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Where is the HN relevance? Did Psy-Group or Black Cube employ tech to conduct its influence operations? Were systems compromised? Was there a troll center posti

by rrggrr 8y ago

Where is the HN relevance? Did Psy-Group or Black Cube employ tech to conduct its influence operations? Were systems compromised? Was there a troll center posting in forums? Influence ops via technical means are a real problem for journalism and online communities and something relevant to HN. I'm not seeing how this article aligns with HN.

paganel 8y ago
> Did Psy-Group or Black Cube employ tech to conduct its influence operations? Were systems compromised? It's not mentioned in the article, but Black Cube did try and succeed to break the gmail address of Laura-Codruta Kovesi a couple of years ago (she's head of the Romanian anti-corruption agency, a sort of what Antonio Di Pietro and Mani Pulite was for Italy back in the '90s). Allegedly the Black Cube contractors/employees used a social engineering scheme in order to gain access to Kovesi's email. The two Black Cube contractors were subsequently arrested and they've just been given a suspended sentence, so that they can happily go back to Israel and pick other clients.
- jamra 8y ago
  The article doesn't cover that. Do you have any references?
  - paganel 8y ago
    A quick google search gave me this article in English: https://www1.agerpres.ro/english/2016/09/14/former-sri-officer-detained-in-black-cube-case-kovesi-targeted-by-tornado-operation-15-42-25 https://www1.agerpres.ro/english/2016/09/14/former-sri-offic... (from the national Romanian press agency) and there's also a dedicated section on Kovesi's wikipedia page in Romanian on which you can use Google Translat: https://ro.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laura_Codru%C8%9Ba_K%C3%B6vesi#Cazul_Black_Cube https://ro.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laura_Codru%C8%9Ba_K%C3%B6vesi.... The email thing is mentioned mostly in Romanian-only articles from 2 years ago, can't find the exact ones I remember reading back then. I found this new article in English, though (http://business-review.eu/news/romanias-dna-head-on-black-cube-scandal-no-email-hack-in-my-case-105605 http://business-review.eu/news/romanias-dna-head-on-black-cu...), in which Kovesi denied that anyone successfully managed to hack into her emails. But the facts are that 2 Black Cube employees have just been found guilty by Romanian justice in this very case (and then they let them return home, to Israel).
madaxe_again 8y ago
HN is about more than implementation details - some of the most fruitful, engaged, passionate and interesting discussions on here have been about the use of technology to implement real world change, and the impact of technology on human culture and ways of living. This certainly falls into that category, as in this instance the internet, specifically social media and news outlets, was used by one nation to influence the economy of another. Frankly, psy-ops, and how to make the internet become less fertile ground for them, is a topic we should be discussing more, not less.

by rrggrr 8y ago

paganel 8y ago

> Did Psy-Group or Black Cube employ tech to conduct its influence operations? Were systems compromised? It's not mentioned in the article, but Black Cube did try and succeed to break the gmail address of Laura-Codruta Kovesi a couple of years ago (she's head of the Romanian anti-corruption agency, a sort of what Antonio Di Pietro and Mani Pulite was for Italy back in the '90s). Allegedly the Black Cube contractors/employees used a social engineering scheme in order to gain access to Kovesi's email. The two Black Cube contractors were subsequently arrested and they've just been given a suspended sentence, so that they can happily go back to Israel and pick other clients.

jamra 8y ago
The article doesn't cover that. Do you have any references?
- paganel 8y ago
  A quick google search gave me this article in English: https://www1.agerpres.ro/english/2016/09/14/former-sri-officer-detained-in-black-cube-case-kovesi-targeted-by-tornado-operation-15-42-25 https://www1.agerpres.ro/english/2016/09/14/former-sri-offic... (from the national Romanian press agency) and there's also a dedicated section on Kovesi's wikipedia page in Romanian on which you can use Google Translat: https://ro.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laura_Codru%C8%9Ba_K%C3%B6vesi#Cazul_Black_Cube https://ro.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laura_Codru%C8%9Ba_K%C3%B6vesi.... The email thing is mentioned mostly in Romanian-only articles from 2 years ago, can't find the exact ones I remember reading back then. I found this new article in English, though (http://business-review.eu/news/romanias-dna-head-on-black-cube-scandal-no-email-hack-in-my-case-105605 http://business-review.eu/news/romanias-dna-head-on-black-cu...), in which Kovesi denied that anyone successfully managed to hack into her emails. But the facts are that 2 Black Cube employees have just been found guilty by Romanian justice in this very case (and then they let them return home, to Israel).

madaxe_again 8y ago

HN is about more than implementation details - some of the most fruitful, engaged, passionate and interesting discussions on here have been about the use of technology to implement real world change, and the impact of technology on human culture and ways of living. This certainly falls into that category, as in this instance the internet, specifically social media and news outlets, was used by one nation to influence the economy of another. Frankly, psy-ops, and how to make the internet become less fertile ground for them, is a topic we should be discussing more, not less.