Espionage « OpenCdA

August 11, 2015

Idaho Citizens Possible Spies?

Filed under: Probable Cause — Tags: Espionage, MSS — Bill @ 8:12 am

Are citizens of Idaho being targeted for potential recruitment as spies by a foreign intelligence service?

Possibly.

Our OpenCdA post on July 11 titled OPM Hack – The Real Damage briefly explained the underlying significance of the information gleaned from hacked personnel records entrusted to the US Office of Personnel Management. The hack has been attributed to the People’s Republic of China’s intelligence service, the Guoanbu. The information obtained in the hack would have helped the Guoanbu assess US citizens’ vulnerability to be induced to commit espionage.

Now we learn from a July 30, 2015, NBC news story headlined Exclusive: Secret NSA Map Shows China Cyber Attacks on U.S. Targets that Idaho was one of the 48 contiguous states confirmed to have been targeted over a five year period. Although the July 30 article uses the term “cyber attacks”, a subsequent NBC news article on August 10, 2015, entitled China Reads Emails of Top U.S. Officials uses the same map. Since the snitched emails came from the officials’ private and not government email accounts, we can conclude the emails contained personal, very private communications about individuals’ personal behaviors and transactions. That very private information is useful in identifying factors which could be used by an intelligence service case officer to control his agent of espionage or influence. As Theodore Roosevelt astutely observed, “If you’ve got them by the balls, their hearts and minds will follow.” So will sensitive information they may have.

For a reasonably informative, Hollywood-ized video portraying the ChiCom’s economic espionage efforts in the US, take a look at the FBI’s 36-minute YouTube production The Company Man – Protecting America’s Secrets. It’s dramatized to make it entertaining, but it is still not a bad tutorial in how foreign intelligence services spot, assess, and attempt to recruit US citizens to provide economic intelligence.

It’s also worth reading the FBI’s July 23 web page entitled Economic Espionage – FBI Launches Nationwide Awareness Campaign.

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July 11, 2015

OPM Hack — The Real Damage

Filed under: Probable Cause — Tags: Counterintelligence, Espionage, MSS — Bill @ 7:46 am

By now readers probably know that Katherine Archuleta, director of the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM), resigned Friday. Her politically-expedient “resignation” was inevitable after the compromise of sensitive information in the personnel files of at least 21.5 million present and former federal employees, files OPM is responsible for securely maintaining and storing. The feds suspect that the Ministry of State Security of the People’s Republic of China, the Guojia Anquan Bu or Guoanbu, is behind the data breach.

Ho-hum. We’ve heard this all before — same song, different orchestra. This time, the amount of data swiped was huge, but so what? Should you or I really care if the Guoanbu filched a ton of Social Security numbers from OPM? No. And yes.

No, because it’s doubtful the Chicoms intend to raid Social Security’s funds (Besides, Congress beat them to it years ago.)

Yes, because if the hack was committed by the Guoanbu or any other competent foreign intelligence agency, the files they got were very sensitive investigative files on applicants for US government security clearances and special accesses. Investigative files — information uncovered during the course of an applicant’s background investigation — not just Social Security numbers. Those files would include credible derogatory information that might reflect on the applicant’s suitability to have access to sensitive classified and special access information affecting the national security. In most instances some of those investigative files are off-limits to even the applicant. That’s precisely the information a foreign intelligence service would love to get its hands on when its case officers are spotting prospective Americans who might be persuaded or induced to betray the United States. (more…)

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