7 ms·

I didn't realize GCHQ was in the SEO game. If they released an online tool, they'll make a mint selling this to marketing agencies. Some examples: AIRWOLF - Y

I didn't realize GCHQ was in the SEO game. If they released an online tool, they'll make a mint selling this to marketing agencies. Some examples: AIRWOLF - YouTube profile, comment and video collection BEARTRAP - Bulk retrieval of public BEBO profiles from member or group BIRDSONG - Automated posting of Twitter updates BIRDSTRIKE - Twitter monitoring and profile collection. BUGSY - Google+ collection (circles, profiles etc.) FATYAK - Public data collection from LinkedIn FUSEWIRE - Provides 24/7 monitoring of Vbulletin forums for target postings/online activity. Also allows staggered postings to be made. GODFATHER - Public data collection from Facebook GOODFELLA - Generic framework for public data collection from social networks. INSPECTOR - Tool for monitoring domain information and site availability RESERVOIR - Facebook application allowing collection of various information. GATEWAY - Ability to artificially increase traffic to a website GESTATOR - amplification of a given message, normally video, on popular multimedia websites (Youtube) SLIPSTREAM - ability to inflate page views on websites TANGLEFOOT - is a bulk search tool which queries a set of online resources. This allows analysts to quickly check the online presence of a target.

michaelt 12y ago
I always thought those incredibly awkward product names were chosen at random. Does this mean there are actual humans coming up with these things?
- dijit 12y ago
  oh, definitely, remember the "Anti-Crisis Girl" software[0] (screenshots leaked in Snowdens Revalations), an obvious nod to Svetlana Loboda's song[1] of the same name from Eurovision. The people crafting these things are people too, they go about daily life the same as we do, albeit in the firm belief they're doing it for the good of the people. [0] - http://leaksource.info/2014/02/19/anticrisis-girl-nsa-gchq-surveillance-of-wikileaks-and-human-network-that-supports-them/ http://leaksource.info/2014/02/19/anticrisis-girl-nsa-gchq-s... [1] - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iA-HL-EfUbI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iA-HL-EfUbI
- proofofconcept 12y ago
  I find that if I think of military/intelligence project names as being in part a form of marketing for which I am not the target demographic, and then imagine the sorts of people who are in that demographic, they make a whole lot more sense.
contingencies 12y ago
If they released an online tool, they'll make a mint selling this to marketing agencies. Fun tangent: apparently in the UK you only need £2 to make a mint! http://www.darkpolitricks.com/2013/01/who-owns-the-bank-of-england/ http://www.darkpolitricks.com/2013/01/who-owns-the-bank-of-e...
- pjc50 12y ago
  That article is written by someone who doesn't understand what the "nominee" company is for and has filled it in with conspiracy. http://prosperityuk.com/2011/10/investigating-the-bank-of-england-nominees-limited/ http://prosperityuk.com/2011/10/investigating-the-bank-of-en... (There is plenty of weird conspiracy stuff going on in the UK government, such as the role of the Metropolitan police in the press hacking scandal, the non-investigation of Hillsborough, security matters in Northern Ireland, the the post office selloff, and anything related to Savile: http://www.harrowell.org.uk/blog/2014/07/02/tories-and-thugs-savile-warning/ http://www.harrowell.org.uk/blog/2014/07/02/tories-and-thugs... . There's no need to invent unsubstantiated ones)
  - contingencies 12y ago
    Yes, I'm not citing it for whole-and-nothing-but-the-truth purposes :)
kitd 12y ago
> TANGLEFOOT - is a bulk search tool which queries a set of online resources. Also a very fine beer in the UK. Which one do you think GCHQ make the most use of?
- rwmj 12y ago
  The pub in Cheltenham I went to with some GCHQ crew a while back was absolutely horrible. It didn't have real ale at all.
brador 12y ago
Do they make these inhouse or purchase off the shelf/black market? How do they get these tools?
- pmck91 12y ago
  I'm really interested in knowing this, I wonder how many engineers they have working on projects like these and what they're told.
- Someone1234 12y ago
  In the UK: Contractors. Military contractors in particular are a huge industry and they've moved into producing surveillance equipment as a natural progress of what they produced previously. They also buy from abroad (although mostly from the US and Israel, who both produce software like this at a number of shops).
- DanBC 12y ago
  GCHQ employ very many people. Some of those people are paid to find exploits. http://www.gchq.gov.uk/careers/pages/index.aspx http://www.gchq.gov.uk/careers/pages/index.aspx They're currently recruiting: http://www.gchq.gov.uk/careers/Pages/Cyber-and-Technical-Operations.aspx http://www.gchq.gov.uk/careers/Pages/Cyber-and-Technical-Ope... > Developing creative solutions to technical problems on live operations, this is a high pressured environment. You'll need to be both flexible and focused. You'll be using a wide range of technical ability rather than deep specialist skills, but you'll need an interest and aptitude in network security and coding. You'll have plenty of opportunities to develop your skills, but a technical qualification or experience in low level software, network security, malware analysis, penetration testing or vulnerability discovery and mitigation would be useful. Most importantly you should have a willingness to learn.
joeyspn 12y ago
> GATEWAY - Ability to artificially increase traffic to a website What is commonly called a DoS tool
- TomGullen 12y ago
  They have one specifically for that: > ROLLING THUNDER Distributed DoS attack using P2P. Built by ICTR deployed by JTRIG Increase in traffic is probably to make propaganda look more popular than it is, or to redirect peoples attention.
TomGullen 12y ago
Can't help but feel they named them in these semi ridiculous ways so if they did get leaked somehow people would question the leaks authenticity. "Hey guys I saw a government spyring program codenamed Clumsy Beekeeper"
- junto 12y ago
  I think that it is more likely that GCHQ employs ex-hackers, especially those who have been due to be prosecuted under Computer Misuse Act misdemeanors. Most of these kids are perfect for indoctrination into such government agencies. They like to think they are James Bond. My reasoning is that those names sound 'hackerish', whilst typical UK military code names are usually more about power and glory: http://www.alanharding.com/Military/codenames/operations.html http://www.alanharding.com/Military/codenames/operations.htm...
  - XorNot 12y ago
    Codenames are computer assigned these days. There has been a history of operations being compromised because people were being overly descriptive with the codenames. If you look at that list, the structure is quite obvious - so a program matching two words within broadcategories gives you pronounceable and memorable names, without the risk of a human giving it something too related to the content.
    - ttctciyf 12y ago
      BIRDSONG and BIRDSTRIKE as twitter-related tech doesn't sound so computer assigned to me. Maybe they have an AI project not on the list :)
      - junto 12y ago
        Based on what XorNot stated, maybe they just keep pressing the "generate new project" button until they find one they like.
      - walls 12y ago
thret 12y ago
GLITTERBALL - Online Gaming Capabilities for Sensitive Operations - Currently Second Life I'm just not sure what this means. Monitoring SL activity, or using it to conduct sensitive operations?
- sitkack 12y ago
  The document is probably old. Some target may have been using SL as a method of communication.
deleted 12y ago
[deleted]
- deleted 12y ago
  [deleted]
  - deleted 12y ago
    [deleted]

