Read the Beforeitsnews.com story here. Advertise at Before It's News here.
Profile image
By Deborah Dupre (Reporter)
Contributor profile | More stories
Story Views
Now:
Last hour:
Last 24 hours:
Total:

Snowden's Latest: Secret Automatic Internet Weapon Deployed To Covertly Attack Innocent Targeted Individuals

% of readers think this story is Fact. Add your two cents.


 

Ever question validity of online polls, comments under web articles, vote-downs, or even article page view counts that for some authors, determines their financial compensation? Wonder no more. Internet deception is a reality. Spies have been busy with their new secret toy, a weapon that manipulates all those intrusions, unwanted one that Targeted Individuals know only too well – and more, according to Glenn Greewald at Intercept, thanks to human rights hero Edward Snowden.

 

Pesky human rights defender Snowden at it again

 

“The secretive British spy agency GCHQ has developed covert tools to seed the internet with false information, including the ability to manipulate the results of online polls, artificially inflate pageview counts on web sites, “amplif[y]” sanctioned messages on YouTube, and censor video content judged to be “extremist,” says Greenwald today.

 

“The capabilities, detailed in documents provided by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, even include an old standby for pre-adolescent prank callers everywhere: A way to connect two unsuspecting phone users together in a call.

 

GCHQ’s Joint Threat Research Intelligence Group (JTRIG) created the tools, providing some of the most startling propaganda and internet deception methods iin Snowden’s archive, according to Greewald.

 

“Previously disclosed documents have detailed JTRIG’s use of “fake victim blog posts,” “false flag operations,” “honey traps” and psychological manipulation to target online activists, monitor visitors to WikiLeaks, and spy on YouTube and Facebook users.

 

Underhanded, Invasive Weaponry To Keep Us All Safe

 

As the U.K. Parliament today debates a fast-tracked bill to provide the government with greater surveillance powers, one Prime Minister David Cameron justified as an “emergency” to “help keep us safe,” a top-secret GCHQ document called “JTRIG Tools and Techniques” provided a comprehensive, birds-eye view of “just how underhanded and invasive this unit’s operations are,” Greenwald says.

 

The document—available in full here— explaining the tool is designed to notify other GCHQ units of JTRIG’s “weaponised capability” when it comes to the dark internet arts, and serves as a sort of hacker’s buffet for wreaking online havoc.

 

“The “tools” have been assigned boastful code names. They include invasive methods for online surveillance, as well as some of the very techniques that the U.S. and U.K. have harshly prosecuted young online activists for employing, including ‘distributed denial of service’ attacks and ‘call bombing,’” Greenwald explains. “But they also describe previously unknown tactics for manipulating and distorting online political discourse and disseminating state propaganda, as well as the apparent ability to actively monitor Skype users in real-time—raising further questions about the extent of Microsoft’s cooperation with spy agencies or potential vulnerabilities in its Skype’s encryption.

 

Greenwald provides the following list of how JTRIG describes its capabilities:

 

• “Change outcome of online polls” (UNDERPASS)

• “Mass delivery of email messaging to support an Information Operations campaign” (BADGER) and “mass delivery of SMS messages to support an Information Operations campaign” (WARPARTH)

• “Disruption of video-based websites hosting extremist content through concerted target discovery and content removal.” (SILVERLORD)

• “Active skype capability. Provision of real time call records (SkypeOut and SkypetoSkype) and bidirectional instant messaging. Also contact lists.” (MINIATURE HERO)

• “Find private photographs of targets on Facebook” (SPRING BISHOP)

• “A tool that will permanently disable a target’s account on their computer” (ANGRY PIRATE)

• “Ability to artificially increase traffic to a website” (GATEWAY) and “ability to inflate page views on websites” (SLIPSTREAM)

• “Amplification of a given message, normally video, on popular multimedia websites (Youtube)” (GESTATOR)

• “Targeted Denial Of Service against Web Servers” (PREDATORS FACE) and “Distributed denial of service using P2P. Built by ICTR, deployed by JTRIG” (ROLLING THUNDER)

• “A suite of tools for monitoring target use of the UK auction site eBay (www.ebay.co.uk)” (ELATE)

• “Ability to spoof any email address and send email under that identity” (CHANGELING)

• “For connecting two target phone together in a call” (IMPERIAL BARGE)

 

Some of the tactics are said to be “in development.” JTRIG, however, touts that “most” of them are “fully operational, tested and reliable.”

