Reuters: Ex-Twitter worker gets 3-1/2-year U.S. prison term for spying for Saudi Arabia. “A former Twitter Inc manager convicted of spying for Saudi Arabia by sharing user data several years ago and potentially exposing users to persecution was sentenced to 3-1/2 years in prison on Wednesday, U.S. prosecutors said.”
CNN: Hackers actively supporting Iran’s domestic and foreign spying efforts, researchers warn. “A group of prolific Iranian hackers has likely been key to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps efforts to track its domestic and foreign adversaries in recent years by targeting US government officials, Iranian dissidents and journalists, according to new research published Wednesday.”
Museums + Heritage Advisor: Trent Park Mansion secures funding to create digital museum ahead of opening mansion house. “Funding for a new ‘digital museum’ has been secured by the Trust currently developing Trent Park House in North London. The Digital Museum project, backed by £225,000 from the National Lottery Heritage Fund, is hoped to generate awareness and provide access to the House’s hidden histories. Specifically, the stories of the ‘Secret Listeners’, a group of German and Austrian refugees who were recruited by British intelligence to spy on prisoners based at the Mansion.”
New York Times: Twitter Worker Accused of Spying for Saudi Arabia Heads to Trial. “While working at Twitter from 2013 to 2015, Ahmad Abouammo was responsible for helping celebrities, journalists and other notable figures in the Middle East promote their Twitter accounts. He handled requests for Twitter’s coveted blue verification badges and arranged tours of the San Francisco headquarters. But the Justice Department says he misused his access to Twitter user data, gathering the personal information of political dissidents and passing it to Saudi Arabia in exchange for a luxury watch and hundreds of thousands of dollars.”
Federal News Network: Spy agencies look to standardize use of open source intelligence. “Intelligence agencies are starting to coalesce around a set of common standards and data for using open source intelligence, but challenges remain in boosting the use of OSINT throughout the intelligence community.”
Daily Beast: Shady Network of Fake Mossad Job Sites Targets Iranian Spies. “VIP Human Solutions’ website is one of 16 such sites that use the same pitch, phrasing, logos, phone numbers, and, for some, web infrastructure over the past four years to lure former spies and soldiers in Iran, Syria, and Hezbollah to come work for Israel. Intelligence experts say the crude and clumsy sites are fakes, with no plausible connection to Israel’s spy services. But the bogus recruiters’ websites have nonetheless endured, surfacing and disappearing at a number of hosts over the same four-year period to pitch to internet users in Iran, Syria, and Lebanon through Google Ads.”
Stars and Stripes: Facebook says it halts hackers tied to Palestinian security. “Facebook said Wednesday it has broken up a hacker network used by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’ intelligence service in an attempt to keep tabs on journalists, human rights activists and government critics.”
The Verge: US files expanded charges against former Twitter employees accused of espionage. This is NOT the recent big hack; it’s from before. “The US has filed new and expanded charges against two former Twitter employees and a third individual for allegedly spying on behalf of the government of Saudi Arabia. The three men have now been charged with acting as agents of a foreign government, conspiracy to commit wire fraud, and wire fraud. One individual, former Twitter employee Ahmad Abouammo, was also charged with three counts of money laundering and falsification of records to obstruct the investigation.”
Washington Post: ‘The intelligence coup of the century’. “The company, Crypto AG, got its first break with a contract to build code-making machines for U.S. troops during World War II. Flush with cash, it became a dominant maker of encryption devices for decades, navigating waves of technology from mechanical gears to electronic circuits and, finally, silicon chips and software…. But what none of its customers ever knew was that Crypto AG was secretly owned by the CIA in a highly classified partnership with West German intelligence. These spy agencies rigged the company’s devices so they could easily break the codes that countries used to send encrypted messages.”
TuftsNow: Are Twitter Spies Part of a Trend?. “The simple act of signing up for a Twitter account or using the WhatsApp messaging service could expose users to international spying and malicious surveillance, according to two current legal cases—and the implications are particularly concerning for journalists and dissidents who criticize the leaders of authoritarian regimes. The threats also go far beyond what most individuals can defend themselves against, according to a Fletcher School professor.”
Times of India: Army warns officials against 150 fake social media profiles who target personnel for sensitive info. “The Army has cautioned its officials against 150 fake social media profiles that are being used by adversaries for honey trapping in order to extract sensitive information, sources said on Thursday.”
BBC: Ex-Twitter employees accused of spying for Saudi Arabia. “Two former employees of Twitter have been charged in the US for spying for Saudi Arabia. The charges, unsealed on Wednesday in San Francisco, allege that Saudi agents sought personal information about known Saudi critics and other Twitter users.”
Wired: Trump Tweeted a Sensitive Photo. Internet Sleuths Decoded It. “For many outside experts, the only thing more intriguing than the president sharing sensitive military intelligence was the mystery of the technology that created the image…. Within hours of Trump’s tweet, a handful of amateur satellite trackers had not only determined that the photo was taken by a spy satellite, they had figured out which satellite had taken the photo.”
CNET: Russian internet giant Yandex reportedly hacked by Western intelligence agency. “Hackers working for the US or one of its closest allies broke into Russian search giant Yandex to plant malware to spy on user accounts, Reuters reported Thursday. Called Regin, the malware is known to be used by the Five Eyes intelligence-sharing alliance of the US, Britain, Australia, Canada and New Zealand, sources told the news outlet.”
AP: Experts: Spy used AI-generated face to connect with targets. “Katie Jones sure seemed plugged into Washington’s political scene. The 30-something redhead boasted a job at a top think tank and a who’s-who network of pundits and experts, from the centrist Brookings Institution to the right-wing Heritage Foundation. She was connected to a deputy assistant secretary of state, a senior aide to a senator and the economist Paul Winfree, who is being considered for a seat on the Federal Reserve. But Katie Jones doesn’t exist, The Associated Press has determined.”
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