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Canada Government Privacy Security The Internet United States Politics

Leaked Snowden Docs Show Canada's "False Flag" Operations 202

An anonymous reader writes Documents leaked by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and The Intercept show the extent to which Communications Security Establishment Canada (CSEC) cooperates with the NSA — and perhaps most interestingly details CSEC's "false flag" operations, whereby cyberattacks are designed and carried out with the intention of attribution to another individual, group or nation state. The revelations come in the midst of Canadian controversy regarding the C-51 anti-terrorism bill.
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Leaked Snowden Docs Show Canada's "False Flag" Operations

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  • by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 23, 2015 @09:24AM (#49320049)

    is covered in blood red with nine swords as the logo.

  • by Anonymous Coward

    Sounds like outsourcing labour to from the US so that a third party catches flack for it should it go south. Canada, who basically has few natural enemies, could end up with a kick me sign on its back because of this.

    • by gl4ss ( 559668 ) on Monday March 23, 2015 @09:50AM (#49320295) Homepage Journal

      it's doubleception. canada could have blamed some other party after getting caught for trying to frame other party.

      now, framing individuals? that's war talk.

      I just wish other countries would already learn up and stop sending anyone into usa for being prosecuted for cybercrime. the fuck anyone can know who they framed or whatever, just as excercise...

      • I just wish other countries would already learn up and stop sending anyone into usa for being prosecuted for cybercrime

        Essentially, this.

        As soon as US law enforcement started using parallel construction (otherwise known as perjury with permission) ... nobody in the world should ever trust a damned thing claimed by US law enforcement.

        They can, and will, lie and manipulate their data to make all sorts of things look true.

        I'm afraid it's never going to happen, but claims by a US law enforcement agency should b

    • Canada has plenty of natural enemies, but don't worry as the polar ice pack melts most of those will drown. Then they will just have to worry about the brown bears instead of also the polar bears.
  • by Chrisq ( 894406 ) on Monday March 23, 2015 @09:31AM (#49320129)
    Yes I'd expect this from the USA or the UK. But I thought Canada was better than that
    • This has happened before, it's one of the reasons why CSIS exists and is no longer under the umbrella of the RCMP and why an investigative committee exists which examines all CSIS actions. I expect the same to happen to CSEC, it may take a few years but it'll happen.

    • by phayes ( 202222 ) on Monday March 23, 2015 @09:36AM (#49320171) Homepage

      Yes Candide, nations all around the world have spies that are performing espionage so you can be expect to be disappointed by every nation on earth larger than Monaco, Andorra or Lichtenstein (though I'm not so sure about the last three either...).

      • by king neckbeard ( 1801738 ) on Monday March 23, 2015 @09:42AM (#49320237)
        That doesn't mean that we need to accept it, though.
        • The message that 98% of the voters send with their vote for incumbent political parties says that they do accept it. If people intend to resist, they need to show it.

        • by phayes ( 202222 )

          You could also attempt to signal your disapproval of the degradations performed by oxidation in the atmosphere by refusing to breathe.

          Do let us all know how that works out for you...

          • So because I find your 'everybody's doing it' argument an insufficient justification, you suggest that I kill myself? You're certainly a champion of intellectualism.
      • by Thanshin ( 1188877 ) on Monday March 23, 2015 @09:47AM (#49320271)

        Monaco is so chock full of spies you could cross the country, leaping from spy-car to spy-car without ever touching the ground.

      • by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 23, 2015 @09:52AM (#49320327)

        Yes Candide, nations all around the world have spies that are performing espionage

        There is a pretty big difference between performing espionage and doing a false flag operation.
        A false flag operation actively tries to destabilize the relationship between other nations. (Or in the case when you use your host nation as a target, to trick the own population to accept certain infringements on freedom/democracy.)
        Neither case is really something where you can say "boys will be boys" and move on. The first case leads to a lot of hate and distrust between nations, the second case is treason.

        • <quote><p>There is a pretty big difference between performing espionage and doing a false flag operation.
          A false flag operation actively tries to destabilize the relationship between other nations. </quote>
          No a false flag operation plays on the friendship of two nations to allow a third to collect information. A and B are friends, A does not like C. C sends an agent claiming to be from B. The agent is thus able to collect the information on/from A because A thinks he is from B. That is
          • by DarkOx ( 621550 )

            No a false flag operation is pretty much any operation where one of its principle objectives is the miss-attribution of the action to another party.