 

“We only advertise tools here that are either ready to fire or very close to being ready,” JTRIG says.

 

It urges its GCHQ colleagues to think big regarding Internet deception:

 

“Don’t treat this like a catalogue,” JTRIG says. “If you don’t see it here, it doesn’t mean we can’t build it.”

 

The document appears in a massive Wikipedia-style archive used by GCHQ to internally discuss its surveillance and online deception activities. The page indicates it was last modified in July 2012, and had been accessed almost 20,000 times.

 

GCHQ refused to provide any comment on the record beyond its standard boilerplate, in which it claims that it acts “in accordance with a strict legal and policy framework” and is subject to “rigorous oversight.” But both claims are questionable.

 

British watchdog Privacy International filed pending legal action against GCHQ over the agency’s use of malware to spy on internet and mobile phone users.

 

Several GCHQ memos published last fall by The Guardian revealed that the agency was eager to keep its activities secret not to protect national security, but because “our main concern is that references to agency practices (ie, the scale of interception and deletion) could lead to damaging public debate which might lead to legal challenges against the current regime.” And an EU parliamentary inquiry earlier this year concluded that GCHQ activities were likely illegal.

 

Hear No Evil, See No Evil

 

As for oversight, serious questions have been raised about whether top national security officials even know what GCHQ is doing. Chris Huhne, a former cabinet minister and member of the national security council until 2012, insisted ministers were in “utter ignorance” about even the largest GCHQ spying program, Tempora, not to mention “their extraordinary capability to hoover up and store personal emails, voice contact, social networking activity and even internet searches.”

 

In an October Guardian op-ed, Huhne wrote that “when it comes to the secret world of GCHQ and the [NSA], the depth of my ‘privileged information’ has been dwarfed by the information provided by Edward Snowden to The Guardian.”

Source: Intercept



Before It’s News® is a community of individuals who report on what’s going on around them, from all around the world.

Anyone can join.
Anyone can contribute.
Anyone can become informed about their world.

"United We Stand" Click Here To Create Your Personal Citizen Journalist Account Today, Be Sure To Invite Your Friends.

Please Help Support BeforeitsNews by trying our Natural Health Products below!


Order by Phone at 888-809-8385 or online at https://mitocopper.com M - F 9am to 5pm EST

Order by Phone at 866-388-7003 or online at https://www.herbanomic.com M - F 9am to 5pm EST

Order by Phone at 866-388-7003 or online at https://www.herbanomics.com M - F 9am to 5pm EST


Humic & Fulvic Trace Minerals Complex - Nature's most important supplement! Vivid Dreams again!

HNEX HydroNano EXtracellular Water - Improve immune system health and reduce inflammation.

Ultimate Clinical Potency Curcumin - Natural pain relief, reduce inflammation and so much more.

MitoCopper - Bioavailable Copper destroys pathogens and gives you more energy. (See Blood Video)

Oxy Powder - Natural Colon Cleanser!  Cleans out toxic buildup with oxygen!

Nascent Iodine - Promotes detoxification, mental focus and thyroid health.

Smart Meter Cover -  Reduces Smart Meter radiation by 96%! (See Video).

Report abuse

    Comments

    Your Comments
    Question   Razz  Sad   Evil  Exclaim  Smile  Redface  Biggrin  Surprised  Eek   Confused   Cool  LOL   Mad   Twisted  Rolleyes   Wink  Idea  Arrow  Neutral  Cry   Mr. Green

    Total 3 comments
    • Apollo is the A/C

      Well, DUH!!!! Yet people think when they for the President that this isn’t happening. I just chuckle.

    • Anonymous

      Your tax dollars at work. Sorry. No money for healthcare.

      • Deborah Dupre

        Exactly. But – it’s for your on good, of course. Thanks, A.

    MOST RECENT
    Load more ...

    SignUp

    Login

    Newsletter

    Email this story
    Email this story

    If you really want to ban this commenter, please write down the reason:

    If you really want to disable all recommended stories, click on OK button. After that, you will be redirect to your options page.