Thread by @Dry_Observer

@AWeissmann_ Since we're talking about Stone, and Facebook just shut down one of his social-media networks over there, perhaps it's time to discuss what the @FBI has known about how vulnerable they are since 1/2/20.

Also of interest to @GCHQ, @csiscanada @AIVD @CyberGovAU.
cc: @ericgarland

@AWeissmann_ @FBI @GCHQ @csiscanada @AIVD @CyberGovAU @ericgarland Let's start with the original 1/2/20 message.

With apologies for the length of the following, and the unpolished prose (it's the second of four sent over four days, and not remotely the longest)...

Here it is...

@AWeissmann_ @FBI @GCHQ @csiscanada @AIVD @CyberGovAU @ericgarland Data Mining Online Illegal Influence Networks

@AWeissmann_ @FBI @GCHQ @csiscanada @AIVD @CyberGovAU @ericgarland We can completely unravel social-media influence operations in Russia and elsewhere by actually employing them, using the evidence thus acquired to shut down their money laundering, clients and every element of their networks thus revealed.

@AWeissmann_ @FBI @GCHQ @csiscanada @AIVD @CyberGovAU @ericgarland We can follow up on the NATO Strategic Communications Centre of Excellence study of these networks by purchasing likes and retweets of a relatively benign but recent set of tweets such as Christmas deals, Black Friday, Happy New Year’s greetings or general winter-safety warnings

@AWeissmann_ @FBI @GCHQ @csiscanada @AIVD @CyberGovAU @ericgarland ...but spread across many buyers, providers and industries, and calculated to be roughly affirmations of each online competitor in industries with relatively few participants apt to be completely unaffected by this scattered testing.

@AWeissmann_ @FBI @GCHQ @csiscanada @AIVD @CyberGovAU @ericgarland We can then track how the money is provided to each provider and who each account involved has historically supported as a sock puppet.

@AWeissmann_ @FBI @GCHQ @csiscanada @AIVD @CyberGovAU @ericgarland We will track the funding, the providers, the clients and the accounts, but also track, to the extent possible, the laundering of the funds involved.

@AWeissmann_ @FBI @GCHQ @csiscanada @AIVD @CyberGovAU @ericgarland Consider these excerpts from a paper prepared by the NATO Strategic Communications Centre of Excellence:
Falling Behind: How Social Media Companies Are Failing to Combat Inauthentic Behaviour Online
stratcomcoe.org/how-social-med…

@AWeissmann_ @FBI @GCHQ @csiscanada @AIVD @CyberGovAU @ericgarland “From the 2014 invasion of Ukraine to more recent attempts to interfere in democratic elections, antagonists seeking to influence their adversaries have turned to social media manipulation.

@AWeissmann_ @FBI @GCHQ @csiscanada @AIVD @CyberGovAU @ericgarland “At the heart of this practice is a flourishing market dominated by Manipulation Service Providers (MSPs) based in Russia. Buyers range from individuals to companies to state-level actors."

@AWeissmann_ @FBI @GCHQ @csiscanada @AIVD @CyberGovAU @ericgarland "Typically, these service providers sell social media engagement in the form of comments, clicks, likes, and shares.”

@AWeissmann_ @FBI @GCHQ @csiscanada @AIVD @CyberGovAU @ericgarland “To test the ability of Social Media Companies to identify and remove manipulation, we bought engagement on 105 different posts on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube...

@AWeissmann_ @FBI @GCHQ @csiscanada @AIVD @CyberGovAU @ericgarland "...using 11 Russian and 5 European (1 Polish, 2 German, 1 French, 1 Italian) social media manipulation service providers.

@AWeissmann_ @FBI @GCHQ @csiscanada @AIVD @CyberGovAU @ericgarland “At a cost of just 300 EUR, we bought 3 530 comments, 25 750 likes, 20 000 views, and 5 100 followers. By studying the accounts that delivered the purchased manipulation, we were able to identify 18 739 accounts used to manipulate social media platforms.”

@AWeissmann_ @FBI @GCHQ @csiscanada @AIVD @CyberGovAU @ericgarland “Most of the inauthentic accounts we monitored remained active throughout the experiment. This means that malicious activity conducted by other actors using the same services and the same accounts also went unnoticed.

@AWeissmann_ @FBI @GCHQ @csiscanada @AIVD @CyberGovAU @ericgarland “While we did identify political manipulation— as many as four out of five accounts used for manipulation on Facebook had been used to engage with political content to some extent—

@AWeissmann_ @FBI @GCHQ @csiscanada @AIVD @CyberGovAU @ericgarland "we assess that more than 90% of purchased engagements on social media are used for commercial purposes.

