{"id":130292,"date":"2014-07-15T14:27:48","date_gmt":"2014-07-15T14:27:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/?p=130292"},"modified":"2014-07-15T14:33:12","modified_gmt":"2014-07-15T14:33:12","slug":"greenwald-leaked-docs-reveal-agencys-digital-propaganda-toolkit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/latest-news\/greenwald-leaked-docs-reveal-agencys-digital-propaganda-toolkit\/","title":{"rendered":"Greenwald: Leaked Docs Reveal Agency’s Digital Propaganda Toolkit"},"content":{"rendered":"

Latest files provided by Edward Snowden show GCHQ’s ability to ‘manipulate’ the Internet using ‘hacker\u2019s buffet for wreaking online havoc’<\/strong><\/p>\n

Jon Queally<\/em><\/p>\n

The latest documents released from a trove leaked to journalist Glenn Greenwald by Edward Snowden reveal that GCHQ has created a virtual toolbox of online hacker tactics that allow British intelligence agents to “manipulate” online communities by seeding the Internet “with false information” and conducting the kind of malicious attacks on networks that send civilian hackers to prison.<\/p>\n

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According to the most recent reporting from Greenwald at\u00a0The Intercept<\/em>:<\/p>\n

The tools were created by GCHQ\u2019s Joint Threat Research Intelligence Group (JTRIG), and constitute some of the most startling methods of propaganda and internet deception contained within the Snowden archive. Previously disclosed documents have detailed JTRIG\u2019s use of \u201cfake victim blog posts,\u201d \u201cfalse flag operations,\u201d \u201choney traps\u201d and psychological manipulation\u00a0to target online activists<\/a>, monitor\u00a0visitors to WikiLeaks<\/a>, and\u00a0spy on YouTube and Facebook users<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But as the U.K. Parliament [this week] debates a\u00a0fast-tracked bill to provide the government with greater surveillance powers<\/a>, one which Prime Minister David Cameron has\u00a0justified as an \u201cemergency\u201d<\/a>\u00a0to \u201chelp keep us safe,\u201d\u00a0a newly released top-secret GCHQ document called \u201cJTRIG Tools and Techniques\u201d provides a comprehensive, birds-eye view of just how underhanded and invasive this unit\u2019s operations are. The document\u2013available in full here<\/a>\u2013is designed to notify other GCHQ units of JTRIG\u2019s \u201cweaponised capability\u201d when it comes to the dark internet arts, and serves as a sort of hacker\u2019s buffet for wreaking online havoc.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

As the\u00a0Guardian<\/em>\u00a0observes<\/a>, the internal document “details a range of programs designed to collect and store public postings from Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Google+, and to make automated postings on several of the social networks.” In addition, the file shows the agency possesses the ability to “boost views of YouTube videos, or to boost the circulation of particular messages” it wants to promote.<\/p>\n

Greenwald provided a sample list of the JTRIG programs detailed in the database\u2013which he described as a “a massive Wikipedia-style archive” \u2013and included their “boastful code names” which appear in parentheses:<\/p>\n

– \u201cChange outcome of online polls\u201d (UNDERPASS)<\/p>\n

– \u201cMass delivery of email messaging to support an Information Operations campaign\u201d (BADGER) and \u201cmass delivery of SMS messages to support an Information Operations campaign\u201d (WARPARTH)<\/p>\n

– \u201cDisruption of video-based websites hosting extremist content through concerted target discovery and content removal.\u201d (SILVERLORD)<\/p>\n

– \u201cActive skype capability. Provision of real time call records (SkypeOut and SkypetoSkype) and bidirectional instant messaging. Also contact lists.\u201d (MINIATURE HERO)<\/p>\n

– \u201cFind private photographs of targets on Facebook\u201d (SPRING BISHOP)<\/p>\n

– \u201cA tool that will permanently disable a target\u2019s account on their computer\u201d (ANGRY PIRATE)<\/p>\n

– \u201cAbility to artificially increase traffic to a website\u201d (GATEWAY) and \u201cability to inflate page views on websites\u201d (SLIPSTREAM)<\/p>\n

– \u201cAmplification of a given message, normally video, on popular multimedia websites (Youtube)\u201d (GESTATOR)<\/p>\n

– \u201cTargeted Denial Of Service against Web Servers\u201d (PREDATORS FACE) and \u201cDistributed denial of service using P2P. Built by ICTR, deployed by JTRIG\u201d (ROLLING THUNDER)<\/p>\n

– \u201cA suite of tools for monitoring target use of the UK auction site eBay (www.ebay.co.uk<\/a>)\u201d (ELATE)<\/p>\n

– \u201cAbility to spoof any email address and send email under that identity\u201d (CHANGELING)<\/p>\n

– \u201cFor connecting two target phone together in a call\u201d (IMPERIAL BARGE)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

According to Greenwald, this database was last updated in 2012, but had been accessed by GCHQ agents more than 20,000 times.<\/p>\n

This piece<\/a> was reprinted by RINF Alternative News<\/a> with permission or license.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Latest files provided by Edward Snowden show GCHQ’s ability to ‘manipulate’ the Internet using ‘hacker\u2019s buffet for wreaking online havoc’ Jon Queally The latest documents released from a trove leaked to journalist Glenn Greenwald by Edward Snowden reveal that GCHQ has created a virtual toolbox of online hacker tactics that allow British intelligence agents to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":75048,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1614,18],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-130292","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-surveillance-big-brother","8":"category-latest-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130292","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=130292"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130292\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/75048"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=130292"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=130292"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=130292"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}