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> When mysterious operatives lured two cybersecurity researchers to meetings at luxury hotels over the past two months How does one go about luring cybersecuri
by TheSpiceIsLife 8y ago
> When mysterious operatives lured two cybersecurity researchers to meetings at luxury hotels over the past two months
How does one go about luring cybersecurity reaserchers?
Surely a cybersecurity researcher is not you’re average mark?
Luring is generally something an adversary does to an one who is unsuspecting.
I wouldn’t go so far as to say the us of the word is dishonest, but it sure seems to be leaning toward hyperbolic, or histrionic.
Maybe targeted would be a better word?
- pizza 8y agoThey got baited by the spies presenting themselves as investors, it fits imo. Furthermore I think people who are well-practiced in HUMINT and academics/researchers building up a legal case against a hacking group don't really overlap that much.
- walrus01 8y agoI don't know if a lot of academics/researchers would be able to explain even the basic concepts of "MICE" if asked. They're a soft target.
- TheSpiceIsLife 8y agoI’m not security expert, so I had to look that up. MICE: Money, Ideology, Compromise or Coercion (depending on source), and Ego or Extortion (depending on source). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motives_for_spying https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motives_for_spying
- DGAP 8y agoSomewhat ironically, the Israelis have their own, cruder, initialism for this.
- DGAP 8y agoHence the organizing of entire overseas conferences in order to lure them in.
- FuckOffNeemo 8y agoI recall reading a similar article regarding Citizen Lab where the researchers were also baited through interviews for new positions or capital/sponsorship in their relevant studies. Edit, found the previous HN article (this is the same article but on a different site, the NY Times article is no longer accessible): https://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/citizen-lab-toronto-undercover-israeli-software-1.4994068 https://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/citizen-lab-toronto-under... HN discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19006477 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19006477
- greglindahl 8y agoThe article this discussion is about starts with a mention of Citizen Lab. It's true that the first sentence doesn't directly mention Citizen Lab, but it's tied together starting with the 8th paragraph.
- Thorrez 8y agoCreate a fake identity, fake company, then contact the researcher claiming you want to hire him/her. Get the researcher to come to a restaurant and secretly record the meeting while using leading questions to try to force the researcher into saying unpleasant things.
- icelancer 8y ago> luring cybersecurity reaserchers In the same way you do it in Silicon Valley - pretend to be a member of a VC fund with a lot of money. Plenty of people have been duped into giving up secrets and product ideas to fake and real VC members.
- walrus01 8y ago> How does one go about luring cybersecurity reaserchers? Given the overwhelmingly male demographic of people who describe themselves as "cybersecurity researchers", probably with $2000 escorts and hotel rooms rigged with cameras. It's not rocket science, literally one of the oldest espionage compromat tricks in the book.
- justtopost 8y agoNo need to count out the females of SV being lured by that scenario either. Lets not be sexist, when both sexes sex.
- _underfl0w_ 8y agoPretty sure escorts also come in the "male" variety. ...not that I would know...
- walrus01 8y agoNote that I didn't specify gender of the escort, either way is equally possible once a person's orientation has been identified.