Defense Awareness of Advancing Social Engineers

Avatars in Quantum Entanglement?

2011-02-17T12:47:00.000-08:00

In the Quantum Entanglement I dwell creatively – and in a systemic thought sense.. I ask a simple question ;-) Curious lil me divined in quantum.

Could our human biological bodies be considered only Avatars? Is there really one collective source (system) or big bang to it all? Or are we missing some things?

What if there is not any ‘one’ source system beginning our Universe (no one big bang or no one big system?) What if there are many ‘extra dimensional’ systems that have already extended new density layered spaces to expand expression upon an ever expanding canvas? Similar to how we created cyberspace (from the very fabrics of a multitude of human systems developing ARPANET, to the web, to virtual Worlds and Universes), wherein we (multiple human biological systems) are merely, in a sense, avatars created in a new defined space ‘density layer’ in light for other extra dimensional intelligences out there to extend through (escaping their own womb based system)?

Think about our own process in defining the internet / cyberspace and building upon it (extending ourselves into it). It wasn’t any one ‘entity’ that divined and built this new virtual cyberspace (no one big bang either). No one thought. It was several to now millions of us entities here on earth in a wave creatively building & extending (mimicking our space system; to pour out our memetic beings into). So, are we Avatars of millions within another dimension extending themselves into (similar to the processes of our own programmed DNA/RNA branching through outer space via pans sperma)? What do you think? Yes, it takes imagination and creativity to even consider this that we are merely extensions from a quantum entanglement.

Today we have the Generation Y’s extending themselves through cyberspace with their own personas / Avatars further the quantum. Cyberspace has become a place that we can model what we imagine and believe; and we live and revel in with our soul, lessons learned, emotions, and even act out other behaviors that are more unnatural; i.e., develop multiple personalities (further extending ourselves).

Will we have social engineering in future mind wars in maintaining secrets?

2010-12-11T11:54:00.000-08:00

I found amusement in the Movie "Inception", there has been a lot of work around enhancing human performance. Singularity, SRI, and many other big think tanks working on Emergent Technologies are looking to enhance and or extend humans for what is next on the future frontier, especially to further invade human fears, secrets, and treasures.

In regards to the Inception Concept vs. our indigenous capabilities from Fight or Flight mechanism in human processing, I'd like to ask the experts out there the following:

With the use of these latest demonstrated disruptive technologies such as fMRIs for mind reading or lie detection, and use of liposomes for possible drug and even information transport/delivery systems that can directly target the brain; I ask can biotech/nano enhance that capability in humans who 'lost' much of the fight or flight cognitive capabilities due to very little need (e.g., easier lifestyles)?

I would imagine that unless some researchers have seriously studied the indigenous humans; and especially other species that use it regularly (i.e, many of us recognized how our pets seem to know when we want to bathe them, etc. and they seem to know to hide before we even make a move) - is this from the full the range of senses (sight, smell, vibration, frequency, etc) igniting this fight or flight cognitive crunching set of capabilities?

Is there scientific consensus on the fact that there are humans with some of this natural heightened cognitive ability (due to survival requirements)? I imagine it is not going to be easy to really get scientific peer consensus of their existence? Hence Puthoff's, Targ's et. al work with Scanate, Stargate, etc.

If humans do have an "Inception" type of capability; I imagine that the natural set of abilities would have to have been maintained as a set of 'instructions for fight or flight and even wonder if this would be in the brain and/or genes' epi-memes?

What triggers, appropriates, these actions (instructions) for that cognitive 'receive', parse, process and read of a predator signals to enable the 'receiver' to determine fight or flight (or today's more sophisticated reactions when using it for spying? Yeah that so called term remote viewing)? Just imagine the ability to pick up the enemy and/or predators intentions within those hidden secret intents, treasures, fears, vulnerabilities that is in the targets 'attention'/attenuation! Wow, what a war front. Haven't these signals been recently demonstrated, shown lately in the advancements of fMRI tech today (where we can now extract some words)? I can imagine that the identification of the intent can be picked up with human chemical signatures as well (to gauge), and along with the visual signs and perceived patterns (of course dependent on the pattern matching ability and the speed of cognitive crunching on the probabilistic reaction patterns for human prediction for flight?).

As we have over the years technologically extended ourselves and become less dependent on the flight or fight needs, most of us have lost this natural ingenious ability (don't use, you loose). I imagine the real art would be to somehow re-entrain a human to re-activate these abilities and somehow "be able to follow or allow the natural set of instructions activate properly" if they are stored in the epi-genes?

Yet, in today's war front, there would be the need to 'have' a way to distract around the signals of thoughts 'our fear/secrets' and have a trigger to have them forgotten so they are not attenuated/active until needed (re-triggered and/or cued in some way) to avoid those with the enhanced heighten cognitive flight/flee functioning or interrogation tools (e.g., tools like these new fMRIs, etc.) in picking them up. Of course if "Inception" capability was real ;-) The latest results of fMRis have shown that our thoughts do radiate... Our secrets and fears may be the first to shine/radiate to the receivers ;-)

Yes, I imagine a good shamanic person (natural or technologically enhanced that had a background in hypnosis) could find ways to insert thoughts/concepts into the minds of others (counter measures) via the same above.. Oh, well... Who knows? We are very creative critters.. Someday, maybe we will have psychic medicine men and warriors.

