
The Spycraft Revolution - hsnewman
https://foreignpolicy.com/2019/04/27/the-spycraft-revolution-espionage-technology/
======
AndrewKemendo
I'm pretty open (within legal bounds) about my time in the operational and
technical intelligence world, to the consternation of others in the field, and
would say that this article is dead on with it's analysis.

One thing that I try to get across to people is that, Intelligence as a
discipline is fundamentally about servicing the Instrument of National Power
[1] of "Information."

In that context, the manner in which information is tasked, collected,
processed, analyzed and used to make decisions on is a forever moving target,
which the Intelligence Community is very well aware of.

The really interesting question here is, what happens when commercial and
consumer information systems (eg Google, Facebook, Huawei, Tencent) are able
to deploy collection sensors and do information processing at a much larger
scale than any individual nation state? The balance of Information power
starts to shift away from nations and toward Multinational corporations who
control those sensor networks.

For example the USG used to run every imagery satellite in existence, now
there are a half dozen commercial imagery satellites and growing.

[1][https://www.thelightningpress.com/the-instruments-of-
nationa...](https://www.thelightningpress.com/the-instruments-of-national-
power/)

~~~
the-usual
You get The Dutch East India Company.

Corporations capable of operating according to their own rules. At least
within their sphere of expertise.

If they have the resources to operate beyond the reach of the law, they
transcend the law to make their own new rules. They do whatever they want,
scoped according to their capabiities, and they cover up anything that isn't
on the level. They use what they have to their own advantage, as a natural
perk of having he means to do so.

~~~
barry-cotter
The VOC and EIC were always run by civilians who were primarily after profit
and obeyed the laws of the Dutch and English state. They were no more
operating beyond the reach of law than ExxonMobil is. Just as the US does not
respect the sovereignty of other, less powerful countries now the Netherlands
and England did not respect weaker countries’ sovereignty then.

The companies are a distraction, the relative power differentials between
countries aren’t.

~~~
coretx
No, it was only after the VOC was dissolved that governors where to be
appointed by the Crown. To a certain extend, they where the law. Remnants of
that past are still to be found in the UN treaty on the high seas as it grants
captains of (trade) ships rights and privileges associated with the state, not
with civilian commercial enterprises. Your stories are not mutually exclusive,
i'm afraid you both are right.

~~~
barry-cotter
But the VOC was always a corporation chartered under Dutch law which was run
by Dutch civilians. It had its own navy and army but at the top it was never
sovereign and never aspired to be. It acted as a sovereign but never in or
indeed near the Netherlands.

------
chriselles
Scud the Disposable Intelligence Officer would make for a legit revival of the
Scud comic franchise.

The 2010 assassination of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in Dubai by Mossad was a shocker
to the general public when the kill team and support personnel were plastered
on TV by UAE law enforcement immediately following via dozens of stitched
together CCTV feeds.

That op burned a few dozen people from most future external operations.

All I know is that there will be thousands of former intelligence officers and
shooters sweating biometric datamining for future overseas holiday travel on
their own passports in allied countries, forget about semi/non-permissive
country personnel travel.

~~~
pseingatl
This is what happens when you indict foreign intelligence officers. You expose
your own to criminal charges and Interpol Red Notices. It's just a question of
time before US soldiers and sailors are included in the loop.

------
pjmorris
"As the cost of conducting espionage operations—in money, time, and effort—has
shrunk, spying has become less esoteric. These days it is an integral part of
business, finance, sports, and family litigation over divorce and child
custody. Indeed, modern life encourages people and institutions of all kinds
to adopt the thinking and practices of the spy world."

My joke, for some years now, has been that the average teenager has better
surveillance capabilities than the CIA did in the 1960's. It might be better
than what they had in the 70's or 80's by now. It seems likely to me that
Google, Facebook, and probably Amazon, have better data than intelligence
agencies of the 90's could've ever hoped for.

~~~
paganel
> Google, Facebook, and probably Amazon, have better data than intelligence
> agencies of the 90's could've ever hoped for.

