Snowden Docs: British Spies Used Sex and 'Dirty Tricks'
By Matthew Cole, Richard Esposito, Mark Schone and Glenn Greenwald, Special Contributor
British
spies have developed "dirty tricks" for use against nations, hackers,
terror groups, suspected criminals and arms dealers that include
releasing computer viruses, spying on journalists and diplomats, jamming
phones and computers, and using sex to lure targets into "honey traps."
Documents
taken from the National Security Agency by Edward Snowden and
exclusively obtained by NBC News describe techniques developed by a
secret British spy unit called the Joint Threat Research and
Intelligence Group (JTRIG) as part of a growing mission to go on offense
and attack adversaries ranging from Iran to the hacktivists of
Anonymous. According to the documents, which come from presentations
prepped in 2010 and 2012 for NSA cyber spy conferences, the agency�s
goal was to "destroy, deny, degrade [and] disrupt" enemies by
"discrediting" them, planting misinformation and shutting down their
communications.
Both
PowerPoint presentations describe "Effects" campaigns that are broadly
divided into two categories: cyber attacks and propaganda operations.
The propaganda campaigns use deception, mass messaging and "pushing
stories" via Twitter, Flickr, Facebook and YouTube. JTRIG also uses
"false flag" operations, in which British agents carry out online
actions that are designed to look like they were performed by one of
Britain�s adversaries.
In
connection with this report, NBC is publishing documents that Edward
Snowden took from the NSA before fleeing the U.S., which can be viewed by clicking here and here. The documents are being published with minimal redactions.
The
spy unit�s cyber attack methods include the same "denial of service" or
DDOS tactic used by computer hackers to shut down government and
corporate websites.
Other
documents taken from the NSA by Snowden and previously published by NBC
News show that JTRIG, which is part of the NSA�s British counterpart,
the cyber spy agency known as GCHQ, used a DDOS attack to shut down
Internet chat rooms used by members of the hacktivist group known as
Anonymous.
Civil
libertarians said that in using a DDOS attack against hackers the
British government also infringed free speech by individuals not
involved in any illegal hacking, and may have blocked other websites
with no connection to Anonymous. While GCHQ defends the legality of its
actions, critics question whether the agency is too aggressive and its
mission too broad.
Eric
King, a lawyer who teaches IT law at the London School of Economics and
is head of research at Privacy International, a British civil liberties
advocacy group, said it was "remarkable" that the British government
thought it had the right to hack computers, since none of the U.K.�s
intelligence agencies has a "clear lawful authority" to launch their own
attacks.
"GCHQ
has no clear authority to send a virus or conduct cyber attacks," said
King. "Hacking is one of the most invasive methods of surveillance."
King said British cyber spies had gone on offense with "no legal
safeguards" and without any public debate, even though the British
government has criticized other nations, like Russia, for allegedly
engaging in cyber warfare.
But
intelligence officials defended the British government�s actions as
appropriate responses to illegal acts. One intelligence official also
said that the newest set of Snowden documents published by NBC News that
describe "Effects" campaigns show that British cyber spies were
"slightly ahead" of U.S. spies in going on offense against adversaries,
whether those adversaries are hackers or nation states. The documents
also show that a one-time signals surveillance agency, GCHQ, is now
conducting the kinds of active espionage operations that were once
exclusively the realm of the better-known British spy agencies MI5 and
MI6.
According to notes on the 2012
documents, a computer virus called Ambassadors Reception was "used in a
variety of different areas" and was "very effective." When sent to
adversaries, says the presentation, the virus will "encrypt itself,
delete all emails, encrypt all files, make [the] screen shake" and block
the computer user from logging on.
But
the British cyber spies� operations do not always remain entirely
online. Spies have long used sexual "honey traps" to snare, blackmail
and influence targets. Most often, a male target is led to believe he
has an opportunity for a romantic relationship or a sexual liaison with a
woman, only to find that the woman is actually an intelligence
operative. The Israeli government, for example, used a "honey trap" to
lure nuclear technician Mordechai Vanunu from London to Rome. He
expected an assignation with a woman, but instead was kidnapped by
Israel agents and taken back to Israel to stand trial for leaking
nuclear secrets to the media.
The version of a "honey trap"
described by British cyber spies in the 2012 PowerPoint presentation
sounds like a version of Internet dating, but includes physical
encounters. The target is lured "to go somewhere on the Internet, or a
physical location" to be met by "a friendly face." The goal, according
to the presentation, is to discredit the target.
