Eat, Drink and Be Wary: Ex-CIA Officer Reveals How Eateries Are Key to Spycraft

Post by Mirioron » Thu, Oct 17, 2019, 11:56 PM UTC

blantonl wrote: post #82

RcouF1uZ4gsC wrote: post #56

I wonder how much of CIA spycraft has been made obsolete because of social media? In the past finding out who someone's family, friends, interests, political leanings, where they travel, and skills might involve sending a human to secretly follow them around. Now you can just see who their family and friends on Facebook are, look at their daugther's Instagram page to see where the family has traveled, see their comme…

CIA agents are trained to be perfectly just like "one of us" leading apparently normal lives. There are most likely CIA agents among us here on Hacker News... functioning as technology executives, sales people, engineers, developers, etc

Post by [deleted] » Fri, Oct 18, 2019, 12:37 AM UTC

homero wrote: post #99

openasocket wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My fiance worked for a movie theater in the DC area for a while. Once she found, left on the floor, a packet for an Afghanistan diplomat program put on by the US State department. Big itinerary with lots of names, dates, contact information, not just for the various stops and talks but for the people selected for the program. Nothing classified or obviously sensitive, but I'm sure someone with the interest could run…

That was a drop waiting to be picked up

Post by rasz » Fri, Oct 18, 2019, 12:52 AM UTC

chimi wrote: post #14

goatinaboat wrote: post #12

to "the Farm," a secret CIA facility in Virginia where their grueling training included all the obligatory skills of what Fox refers to as "the Bond business": how to flip or crash a car; how to use a Glock; how to parachute; how to use a speedboat; how to withstand torture; how to use a grocery bag and duct tape to bandage a punctured chest; and how to commit suicide This is over-egging the pudding a bit.

You'd think the "commit suicide" lesson would just be "perform any of the prior taught skills not well enough."

Post by currymj » Fri, Oct 18, 2019, 12:55 AM UTC

User23 wrote: post #96

opportune wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also true for the Caltrain, coffee shops, and nicer restaurants between SF and SJ. And SFO, SJC, and SEA airports; I think I hear some salesman loudly talking about a deal almost every time I fly out of those places on weekdays.

Fun fact: Using knowledge gained in this way isn't insider trading[1]. Conceivably a person could even sell tips based on information heard in public places to traders. During the golden age of Wall Street, this was extremely common. Traders or their lackeys would visit businesses (or the bars near them) and pump employees for info. [1] Not a lawyer, not legal advice.

Post by ImprovedSilence » Fri, Oct 18, 2019, 1:01 AM UTC

stordoff wrote: post #92

beamatronic wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Crowdsource. Pay people to run an app when they go around DC, that records constantly from their mic, and uploads it to the cloud along with their location. I’m sure someone has already thought of this!

La Liga: > The Spanish football league La Liga has admitted that its official smartphone app has been making audio recordings in order to identify pirate broadcasts of football games. > The league said its app detected the location of users, and if they were found to be in a bar, it then recorded audio clips using phone microphones. > The app used an algorithm to identify whether the person was watching a football ga…