Spies, Lies and Realpolitik

general topics
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MI5 still risks breaking the law on surveillance data through poor controls – years after it was first warned

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[…]
The US Department of Justice has confirmed that the American government did take down the Iranian websites.

The sites in question were “in response to the Iranian regime targeting the United States’ electoral process with brazen attempts to sow discord among the voting populace by spreading disinformation online and executing malign influence operations aimed at misleading US voters,” it said.

“Components of the government of Iran, disguised as news organizations or media outlets, targeted the United States to subvert US democratic processes.”
[…]

Subverting US democratic processes by posing as a news organization or media outlet… hmmm…

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The sustained legal issues even triggered a Parliamentary statement by Home Secretary Priti Patel, revealing that the domestic spy agency did not have “a culture of individual accountability for legal compliance risk” until external oversight forced change upon the agency.

An intelligence agency for a major world power without a culture of individual accountability?!?!?!

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Priti Patel delivering that with a straight face and not a hint of irony?

(Reuse that gif)

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Peter Guillam turns out have quite a lot of things to attone for in A legacy of Spies.

“a culture of individual accountability for legal compliance risk” turns out to be a bit of legal boilerplate. It means “identifying the middle manager in order to save the firm or the higher executives.”

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It’s a difficult business when, at least in fiction, most of the time you’re actually working against the higher ups. If not resisting their incompetence, skirting their outright opposition to what needs doing. When it is people of conscience like Le Carre’s characters, it seems heroic. I imagine that environment leads a lot of wrong-minded individuals down ugly paths, though.

I hope it isn’t like that in reality, but as every other business seems to be that way, it probably is.

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Russia spoofed AIS data to fake British warship’s course days before Crimea guns showdown

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As this covers quite a lot of ground I’m posting this in several threads, so please don’t get confused or irritated.

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giphy

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Only the good die young?

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REvil ransomware gang’s websites vanish soon after Kaseya fiasco, Uncle Sam threatens retaliation

[…]
“The REvil leak site is definitely unreachable,” Sean Gallagher, Sophos senior threat researcher, told The Register , adding: "The server is likely down.
“It could be that the server hardware failed, or that it was intentionally taken down, or that someone attacked their host. At this time, there’s nothing claiming that law enforcement is responsible. The public internet ransom site was also down last week.”
[…]

Title seems a bit clickbait-y to me.

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USA warns Hong Kong government may demand business and customer data, run surveillance without warrants

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Amnesty International and French media protection org claim massive misuse of NSO spyware

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As always your first thought is: and that’s different from the US how?

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They are The Good GuysTM, then, now, and forever, Amen.