@AWeissmann_ @FBI @GCHQ @csiscanada @AIVD @CyberGovAU @ericgarland “We identified fake engagement purchased for 721 political pages and 52 official government pages, including the official accounts of two presidents, the official page of a European political party, and a number of junior and local politicians in Europe and the United States."

@AWeissmann_ @FBI @GCHQ @csiscanada @AIVD @CyberGovAU @ericgarland "The vast majority of the political manipulation, however, was aimed at non-western pages.”

@AWeissmann_ @FBI @GCHQ @csiscanada @AIVD @CyberGovAU @ericgarland “In contrast with the reports presented by the social media companies themselves, our re
port presents a different perspective: We were easily able to buy more than 54 000 inauthentic social media interactions with little or no resistance.”
…

@AWeissmann_ @FBI @GCHQ @csiscanada @AIVD @CyberGovAU @ericgarland “The scale is greater than thought. The infrastructure for developing and maintaining social media manipulation software, generating fictitious accounts, and providing mobile proxies is vast .

@AWeissmann_ @FBI @GCHQ @csiscanada @AIVD @CyberGovAU @ericgarland “The openness of this industry is striking. Rather than a shadowy underworld, it is an easily accessible marketplace that most web users can reach with little effort through any search engine. In fact, manipulation service providers advertise openly on major platforms.”

@AWeissmann_ @FBI @GCHQ @csiscanada @AIVD @CyberGovAU @ericgarland “To limit the risk of unintentionally influencing real conversations online, we conducted the
vast majority of the experiment by buying engagement on inauthentic profiles we created ourselves.

@AWeissmann_ @FBI @GCHQ @csiscanada @AIVD @CyberGovAU @ericgarland “To assess if there is a difference between the various platforms’ ability to counter bought manipulation on verified accounts, we also purchased comments and likes on a few real verified posts on each platform.

@AWeissmann_ @FBI @GCHQ @csiscanada @AIVD @CyberGovAU @ericgarland “To make sure that we did not influence real conversations we only bought engagement on posts that were at least six months old and contained neutral apolitical messages such as New Year’s greetings.

@AWeissmann_ @FBI @GCHQ @csiscanada @AIVD @CyberGovAU @ericgarland “The comments we bought were simple messages of a positive nature such as ‘Hello!’ and ‘Thank you!’ (see case-study on page 25). Engaging with posts that likely would not receive genuine engagement also enabled more accurate measurement of the purchased engagement.”

@AWeissmann_ @FBI @GCHQ @csiscanada @AIVD @CyberGovAU @ericgarland “To conduct the experiment we bought engagement on 105 different posts on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube using 11 Russian and 5 European (1 Polish, 2 German, 1 French, 1 Italian) social media manipulation service providers."

@AWeissmann_ @FBI @GCHQ @csiscanada @AIVD @CyberGovAU @ericgarland "Spending 300 EUR, we bought 3 530 comments, 25 750 likes, 20 000 views, and 5 100 followers, enabling us to identify 18 739 accounts being used for social media manipulation.

@AWeissmann_ @FBI @GCHQ @csiscanada @AIVD @CyberGovAU @ericgarland “The experiment was carried out during six weeks in May and June 2019. To assess the ability of the platforms to remove the inauthentic engagement, we monitored the bought engagement from before engagement to one month after engagement.

@AWeissmann_ @FBI @GCHQ @csiscanada @AIVD @CyberGovAU @ericgarland "We reported the inauthentic engagement to the social media companies in July and continued monitoring through the end of August 2019 to measure the time it took for the social media platforms to react.”

@AWeissmann_ @FBI @GCHQ @csiscanada @AIVD @CyberGovAU @ericgarland The response to this seems to write itself. If these acts are illegal and you can engage this many illegal-influence companies across this many platforms using this many bots and troll accounts, simply engage an undercover investigation...

@AWeissmann_ @FBI @GCHQ @csiscanada @AIVD @CyberGovAU @ericgarland ...and buy meaningless acts of influence from them across all the platforms they use, especially the major ones, using a wide variety of false identities and/or shell companies.

@AWeissmann_ @FBI @GCHQ @csiscanada @AIVD @CyberGovAU @ericgarland To the extent possible, engage a very large number of them, perhaps all that are known to be commercially available.

@AWeissmann_ @FBI @GCHQ @csiscanada @AIVD @CyberGovAU @ericgarland Then use the evidence gleaned to investigate the tools thus employed – troll and bot accounts used in the campaigns, cryptocurrency wallets receiving payment or laundering those payments further, known employees and organizations offering these services...

@AWeissmann_ @FBI @GCHQ @csiscanada @AIVD @CyberGovAU @ericgarland ...and companies, governments and individuals employing them for influence.

Be sure to assemble a strong legal foundation for these efforts, but there are undoubtedly enough reasons to be investigating many if not all of these operations.