michaelt 12y ago

I always thought those incredibly awkward product names were chosen at random. Does this mean there are actual humans coming up with these things?

dijit 12y ago
oh, definitely, remember the "Anti-Crisis Girl" software[0] (screenshots leaked in Snowdens Revalations), an obvious nod to Svetlana Loboda's song[1] of the same name from Eurovision. The people crafting these things are people too, they go about daily life the same as we do, albeit in the firm belief they're doing it for the good of the people. [0] - http://leaksource.info/2014/02/19/anticrisis-girl-nsa-gchq-surveillance-of-wikileaks-and-human-network-that-supports-them/ http://leaksource.info/2014/02/19/anticrisis-girl-nsa-gchq-s... [1] - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iA-HL-EfUbI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iA-HL-EfUbI
proofofconcept 12y ago
I find that if I think of military/intelligence project names as being in part a form of marketing for which I am not the target demographic, and then imagine the sorts of people who are in that demographic, they make a whole lot more sense.

contingencies 12y ago

If they released an online tool, they'll make a mint selling this to marketing agencies. Fun tangent: apparently in the UK you only need £2 to make a mint! http://www.darkpolitricks.com/2013/01/who-owns-the-bank-of-england/ http://www.darkpolitricks.com/2013/01/who-owns-the-bank-of-e...

