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Black Hat 2013 - OPSEC Failures of Spies

HackersOnBoard · talk · Watch on YouTube

Security & hackingPrivacy, surveillance & cybercrime

What it is

Matthew Cole's Black Hat 2013 talk on operational security failures by CIA operatives. It covers the Abu Omar case and how sloppy tradecraft with cell phones exposed officers through call records and metadata.

Why Hacker News recommends it

HN commenters cite it as a compelling demonstration that metadata identifies people, and as a great watch on sloppy CIA tradecraft.

  • 2 people recommended it
  • 2 different months
  • 1 strong recommendations
  • first 2014, last 2019

What HN commenters said

  1. “This is one of the best videos I have ever seen countering this argument.”

    Counters the claim that call records do not identify people

    _nullandnull_, 2014-10 · Strong recommendation · in “Troubling Arguments from the Government in Smith v. Obama”

  2. “the Black Hat 2013 talk on this is a great watch”

    Investigation of the Abu Omar case and sloppy CIA tradecraft

    guitarbill, 2019-08 · Recommendation · in “Why the CIA Doesn't Spy on the UAE”

Excerpts from Hacker News comments, linked to the originals. Summaries and labels were written by a language model from those comments.

Topics: opsec, metadata, cia, surveillance, black hat

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