A
"honey trap," says the presentation, is "very successful when it
works." But the documents do not give a specific example of when the
British government might have employed a honey trap.
An
operation described in the 2010 presentation also involves in-person
surveillance. "Royal Concierge" exploits hotel reservations to track the
whereabouts of foreign diplomats and send out "daily alerts to analysts
working on governmental hard targets." The British government uses the
program to try to steer its quarry to "SIGINT friendly" hotels,
according to the presentation, where the targets can be monitored
electronically � or in person by British operatives.
NBC News
The existence of the Royal
Concierge program was first reported by the German magazine Der Spiegel
in 2013, which said that Snowden documents showed that British spies had
monitored bookings of at least 350 upscale hotels around the world for
more than three years "to target, search and analyze reservations to
detect diplomats and government officials."
According
to the documents obtained by NBC News, the intelligence agency uses the
information to spy on human targets through "close access technical
operations," which can include listening in on telephone calls and
tapping hotel computers as well as sending intelligence officers to
observe the targets in person at the hotels. The documents ask, "Can we
influence hotel choice? Can we cancel their visits?"
The 2010 presentation also describes
another potential operation that would utilize a technique called
"credential harvesting" to select journalists who could be used to
spread information. According to intelligence sources, spies considered
using electronic snooping to identify non-British journalists who would
then be manipulated to feed information to the target of a covert
campaign. Apparently, the journalist�s job would provide access to the
targeted individual, perhaps for an interview. The documents do not
specify whether the journalists would be aware or unaware that they were
being used to funnel information.
The
executive director of the Committee to Protect Journalists, Joel Simon,
said that the revelation about "credential harvesting" should serve as a
"wake up call" to journalists that intelligence agencies can monitor
their communications. Simon also said that governments put all
journalists at risk when they use even one for an intelligence
operation.
"All journalists
generally are then vulnerable to the charge that they work at the behest
of an intelligence agency," said Simon.
The
journalist operation was never put into action, according to sources,
but other techniques described in the documents, like the Ambassadors
Reception computer virus and the jamming of phones and computers, have
definitely been used to attack adversaries.
In
Afghanistan, according to the 2012 presentation, the British used a
blizzard of text messages, phone calls and faxes to "significantly
disrupt" Taliban communications, with texts and calls programmed to
arrive every minute.
In a set of
operations that intelligence sources say were designed to stop weapons
transactions and nuclear proliferation, JTRIG used negative information
to attack private companies, sour business relationships and ruin deals.
The British cyber spies also used blog posts and information spread via blogs in an operation against Iran.
Other effective methods of cyber
attack listed in the documents include changing photos on social media
sites and emailing and texting colleagues and neighbors unsavory
information. The documents do not give examples of when these techniques
were used, but intelligence sources say that some of the methods
described have been used by British intelligence to help British police
agencies catch suspected criminals.
The
documents from 2010 note that "Effects" operations, GCHQ�s offensive
push against Britain�s enemies, had become a "major part" of the spy
agency�s business.
The
presentation from 2012 illustrates that two years later GCHQ had
continued to shift its workload from defending U.K. cyber networks to
going on offense -- targeting specific people or governments. The
British government�s intelligence apparatus, which also includes MI5 and
MI6, had a role in the 2010 Stuxnet computer virus attack on Iran�s
nuclear facilities, according to sources at two intelligence agencies.
GCHQ
would not comment on the newly published documents or on JTRIG�s
"Effects" operations. It would neither confirm nor deny any element of
this report, which is the agency�s standard policy. In a statement, a
GCHQ spokesperson emphasized that the agency operated within the law.
"All
of GCHQ's work is carried out in accordance with a strict legal and
policy framework," said the statement, "which ensure[s] that our
activities are authorized, necessary and proportionate, and that there
is rigorous oversight, including from the Secretary of State, the
Interception and Intelligence Services Commissioners and the
Parliamentary Intelligence and Security Committee. All of our
operational processes rigorously support this position."
Journalist
Glenn Greenwald was formerly a columnist at Salon and the Guardian. In
late 2012 he was contacted by NSA contractor Edward Snowden, who later
provided him with thousands of sensitive documents, and he was the first
to report on Snowden�s documents in June 2013 while on the staff of the
Guardian. Greenwald has since reported on the documents with multiple
media outlets around the world, and has won several journalism awards
for his NSA reporting both in the U.S. and abroad. He is now helping
launch, and will write for, a new, non-profit media outlet known as
First Look Media that will "encourage, support and empower �
independent, adversarial journalists."
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