Taking Back the Internet: Wins & Victories

What's this? Retired General Keith "Collect it All" Alexander has become... a human rights advocate?!

thehill.com
UN's cybercrime 'law' helps dictators and criminals, not their victims
Gen. (Ret) Keith B. Alexander and Jamil N. Jaffer, opinion contributors
26 Nov 2019

> The expansion of global cybercrime, perhaps seen most prominently in the dramatic rise of ransomware attacks, recently led a key committee of the United Nations to adopt a resolution backing a new global agreement on cybercrime that purportedly would set serious limits on the use of technology for criminal purposes... The resolution — led by Russia and China, and supported by a motley crew including Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Nicaragua, Syria and Venezuela — does little to contain or limit cybercrime, instead employing significantly vague language ostensibly aimed at this global plague but in reality focused on reinforcing tools that authoritarian regimes can use to suppress domestic dissent, silence democracy activists, muzzle journalists and target human rights groups.

So is this another win for our side? No, it's a trick. Don't believe his change of heart.

Here is a dueling editorial from David Kaye, a genuine leader in the global fight for human rights (he is the UN Special Rapporteur for Human Rights):

theguardian.com
The surveillance industry is assisting state suppression. It must be stopped
David Kaye
The power and reach of private spyware companies is the stuff of dystopian fiction
26 Nov 2019

And here is an interview with Ron Wyden who has vowed to investigate credible reports of state sponsored malware being used to attack Americans (FBI or CMU SEI possibly not included):

theguardian.com
US senator to investigate if foreign spyware used to target Americans
Exclusive: Ron Wyden says hacking claims raise “serious national security issues”
Stephanie Kirchgaessner in Washington and Jon Swaine in New York
26 Nov 2019

This is an invaluable and long overdue initiative, but the natsec crisis is developing very quickly, and there are many indications that state-sponsored actors (very possibly including contractors for governments which USG regards as "hostile") have moved well beyond cyberespionage to using the information gleaned to refine their target lists and to follow up with physical intrusions. Decades ago, one of the ugliest revelations from the post-Watergate Church Committee was that FBI had engaged in extensive illegal non-breaking entries into the homes and offices of civil rights leaders, environmentalists, and musicians who had written anti-war songs, among other law-abiding innocent victims, who far from "doing something wrong", were doing things (ending Jim Crow, working to end the failed Vietnam War) where history has shown were very much the right thing to do at the time. In recent years, innumerable reports suggest very strongly that FBI is at it again. But the unprecedented aspect of the current threat environment is that other governments seem to joining USG in targeting Americans inside America with physical harassment. It is not yet clear whether FBI is actively assisting, looking the other way, or simply too incompetent or distracted (by searching for non-existent "BIE"s) to notice what is happening.

Alexander is however correct that governments extensively deploy malware, often bought from companies such as Gamma, Hacking Team, Cellebrite, or NSO Group, to attack journalists and human rights groups. Another technique pioneered by the Putin regime which is being deployed by other governments is to suppress human rights groups by hitting supporters with ruinous fines which bankrupt and dehouse them. The Drump administration is apparently trying to use this strategy against Americans. It is notable that not only has state-sponsored malware has been used in cyberespionage campaigns targeting groups such as Amnesty and HRW, but lists of supporters have been a particular target.

Another note on Gen. Alexander: shortly after his retirement, he became very unpopular with NSA employees after he patented a supposedly novel analytic technique which he claimed he had developed (for personal profit) in his spare time while serving as DIRNSA ("people who hold that post should not *have* any free time", was the outraged comment I heard from one of those deeply offended; other staffers felt that as a supposed "patriot" Alexander should have given his technique to NSA for free). Alexander quickly formed his company IronNet Cybersecurity in which the alleged technique and his dragnetting background is a centerpiece of marketing. Further, his protege was caught out by The Intercept in a self-dealing no-bid contract issued by NSA to company in which her husband served as an executive, which resulted in her demotion and early retirement. This kind of public rebuke from "Deep State" is quite rare, and underscores the extraordinary sense of entitlement claimed by Alexander and his cronies.

Another notable point is that when Alexander and his coauthor (an IronNet crony) decry governments shutting down human rights groups, they fail to mention that the government of Israel has just expelled the country director of NSO Group for the "crime" [sic] of promoting an international consumer boycott which could force the government to back off from some of its worst human rights abuses. Promoting an international consumer boycott of Israel (which would ironically stop NSO Group and Cellebrite from selling malware abroad) is illegal in Israel (and the US) but the country director did not in fact promote the proposed consumer boycott:

hrw.org
Israel Expels Human Rights Watch Director Today
Group Will Keep Documenting Abuses by All Parties

Further, long time politician and former counter-terror operative Bibi Netanyahu has been indicted on very serious charges of public corruption and bribery, and is contesting a close election. All this underscores an essential point about all human rights issues: no government can be offered a "free pass" for abuses simply because they claim the status of "the good guys", or claim that past horrors "justify" their adoption of methods which sometimes seem to be approaching a similar level of cynical brutality. It is terrifying but necessary to acknowledge that all around the world, populist right wing extremist leaders such as Bolsonaro are openly expressing their intention to imitate (in Amazonia and other places) the worst excesses of the original Nazi regime, Stalin's regime, Mao's regime, Pol Pot's regime, the masterminds of the Rwanda genocide and Balkan genocide and Armenian genocide and others. And state-sponsored cyberwar is playing a role in these nascent contemporary genocides.

State sponsored malware is particularly dangerous when it is used to attack journalists investigating public corruption, mafias, or human rights violations, or their sources.
In Malta, the long battle to bring to justice the murderers of Daphne Curuana Galizia has reached a crisis point:

theguardian.com
Maltese PM's aide and minister quit amid turmoil over journalist's murder
Keith Schembri and Konrad Mizzi resign, as police continue inquiry into 2017 death of Daphne Caruana Galizia
Juliette Garside in Valletta
26 Nov 2019

IMO, Alexander's op-ed should be viewed as a kind of information operation targeting Americans, which remarkably appears not to be pushing the "Deep State" agenda but rather Alexander's personal agenda to positively increment the profit-line of his company. Meanwhile, the RUtrolls remain an important threat to the democratic process around the world, and they have upped their game:

rollingstone.com
That Uplifting Tweet You Just Shared? A Russian Troll Sent It
Here’s what Russia’s 2020 disinformation operations look like, according to two experts on social media and propaganda.
Darren Linvill & Patrick Warren
Nov 2019