What do you think? Will we be able to hide our secrets in the future?

Further investment to Saudi Arabia

2010-10-31T08:21:00.001-07:00

Boeing benefits most from this
http://www.heritage.org/Multimedia/Video/2010/10/Phillips-MSNBC-10-23-10

Distruptive Strategy of White House or State Department? Is there Someone Out there that can explain?

2010-10-11T07:52:00.000-07:00

Regarding our Government enhancing other countries economy with appearances of smoke and mirrors, what is behind all this?

Well, in my simple observance I notice the State Department, the White House, NASA, and more being very creative... working some interesting stealth, bold, disruptive tactics for enhancing economy... But whose economy? The US? I see the following taking place:

In California - we have some young generation of 'disruptive strategists' working closely with the World Bank, Venture Capitalists with (Prizes for new innovations) on some World Expo venture with Arnold Schwarzenegger for 2020 - www.bizjournals.com/sanjose/stories/2010/09/06/daily39.html, using a federal site; old Navy base (new innovation sharing).

There are the following earlier roll outs.. The new US Space Policy -Stealth State Department roll out - http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewsr.html?pid=34431

Which justifies the earlier outreach to Muslims & China, via NASA, all following in Obama's first steps in foreign diplomacy.. Mind you, there is a lot of media on "Muslim Outreach" http://nasawatch.com/archives/2010/10/bolden-world-to-1.html which can appear to some of us as the federal govt. giving free advertising to a religion (which helps large Corporations going Global to gain entrance to contract and invest into the Saudi Arabia and other middle eastern infrastructures)? And, why not also invest in the China infrastructure while they are at it?
http://nasawatch.com/archives/2010/10/boldens-china-t.html#comments

If you all look back to 2009 - You see US-China Joint Statement (White House site http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/us-china-joint-statement) and on the State Department's webpage, press release dated last November.
http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2009/nov/131299.htm
"Secretary Clinton Announces New Initiatives to Bolster Science and Technology Collaboration With Muslim Communities Around the World"

In the NASA watch article, I think that NASA leader Bolden et al. are just acting on what they are told to do by the Administration, plan and simple. As you can see, Arnold Schwarzenberger is also doing similar outreach, he just towed a whole bunch of US investors to Russia to get involved with the Russian Version of Silicon Valley. http://en.rian.ru/business/20101010/160895951.html I wonder if he used taxpayer dollars to do this?

All the while at the NASA Ames Research Center federal land (Research Park), we have Singularity University, also working to enhance the Israeli economy? http://singularityu.org/news/2010/10/world-leaders-interested-in-singularity-university-for-exponential-trends-innovations/

So, I wonder if there is some Global agenda for investing ($$, Science, technology, etc. via the International Collaboration card) in other countries economic growth, while ours is in the decline? Is this good for the US? I'm really grasping in trying to forecast where this will take the US public and small business economy?

Big Question to these Disruptive Strategists working behind the veil..."How will this help the US economy"? Is there significant payoff plan that shows the US public / voters how it helps the US public, small business, etc. with National Security and Economic Security? I can certainly see how it helps these large transnational Corporations (internationally).

Obama doesn't want foreign $$ influence, but we are sending out investors to foreign countries? I'm confused, are you confused? You all got me ;-)

"The government of my country snubs honest simplicity, but fondles artistic villainy, and I think I might have developed into a very capable pickpocket if I had remained in the public service a year or two."
-- Mark Twain

Psyops used by international commercial space venture capitalists?

2010-09-06T13:37:00.000-07:00

Musing upon articles that provide signs of unrest in international cooperation and technology sharing. This article surfaced not long ago:

New French aerospace report endorses reality of UFOs
Antonio Huneeus | Aug 16, 2010
http://www.openminds.tv/french-ufo-report-081610/

I find this an interesting research topic, especially with the commercial space 'suborbital' competitions going on across all international boundaries (all caused by Venture Capital Prizes (i.e., X-Prize and more), many transnational VCs wanting to identify entrepôts (between Dubai, Sinapore, Cape, and even the Swiss Bank of Space- Isle of Man) to work their transfers through; and all competing and working the US for "free ITAR technology spaces" as well.

So, if no laws become relaxed in the US on ITAR... from push back in Senate, Congress, and other influencial national security tycoons, does this mean the commercial VCs can bring in their psyops teams with their "mystery veils" to continue with the use of absurdity and smoke and mirrors to perform technology transfer under the guise of UFOs, alien abductions, and more. Is this possible?

Open Source vs. National Competitiveness-National Economy

2010-06-18T14:55:00.000-07:00

Open Source Information: What does this really mean? Does it mean different things to each type of organization? The Government primarily used it for accountability to the public, and this is just to keep the public informed on progress, successes, and failures with use of tax dollars; the need for transparency, the honest reporting on agency program and mission progress (cost, benefit, and risk) for government oversight offices. Primarily it is for proof of good business decisions with transparent and ethical procurement processes to avoid conflict of interests.

