tomu
March 13th, 2006, 07:30 AM
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-060311ciamain-story,1,123362.story?coll=chi-news-hed&ctrack=1&cset=true
The Chicago Tribune managed to uncover about 2600 CIA agents real identyties, 50 internal CIA phone numbers and several secret CIA facilities, one of it the secret training facility called the "Farm" by using search engnies of the internet and access to publicly accessible databases like lexis-nexis.
By using data mining the journalist/-s were able to uncover agents working as undercover operatives abroad. Mind you they didn't hack any secure or secret databases or had insider support but only searched available information open to the public, some free of charge and some they had to pay for the access.
This data mining is daily routine of every PR- and Marketing-company or any large corporation.
It is known that China and even North Korea invested heavily in their military hacking facilities, maybe the russians didn't think of this approach, but the Chinese certainly did. The Taliban have several internet- and computer specialists trained in the west and they use the internet heavily, too.
And what had worked with CIA agents will certainly also work with the FBI, BATF, Secret Service and other agencies as well, like the office of Home-GESTAPO-Department. All of this agencies are involved in the "war" on terrorism and in "protecting" the public.
Assume that some terrorists are planning to attack some place, called a hard target because it is secured. Wouldn't it be very helpful to them to find out who is protecting the place, who is responsible in case of an emergency etc.
This knowledge would enable them, to find a weak spot in the security as well putting pressure (e.g. kidnapp wife and kids) on the ones who are responsible or kill one or more of the security and emergency managers.
Imagine the security supervisors and emergency managers are killed a few hours before an terror attack takes place. At the time the terrorist strike, the security measures are then severly weakened as will be the rescue operations, because the coordination has to be done by untrained personnel, like minimum wage rent-a-cop types.
Great possiblities come to my mind!
The Chicago Tribune managed to uncover about 2600 CIA agents real identyties, 50 internal CIA phone numbers and several secret CIA facilities, one of it the secret training facility called the "Farm" by using search engnies of the internet and access to publicly accessible databases like lexis-nexis.
By using data mining the journalist/-s were able to uncover agents working as undercover operatives abroad. Mind you they didn't hack any secure or secret databases or had insider support but only searched available information open to the public, some free of charge and some they had to pay for the access.
This data mining is daily routine of every PR- and Marketing-company or any large corporation.
It is known that China and even North Korea invested heavily in their military hacking facilities, maybe the russians didn't think of this approach, but the Chinese certainly did. The Taliban have several internet- and computer specialists trained in the west and they use the internet heavily, too.
And what had worked with CIA agents will certainly also work with the FBI, BATF, Secret Service and other agencies as well, like the office of Home-GESTAPO-Department. All of this agencies are involved in the "war" on terrorism and in "protecting" the public.
Assume that some terrorists are planning to attack some place, called a hard target because it is secured. Wouldn't it be very helpful to them to find out who is protecting the place, who is responsible in case of an emergency etc.
This knowledge would enable them, to find a weak spot in the security as well putting pressure (e.g. kidnapp wife and kids) on the ones who are responsible or kill one or more of the security and emergency managers.
Imagine the security supervisors and emergency managers are killed a few hours before an terror attack takes place. At the time the terrorist strike, the security measures are then severly weakened as will be the rescue operations, because the coordination has to be done by untrained personnel, like minimum wage rent-a-cop types.
Great possiblities come to my mind!