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Ear to the Ground

Estimated 1 in 4 U.S. Hackers Working for the Man

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Posted on Jun 7, 2011
Flickr / Stian Eikeland

One year after suspected WikiLeaker Pfc. Bradley Manning was outed to the FBI by his confidant, Adrian Lamo, the hacking community is steeped in tension and mistrust, with the publisher of a popular trade journal estimating that a quarter of all U.S. hackers are recruited informers for the federal government. —ARK

From The Guardian:

The underground world of computer hackers has been so thoroughly infiltrated in the US by the FBI and secret service that it is now riddled with paranoia and mistrust, with an estimated one in four hackers secretly informing on their peers, a Guardian investigation has established.

Cyber policing units have had such success in forcing online criminals to co-operate with their investigations through the threat of long prison sentences that they have managed to create an army of informants deep inside the hacking community.

... So ubiquitous has the FBI informant network become that Eric Corley, who publishes the hacker quarterly, 2600, has estimated that 25% of hackers in the US may have been recruited by the federal authorities to be their eyes and ears. “Owing to the harsh penalties involved and the relative inexperience with the law that many hackers have, they are rather susceptible to intimidation,” Corley told the Guardian.

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blogdog's avatar

By blogdog, June 9, 2011 at 7:55 am Link to this comment

“...Democrats…government takeovers…” Like I said, “...look out for baiting to
stimulate old-line, conservative-vs-liberal type arguments…”

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rico, suave's avatar

By rico, suave, June 8, 2011 at 12:19 pm Link to this comment

I’m guessing that one in four workers generally are working for the man, or will be by the time Democrats get finished with all their government takeovers. What’s the whoop?

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blogdog's avatar

By blogdog, June 8, 2011 at 10:03 am Link to this comment

this happens more often than imagined: “we even hacked ourselves once - did i
just say that outloud?”

ever wonder why FISA warrants are not always requested, why the FISA laws are
regularly violated, especially when it’s a confirmed fact that the FISA Court issues
99.99% of the warrants requested?

obviously, you don’t want to risk having your own black-op revealed to a FISA
judge after your drag-net surveillance op has picked it up

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By gerard, June 8, 2011 at 8:42 am Link to this comment

Forgot to mention the hackback-packers.

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John R.'s avatar

By John R., June 8, 2011 at 8:09 am Link to this comment

we even hacked ourselves once - did i just say that outloud?

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By gerard, June 7, 2011 at 4:36 pm Link to this comment

First we hack the hackers.  Next, we hack the backers of the hackers who hacked the—well you get the idea. What’s a four-letter word for implosion?

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blogdog's avatar

By blogdog, June 7, 2011 at 1:21 pm Link to this comment

1 in 4 - looks familiar - look out for baiting to stimulate old-line, conservative-
vs-liberal type arguments, that bog done into the minutia surrounding events that
serve to distract and dis-inform - remember, TPTB want the underclasses fighting
amongst ourselves, overlooking their hegemonic agenda and the chaos they
instigate

Report this

By zulu127, June 7, 2011 at 1:14 pm Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)

Sounds to me like the FBI and kin need to be infiltrated with even more hacker double agents.

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By TDoff, June 7, 2011 at 12:27 pm Link to this comment

This makes a lot of sense, since a recent survey revealed that almost half of the world’s terrorists are also employees of the federal government.

This will keep our government workers, both the terrorists and the anti-terrorists, busy, and may help ease the ever-burgeoning ‘unemployment crisis’.

And it’s a smart move that the FBI and SS are recruiting the hackers, instead of leaving it up to one of our so-called ‘Intelligent’ agencies.

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