Today, there is an appearance of pressure on the government to open more information on sharing even "state-of-the-art" on technological and methodological national advancements (that keep the nation competitive)? What many in the government forget, is that much of the information on the "state-of-the-art" is Corporate proprietary, or is considered sensitive to National Security. Our nation this year 2010 is advocating for more Open Source Information (OSI), in fact our government is calling out for it (as transparency of public service primarily); which is confusing, on whether this means to also give outsome state-of-the-art? This could open more vulnerability with 'sensitive information transfer as well'. Foreign competitors can take advantage of this area of communication, by creating a cloud of confusion in the concept of Open Source.

Does our Nation need a Clear Statement and Federal Policy? Our nation most likely needs to more clearly declare what Open Source Information is (clearly explain the type of information that is to be allowed to be open to national and international channels); and make it clear to the public (national and international), to the Corporate Partnerships, and especially academia (all colleges, universities, and Institutes). Shouldn't there be clear policy and procedures spelled out on Open Source Information prior to putting out statements requiring such? So far I have not seen any real public statements or even policy on declaring what Open Source Information really is verses the technology and information protection policies and laws on our national assets?

Don't we need to be aware that Open Source Information is generally sponsored by many organizations, wherein you will generally find a lot of influence from foreign competitors advertising for international technical development efforts; which opens the doors wide in providing a wealth of knowledge for foreign industrial competitors? Again, Competitors can determine a tremendous amount of information about companies and their products through these Open Source efforts. The losses to national corporations pose tremendous and unfortunate impact, especially when a company does not realize that their information was given away through Open Source Channels by their partnerships with either other companies involved with Open Source, or even the government who didn't properly protect their 'state-of-the-art' information which was proprietary.

Awareness: A detailed and continual awareness program is the best method to deter espionage that causes national economic impact. If all employees, academic peers, and corporate partners know what to look for, then the chances for an attack to be successful are minimized.

What is important to watch for surrounding Open Source Initiatives?

The threat of national economy in regards to competitiveness is very serious, and already is showing us great impact over the last ten years. There are layers of war going on across our globe; and the Economic War, today, is on the top of the list. There was a time when our Nation was at great advantage. We were a very creative and healthy country, coming up with great innovative technologies that not only secured our Nation economically, but provided national security assurance against threats (foreign and/or natural disasters) as well.

Economic Issues: It appears that today our nation has outsourced a lot of technical jobs; and also encouraged foreign firms to buy U.S. Companies giving them access to many critical technologies, methodologies and national resources (including Personal Identifying Information on US Citizens) that have enhanced international relations, but also posed serious impact to our National Security and economic assurance.

Doesn't the practice of today's Open Source Societies pushing towards more national joint ventures with competitors (foreign Countries) lay open the doors to the Nation's Corporate sensitive information leaking out as well (trade secrets, and the Corporate responsibilities with export and International Arms and Trade Regulations)? How do we deal with these vulnerabilities?

1: Foreign Competitors usually seek to procure US high tech via Open Source channels, discovering US new forming Companies: But these new inventors don't understand that during the process of expanding the state-of-the-art, they must divulge the knowledge of the state-of-the-art in these acquisition transfers. Their trade secrets get generally leaked to multiple foreign interests and National competitive advantage is impacted.

2. Outsourcing work to foreign competitors in open source and in Companies: These type of joint ventures may be the only method for companies to enter foreign markets. But if these companies don't perform the cost / benefit / analysis needed prior to entering into such ventures, won't they find losses down the line due to espionage, state-of-the-art leakage and more? Doesn't this also impact our home Country? Also those who sell their markets possibly can potentially get charged with espionage themselves for impacting National Security (especially if any of the technology or methodologies fall into Export Control or International Arms Technology Regulations (ITAR))?

Foreign Competitors hiring away many of our national employees: This also requires transfer of knowledge to the foreign competitors. While many former employees do not intend to divulge sensitive information, the transfer of the knowledge is inevitable. In the performance of day to day activities, it is impossible not to take into account the knowledge that a person has developed. For example, if a person is trying to price a job for their present company, it is impossible for them not to consider the pricing structure of their former employer, who is now competing for the same economic growth areas (customers).

Foreign Competitor Honeypots: Many foreign companies and governments use trade shows and/or conferences to elicit information from competitors. Typically, corporations send their researchers and marketing staff to these events to either stay abreast of the latest research or to advocate services. These people usually give out information better than they collect. Companies or governments involved with industrial espionage also send information collection specialists (advanced social engineers) to these events. They usually act like potential customers or fellow researchers to elicit information from people that are all to willing to give it up. Through advanced training these advanced social engineers have perfected the art of drawing out as much information as possible.

Reiteration from other posts:
Espionage:

Espionage involves breaking into people, buildings and offices to steal desired information. Foreign and domestic Industrial spies will go through personal identifying information to exploit and or use people, go through locked and unlocked office spaces, search file cabinets, examine unprotected computer systems, and hack networks (i.e., packet sniff, use spy-ware and other craft tools) etc. If a person knows where the targeted information is located, it could be
extremely profitable for them to commit a simple break in. Spies will also go through trash dumpsters and other garbage containers to gather necessary information. While many people think that this is ridiculous, it is the most effective and easy resource of information. If a company has people that travel frequently, the travelers could be the subjects of sophisticated surveillance efforts. Many our our U.S. executives have had their hotel rooms searched, their telephone calls monitored, and more. The value of the information that they know, ultimately drives their risk of being watched by adversary organizations. Spies rely off of the natural human 'short term memory' as well. Ways to prevent the 'short term memory' is to have diligent training programs reminding everyone on privacy practices, Information Protection of National Assets, and more (this should be a practice throughout the public, academic, Corporate, and Government).

