Forwarded from BlackBox (Security) Archiv
Project DREAD: White House veterans helped Gulf monarchy build secret surveillance unit
In the years after 9/11, former U.S. counterterrorism czar Richard Clarke warned Congress that the country needed more expansive spying powers to prevent another catastrophe. Five years after leaving government, he shopped the same idea to an enthusiastic partner: an Arab monarchy with deep pockets.
In 2008, Clarke went to work as a consultant guiding the United Arab Emirates as it created a cyber surveillance capability that would utilize top American intelligence contractors to help monitor threats against the tiny nation.
The secret unit Clarke helped create had an ominous acronym: #DREAD, short for #Development #Research #Exploitation and #Analysis #Department. In the years that followed, the #UAE unit expanded its hunt far beyond suspected extremists to include a #Saudi women’s rights activist, diplomats at the United Nations and personnel at #FIFA, the world soccer body. By 2012, the program would be known among its #American operatives by a codename: #Project #Raven.
Reuters reports this year revealed how a group of former National Security Agency operatives and other elite American intelligence veterans helped the UAE spy on a wide range of targets through the previously undisclosed program — from terrorists to human rights activists, journalists and dissidents.
Now, an examination of the origins of DREAD, reported here for the first time, shows how a pair of former senior White House leaders, working with ex-#NSA #spies and #Beltway contractors, played pivotal roles in building a program whose actions are now under scrutiny by federal authorities.
To chart the UAE spying mission’s evolution, #Reuters examined more than 10,000 DREAD program documents and interviewed more than a dozen contractors, intelligence operatives and former government insiders with direct knowledge of the program. The documents Reuters reviewed span nearly a decade of the DREAD program, starting in 2008, and include internal memos describing the project’s logistics, operational plans and targets.
Clarke was the first in a string of former White House and U.S. defense executives who arrived in the UAE after 9/11 to build the spying unit. Utilizing his close relationship to the country’s rulers, forged through decades of experience as a senior U.S. decision-maker, Clarke won numerous security consulting contracts in the UAE. One of them was to help build the secret spying unit in an unused airport facility in Abu Dhabi.
👉🏼 Read more:
https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/usa-raven-whitehouse/
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In the years after 9/11, former U.S. counterterrorism czar Richard Clarke warned Congress that the country needed more expansive spying powers to prevent another catastrophe. Five years after leaving government, he shopped the same idea to an enthusiastic partner: an Arab monarchy with deep pockets.
In 2008, Clarke went to work as a consultant guiding the United Arab Emirates as it created a cyber surveillance capability that would utilize top American intelligence contractors to help monitor threats against the tiny nation.
The secret unit Clarke helped create had an ominous acronym: #DREAD, short for #Development #Research #Exploitation and #Analysis #Department. In the years that followed, the #UAE unit expanded its hunt far beyond suspected extremists to include a #Saudi women’s rights activist, diplomats at the United Nations and personnel at #FIFA, the world soccer body. By 2012, the program would be known among its #American operatives by a codename: #Project #Raven.
Reuters reports this year revealed how a group of former National Security Agency operatives and other elite American intelligence veterans helped the UAE spy on a wide range of targets through the previously undisclosed program — from terrorists to human rights activists, journalists and dissidents.
Now, an examination of the origins of DREAD, reported here for the first time, shows how a pair of former senior White House leaders, working with ex-#NSA #spies and #Beltway contractors, played pivotal roles in building a program whose actions are now under scrutiny by federal authorities.
To chart the UAE spying mission’s evolution, #Reuters examined more than 10,000 DREAD program documents and interviewed more than a dozen contractors, intelligence operatives and former government insiders with direct knowledge of the program. The documents Reuters reviewed span nearly a decade of the DREAD program, starting in 2008, and include internal memos describing the project’s logistics, operational plans and targets.
Clarke was the first in a string of former White House and U.S. defense executives who arrived in the UAE after 9/11 to build the spying unit. Utilizing his close relationship to the country’s rulers, forged through decades of experience as a senior U.S. decision-maker, Clarke won numerous security consulting contracts in the UAE. One of them was to help build the secret spying unit in an unused airport facility in Abu Dhabi.
