
The Spy Who Added Me on LinkedIn - arcanus
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-11-15/the-spy-who-added-me-on-linkedin
======
rdtsc
This is a good story, well written. I remember the previous case with the
sleeper agents. The one theme I see is waste. Seems like such a wasteful way
to do things -- spend decades planning and setting everything up and then they
go and just ask companies for random info. Or during the Soviet times I like
how they sent this spy to acquire info on the Space Shuttle, so he went to a
public library and photo-copied stuff from there. Years of training and all
that setup to go and press the "copy" button in a library.

The timing of the story is not a coincidence I am guessing. They mentioned the
"election" so I am assuming it is playing along with the Russians have rigged
the election and KGB agents are everywhere. And that's why Clinton's campaign
resulted in worse Democratic election performance in 28 years. I don't know
about anyone else, I but I am getting a little tired of blaming the Russians
for everything. Wonder if editors would agree that we should be a lot stricter
with our immigration policy and vet people better before letting them come
in...

~~~
thewhitetulip
years of training and all they do is press the copy button

:-D that is a funny take at their life. they do have to live in "enemy"
territory as a double life, living that itself would account their intensive
training!

~~~
spoiler
I'm missing something, but what would be so difficult about living in enemy
territory? I don't believe anyone in their daily interaction was hostile to
them (apart from exceptions who would be hostile to anyone).

~~~
thewhitetulip
as far as I have read from spy novels:

There is a constant fear of being caught. He was an illegal foreign operative
in "enemy" territory. they were having his handler under surveillance for many
years.

I assume it to be highly stressful, living a double life, the constant fear of
being caught and thrown into prison or worse, fear of being killed one day.

Just being a spy does not mean that everyone is hostile to them, the article
itself says, counter intelligence != catch then really fast, it means identify
them and feed them incorrect intelligence, that way you control what your
"enemy" gets from their operative, it is way cheaper that way rather than
busting the spy rings. Also, this guy went too far, taking something given by
foreigners into their secret office! That is ludicrous even by fictional
standards(Jason Bourne novels).

The mind plays games!

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tedmiston
Blatantly off topic from the article but related to social network spies, and
because this community takes privacy concerns seriously — anyone who joins
your neighborhood on Nextdoor can immediately see your full address (apartment
number included) _with the default privacy settings_. Also, it's possible to
join a neighborhood with no verification if just one bad actor is in it and
invites you. I think it's an absolutely absurd setting. I've clicked through
many people in my neighborhood and get the feeling most people don't realize
the exposure at all.

~~~
gumby
Thanks, I had not realized that! Fortunately I registered under a fake
address, but still, didn't want that published either.

~~~
tedmiston
Exactly the same case for myself. It was up for over a year before I realized
too.

~~~
mistermann
How are there still no federal regulations on default privacy settings in
2016?

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secfirstmd
Anyone else feel that if the Russians really wanted to influence the election,
the actual methodologies used and people targeted were not that impressive or
well thought through? I mean it was hardly Stuxnet.

If your wanna change an election why not hack a wider range of targets? I know
that "Who gains most?" is one of the best ways to attribute blame in the
intelligence world but I have not (like the North Korea / Sony hack) seen
evidence that even nearly proves it was a hack directed by the Russian
Government. Possibly a malicious sympathiser but hardly state level
techniques...

Also, how slow and useless are the NSA that they weren't watching to protect
senior people in one of the two major parties in the country? If so many
intelligence folks are as sure as they claim to be that it's the Russians,
where is the counter-response? You mean to tell me that the TAO can't do
better then some leaks about Russian businessmen close to Putin - obviously
that is one of his weak points but he doesn't care about that right now. I get
that they don't want to reveal warfighting capabilities but seriously - if you
think it's really the Russians, throw a shoulder...

~~~
edblarney
"why not hack a wider range of targets?"

They need to have 'plausible deniability' so it's hard to do without fully
leaving your tracks and showing your hand.

~~~
secfirstmd
But let's red-team it for a second and think about who you would go after if
you were Russian and wanted to hand the election to Trump. There's a lot more
people on that list worth going after than the folks that "Guccifer" did
manage to get a hold of.

~~~
caseysoftware
I've been thinking along those lines for over a year and a half since
Hillary's email server was leaked by the NYT. Based on the fact that her email
was not state.gov, that would have made the server a target. To get her
detailed info - along with Bill's - that would have been useful.

In all honesty, can you imagine what's sitting in Bill's email? Or worse,
browser history?

Further, why just drop Podesta's email? While he's important in political
circles, the average American has no clue who he is.

I think if you _really_ wanted to take down Hillary, you'd release all the
nasty, snarky, etc email that you _know_ she sent to people. Not just the
nasty things she said about Republicans but other Democrats. Convince her
colleagues that she'll insult and sell them out in a heartbeat and enthusiasm
dips from both them and their supporters. With enthusiasm goes funding, rally
attendance, and turns into a loss.