The Internet as a tool for Spies: Today, most spies really don't have to travel or recruit assets due to the rapid growth of the internet with peer computing, social network tools, and more. A lot of espionage happens right on the internet today. There is today good IT Security training programs on computer protection and some phishing schemes. But, as I stated in an earlier blog: the internet and web based media tools have become very open to the international front using tools, such as these blog spots, MySpace, Facebook, twitter, and many other media tools such as the up and coming Cloud Computing initiatives; leaving themselves a little too open. Readers be aware, the more you communicate about yourself, the more information social engineers can collect on how to appeal to you, capture your attention to them, etc. Many with the agenda to take advantage of your 'trust' (using what ever information they can gather to appeal to your trust).

Breaking point - How to detached from reality and the ecosystem

2010-06-13T08:51:00.000-07:00

Imagine a new future in a Controlled Society by commercialism (the transnational Elites involved with transnational technocrats i.e., the PayPals, Googles, etc.), where a more global consumer based psycho-civilized society is forced to use technology (more waste and byproducts) built with the obsolescence factor for a techo-utopia? With use of controlled technology media outlets they will perform Perception Management to keep the global public believing this is a Utopian Green technology and will help save the Planetary environment?

In reviewing the article "Merely Human? That’s So Yesterday" By ASHLEE VANCE Published: June 11, 2010: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/13/business/13sing.html?pagewanted=all

Reading the Richard Clark's section "Preparing to Evolve"... I muse upon whether these techno minds dream of a future society such as "Breakpoint" as their ultimate human evolution?

there could also be a dark side in such a utopia, perchance anyone who doesn't accept the techno-utopia (psycho-civilized society; an old idea of Dr. Jose Delgado) will be considered a rebel/ terrorist (or extinction target) of this new society? In other words if anyone doesn't allow themselves to be integrated with these costly by-products, technologies, they will be 'outside' the Elite-tism Global control (and be considered terrorists/or those pushed toward alienation and extinction)? Mind you, in this society, the ones alienated and on the extinction list are possibly merely the ones that don't want to have to work, labor, and pay to keep themselves patched, upgraded, etc. to survive (be able to live)? They wont' be able to teach their children that that their very own Planetary ecosystem (an ingenious system) provides everything they need, not a Kurzweilian Singularity controlled Utopia. Imagine a Kurzweilian movement that will coin all those who don't concede to the TechnoUtopia as dangerous, because of the posed threat to their control of an unending consumerism economy (the control on the continuous profit margin from the patching and upgrading customers forced in the techno-system to survive/live)? Just imagine...

Will it come to this? Will it be the destruction of an ingenious ecosystem (which humans are part of), planet Earth? Is the techno-utopia a sign of mankind at disease with his nature?

Mankind

Pulling away from the laws of nature
declaring godliness in its womb environment
neglecting the responsibilities of the one law cause
and blindly ignoring the effects, its achievements

Reaching for newer boundaries beyond reach
and knowingly outgrowing all natural sources
avoiding the responsibility of the effects
in hopes to harness all Life's forces

Now barefoot in the sand and gazing skyward
ignoring the ebb and flow of the tides of the undying sea
transfixed upon the halo of lights that reign the night
is this unusual creature, a unique and desperate entity.

copyright under
Helen's Ultimate Canvas by Helen Stewart

Social Engineering Exploiting Human Vulnerabilities Site Blog

2010-06-07T05:51:00.000-07:00

Pretty good blog site.

http://www.social-engineer.org/blog/general-blog/social-engineering-being-used-by-child-predators/

Television and Media Perception Management in the US?

2010-04-30T11:12:00.000-07:00

Television and media are primary sources of entertainment for our young and old. Today doesn't it seem like it is mostly 'commercial' Perception Management for political lobbying, consumerism, and control? Do any of you readers notice that the news today appears to have the same scheduled stories on all US stations, which broadcast over and over again - day by day. A constant controlled hum drum? Hypnotic like isn't it? Is this social engineering and conditioning going on right in the front room?

A research team from the communications department of the University of Massachusetts surveyed public opinion and correlated it with knowledge of basic facts about US policy in the region, they drew some sobering conclusions: The more television people watched, the fewer facts they knew; and the less people knew in terms of basic facts, the more likely they were to back the many questionable moves by Administrations, such as the early and even the latest Bush administration's reasons for going into Iraq. [1]

It's known throughout the past large PR firms such as Hill & Knowlton, Rendon, and many others produce video news releases at significant cost, and is in many instances done for foreign regimes and trans national elites; and it is money well spent for them, resulting in tens of billions of dollars worth of "free" air time. These video news releases are shown by eager TV news directors around the world who rarely (if ever) identify the PR firms as the source of the footage and stories. TV stations and networks simply feed the carefully-crafted propaganda to all of us unwitting viewers, who assume we're watching "real" journalism. Obviously the phony TV news reports serve their purpose, and it would do PR Firms no good to help any investigators to reveal the extent of the deceptive influence.

1. Martin A. Lee & Norman Solomon, Unreliable Sources: A Guide to Detecting Bias in News Media (New York: Lyle Stuart, 1991), p. xvii.

