though XYZ is a minor tool? Tossed in the bin.

  • (Score: 2) by Geotti on Friday May 08 2015, @08:06PM

    by Geotti (1146) on Friday May 08 2015, @08:06PM (#180455) Journal

    So, by your reasoning, it's enough to put Emacs on a CV and be done with it?

    • (Score: 2) by FatPhil on Saturday May 09 2015, @07:47AM

      by FatPhil (863) <{pc-soylent} {at} {asdf.fi}> on Saturday May 09 2015, @07:47AM (#180668) Homepage
      Don't knock emacs - it's a great operating system. Shame it doesn't ship with a decent editor yet.
      --
      Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves

      • (Score: 2) by Geotti on Saturday May 09 2015, @08:34AM

        by Geotti (1146) on Saturday May 09 2015, @08:34AM (#180687) Journal

        So emacs and vi should cover it all then. Good! [goes on to update his cv]

        • (Score: 2) by FatPhil on Saturday May 09 2015, @09:13AM

          by FatPhil (863) <{pc-soylent} {at} {asdf.fi}> on Saturday May 09 2015, @09:13AM (#180695) Homepage
          You were supposed to repsond "for that, there's M-x vi-mode".
          --
          Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves

          • (Score: 2) by Geotti on Saturday May 09 2015, @11:27PM

            by Geotti (1146) on Saturday May 09 2015, @11:27PM (#180897) Journal

            I implied that there's M-x make coffee blackjack and hookers, but the HR manager wouldn't know about that. But point taken!