30 spies dead after Iran cracked CIA comms network with, er, Google search – new claim

[nir]

Uncle Sam's snoops got sloppy with online chat, it seems

 

Iran apparently infiltrated the communications network of CIA agents who allowed their secret websites, used to exchange messages with informants, to be crawled by Google.

 

A report from Yahoo! news claims that a 2009 breach of the US spy bods' communications channels came after the Iranian government infiltrated a series of websites the CIA had used to talk to its local sources in places like Iran and China.

 

“We’re still dealing with the fallout,” said one former national security official. “Dozens of people around the world were killed because of this.”

 

Web scraping is a two-edged sword

 

The communications leak was believed to have stemmed from a simple Google search. Suspecting the US had agents and sources within its nuclear program, Iran began to hunt for the mole. After a double agent showed Iran's government one of the sites, they were then able to use Google to identify other sites the intel agency was using and began to intercept communications.

 

"Because Google is continuously scraping the internet for information about all the world’s websites, it can function as a tremendous investigative tool — even for counter-espionage purposes," the report claims.

 

"And Google’s search functions allow users to employ advanced operators — like 'AND', 'OR', and other, much more sophisticated ones — that weed out and isolate websites and online data with extreme specificity." As a result Iran announced the intelligence coup and arrested many operatives. Some were executed, although other managed to escape.

 

Once Iran was able to track down the sites their techniques were given to other friendly countries, who in turn used the information to weed out the CIA's communications channel in their own territories as well.

 

“Iran was aggressively going out to hunt systems down,” a former intelligence official said. “They weren’t just protecting themselves anymore.”

 

The death toll mounts

 

This, Yahoo! says (citing agency officials), culminated in a 2012 incident in China where 30 agents working for the US were caught and executed.

 

The CIA does appear to have lucked out when it comes to Russia. The Intelligence Agency ring fences its Russian activities and the report states that intel chiefs were quick to harden up its Russian communications channel at the first sign of trouble.

 

But the rest of the agency had become too reliant on the system, which was originally intended to only be a temporary communications channel, and had left the relatively insecure site up far longer than intended and used it to send information that should have been reserved for more secure channels.

 

"It was never meant to be used long term for people to talk to sources," the report quotes one official as saying.

 

"The issue was that it was working well for too long, with too many people. But it was an elementary system. Everyone was using it far beyond its intention."

 

Shooting the messenger

 

A defense contractor for the CIA named John Reidy claims he warned the agency that it was using insecure communications systems in 2008, and again in 2010 when he started to suspect the channels had been cracked. A year later he was fired by the agency, a move he claims was retaliation for not shutting up.

 

“It was a recipe for disaster,” Reidy said. “We had a catastrophic failure on our hands that would ensnare a great many of our sources.”

 

Reidy said that he appealed to the CIA's Inspector General and those who were supposed to be providing congressional oversight. No one did anything to sort out the issue and Reidy was sidelined and then sacked.

 

“This is one of the most catastrophic intelligence failures since Sept. 11,” said Irvin McCullough, a national security analyst with the Government Accountability Project. “And the CIA punished the person who brought the problem to light.

 

The CIA did not respond to a request for comment. ®

 

Source

[steven36]

How many  times you going post this

Nothing that happen under Obama shocks me we , the whole 8 years  was noting but leaks  and after 2013 Snowden exposed  the NSA ,  the whole world already knew  all those CIA offers  were killed  years ago  .. Before they blamed it off on a CIA officer was the mole..  But i don't know if this news about Iran is true are not ..How do  we  not know this is not USA  propaganda?  Strange how the news  comes out  in bloombreg  about spy chips then the USA ban  a Chinese chip company.  As soon as Yahoo reported this  the USA put  all  sanctions back  on Iran that were on them before Obama removed them and gave Iran a pallet full of money.  

 

After 9-11 attacks  when the USA went to war over in Afghanistan they decided to go to war with Iraq  as well  there reason was Iraq had WMDs but the  CIA done sent someone to check to see had they been buying stuff again to make dirty bombs again and they hadn't   there witness to the fact the USA had destroyed all the WMD in 1st war was left behind in Iraq and killed after the CIA had promised them they would  be pulled out  and the Government stopped the witness from being able to leave  they just got the CIA officer  that was in danger out, and the war broke out based on WMDs that never existed and every news agency all over the USA and the world was posting  this fake propaganda. I read this is the whole reason  Russia stop trusting NATO because blood was not just on Bush's  hands because other countries sent troops over there based on this lie as well.

[samoray]

Politics == lies

I dont trust anyone even my own government.