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Tactics of Psy-Group, Black Cube Revealed in Canadian Court Battle

calcalistech.com

11–20 of 56 posts

Re: Tactics of Psy-Group, Black Cube Revealed in Canadian Court Battle

#11
post #9

Why make such a big deal out of how these companies are Israeli? It feels kind of like a dog whistle- what makes the location where a misbehaving company is registered relevant to the story? You'd never read an article saying something like "Uber- a Deleware corporation did x y z..."

Well for one thing, the article comes from the tech site with is an arm of an Israeli newspaper. Maybe it's more like The Delaware Herald starting an article off with "Joe's Consulting, a company headquartered in state capitol Annapolis.." There is to me something negative implied in being a Delaware corporation (tax avoidance). This article is only critical of the shady tactics of the two firms mentioned in the stor…

Annapolis is probably not the state capital of Delaware, since it's the state capital of Maryland.

Source: Lived in Maryland for twelve years.

Re: Tactics of Psy-Group, Black Cube Revealed in Canadian Court Battle

#12
The fact that these 'sting operations' by private agencies were intended for planting in newspapers is an interesting issue. Reminds me of an article about how a BBC report about language tests for immigrants caused the UK government to inaccurately crack down on people who were taking tests legitimately https://twitter.com/natematias/status/992739616443772928

Basically, the media is really eager to 'expose' things, but what happened before (if the information was collected by a partisan entity) and after (if the exposé led to overreaction) is something to consider...

Re: Tactics of Psy-Group, Black Cube Revealed in Canadian Court Battle

#13
post #10
post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also ex Mossad agents, it is relevant.

Are they ex Mossad agents? The article cites one as claiming to be a former "Commander" of something. Everyone Joe in Israel tries to claim that. Only after digging into specifics do you realize that they were cooks who left the army early due to heat stroke.

Black Cube is a private intelligence agency, which is based in London, Paris and Tel Aviv, and is the trading name of BC Strategy Ltd. The company was founded in 2010 by former Israeli intelligence officers Dan Zorella (in Hebrew: דן זורלא) and Avi Yanus (in Hebrew: אבי ינוס). Its employees include former members of Israeli intelligence units, including Aman, Mossad and Shin Bet, as well as legal and financial experts. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Cube

More info here: https://www.haaretz.com/us-news/report-weinstein-hired-ex-mo...

Re: Tactics of Psy-Group, Black Cube Revealed in Canadian Court Battle

#14

Why make such a big deal out of how these companies are Israeli? It feels kind of like a dog whistle- what makes the location where a misbehaving company is registered relevant to the story? You'd never read an article saying something like "Uber- a Deleware corporation did x y z..."

a.) Israeli newspaper.

b.) You'll certainly hear of Uber being an American company.

c.) Sick and tired of any mention of Israel being subject to strict language policing by people who feel the need to protect it from criticism at any rate, even when it's not relevant, or when it genuinely does do something wrong.

Re: Tactics of Psy-Group, Black Cube Revealed in Canadian Court Battle

#15

Why make such a big deal out of how these companies are Israeli? It feels kind of like a dog whistle- what makes the location where a misbehaving company is registered relevant to the story? You'd never read an article saying something like "Uber- a Deleware corporation did x y z..."

I bet you'd want to know the location if the malicious acting company was Iranian or Sudanese no?

Re: Tactics of Psy-Group, Black Cube Revealed in Canadian Court Battle

#17
Where is the HN relevance? Did Psy-Group or Black Cube employ tech to conduct its influence operations? Were systems compromised? Was there a troll center posting in forums? Influence ops via technical means are a real problem for journalism and online communities and something relevant to HN. I'm not seeing how this article aligns with HN.

Re: Tactics of Psy-Group, Black Cube Revealed in Canadian Court Battle

#18
post #13
post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are they ex Mossad agents? The article cites one as claiming to be a former "Commander" of something. Everyone Joe in Israel tries to claim that. Only after digging into specifics do you realize that they were cooks who left the army early due to heat stroke.

Black Cube is a private intelligence agency, which is based in London, Paris and Tel Aviv, and is the trading name of BC Strategy Ltd. The company was founded in 2010 by former Israeli intelligence officers Dan Zorella (in Hebrew: דן זורלא) and Avi Yanus (in Hebrew: אבי ינוס). Its employees include former members of Israeli intelligence units, including Aman, Mossad and Shin Bet, as well as legal and financial expert…

It's just a status signalling most of the time. Like an employee was member of Israeli Air Force (3 years guarding an ammunition depot....)

Re: Tactics of Psy-Group, Black Cube Revealed in Canadian Court Battle

#19
post #17

Where is the HN relevance? Did Psy-Group or Black Cube employ tech to conduct its influence operations? Were systems compromised? Was there a troll center posting in forums? Influence ops via technical means are a real problem for journalism and online communities and something relevant to HN. I'm not seeing how this article aligns with HN.

> Did Psy-Group or Black Cube employ tech to conduct its influence operations? Were systems compromised?

It's not mentioned in the article, but Black Cube did try and succeed to break the gmail address of Laura-Codruta Kovesi a couple of years ago (she's head of the Romanian anti-corruption agency, a sort of what Antonio Di Pietro and Mani Pulite was for Italy back in the '90s). Allegedly the Black Cube contractors/employees used a social engineering scheme in order to gain access to Kovesi's email. The two Black Cube contractors were subsequently arrested and they've just been given a suspended sentence, so that they can happily go back to Israel and pick other clients.

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