Drafting a Prophesy on the Super Class of Outer Space & Inner Space

2010-04-04T17:45:00.000-07:00

Working a draft, one that will be based on a Prophesy, surrounding a large trans national psychological operations theater "Battle Field of the Jinn"

The players are going to be the Super Class, which are diverse number of individuals where concentrated global power resides, and this Super Class are aware that this power is not easily inherited and their influence is transient due to competition. A very few do recognize and have mastered the broader trans national gray areas to work through in order to maintain their power.

Who are the Super Class? Certain CEOs of the World's largest Corporations, billionaires who are involved with World disruptive technology gaming, technology entrepreneurs, top military commanders, politicians with great influence, select religious leaders, media barons, even terrorist leaders and master criminals, and more.

It will reveal that we all like to think that the World governments have power, but this prophesy story will reveal that they are called civil servants for a reason (they are store minders, guidance providers, regulators, etc.). Governments serve the public (and the Super Class have the ability to take advantage of the services provided across all the World nations at once).

Many of the Super Class (especially CEOs of the World's largest Corporations) enjoy transnational status, while being subjected to the national laws everywhere, they are often allowed significant power on the governments whose law define them. An example that is real: Look how Haliburton derives significant revenue from the U.S. Government and its US operations, but when public opinion turned against its practices, it moved its headquarters to the Persian Gulf. These Super Class oligarchs will move from one government to another, if they aren't obliged their power and influence. Today many large trans national corporations are moving towards the Persian Gulf (due to ability to exert their power).
This is where the Battle Field of the Jinn comes in.

In observing activity of those vying for the Super Class, where large sums of money are being worked trans nationally for an even larger frontier, where commercial space is ready to influence the space network of satellites (not just technical satellites, but Moons, Meteorites and planets to gain mineral rights and infrastructural boom towards more launch facilities for war and tourism). The most interesting part of my prophesy story is the observations of the social engineering, networking and exchange taking place around this new frontier of Super Class of Outer Space and Inner Space (what's between the human ears). This is where there are lots of blurry spheres of influence taking place between national laws; wherein these Super Class and Super Class wannabees create an even more complex international economic war front; while they enjoy being in the transient arenas between the nations.

More on Economic War - Stealing Success from US Tel Aviv-Style

2010-03-18T07:39:00.001-07:00

I found an interesting article written by Ex-CIA officer a contributing editor to the American Conservative and a fellow at the American Conservative Defense Alliance. The article is found posted and copyright at the www.antiwar.com posted

http://original.antiwar.com/giraldi/2010/01/27/stealing-success-tel-aviv-style/

Information on the recent David Stewart Nozette case noted in this article too.

An eye opening piece. Social Engineering at a grand scale?

New WintelAgency Blog on Intelligence Notes

2010-03-03T07:24:00.000-08:00

New blog and post on a Solicitation for a study on Interrogation can be found at: http://wintelagncyintelnotes.blogspot.com

Reality Trespassing in the Economic Frontier - literature list

2010-01-27T10:12:00.000-08:00

Looking for big picture and direct day-to-day awareness of strategic influence works? In my research I've been discovering interesting literature on the trade craft of reality trespassing on the International Economic War front (social engineering influences with financial Capitalism and National Strategies) the expertise of economic hit men and all other type of paradigm / shape shifting efforts, arts & craft to affect technological and economic reality globally. Great fodder for my speculative fiction work on "Battlefield of the Jinn".

State of mind and economic underpinning?

There are great books and publications detailing perspectives of these areas (I'll be adding more as I read them):

Fun Reading:

Author John Perkins

Shapeshifing: Techniques for Global and Personal Transformation http://www.amazon.com/Shapeshifting-Techniques-Global-Personal-Transformation/dp/0892816635

Confessions of an Economic Hit Man http://www.amazon.com/Confessions-Economic-Hit-John-Perkins/dp/0452287081/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1264616461&sr=1-1

Hoodwinked: An Economic Hit Man Reveals Why the World Financial Markets Imploded--and What We Need to Do to Remake Them http://www.amazon.com/Hoodwinked-Economic-Reveals-Financial-Imploded/dp/0307589927/ref=pd_sim_b_4

Gary A. Copeland

Strategic Political Communication: Rethinking Social Influence, Persuasion, and Propaganda (Communication, Media, and Politics) http://www.amazon.com/Strategic-Political-Communication-Rethinking-Persuasion/dp/0742528820/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1264617145&sr=1-4

Chris Brogan

Trust Agents: Using the Web to Build Influence, Improve Reputation, and Earn Trust http://www.amazon.com/Trust-Agents-Influence-Improve-Reputation/dp/0470743085/ref=sr_1_8?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1264617145&sr=1-8

Ted Gup

The short distance between secrets and lies. (Control Of Information).(Office of Strategic Influence): An article from: Columbia Journalism Review

Michael Watkins, Mikey Edwards, Usha Thakrar

Winning the Influence Game: What Every Business Leader Should Know about Government

Usha Thakrar

What do you need to understand about how the influence game is played?

How do we reduce threat to our National Economy?

2010-01-17T06:08:00.000-08:00

The threat of national economy in regards to competitiveness is very serious, and already is showing us great impact over the last ten years. There are layers of war going on across our globe; and the Economic War, today, is on the top of the list. There was a time when our Nation was at great advantage. We were a very creative and healthy country, coming up with great innovative technologies that not only secured our Nation economically, but provided national security assurance against threats (foreign and/or natural disasters) as well.

