Spy Files: New WikiLeaks docs expose secretive, unruly surveillance industry

The growing surveillance industry complex is providing governments with increasingly sophisticated spying software to track and control their citizens, the latest documents obtained by the pro-transparency group, WikiLeaks reveal.

A trove of documents, outlining the activities of dozens of companies operating in the ever-expanding electronic snooping industry, were made available by the pro-transparency group on Wednesday.

‘Lawful interception’, mass monitoring, network recording, signals and communication intelligence, and tactical interception devices were among the services and products provided by a litany of Western based firms, as outlined in hundreds of pages of documents covering trade brochures, internal memos, and invoices.

"WikiLeaks' Spy Files #3 is part of our ongoing commitment to shining a light on the secretive mass surveillance industry. This publication doubles the WikiLeaks Spy Files database,” the accompanying press release cites Julian Assange. “The WikiLeaks Spy Files form a valuable resource for journalists and citizens alike, detailing and explaining how secretive state intelligence agencies are merging with the corporate world in their bid to harvest all human electronic communication."

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reply to post by GrantedBail


There has been a treasure trove of documents uploaded. Check it out: Link

Press Release

Today, Wednesday 4 September 2013 at 1600 UTC, WikiLeaks released 'Spy Files #3' – 249 documents from 92 global intelligence contractors. These documents reveal how, as the intelligence world has privatised, US, EU and developing world intelligence agencies have rushed into spending millions on next-generation mass surveillance technology to target communities, groups and whole populations.

WikiLeaks' publisher Julian Assange stated: "WikiLeaks' Spy Files #3 is part of our ongoing commitment to shining a light on the secretive mass surveillance industry. This publication doubles the WikiLeaks Spy Files database. The WikiLeaks Spy Files form a valuable resource for journalists and citizens alike, detailing and explaining how secretive state intelligence agencies are merging with the corporate world in their bid to harvest all human electronic communication."

WikiLeaks' Counter Intelligence Unit has been tracking the trackers. The WLCIU has collected data on the movements of key players in the surveillance contractor industry, including senior employees of Gamma, Hacking Team and others as they travel through Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Brazil, Spain, Mexico and other countries.

Julian Assange, WikiLeaks' publisher, stated: "The WikiLeaks Counter Intelligence Unit operates to defend WikiLeaks' assets, staff and sources, and, more broadly, to counter threats against investigative journalism and the public's right to know."

Documents in Spy Files #3 include sensitive sales brochures and presentations used to woo state intelligence agencies into buying mass surveillance services and technologies. Spy Files #3 also includes contracts and deployment documents, detailing specifics on how certain systems are installed and operated.

Internet spying technologies now being sold on the intelligence market include detecting encrypted and obfuscated internet usage such as Skype, BitTorrent, VPN, SSH and SSL. The documents reveal how contractors work with intelligence and policing agencies to obtain decryption keys.

The documents also detail bulk interception methods for voice, SMS, MMS, email, fax and satellite phone communications. The released documents also show intelligence contractors selling the ability to analyse web and mobile interceptions in real-time.

Contracts and deployment documents in the release show evidence of these technologies being used to indiscriminately infect users in Oman with remote-controlled spyware. The FinFly 'iProxy' installation by Dreamlab shows how a target is identified and malware is silently inserted alongside a legitimate download while keeping the intended download functioning as expected. The target identification methods mean that anybody connecting through the same network would be systematically and automatically intercepted and infected as well, even unintended targets.

It is all Syria all the time right now. I know I am sucked into each and every thread about the geopolitical situation that is unfolding right now. I just don't want us to forget that there is a fight on many fronts.