CIA 2010 covert communication websites

Re:CIA 2010 covert communication websites by CSMastermind on Saturday December 02, 2023 @01:48AM (#38496511)

So my assumption is that spies in foreign countries would periodically visit these websites to receive coded instructions in the news updates?

And maybe they made the websites tailored to the individual asset's interests so it looks less suspicious when they visit?

Meaning if your source is a huge star wars nerd you make a star wars fan site for them to check out?

Presumably there's no way for the source to send information back through these websites right?

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Re:CIA 2010 covert communication websites by nneonneo on Saturday December 02, 2023 @02:14AM (#38496635)

The Reuters story (https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/usa-spie...) made this more explicit: there was a password field on the site, poorly disguised as a search feature, that would open a chat box when the right password was entered, into which the source could enter messages. On many of these sites, the password is validated by a bit of obfuscated JavaScript, which then loads a Java applet implementing the actual chat window.

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Re:CIA 2010 covert communication websites by figassis on Saturday December 02, 2023 @04:21AM (#38497291)

Wow, these guys really did not give a damn about informants. That is some high school level amateur work. Sequential ips, password field, I wonder if they even used ssl. If they did, likely some US affiliated vendor.

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Re:CIA 2010 covert communication websites by DanAtC on Saturday December 02, 2023 @01:51PM (#38500910)

Anyone with better skills is in the private market making a lot more money.

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Re:CIA 2010 covert communication websites by cirosantilli on Sunday December 03, 2023 @12:08PM (#38508607)

Yeah. They just didn't have the patience to setup separate ranges for each of their ~900 sites. It's quite sad.

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