            Suppose Bob hates Alice, and Bob also hates Ted who does not care about Alice one way or the other but similarly despises Bob. Ted might attack Bob under the flag of Alice, in hopes Bob will go to war with Alice. Bob will consume his resources fighting with Alice; perhaps to Ted's economic advantage or maybe so Ted can attack a further weakened Bob later.

          • by gstoddart ( 321705 ) on Monday March 23, 2015 @10:59AM (#49320947) Homepage

            No, a false flag merely attempts to disguise itself as coming from another source ... that's it.

            What you specifically use it for isn't part of the definition.

            Pretty much any reason you can think of why it is advantageous to make people think it was someone other than you is why you might run a false flag.

            You're both assigning arbitrary constraints to a false-flag, and those constraints simply don't exist.

            • by ceoyoyo ( 59147 )

              The present topic is specifically offensive false-flags. It doesn't matter whether you're using someone else's flag so you can sneak in and do harm, or because you specifically want to frame the third party, either way it's going to damage the original relationship. The story implies it's the latter type anyway.

              • No, the present story basically says they were "designed and carried out with the intention of attribution to another individual, group or nation state" ... as in, anybody but you.

                That is the definition of all false flag operations.

                But for some reason a bunch of people are trying to arbitrarily define false flag in a specific context. I'm saying that's mostly meaningless drivel by people who are trying to arbitrarily define false flag in a specific context.

                Yes, it's a false flag operation. Those have been

        • by phayes ( 202222 )

          No, Candide, these practices are NOT new, nor are they in any way different from the espionage nations & kingdoms & city-states have been engaging in since mankind began to write on papyrus & clay tablets.

    • by bhcompy ( 1877290 ) on Monday March 23, 2015 @09:37AM (#49320191)
      This is the worst type of behavior. Hopefully it's not true. Plotting against your own citizens for gains, whether it's political, monetary, or whatever, is worthy of revolution
    • by Thanshin ( 1188877 ) on Monday March 23, 2015 @09:40AM (#49320219)

      I'm ready to believe it was all USA, posing as Canada posing as other countries, on its "double false flag" operations.

      • by Livius ( 318358 )

        I'm ready to believe it was all USA, posing as Canada

        That's my theory for Stephen Harper.

    • Canada: the source of and cause of most of America's problems.
    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by LWATCDR ( 28044 )

      Every nation will spy to the best of it's ability and within the limits of it's self interest.
      This has been true since the beginning of recorded history.

      The fact that people find this shocking is what is so bizarre to me. The original heroes of computer science where spying. Bletchley park's function was to spy. You spy in wartime to win you spy in peacetime to prevent war.

      • by king neckbeard ( 1801738 ) on Monday March 23, 2015 @12:20PM (#49321755)
        Or, you spy in peacetime to create war. Wars usually are the results of growing internal or external tensions, and any country large enough to not be militarily curbstomped in a day has enough restraint to not launch a war without obvious precursors. Plus, spies have a long history of being massive idiots who fuck everything up, which is a good way to cause a war.
      • Or, you spy in peacetime to create war. Wars usually are the results of growing internal or external tensions, and any country large enough to not be militarily curbstomped in a day has enough restraint to not launch a war without obvious precursors. Plus, spies have a long history of being massive idiots who fuck everything up, which is a good way to cause a war.
    • Canada is a "five eyes" country. I expect the same from the UK, Australia, and New Zealand. They and the US work quite closely in the world of intelligence.

    • Don't be naive, and ascribe personal ethics to the behaviors of state actors. States' behavior is driven by the lowest common ethical denominator of it's collective leadership. For any sufficiently large state, this will trend towards 0.
    • But I thought Canada was better than that

      Really, why [wikipedia.org]? We were talking about Echelon here more than fifteen years ago.

      Hosers.

      (sorry)

    • by Livius ( 318358 )

      It was, but that was some time ago.

  • by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 23, 2015 @09:31AM (#49320135)

    Are the very opposite to what you want to run in a true democracy. If you must lie through your teeth to keep your own electorate in the dark, simply because you fear that the action(s) you are about to take would not be sanctioned by a well informed populous, then it's time to stop calling your country a democracy and start owning up to the fact that you live in and operate a dictatorship.
    Perhaps not as bad as most dictatorships out there, but it can be a very slippery slope..

    • Don't be ridiculous. Lying to your populace saves you a bundle on domestic policing expenses.

