Former NSA Hacker Describes Being Recruited for UAE Spy Program
zetter.substack.com
zetter.substack.com
> So had I been really cognizant of where or what I was stepping into, I probably would have known during even the interview process that something is a little bit amiss here.
Given the number of trainings that he would have attended while working at the NSA, I find it hard to believe that his OpSec radar wouldn't have been going off at that point.
Having read the remainder of the interview, IMO the entire series of events can be summarized as follows:
>Things were fishy from the start, but the compensation was good so I was happy to collect a paycheck until all plausible deniability went out the window. Knowing the gravy train wouldn't last forever and that the US govt would one day come knocking, I denied a position at DarkMatter and moved back to the states.
These types of training tend to be very specific, and certainly do not involve questioning chain of command.
This is why he immediately noticed things like possible surveillance, but it took him much longer to question the mission and his commanding officer.
True, but this excerpt was describing his initial interview process with CyberPoint. I agree with the general sentiment though.
It is important to remember that Snowden was also CIA before he worked at NSA, and went through full CIA training for CIA staff stationed in foreign embassies (he was in Geneva, and I think Japan?).
Technical training can make you good a something, but it doesn't necessarily make you aware of why you are doing something and what are the political consequences.
That's why also social science education and critical thinking is needed... to avoid those kind of situations.
Plenty of critical thinking happens to avoid situations. In this case, a service member that probably made 50k all in, was given a juicy contracting offer above the local market rate for the time (though for good operators, $200k local wasn't unheard of at the time). He saw the money, went to Dubai.
Everyone in the agency knew of this contract, almost everyone said the same thing.. Screw that. A few took it, cashed in for a year or two, then left.
The fringe number of people that took this contract are far fewer than the vast number that said no. I know I said no, and about a dozen others that said the same. On the same shoe I knew two that did, most didn't last over a year.
Perhaps not even former NSA employees are immune to the stuff influencers on social media pump out. Have a nice life in beautiful Abu Dhabi? Why not? It takes little to inform oneself about the country and the people in power though. I cannot understand, how one can move to another country and not look such stuff up. My guess about this is, that other people are simply way less hesitant to make such a move. Then of course there is the payment matter. With proper payment, perhaps we are willing to overlook certain things more easily or to not look too closely in the first place.
I'm making $500k+ in Atlanta as a reference point. As are my coworkers. I'm not super senior, and I'm not bragging. I just want to spread awareness of the existence and obtainability of these salaries.
A lot of people think they can't get jobs at high paying tech companies, when they can. Or they think it'd cost them their work-life-balance, when it often doesn't. Or that they wouldn't be able to handle it, when that shouldn't be a factor at all.
I mean Google getting 300 vs 200 applicants for an opening is kind of silly thing to promote.
Because common isn't the right word. Attainable is.
They also say $350k isn't an "incredible" which seems to suggest it’s more than just attainable it’s a reasonable goal.
If you're happy with a 100k salary, far be it from me to commiserate. But don't tell other people they can't attain higher compensation that puts them into the top 1% of earners. These jobs are real, they're not scarce, and they're absolutely not overly difficult to attain. You don't even need a college degree.
Don't tell people not to look. That's horrible.
You have to file, yes, but you don't necessarily have to pay. For Federal taxes there is the Foreign Earned Income Exclusion. As long as you are outside of the US for at least 330 days in a year you can exclude up to $108,700 (for 2021) in foreign earnings. There are a few other scenarios too.
That's technically only true for one of the two possible tests for FEIE. The presence test doesn't require any taxes to be paid anywhere else, and the bona fide resident test only requires that your "tax home" is in a different country.
Yet, very very few people do this.
Is writing code for the UAE to help them kill people so different to paying money to the USA to help them kill people?
Another variation of this is "why should I care about ethical issue 'X' since we all purchase goods and services that enable child or exploitative labor in another part of the world?" People can care about multiple issues at the same time. The fact that I, by necessity, have to participate in systems that enable oppression doesn't mean I should throw my hands up and disregard ethical decision making entirely.
I'm not saying it's happening in this case, but often these types of arguments do little more than serve as reactionary push-back against those seeking to solve issue "X" rather than being borne out of actual concern for the issue they've propped up in its place or some sort of concern about ethical consistency.
It’s easy to forget to do research on a country before you go there when it’s not something you’d consider “third world”.
As a German who's currently in Dubai, I find it amusing when an American judges the UAE.
The US has tons of undocumented/illegal immigrants which live in horrible conditions, but companies still employ them because they're cheap. How's that not modern slavery? How about all the H1B abuses?
In the UAE some companies may abuse the situation of foreign workers too, but the government clearly says you should not hand out your passport.
My American coworkers get taxed on their worldwide income, which basically only one other country does. Dictatorship?
The US started killed so many innocent people in the Middle East to get their hands on the oil.
> The US started killed so many innocent people in the Middle East to get their hands on the oil.
Thanks for writing your comment, i was thinking of writing something similar.
> I find it amusing when an American judges the UAE.
yeah i don't understand how Americans gloss over the myriad of contradictions, and just the overall violence, of US foreign policy
i'd like to leave this important video here for anyone who hasn't yet seen it: The CIA is a Terrorist Organization // https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_2khAmMTAjI
I've seen a similar line of thinking with regard to federal employees (who should have known better) and were successfully recruited, but then later arrested. You have to wonder to what degree they're telling the truth, or to what degree they really had blinders due to being so successfully charmed. Either way, this is common. I think it's hard for people to say "yes, I knew deep down this was a problem but hoped it wasn't true somehow."
Right, so he was used to doing sketchy things and not questioning the ethics of what his superiors told him to do, just the right kind/level of sketchy for the right people, and didn't realize this was going to be a different kind/level of sketchy that would ultimately make him uncomfortable.
Other leaders. Leaders who were coming to visit [UAE] sheiks... “Thanks for coming. Just as a sign of our appreciation, here’s a bunch of stuff.” One of those things happened to be a laptop. We do know that they were turned on sometimes. What happened after that we don’t aways know the answers to.
Got to be some sort of basic rule of being a leader not to take electronics from a foreign government and turn it on - or even do more than accept it to be gracious and then ensure it never goes anywhere near you.
Goodie bags with phones and cameras etc are popular at celebrity events. Perhaps this is how the celebrity nudes get leaked?
Get free phone at party > go home and film a sex tape > featured on internet.
I believe this episode talks about it: https://darknetdiaries.com/episode/34/
It won't make anything more secure, but it can buy you some time and waste the attackers resources.
Little known non-fact: Theremin repurposed the unsuccessful theremin banjo edition as the passive transmitter.
Even at work we are not allowed to accept electronics from other companies.
I can’t imagine government officials or security people of a country using a full blown laptop provided by the government officials or security people of other countries!
Sounds like a joke!
Though I imagine UAE intelligence would also probably be accounting for that possibility, given it seems like such a natural thing to do in that scenario. Or maybe I'm overestimating both sides, depending on who's receiving the gift.
https://darknetdiaries.com/episode/47/
https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/ep-47-project-raven/id...
This podcast series is one of my favorites. It some how manages to find a balance between being technical and accessible to the average person. Jack Resider is a great story teller. The level of care and detail they put into their research is incredible and they share the primary sources if you want to go even deeper.
If you like podcasts, give this a listen. Physical pentest episodes are my favorite.
https://www.evilsocket.net/2016/07/27/How-The-United-Arab-Em...