Forwarded from: Brooks Isoldi <bjisoldiat_private> One can only wonder *exactly* why TrustMatta performed this "Counterintelligence excercise". Seriously, is this meant to wake people up to the amount of information available or to give the CIA a black eye? Or is it meant to draw attention to the courses/services offered by Matta (i.e. a publicity stunt)? Did TrustMatta perform this same CI excercise against their own organization? While Matta mentioned several times that this information was gleaned strictly from open sources, and I commend them for that and for the focus on open sources, the information in this report is not really anything special, nor is it something that isn't available for almost any entity with a web presence. This report would have also greatly benefited from a conclusion of the data, including the statement that this information would only be the first steps of the initial phase of a focused, dedicated attack on a target network. It also seems to suffer from the two links (one at the top and one at the bottom) to courses Matta offers on Information Security. On another note, I did find the rather large list of names, email address' and phone numbers surprising, however a quick search on Google for some of those names reveal the following: Steve Argubright, Dennis Taylor and Paul Vick are all PUBLIC points of contact for the NCIX (National Counterintelligence Executive). Their contact information is there, accessible by anyone with a webrowser for a reason. They are most likely PR of some sort, especially considering their names show up on the "Upcoming Events" page for the NCIX. For those who don't know, in addition to running counterintelligence ops, the NCIX also works with industry and commercial entities (and perhaps the general public to a small extent) on protecting themselves from corporate espionage. That alone means they require publicly accessible "Points of Contact". Richard Corliss happens to be the webmaster for the NCIX. Enough said, I think...any web presence is going to provide contact information for their webmaster. I didn't bother doing this for all the names, I just skimmed a few off the top, however I am sure that had I done the same for ALL of the names, I would have found the same pattern for many more of the names. This is not to say that there is no information out there on the web that SHOULDNT be, all I am saying is this report seems to be fluffed up with the use of names and information that is out there for a reason. It seems like another FUD'ish report, with someone keeping their finger on the *PANIC* button. --- Brooks Isoldi The Intelligence Network http://www.intellnet.org 877-581-3724 [Voicemail/Fax] "When in the Course of human Events, it becomes necessary for one People to dissolve the Political Bands which have connected them with another..." -Declaration of Independence (1776) -----Original Message----- From: owner-isnat_private [mailto:owner-isnat_private]On Behalf Of InfoSec News Sent: Wednesday, March 06, 2002 3:30 AM To: isnat_private Subject: [ISN] Internet-based Counterintelligence against the CIA Forwarded from: Matta Security <infoat_private> Dear all, Yesterday the consultants of the Matta Attack & Penetration Team released a white paper documenting an entirely legal counterintelligence exercise undertaken over 2 days against the CIA's Internet points of presence, using open sources of information. Our results can be found in PDF format at http://www.trustmatta.com/services/docs/Matta_Counterintelligence.pdf [...] - ISN is currently hosted by Attrition.org To unsubscribe email majordomoat_private with 'unsubscribe isn' in the BODY of the mail.
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