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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.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by frojack on Friday May 08 2015, @05:56AM
I can just imagine the outrage when turnabout becomes fair play.
Why would you mention code-words on you Linkedin profile? Wouldn't potential employers and others shy away from someone who can't keep their mouth shut?
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 3, Informative) by takyon on Friday May 08 2015, @06:01AM
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/05/07/spooks_busted_27000_profiles_reveal_new_intel_ops_home_addresses/ [theregister.co.uk]
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(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 08 2015, @06:16AM
How do you find a competent spy for hire?
(Score: 2) by takyon on Friday May 08 2015, @06:17AM
You look up "James Bond" in the phone book.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 08 2015, @06:21AM
Lots of them were looking for new careers after, well, after 9-11, after Mansur al-Sharif, after AbuGhraib, after Tora Bora, after Pat Tillman, after Gitmo, after . . . . this should be enough, my fingers are tired. Of course, looking for work in the same line of expertise that you so spectacularly failed at takes some (deflated) balls, or a total lack of self awareness. Intelligence "community"= total lack of awareness. I think we have found the problem.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by FatPhil on Friday May 08 2015, @07:38AM
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.
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 08 2015, @03:56PM
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
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
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
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
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
I implied that there's M-x make coffee blackjack and hookers, but the HR manager wouldn't know about that. But point taken!
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Friday May 08 2015, @11:20AM
Because the US Intelligence Community isn't necessary intelligent?
Or are they hungry and, if Catberg doesn't see uninterrupted employment, they aren't going to get a new job.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 08 2015, @08:21PM
Why would you mention code-words on you Linkedin profile? Wouldn't potential employers and others shy away from someone who can't keep their mouth shut?
Codeword programs actually have two names - the codeword which is unclassified and the actual program name which is classified. So as long as they use the unclassified codeword they are not doing anything wrong, being able to refer to the program in an unclassified setting is the entire point of having a codeword in the first place.
(Score: 2) by pogostix on Friday May 08 2015, @06:00AM
Do you mean they pulled down a story? Censorship style?
(Score: 4, Informative) by takyon on Friday May 08 2015, @06:04AM
Anon got it wrong:
http://yro.slashdot.org/story/15/05/07/032250/linkedin-used-to-create-database-of-27000-us-intelligence-personnel [slashdot.org]
Posted by samzenpus on Thursday May 07, 2015 @03:09AM
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(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 08 2015, @06:06AM
I came to ask the same thing. I do know that slashdot (dice?) does quietly delete posts occasionally. Just go check on cached versions when you cant find 'that one interesting but buried post' and every so often I found a discrepancy.
Are they doing it to entire stories now too?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 08 2015, @06:10AM
Still there. [slashdot.org]
Complete with 71 mostly shit posts too. I can't believe how bad the quality is there.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Friday May 08 2015, @06:15AM
My favorite is the "draw up a list of Islamic militants and post it" one.
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(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 08 2015, @10:44AM
Conversations usually devolve to the lowest common denominator of human intelligence. Its starting to be a problem here too, with modding abuse.
When every monkey has a keyboard, you cannot expect a conversation. People "talking" to each other, maybe.
(Score: 5, Touché) by Sir Finkus on Friday May 08 2015, @06:17AM
It's just "metadata" anyway, why would anyone care about metadata?
Join our Folding@Home team! [stanford.edu]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 09 2015, @07:58AM
Anyone doing something useful like compiling profiles of all the ISIS sleeper cells throughout Europe and the US?
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 08 2015, @06:50AM
Network, you say. What protocol does it use? CSP/SP, Cock Sucking Protocol/Swallowing Protocol?
Social networking is not networking. StrappedOn and Facefuck and Twatter and ShitHub are why we can't have nice computerized computer networks anymore.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 08 2015, @12:05PM
What kind of "secret codewords" are they talking about? You are allowed to mention that you have a security clearance and you can put things like "TS/SCI" on your resume. I scanned the first 30 or so resumes that were presented and I didn't see anything wrong with what was there. Certainly no "secret codewords". These words might be mysterious words to the people who wrote the code, in much the same way that a lot of the technical jargon and acronyms on a MBA's resume are to me. This looks to be simply a case of attributing malice to something based upon ignorance.
If anything, if I was a headhunter that specialized in the Intelligence Community, I see this as a very useful tool to do my job.