Posted on 12/10/2013 7:39:44 AM PST by Behind Liberal Lines
Giving a new twist to the term "spy games," U.S. and British intelligence agents have infiltrated the World of Warcraft and Second Life online fantasy games in their search for terrorists and criminal networks.
The spy agencies "have built mass-collection capabilities against the Xbox Live console network, which has more than 48 million players," James Ball reported in The Guardian. He based his account on classified papers leaked by former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden, whose release of masses of documents detailing U.S. communications surveillance has made him a finalist for Time's Person of the Year.
Spies took on fantasy roles, snooped around the games, looked for potential snitches and collected information and communications between players, said The New York Times in an article jointly produced with ProPublica, publications with which The Guardian shared the documents.
The effort grew out of fear that terrorists, already prone to using fake identities and voice and text chats, could use the games to pass secrets, move money and plan attacks while hiding "in plain sight," an NSA document from 2008 indicates. The Times said another document from from the same year declared virtual games "an opportunity!"
The U.S. spy community got busy playing games -- so busy, in fact, that a "deconfliction group" had to be set up to avoid collisions among the avatars of NSA, FBI and Pentagon spies prowling Second Life.
(Excerpt) Read more at syracuse.com ...
How about we apply some logic to the situation.
The government refuses to follow the "law of the land" in actually building a border fence. They refuse to secure our borders and they allow all kinds of people in from every mid-east hellhole there is if they claim persecution. They ignore those staying beyond their visas. All of this is undeniably the truth
You claiming that we need to allow the government to collect data on everything we citizens do in the name of security is asinine. Perhaps we can discuss the data collection once the huge security holes are closed. On the other hand, you might find that once the big holes are closed, the need to monitor every everyone's emails and now online gaming is not actually needed at all.
I suspect that the feds are ignoring the border and other avenues for terrorists to infiltrate the US precisely to provide cover for the building of the totalitarian state they so desire.
That’s not the question. The question is do terrorists use the games communications to communicate their plans? Why wouldn’t they, aside from the monthly fee?
The financial and social markets have proven that only fools start fights with WoW. Despite all the jokes one can muster about the game or its fans, the sheer influence of the game has shaped internet policy in several countries, including the US. WoW is an online Atlas.
“There was a criminal case a couple of years ago where a couple of folks working for the Mexican Cartels were using Xbox’s game voicechat feature to arrange for contract killings”
I used to play call of duty 3. Normally youre supposed to use the game chat to help your teammates. Call out the location of enemy tanks and jeeps, the hidden locations of snipers, enemy troop movements, etc.
However, during a game, many people would use the game chat for other worthless chatter that had nothing to do with the game. In order to put a stop to all that noise, I would start to pretend that I was a mafia bookmaker and loanshark. Id carry out phony one sided conversations, making bets on sporting events and horses. Giving out loans at usury rates (”yeah, give him the ten thou’ with 3 points above the vig...”). And arranging to have peoples legs broken for being late in their payments. Wasnt long before all that useless convo on the game chat would come to a dead halt as all the other players would finally shut the hell up so that they could eavesdrop on me.
I guess im lucky not to have gotten arrested.
snowden is a hero for exposing this treason being committed by the goverment
Thanks for proving my point about people being unable to understand what counter-intelligence gathering requires.
Whether our existing government uses its powers wisely or not is quite irrelevant to what is required to isolate and deal with those who want to attack us.
I don’t recall saying anywhere that I want the government to be allowed to gather data indiscriminately. I merely pointed out that this is the more or less indisputable prerequisite of an effective counter-intelligence operation. Massive amounts of information analyzed to locate the few bits that make the difference. You will note that the “smoking guns” trotted out after 9/11 were pretty much all gossip and other non-criminal activities.
The price for restricting such information gathering is reduced ability to head off attacks. I make no assertions here about whether that price is or is not worth it.
However, I will make a prediction. Those loudest in denunciation of the government for its intelligence-gathering efforts will also be among its loudest critics the next time those efforts fail to prevent another major attack.
if the NSA etc has resources to monitor Farmville it’s time for a budget cut.
Exposing an issue is one thing, exposing all the ways the United States gathers information is a whole other issue.
He IMO went beyond justified long ago and deserves an end to his game.
You somehow imply that those folks are somehow in error. Totally incorrect assertion
The 911 terrorists overstayed their visas. Without even getting into the question of whether they should have been here in the first place, if they would have been rounded up and deported when the visas expired it would have prevented 911. Same thing with the borders. You can bet your ass I'll be hollering about the next attack because the people and supplies necessary to carry out such attack could have been prevented from being in the country in the first place with proper border control.
Securing our borders, and then wholesale monitoring of the communication going across those borders would make us much more secure than open borders and internal monitoring.
Now on to why you are so against our Constitutional protections...
I think they record everything, then data mine on key wordss.
That should read: You imply that those folks are somehow in error. Totally incorrect assertion
Serves them right for not playing a proper pen and paper Dungeon and Dragons game.
But that's the elitist plan.
Immigration laws are "racist" so leave the borders open, and just impose a police state to try and keep a lid on things
The Future for our children
They can turn on your webcam anytime they want. Even if your computer is not turned on. They can ping your cell phone even when it’s not on. When we got to where we couldn’t do without cell phones and computers and cable TV and the internet, we told the feds “Come on in. You don’t need a warrant. Look around all you want.”
Next the NSA (given the small chance they are not already) will infiltrate the porn industry. Porn films. They will CLOSELY monitor porn movies. Massage parlors that give “extra”.
In no time at all, their will be NSA porn stars, prostitutes and pimps. And a vast crowd of NSA personnel posing as “Johns” in case terrorists also happen to be “patronizing” the brothels and hookers.
And a whole NSA Division full time watching porn online in case terrorists become porn stars and start passing secret messages, like “Oh yes! Yes! Oh God, yes! More!”
The NSA does not anticipate problems in attracting recruits for their new “Terrorists Under Covers” Division. And even expects the Division’s “Street and Brothel Squads” to turn a tidy profit.
“Snowden isn’t stopping, I kind of hope someone takes him out. We don’t need terrorists knowing what we are doing to combat them.”
Jeez, what a total idiot you are.
I kind of hope someone takes all your communication devices away so we don’t have Americans so oblivious to the Govt’s shredding of the Constitution.
(new word for your vocab dude, “Constitution”....ah, no, not referring to your bodily health.)
“Thanks for proving my point about people being unable to understand what counter-intelligence gathering requires.
Whether our existing government uses its powers wisely or not is quite irrelevant to what is required to isolate and deal with those who want to attack us.”
Sigh...can’t see past your nose.
The Government encourages a massive invastion of illegal foreigners, spies, terrorists, welfare spongers and unregistered Democrats.
And does less than nothing.
But has to spy on every citizen and infiltrate online games.
Talk about re-arranging the chairs on the deck of the Titanic. “Your end of the ship is sinking, Sir.”
Idiots like you justify this shredding and burning of the Constitution in case a terrorist is out there somewhere....with the open Obama Borders, arming of drug/terrorist gangs, arming of terrorists in Syria, you justify this sort of stupidity...ignoring the mass invasion of who knows who, but spying even on game playing?
Gosh, you are too dumb to breath on your own.
Terrorist porn stars!!
Of course, the next global threat!!
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