Economic Issues: It appears that today our nation has outsourced a lot of technical jobs; and also encouraged foreign firms to buy U.S. Companies giving them access to many critical technologies, methodologies and national resources (including Personal Identifying Information on US Citizens) that have enhanced international relations, but also posed serious impact to our National Security and economic assurance.

Doesn't the practice of today's Open Source Societies pushing towards more national joint ventures with competitors (foreign Countries) lay open the doors to the Nation's Corporate sensitive information leaking out as well (trade secrets, and the Corporate responsibilities with export and International Arms and Trade Regulations)? How do we deal with these vulnerabilities?

1: Encouragement of Foreign Competitors to procure US high tech Companies: During the process of expanding the state-of-the-art, companies must divulge its knowledge of the state-of-the-art in these acquisition transfers. Their trade secrets get generally leaked to foreign interests and National competitive advantage is impacted.

2. Outsourcing work to foreign competitors: These type of joint ventures may be the only method for companies to enter foreign markets. But if these companies don't perform the cost / benefit / analysis needed prior to entering into such ventures, won't they find losses down the line due to espionage, state-of-the-art leakage and more? Doesn't this also impact our home Country? Also those who sell their markets possibly can potentially get charged with espionage themselves for impacting National Security (especially if any of the technology or methodologies fall into Export Control or International Arms Technology Regulations (ITAR))?

Foreign Competitors hiring away many of our national employees: This also requires transfer of knowledge to the foreign competitors. While many former employees do not intend to divulge sensitive information, the transfer of the knowledge is inevitable. In the performance of day to day activities, it is impossible not to take into account the knowledge that a person has developed. For example, if a person is trying to price a job for their present company, it is impossible for them not to consider the pricing structure of their former employer, who is now competing for the same economic growth areas (customers).

Foreign Competitor Honeypots: Many foreign companies and governments use trade shows and/or conferences to elicit information from competitors. Typically, corporations send their researchers and marketing staff to these events to either stay abreast of the latest research or to advocate services. These people usually give out information better than they collect. Companies or governments involved with industrial espionage also send information collection specialists (advanced social engineers) to these events. They usually act like potential customers or fellow researchers to elicit information from people that are all to willing to give it up. Through advanced training these advanced social engineers have perfected the art of drawing out as much information as possible.

Open Source Information: What does this really mean? Does it mean different things to each type of organization? The Government primarily used it for accountability to the public, and this is just to keep the public informed on progress, successes, and failures with use of tax dollars; the need for transparency, the honest reporting on agency program and mission progress (cost, benefit, and risk) for government oversight offices. Primarily it is for proof of good business decisions with transparent and ethical procurement processes to avoid conflict of interests.

Today, there is an appearance of pressure on the government to open more information on sharing even "state-of-the-art" on technological and methodological national advancements (that keep the nation competitive)? What many in the government forget, is that much of the information on the "state-of-the-art" is Corporate proprietary, or is considered sensitive to National Security. Our nation this year 2010 is advocating for more Open Source Information (OSI), in fact our government is calling out for it (as transparency of public service primarily); which is confusing, on whether this means to also give outsome state-of-the-art? This could open more vulnerability with 'sensitive information transfer as well'. Foreign competitors can take advantage of this area of communication, by creating a cloud of confusion in the concept of Open Source.

Does our Nation need a Clear Statement and Federal Policy? Our nation most likely needs to more clearly declare what Open Source Information is (clearly explain the type of information that is to be allowed to be open to national and international channels); and make it clear to the public (national and international), to the Corporate Partnerships, and especially academia (all colleges, universities, and Institutes). Shouldn't there be clear policy and procedures spelled out on Open Source Information prior to putting out statements requiring such? So far I have not seen any real public statements or even policy on declaring what Open Source Information really is verses the technology and information protection policies and laws on our national assets?

Don't we need to be aware that Open Source Information is generally sponsored by many organizations, wherein you will generally find a lot of influence from foreign competitors advertising for international technical development efforts; which opens the doors wide in providing a wealth of knowledge for foreign industrial competitors? Again, Competitors can determine a tremendous amount of information about companies and their products through these Open Source efforts. The losses to national corporations pose tremendous and unfortunate impact, especially when a company does not realize that their information was given away through Open Source Channels by their partnerships with either other companies involved with Open Source, or even the government who didn't properly protect their 'state-of-the-art' information which was proprietary.

Awareness: A detailed and continual awareness program is the best method to deter espionage that causes national economic impact. If all employees, academic peers, and corporate partners know what to look for, then the chances for an attack to be successful are minimized.

Espionage:
Espionage involves breaking into people, buildings and offices to steal desired information. Foreign and domestic Industrial spies will go through personal identifying information to exploit and or use people, go through locked and unlocked office spaces, search file cabinets, examine unprotected computer systems, and hack networks (i.e., packet sniff, use spy-ware and other craft tools) etc. If a person knows where the targeted information is located, it could be
extremely profitable for them to commit a simple break in. Spies will also go through trash dumpsters and other garbage containers to gather necessary information. While many people think that this is ridiculous, it is the most effective and easy resource of information. If a company has people that travel frequently, the travelers could be the subjects of sophisticated surveillance efforts. Many our our U.S. executives have had their hotel rooms searched, their telephone calls monitored, and more. The value of the information that they know, ultimately drives their risk of being watched by adversary organizations. Spies rely off of the natural human 'short term memory' as well. Ways to prevent the 'short term memory' is to have diligent training programs reminding everyone on privacy practices, Information Protection of National Assets, and more (this should be a practice throughout the public, academic, Corporate, and Government).