  • world governments to USA in public: "we are outraged about the NSA!"

    world governments to USA in private: "everything is coming along nicely"

    world governments, we-hate-USA-edition, in public: "we are outraged about the NSA!"

    world governments, we-hate-USA-edition, in private: "so how soon can we have NSA style abuses to add to our extensive portfolio of abuses?"

    americans should complain loudly about the NSA

    but the rest of the world, you should clean up your own fucking house, your government is feeding you manufactured NSA outrage as a distraction while it does the same

  • by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 23, 2015 @09:41AM (#49320229)

    Linky [firstlook.org]:

    The document suggests CSE has access to a series of sophisticated malware tools developed by the NSA as part of a program known as QUANTUM. As The Intercept has previously reported, the QUANTUM malware can be used for a range of purposes – such as to infect a computer and copy data stored on its hard drive, to block targets from accessing certain websites, or to disrupt their file downloads. Some of the QUANTUM techniques rely on redirecting a targeted person’s internet browser to a malicious version of a popular website, such as Facebook, that then covertly infects their computer with the malware.

    According to one top-secret NSA briefing paper, dated from 2013, Canada is considered an important player in global hacking operations. Under the heading “NSA and CSEC cooperate closely in the following areas,” the paper notes that the agencies work together on “active computer network access and exploitation on a variety of foreign intelligence targets, including CT [counter terrorism], Middle East, North Africa, Europe, and Mexico.” (The NSA had not responded to a request for comment at time of publication. The agency has previously told The Intercept that it “works with foreign partners to address a wide array of serious threats, including terrorist plots, the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, and foreign aggression.”)

    Notably, CSE has gone beyond just adopting a range of tools to hack computers.

    According to the Snowden documents, it has a range of “deception techniques” in its toolbox. These include “false flag” operations to “create unrest” and using so-called “effects” operations to “alter adversary perception.” A false-flag operation usually means carrying out an attack but making it look like it was performed by another group – in this case, likely another government or hacker. Effects operations can involve sending out propaganda across social media or disrupting communications services. The newly revealed documents also reveal that CSE says it can plant a “honeypot” as part of its deception tactics, possibly a reference to some sort of bait posted online that lures in targets so that they can be hacked or monitored.

  • by jbrown.za ( 2935583 ) on Monday March 23, 2015 @09:49AM (#49320285)

    Isn't "behaving" like a terrorist exactly the same as "being" a terrorist?

  • by jythie ( 914043 ) on Monday March 23, 2015 @10:02AM (#49320429)
    Am I missing something? As far as I can tell the document just outlines what they can do, not what they have done. Having been through countless meetings with powerpoint presentations outlining what a department 'can' do, I can appreciate just how far apart these two things could potentially be.
    • by xdor ( 1218206 )

      This just affirms doubts concerning the US claims of North Korean hacking Sony Pictures or any-given-hullabaloo about cyber attacks.

      Perhaps it's all a deception to achieve some political end?

      Or perhaps Snowden and Russia, et. all are trying to undermine our trust in the supreme integrity of our not-to-be-quesitoned leaders :)

  • Cyberattacks (Score:5, Insightful)

    by ledow ( 319597 ) on Monday March 23, 2015 @10:55AM (#49320893) Homepage

    Which is just one reason why I'm always incredibly dubious that cyber-attacks "coming from China" etc. are used as potential justification for retaliation. This is entirely different to "proved originating from", where China etc. could just be an unfortunate third-party, a plant, or deliberately infiltrated to further some other countries ends with a cyberattack that DOES come from their country even if they don't know it.

    Sorry, but you cannot go to war on the basis of what packets travelled over the Internet. It's just too damn unreliable and unaccountable that you can't do such things.

    And yet all the first-world nations are saying that such things could be "just cause" for doing exactly that.

    If your military systems are THAT bad that you can even get into anything at all from the ordinary Internet, it's your own fault.

  • I don't understand how those things work, how come documents are still leaking after years of Snowden's escape? Can't the world know everything at once? Does he sip them for better suspense? Or did they forget to revoke his password?
  • Maybe they can follow through by increasing science research.
  • "Hey terrorists are scary and we need new laws, so lets commit terrorism so we can make these new laws!" XD

    Oh, Canada...

  • by CaptainDork ( 3678879 ) on Monday March 23, 2015 @01:23PM (#49322347)

    ... shit is funny, I want to be in on the joke.

    We need more whistle blowers.

    Super powers are aiding each other and snooping on each other and throwing 'false flags' all behind our backs.

    That doesn't make it easy for us to make informed decisions.

    It's 'Government by the government for the government'.

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