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nobbis writes "In an article entitled 'How Covert Agents Infiltrate the Internet to Manipulate, Deceive, and Destroy Reputations' Glenn Greenwald publishes training material from the Snowden archive that illustrates how GCHQ uses "cyber-offensive techniques against people who have nothing to do with terrorism or national security threats", for example against "Hacktivism".
These techniques include disseminating deception on-line and harming the reputations of their targets with a honey trap , a blog from a purported victim of the target, or 'changing their photos on social media sites'. Similarly companies are discredited by leaking of confidential information, or posting negative information on appropriate forums. The covert agents' play book includes infiltration, false flag, disruption and sting operations.
When questioned GCHQ replied "It is a longstanding policy that we do not comment on intelligence matters""
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 26 2014, @03:04AM
I don't know why people get their panties in a knot over this guy. He provides counter-points and argues his points, which is a hell of a lot more than most people over on that site. Most of the "arguments" against him are people slinging names like "shill." I spend more time over here than on Slashdot, not because of some stupid issue like an imposed facelift for that site, but because most threads are taken over by people who don't provide arguments. They attack one's character, moral conviction, and integrity because they have a different view than them.
It is either a strong hive mind over there, and/or argumentative bullying and browbeating that goes on by the people who claim to own the moral high ground. Believe it or not, but a number of people think Assange is a self-serving prick who only looks out for himself, Snowden committed treason and the ends don't justify the means, bitcoins are for fools who want to throw their money after stupid, etc., etc., and believe it or not, a lot of people also see that these points can have nuanced stances and aren't so cut-and-dried. But express any of those views (or try to question a number of other sacred cows) and expect to be down-modded and spat on.
I'm still clinging to the hope that some real discussion, arguments, etc. can happen over here, but it is obvious that a number of the ones that came over here are bringing a part of their hive with them. I would love to have more people like Cold Fjord over here because it would mean getting to consider that maybe, just maybe, the world is a bit more grey than the black-and-white view of the hive. Maybe he believes everything he posts, maybe he is a clever troll who likes to rattle the cage, but at least one can ignore him or engage him, but my hope is that those who are predisposed to fire off their one sentence insult would just STFU.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Pav on Wednesday February 26 2014, @05:01AM
I second this - he's valuable. There most certainly are shades of grey, and he backs up his points well even though I usually disagree. An echo chamber isn't in anyones interest. We're certainly valuable to him, and perhaps more than we realise if eg. if he's somehow involved in politics. Regardless, society benefits from arguments over facts, even disputes over the veracity of facts/figures. These days most of the world spins its emotional wheels over a media landscape not particularly attached to a solid base in reality (which should terrify anyone who believes in democracy), but more should be expected from a nerd site.