The Internet as a tool for Spies: Today, most spies really don't have to travel or recruit assets due to the rapid growth of the internet with peer computing, social network tools, and more. A lot of espionage happens right on the internet today. There is today good IT Security training programs on computer protection and some phishing schemes. But, as I stated in an earlier blog: the internet and web based media tools have become very open to the international front using tools, such as these blog spots, MySpace, Facebook, twitter, and many other media tools; leaving themselves a little too open. Readers be aware, the more you communicate about yourself, the more information social engineers can collect on how to appeal to you, capture your attention to them, etc. Many with the agenda to take advantage of your 'trust' (using what ever information they can gather to appeal to your trust).

Moles: Many industrial & government espionage cases involve the use of insiders to steal the necessary information to compete or even sabotage a competitor. Most moles directly apply for a job with the competitor, and will use folk to acquire a position in a company to get greatest access to necessary information to transfer to the competitor.

Again, as I say below: The traditional recruitment of a mole can be risky if the person is already in the company, but if it does occur it is generally the targeting of employees or someone with access to a desired competitor. They usually recruit them with MICE - Money, Ideology, Compromise or Coercion (depending on source), and Ego".

The use of social knots

2009-12-22T07:34:00.000-08:00

When posting on twitter, your blogs, and more did you ever think about who you might be baiting? Social Engineers generally start with persons or technologies with access to knowledgeable people

Especially when the social engineer is of a different culture, different career, or outside a particular area of expertise. The first recruit generally is a person well-connected in the desired local environment. A principal contact or even an electronic access point, which may simply open a consortium of contacts to help in the pre-recruitment stages of assessment and development, or may only be involved in finding possible contacts.

These type of contacts for the social engineer may arrange introductions without being completely witting that the purpose of meeting the target(s) is to find people who will participate in some criminal, espionage, or other unwitting behavior. A well-respected technical professional, or a professor and/or student often will make introductions within their field or even be willing to co-sponsor an event with such contacts without really checking the motives of the recruiting individual. Such introductions are perfectly reasonable in many contexts, such as looking for more subject area experts for technology infusion, prestige building, jobs or people to fill them. The process of personnel recruiting for industry and academia is not completely dissimilar from recruiting social engineering contacts. Both may use personal networks, and, in industrialized countries, computer-assisted personal "networking" (for example, through websites such as LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Tagged, and the hundreds of other social networking sites).

Social Engineers know each knot of individuality is bound to the next, creating social fabric in which person-hood(s) exists.

Social Engineering in Private Sector, Espionage & War

2009-11-28T10:45:00.001-08:00

Social Engineering is one of the fundamental foundations for a covert mindset towards circumventing a "system".

In the general World of identity theft and people hacking we have examples:

Kevin Mitnick, "Art of Deception" and "Art of Intrusion" insightful, his website is http://www.mitnicksecurity.com/

the Esther Reed story
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/vicky-ward/esther-reed-how-an-ordina_b_166118.html

The Machiavellian Manager's Handbook for Success, by Lynn Gunlicks

In the World of down-and-dirty in the High Tech World or Military World:

Lew Stowbunenko of http://www.ciangroup.com/ offered the Intelforum list the following biographies of some key intelligence operatives who are leaders and are also valuable in "their conveyance of down-and-dirty tradecraft and what "that world" is like without too many embellishments";

1. A Spy for All Seasons, My Life in the CIA, by Duane (Dewey) Clarridge.
2. A Spy's Journey: A CIA Memoir: by Floyd Paseman
3. Without Cloak or Dagger: by Miles Copeland
4. Open Secret: Stella Rimington, MI5 (and any of Stella Rimingtons
fiction is quite good).
5. By Way of Deception, Victor Ovstrovsky (Mossad)
6. See No Evil, by Robert Baer.

The list of excellent biographies and accounts of life in the
clandestine services is innumerable. Study the links in Amazon, read
the reviews and decide their value for yourself.

For Operational, Research and Analytical Trade craft:

1. The Craft of Intelligence" by Allen W. Dulles

For research into the "how-to" process of field tradecraft, (and
there are too many awful publications in this area), I will suggest:

"Running a Ring of Spies, Spycraft and Black Operations in the Real
World of Espionage" by Jefferson Mack.

Social Engineering: no one is invincible - Parents be aware

2009-10-30T08:54:00.000-07:00

The most important defense awareness to have is:
1. There is no such thing as any person without some vulnerability to be exploited. A good team of social engineers can work easily to find anyone's vulnerabilities to exploit. Being aware of your vulnerabilities and aware that you have vulnerabilities you haven't recognized yet is a good start in recognizing that there are folks out there working to find them.
2. If you are a parent, be aware that your kids know how to get around you (and they can become great targets for social engineers to gain insight from). Teach your kids about privacy, and provide them awareness of strangers social engineering tactics.