👉🏼 Read more:
https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/usa-raven-whitehouse/
📡@cRyPtHoN_INFOSEC_DE
📡@cRyPtHoN_INFOSEC_EN
📡@BlackBox_Archiv
Forwarded from BlackBox (Security) Archiv
CCC analyses Munich's state trojan FinSpy
The technical #analysis of copies of the #FinSpy #malware substantiates the reasons for the criminal complaint against the Munich manufacturer of the #StateTrojan. The #CCC publishes its report as well as several variants of FinSpy and a complete documentation of the analysis.
#Security researchers of the Chaos Computer Club (CCC) have analyzed a total of 28 copies of the #spy-#software FinSpy for #Android from 2012 to 2019. The main focus of the investigation was the origin of the malware and the date of its production. The reason for the investigation is the criminal complaint of the Gesellschaft für Freiheitsrechte (GFF) and other organizations against the German group of companies #FinFisher because of the deliberate violation of licensing requirements for dual-use software according to § 18 para. 2 No. 1 and § 18 para. 5 No. 1 Foreign Trade Act (AWG).
The CCC today publishes its comprehensive report: Evolution of a private sector malware for governmental players
💡 The result of the analysis is that a copy of malware, which according to the GFF was used against the Turkish opposition movement in 2016, was clearly created after the EU export control regulations for surveillance software came into force.
💡 By comparing it with over twenty other copies from a seven-year period, the CCC shows continuity in the further development into which this copy fits. This is seen as a strong indication that it is a variant of the state Trojan "FinSpy". FinSpy is a product of the FinFisher group of companies, which has branches in Munich and elsewhere.
💡 In its report, the CCC also documents references to German-speaking developers that can be found in the source code.
"Our analysis shows that surveillance software originally from Germany was apparently used against democratic dissidents," said Linus Neumann, one of the authors of the analysis. "How this could have come about, the public prosecutor's office and the customs criminal office must now clarify."
https://github.com/linuzifer/FinSpy-Dokumentation
https://github.com/devio/FinSpy-Tools
👉🏼 Read more:
https://www.ccc.de/de/updates/2019/finspy
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The technical #analysis of copies of the #FinSpy #malware substantiates the reasons for the criminal complaint against the Munich manufacturer of the #StateTrojan. The #CCC publishes its report as well as several variants of FinSpy and a complete documentation of the analysis.
#Security researchers of the Chaos Computer Club (CCC) have analyzed a total of 28 copies of the #spy-#software FinSpy for #Android from 2012 to 2019. The main focus of the investigation was the origin of the malware and the date of its production. The reason for the investigation is the criminal complaint of the Gesellschaft für Freiheitsrechte (GFF) and other organizations against the German group of companies #FinFisher because of the deliberate violation of licensing requirements for dual-use software according to § 18 para. 2 No. 1 and § 18 para. 5 No. 1 Foreign Trade Act (AWG).
The CCC today publishes its comprehensive report: Evolution of a private sector malware for governmental players
💡 The result of the analysis is that a copy of malware, which according to the GFF was used against the Turkish opposition movement in 2016, was clearly created after the EU export control regulations for surveillance software came into force.
💡 By comparing it with over twenty other copies from a seven-year period, the CCC shows continuity in the further development into which this copy fits. This is seen as a strong indication that it is a variant of the state Trojan "FinSpy". FinSpy is a product of the FinFisher group of companies, which has branches in Munich and elsewhere.
💡 In its report, the CCC also documents references to German-speaking developers that can be found in the source code.
"Our analysis shows that surveillance software originally from Germany was apparently used against democratic dissidents," said Linus Neumann, one of the authors of the analysis. "How this could have come about, the public prosecutor's office and the customs criminal office must now clarify."
https://github.com/linuzifer/FinSpy-Dokumentation
https://github.com/devio/FinSpy-Tools
👉🏼 Read more:
https://www.ccc.de/de/updates/2019/finspy
📡@cRyPtHoN_INFOSEC_DE
📡@cRyPtHoN_INFOSEC_EN
📡@BlackBox_Archiv