Putin was being made fun of back in 2012 or 2013 when he was saying that the
Internet is actually a tool for the US Intelligence Community. Shortly after
that some of Putin's cronies took direct control of VKontakte. As it so
happens, Facebook was advised by a boutique investment bank called Allen & Co
when it acquired Whatsapp for what was considered to be a huge sum ($19
billion) [1]. One of the managing directors of Allen & Co back then was none
other than George Tenet, former Director of the CIA. [2]

I also believe that Skype's acquisition by MS (for what was also considered as
a huge sum back then, $8 billion) was in part a covert operation to help the
US Intelligence Community. Shortly after the acquisition MS got rid of Skype's
p2p architecture and reverted to using one big centralized communications
system, which by all intents and purposes made it easier for anyone so
interested to control and check what was being discussed on Skype.

[1] [https://www.fnlondon.com/articles/facebook-whatsapp-puts-
all...](https://www.fnlondon.com/articles/facebook-whatsapp-puts-allen-and-co-
back-in-top-10-20140220)

[2] [https://www.wallstreetoasis.com/forums/allen-co-the-
invisibl...](https://www.wallstreetoasis.com/forums/allen-co-the-invisible-
investment-bank)

~~~
seppin
> Internet is actually a tool for the US Intelligence Community

The internet is a tool for every countries' intelligence community.

> Skype's acquisition by MS was in part a covert operation to help the US
> Intelligence Community

Source?

~~~
nyolfen
he qualified with "i believe," but whether that was a motivation at the outset
or not is the only issue in contention:
[https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/jul/11/microsoft-
nsa-...](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/jul/11/microsoft-nsa-
collaboration-user-data)

it is well known that skype's crypto has always been an obfuscated black box
(this may have been primarily to prevent reverse engineered clients using the
protocol but it makes backdoors much less detectable), and transitioning from
p2p to centralized architecture (which iirc was done after the ebay
acquisition) where one party holds the keys obviously makes snooping easier

~~~
DennisP
Initially Skype was an Estonian company, with founders from Denmark and
Sweden. A reporter asked the CEO whether they would modify it to allow
compliance with a U.S telecom law mandating provision for wiretapping of voice
services, and the CEO said "We're not American. Why would we?"

It was a sad day when that changed.

------
baybal2
> Investigators can also combine these two tactics with a third: financial
> information. What is the student’s credit rating? What plastic cards does
> she carry? Does her purchasing history and behavior match her cover story?
> Every one of these questions is revealing if answered and devastating if
> not. There are, after all, very few people who travel abroad without a bank
> account or credit rating, with no social media history, and a prepaid burner
> phone—and those who do tend to have something to hide.

Heh, is it something that rare. I personally knew people never ever had even a
landline in Russia, and I can't say about that being rare.

On other hand, Russian own spies are said to be intentionally recruited from
small towns in Russian Far East

~~~
seppin
> On other hand, Russian own spies are said to be intentionally recruited from
> small towns in Russian Far East

Matches the two men who carried out the Salisbury Attack.

~~~
coretx
Most spies are not aware of the fact that they are recruited as a spy.

~~~
seppin
What would someone that kills people for their government think they are doing
for a living?

------
ilaksh
I do not think that we should operate our world as if it were a James Bond
movie.

It shows a fundamental moral deficiency that effectively makes civilization
into a myth. And regardless of morals, it's an inherently insecure paradigm.

~~~
zbentley
Was there ever a time when this was not the case? What realities were
different during that time? Could we change towards those realities today?
Should we?

~~~
ilaksh
No, there was never a time. What has changed are things like the advancement
of science and communications that make the world much smaller in a way.

------
3xblah
"Only the very poor, the very young, and the very old don't carry some kind of
mobile device these days."

Good on them.

------
tempodox
> Indeed, China’s national security law expressly requires every individual
> and corporation, state-run or not, to aid the intelligence services.

Australia does the same now.