Doing a search I found a few sites that discuss social engineering, I can't promise that they are honey pots or not ;-)

http://www.offensive-security.com/blog/
http://www.social-engineer.org/
http://www.securityfocus.com/

Social Engineering, competition in IC trust?

2009-10-09T12:39:00.000-07:00

Interesting Wired article http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2009/10/spies-protest-after-after-intel-sharing-tools-shut-down/ Years ago in 1997 I posted an article about Trust, Collaboration and Inter-agency warfare, in regards to competitive behavior and Trust in Cloaks-and-Daggers Group. The key is Trust in a competitive environment (information and technology competition)? What is trust when competition is involved?

Social Engineering for Hacking

2009-09-26T17:27:00.001-07:00

There are a lot of resources on the web that describe social engineering to gain access to computer systems for profit. This blog is focused on how it is advancing and going beyond the present electronic frontier. For resources on Social Engineering Prevention for computer networks:

Good reference sites for protecting your electronic frontier:
About.com - Antivirus Software
http://antivirus.about.com/b/2008/10/10/what-are-social-engineering-attacks.htm
Answers.com Social Engineering
www.answers.com/topic/social-engineering-political-science
McAfee's "The Origins of Social Engineering"
www.mcafee.com/us/local.../msj_origins_of_social_engineering.pdf

There are a lot more sites to google as well. Just be careful, some may be hacker sites.

An example of a social honeypot scheme?

2009-09-25T17:02:00.000-07:00

Be aware of some of the spontaneous Internet honeypots that appeal to certain personality types; i.e., religious, mystical, fast money themes, empowerment themes, and more.

I've personally investigated a few honeypots over the years that surround alternative energy, UFOLOGY and anomalous phenomena aspects. There is a great majority of curious, creative and adventure seeking individuals that really love to get involved in the mysteries (it's mesmerizing - thought provoking). These type of anomalous phenomena social groups attract a broad array of individuals that fall into categories of curiosity, investigative, romantic, creative, and fantasy prone. Most of these people are very intelligent. Important note: Not all of these type of social pots in the anomalous phenomena area are directly malicious, not all list server groups are directly malicious, but we all need to be aware that they attract the social engineers who are on the hunt to lurk, join in, collect information on potential candidates, and more.

Some of the more direct malicious honeypots designed to recruit candidates for profit or espionage, sometimes start on a community list server announcement; then once a number of folks join in, the engineers will invite them to a number of face-to-face group meetings at a designated place to 'get to know each other'. There the social engineers get everyone to introduce themselves, and talk about their careers and personal interests. Good social engineers empower the group of individuals. Usually there is a team of social engineers at work during these greet and meet gatherings. The team may consist of one individual to work introductions and perform elicitation of information while others are quiet doing analysis, taking note of potential candidates, even buddy up to a candidate to further work into more personalized future meetings or settings. Once they have a number of good candidates that meet the criteria desired, they will stop the initial honeypot on the list server. Then the social engineering begins to work the potential candidates further into either a compromising situation, or focus on the ideology or ego working the 'feeling of being special or chosen for some project they need help on', or even appeal to the candidates needs identified in the initial meetings (money, attention, sex, etc.).

Many social engineers look for tendencies of "MICE", which stands for "Money, Ideology, Compromise or Coercion (depending on source), and Ego" in their subjects. What some work forward to is to appeal to the candidates professional expertise and/or opinions, political opinions, their national allegiances, fantasies, or their cultural or religious beliefs; and then manipulate them using the MICE attributes for coercion with motives spanning through financial, espionage, criminal activity, human experimentation, and more.

Introduction to the Art of War on Social Engineering

2009-09-24T14:14:00.000-07:00

This site is a place wherein I'd like to get some dialog and sharing started of insights and lessons learned on many advanced types of social engineering taking place in the professional world of high technology and science. In many cases social engineering encounters in these areas can become very frightening and some may be humorous (yet still considered serious if gotten out of hand).

I have come to learn over the years that there is a network of social engineers that take great time and care in research (data collection) and actual teaming to profile many individual subjects to work their way into finding the perfect candidate(s) to manipulate and control in performing actions and/or divulging sensitive information (personal, confidential, trade secrets, or even national security secrets) to profit from (there are many scenarios ranging from espionage to human experimentation). Many people in the general work force don't generally know how to recognize the initiation nor tactics these human/social engineers use. A lot of the time social engineers are personable, engaging, gift baring, helpful, always available in order to position themselves close by their primary target candidates (those whom they will profit most from) by using good intelligence collection in order to appeal or trap their primary target.

Wikipedia has a good sight on social engineering http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_engineering_%28security%29

Today many using the internet and web based media tools have become very open to the international front using tools, such as these blog spots, MySpace, Facebook, twitter, and many other media tools; leaving themselves a little too open. Readers be aware, the more you communicate about yourself, the more information social engineers can collect on how to appeal to you, capture your attention to them, etc. Many with the agenda to take advantage of your 'trust' (using what ever information they can gather to appeal to your trust).

Advice today: always be alert to how much information you are giving out on your live style habits, your personal desires, your reactions to things, etc. on these open public channels. You may want to review what information you have already given out, to know what some have collected on you already and can be using. There are thousands of social engineers out there gathering the data and profiling (especially if you work in any area that they may profit from).

More tomorrow!