Emergency.Blog

Cyber Assassination; Perception and Deception

04 Feb 2008

Cyber Assassination

By Kevin Coleman

"Cyber assassination" is when an individual is unaware that he or she is the subject of a cyber attack designed to discredit them and to call into question his or her credibility or loyalty.

Here's a possible scenario: A senior person in the CIA is working on a case and is disrupting the enemy's activities or getting closer to uncover covert enemy operatives. A smart enemy might attack the leader or others involved in the investigation in an effort to slow down or derail the efforts to expose them. They may choose to hack the individual?s laptop and place damaging emails that allude to a pay-off on their hard drive. Then all that is required is a subtle leak that gets back to the CIA and you can imagine the rest.

A second example could be a politician who is pushing for sanctions against a country and they hack their computer and put pornography on the hard drive. A covert leak of this information results in an investigation and public disclosure of the porn on the hard drive. This individual?s ability to gain or maintain support for their interest in sanctions would be undoubtedly damaged.

You can prove a computer has been compromised (hacked). However, it is virtually impossible to say definitively that a computer has not been hacked. Our ability to defend against this type of assault on individuals in the political, academic, business or industrial spotlight is very limited...

-- Source/continues: http://www.defensetech.org/archives/003980.html

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ERRI Analysis:

Perception and Deception; Reputation Management & Cyber-Assassination

By C. L. Staten, Sr. National Security Analyst

"It takes many good deeds to build a good reputation, and only one bad one to lose it," -- Benjamin Franklin, statesman and inventor(1706-1790)

The implications of this kind of "cyber assassination" may go well beyond that which is described in the excellent article above by Kevin Coleman. How about the same thing happening to not just an individual, but an entire company? Is it possible that an a business competitor might distribute pornography, ads for erectile dysfunction or other [illegal?] drugs, or links to illegal gambling sites...and make it appear that it came from an otherwise reputable individual or business?

Our preliminary research in this matter would suggest that this sort of scurrilous 'cyber-attack' on individual or corporate reputation is already going on.

In fact, we have copies of e-mails engaging in the distribution of questionable materials and appearing to come from reputable defense contractors, consulting companies, banks, and insurance companies. The truth about these e-mails is far different. The e-mails, as best we could ascertain it through IP tracing (and other tracking techniques), were coming from individuals, countries, and possibly governments that might be considered "unfriendly to the United States" and/or toward corporate America.

Our very preliminary research would seem to indicate that:

1. At least some major corporations' computer systems are compromised by spam-bots and are being used to distribute some very unsavory e-mails

2. Misdirection is being used to make it appear that otherwise reputable individuals and companies are distributing illegal spamming, spy-ware and viruses

3. The spam, spy-ware, and bot-net problems have increased exponentially in the past few years...almost to the point of becoming unmanageable, and thus, now pose "a significant threat" to the credibility of the entire internet.

4. It is now possible, in our current estimation, to hire someone to "smear" an individual or company by 'spoofing' and distribution of illicit or questionable materials that will surely and negatively affect the reputation of the victim worldwide.

5. After a sufficient distribution of these illicit materials by "reputation assassins," otherwise legitimate websites and e-mails may be blocked by firewalls, anti-spam devices, and other systems designed to prevent problems...thus disrupting legitimate business activities by the victims

6. And we haven't even addressed the whole issue of Identity theft and the various kinds of malicious misuse of victims' information

Watch EmergencyNet News and Emergency.Blog for more on this still emerging story...