pjc50 12y ago
That article is written by someone who doesn't understand what the "nominee" company is for and has filled it in with conspiracy. http://prosperityuk.com/2011/10/investigating-the-bank-of-england-nominees-limited/ http://prosperityuk.com/2011/10/investigating-the-bank-of-en... (There is plenty of weird conspiracy stuff going on in the UK government, such as the role of the Metropolitan police in the press hacking scandal, the non-investigation of Hillsborough, security matters in Northern Ireland, the the post office selloff, and anything related to Savile: http://www.harrowell.org.uk/blog/2014/07/02/tories-and-thugs-savile-warning/ http://www.harrowell.org.uk/blog/2014/07/02/tories-and-thugs... . There's no need to invent unsubstantiated ones)
- contingencies 12y ago
  Yes, I'm not citing it for whole-and-nothing-but-the-truth purposes :)

kitd 12y ago

> TANGLEFOOT - is a bulk search tool which queries a set of online resources. Also a very fine beer in the UK. Which one do you think GCHQ make the most use of?

rwmj 12y ago
The pub in Cheltenham I went to with some GCHQ crew a while back was absolutely horrible. It didn't have real ale at all.

brador 12y ago

Do they make these inhouse or purchase off the shelf/black market? How do they get these tools?

pmck91 12y ago
I'm really interested in knowing this, I wonder how many engineers they have working on projects like these and what they're told.
Someone1234 12y ago
In the UK: Contractors. Military contractors in particular are a huge industry and they've moved into producing surveillance equipment as a natural progress of what they produced previously. They also buy from abroad (although mostly from the US and Israel, who both produce software like this at a number of shops).
DanBC 12y ago
GCHQ employ very many people. Some of those people are paid to find exploits. http://www.gchq.gov.uk/careers/pages/index.aspx http://www.gchq.gov.uk/careers/pages/index.aspx They're currently recruiting: http://www.gchq.gov.uk/careers/Pages/Cyber-and-Technical-Operations.aspx http://www.gchq.gov.uk/careers/Pages/Cyber-and-Technical-Ope... > Developing creative solutions to technical problems on live operations, this is a high pressured environment. You'll need to be both flexible and focused. You'll be using a wide range of technical ability rather than deep specialist skills, but you'll need an interest and aptitude in network security and coding. You'll have plenty of opportunities to develop your skills, but a technical qualification or experience in low level software, network security, malware analysis, penetration testing or vulnerability discovery and mitigation would be useful. Most importantly you should have a willingness to learn.

joeyspn 12y ago

> GATEWAY - Ability to artificially increase traffic to a website What is commonly called a DoS tool

TomGullen 12y ago
They have one specifically for that: > ROLLING THUNDER Distributed DoS attack using P2P. Built by ICTR deployed by JTRIG Increase in traffic is probably to make propaganda look more popular than it is, or to redirect peoples attention.

TomGullen 12y ago

Can't help but feel they named them in these semi ridiculous ways so if they did get leaked somehow people would question the leaks authenticity. "Hey guys I saw a government spyring program codenamed Clumsy Beekeeper"

junto 12y ago
I think that it is more likely that GCHQ employs ex-hackers, especially those who have been due to be prosecuted under Computer Misuse Act misdemeanors. Most of these kids are perfect for indoctrination into such government agencies. They like to think they are James Bond. My reasoning is that those names sound 'hackerish', whilst typical UK military code names are usually more about power and glory: http://www.alanharding.com/Military/codenames/operations.html http://www.alanharding.com/Military/codenames/operations.htm...
- XorNot 12y ago
  Codenames are computer assigned these days. There has been a history of operations being compromised because people were being overly descriptive with the codenames. If you look at that list, the structure is quite obvious - so a program matching two words within broadcategories gives you pronounceable and memorable names, without the risk of a human giving it something too related to the content.
  - ttctciyf 12y ago
    BIRDSONG and BIRDSTRIKE as twitter-related tech doesn't sound so computer assigned to me. Maybe they have an AI project not on the list :)
    - junto 12y ago
      Based on what XorNot stated, maybe they just keep pressing the "generate new project" button until they find one they like.
    - walls 12y ago

thret 12y ago

GLITTERBALL - Online Gaming Capabilities for Sensitive Operations - Currently Second Life I'm just not sure what this means. Monitoring SL activity, or using it to conduct sensitive operations?

sitkack 12y ago
The document is probably old. Some target may have been using SL as a method of communication.

deleted 12y ago

[deleted]

deleted 12y ago
[deleted]
- deleted 12y ago
  [deleted]