~~~
secfirstmd
EXACTLY what I've been thinking...If the Russians really wanted to take her
down, they did a pretty crap job about it. Especially if you think about the
ways they have taken down their enemies covertly before - in much much smarter
ways.

Also, while I get that the Russians have always been way better at HUMINT than
the West is at SIGINT (or better at playing dirty?), it doesn't seem quite as
successful any more. I accept there is definitely an element of "known
unknowns" but the quality of access obtained by the past few Russian spies who
have been uncovered has been pretty poor.

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thewhitetulip
I started reading the article, in the middle it said "this is how they linked
the DNC hacking to Russians" and I finished the article and there was no
revelation at all, did I read it incorrectly? Or is the article misleading?

~~~
madaxe_again
I'm raising an eyebrow at the existence of the article, to be honest - I'm not
proposing that suppression of information would be a good thing, rather that
perhaps this is being published with a purpose.

There was a case earlier this year involving a pair of brits caught red handed
spying in Russia - it made international news for a day, and that was it. Both
were repatriated, and the matter didn't go any further in the public eye.

So - what I'm getting at - Russia declined a deal, and this lengthy exposé
going into methods and so-forth is the fallout. In the instance earlier this
year, Britain and Russia evidently played ball.

So, while it's perfectly valid journalism, I think there's also a bit of
"throw 'em to the lions".

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acqq
Has anybody managed to extract what was actually "spy" worthy that the guy
did?

"Asked people for information" isn't saying anything. What do I miss? What
were the secrets?

~~~
tedmiston
> On May 24, 2016, Buryakov was sentenced to 30 months in prison, and he now
> resides in the federal low-security prison in rural Lisbon, Ohio.

Sentenced to just 30 months in a low-security prison... must not have been too
severe.

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salimmadjd
Written by Howard Dean's former staffer [1].

This article smells like DNC propaganda. Firstly, this is an old story. The
heart of the news is about 2 years old [2] and it's Graff's first article for
bloomberg [3] though he has been writing for Wire and Politico (his former
paper)

Secondly, the author is exploring political career of his own in Vermont [4]
and it's very possible his Politico article (that changed the blame to lack of
technology skills by Hillary) [5] and this article are meant to curry favor
for DNC players as he is making his own political bids.

Lastly, the author makes conclusion the hacks were done by Russians, _perhaps
one of the greatest foreign operations in decades, has undoubtedly been
Russia’s successful effort to influence this fall’s presidential election
through hacking_ however as others pointed out there is no clear evidence of
this.

Overall, this shows the sophisticated state of political propaganda in US and
how it operates to shape the minds of the readers. We're in for a bumpy ride.

(edited for formatting)

[1] [https://www.linkedin.com/in/gagraff](https://www.linkedin.com/in/gagraff)

[2]
[https://www.ft.com/content/315343d2-a59d-11e4-ad35-00144feab...](https://www.ft.com/content/315343d2-a59d-11e4-ad35-00144feab7de)

[3] [http://www.bloomberg.com/authors/ATEO_DMrDvA/garrett-m-
graff](http://www.bloomberg.com/authors/ATEO_DMrDvA/garrett-m-graff)

[4]
[http://m.sevendaysvt.com/OffMessage/archives/2015/11/06/garr...](http://m.sevendaysvt.com/OffMessage/archives/2015/11/06/garrett-
graff-exploring-run-for-lieutenant-governor-of-vermont)

[5] [http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/09/hillary-
clint...](http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/09/hillary-clinton-
emails-2016-server-state-department-fbi-214307)

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vostok
My favorite part of this is that rewards for spying seems to be a $3k per
month house in the Bronx. Sounds like you're better off working for Facebook.

~~~
gragas
I don't think most spies are in it for the money. I can pretty much guarantee
that FBI/CIA/NSA salaries are all lower than those of the top tech companies.

~~~
vostok
I would really like to see some hard numbers. I know the salaries are public,
but I wonder if there are bonuses that aren't included and benefits such as
housing/car/food/etc. I'm sure some are contractors rather than employees. I
wonder how much they make.

~~~
oarsinsync
I once saw an advert for a job in British Intelligence that was offering £45k
PA. Comparative jobs in financial services were paying £75-£120k.

Base salaries, doesn't include bonuses, benefits, etc.

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rms_returns
Anyone watched the movie, Salt?

