GCHQ: Fake Internet Cafes
June 17th, 2013The fact that GCHQ spied on G20 delegates is just more intelligence agency non-news, which, for some reason, is very popular in the media these days. Targeting diplomatic traffic is a routine activity that all states carry out. You can read yourself to sleep with Bamford’s Puzzle Palace, published in 1982, if this comes as a surprise to you.
So why post this at all?
One of the core concepts that I’d like you guys to keep in mind is that companies that purport to provide “anonymity” services could easily be intelligence agency cutouts. I mentioned this in my 2007 ‘ugly truth’ essay.
Flash forward to today, we see that GCHQ set up Internet cafes to target G20 delegates.
Ok, so extend that logic just a bit further and what do you wind up with?
I get more requests to promote VPN services on Cryptogon than any other type of business on here. Why do you think that is? (rhetorical question)
Be very, very careful of anyone who promotes specific VPN services. (I say this as someone who uses a VPN myself.) At the end of the day, there is NO WAY to know who or what is actually running that thing.
Via: Guardian:
Foreign politicians and officials who took part in two G20 summit meetings in London in 2009 had their computers monitored and their phone calls intercepted on the instructions of their British government hosts, according to documents seen by the Guardian. Some delegates were tricked into using internet cafes which had been set up by British intelligence agencies to read their email traffic.
The revelation comes as Britain prepares to host another summit on Monday – for the G8 nations, all of whom attended the 2009 meetings which were the object of the systematic spying. It is likely to lead to some tension among visiting delegates who will want the prime minister to explain whether they were targets in 2009 and whether the exercise is to be repeated this week.
Yeah, I’ve recently tested the free VPN Spotify, which seems to work pretty well. However…it’s free. And it’s a startup whose CEO was given space in Huffington Post to write a review…and they are based in Virginia…nothing is for free, good chance it’s a trap. We’re doomed, there really is no way you can win at this game…
Let’s not forget the same is true for Tor, which seems to be the latest “solution” being pushed by the alternative press these days. I always think of this from back in 2007. Still one of the best summaries of what it really requires to maintain some level of privacy and the capabilities of the surveillance state even back then.
When I think about who sponsored Tor I get chills.
well, this weekend I was listening to the Sean Hannity show. He had William Binney on as a guest, and was asking a lot of questions. He asked if a big government critic such as himself would have a big file kept on him. When the left and right suddenly realize they have consensus regarding the NSA, I wonder why they can’t call each other’s bluff and shut it down.
You can count on them spying on delegates. It is too tempting to pass up. Delegates are just going to have to use non-American industrial strength encryption in their communications and not use the phone for any sensitive information. That is the only way for them to keep their communications even remotely private.