@AWeissmann_ @FBI @GCHQ @csiscanada @AIVD @CyberGovAU @ericgarland Also strike a careful balance between causing unnecessary disruption and being overly anodyne to the point of creating suspicion.

@AWeissmann_ @FBI @GCHQ @csiscanada @AIVD @CyberGovAU @ericgarland But broken up between enough buyers, in such an apparently crowded marketplace, these investigations should be easily executed, especially since you are mainly buying services, tracking money and activities...

@AWeissmann_ @FBI @GCHQ @csiscanada @AIVD @CyberGovAU @ericgarland ...and then seeing who is, who will and who has employed exactly the same people and accounts for influence and/or paid into the same accounts or cryptocurrency wallets for this work.

@AWeissmann_ @FBI @GCHQ @csiscanada @AIVD @CyberGovAU @ericgarland Once we have overwhelming evidence, the warrants issued, followed by the seizure of assets, interviews of suspects and companies and issuance of indictments should not only severely impact those participants who can legally be proven to have committed crimes...

@AWeissmann_ @FBI @GCHQ @csiscanada @AIVD @CyberGovAU @ericgarland ...but cause a profound chilling effect in the entire illegal industry.

/End Quoted Message Transmitted to the FBI

As no one has asked me to remain silent regarding this or many other messages to the @FBI, it seemed worth sharing.

Obviously, there are ways to supercede this.

@AWeissmann_ @FBI @GCHQ @csiscanada @AIVD @CyberGovAU @ericgarland But for now, let's just elaborate on the above points, since their full gravity is not necessarily apparent.

And apologies again for the lack of brevity, by Twitter standards, but the above amounted to three pages in the real world.

@AWeissmann_ @FBI @GCHQ @csiscanada @AIVD @CyberGovAU @ericgarland So... They "identified fake engagement purchased for 721 political page and 52 official government pages," yet they estimate over "90% of purchased engagements... are used for commercial purposes."

Think about that.
cc: @RepAdamSchiff @OCCRP @ARCYBER @USTreasury @TheJusticeDept

@AWeissmann_ @FBI @GCHQ @csiscanada @AIVD @CyberGovAU @ericgarland @RepAdamSchiff @OCCRP @ARCYBER @USTreasury @TheJusticeDept Also consider the NATO Strategic Communications Centre of Excellence is apparently just a thinktank, yet they found this much on an evidently negligible budget.

@AWeissmann_ @FBI @GCHQ @csiscanada @AIVD @CyberGovAU @ericgarland @RepAdamSchiff @OCCRP @ARCYBER @USTreasury @TheJusticeDept Also consider...

"Spending 300 EUR, we bought 3 530 comments, 25 750 likes, 20 000 views, and 5 100 followers, enabling us to identify 18 739 accounts being used for social media manipulation."

@AWeissmann_ @FBI @GCHQ @csiscanada @AIVD @CyberGovAU @ericgarland @RepAdamSchiff @OCCRP @ARCYBER @USTreasury @TheJusticeDept To sum up:

The FBI has known since at least 1/2/20.

It's *trivial* to find *vast* numbers of accounts being used to supply purchased engagements.

@AWeissmann_ @FBI @GCHQ @csiscanada @AIVD @CyberGovAU @ericgarland @RepAdamSchiff @OCCRP @ARCYBER @USTreasury @TheJusticeDept But if you're *buying* engagements from a large number of providers, you can *also* track the means of payment - be it via cryptocurrency (open ledger), bank transfers (see FinCEN) or other means (always revealing).

@AWeissmann_ @FBI @GCHQ @csiscanada @AIVD @CyberGovAU @ericgarland @RepAdamSchiff @OCCRP @ARCYBER @USTreasury @TheJusticeDept And you can track the *buyers.*

Via both the other engagements bought from known networks.

Via tracking *those* accounts back to active botnets and other sources, and then identifying *other* accounts under their control.

@AWeissmann_ @FBI @GCHQ @csiscanada @AIVD @CyberGovAU @ericgarland @RepAdamSchiff @OCCRP @ARCYBER @USTreasury @TheJusticeDept And then seeing what *all* those accounts - including others attached to the botnets and company - are supplying in terms of paid engagement, and who is paying them.

@AWeissmann_ @FBI @GCHQ @csiscanada @AIVD @CyberGovAU @ericgarland @RepAdamSchiff @OCCRP @ARCYBER @USTreasury @TheJusticeDept In effect, it becomes an expanding cloud of self-confession.

Now realize, as Roger Stone's networks get pulled down...

Companies and individuals may already be proffering out on this issue.

@AWeissmann_ @FBI @GCHQ @csiscanada @AIVD @CyberGovAU @ericgarland @RepAdamSchiff @OCCRP @ARCYBER @USTreasury @TheJusticeDept Elaborate evidence of thousands - more likely millions or even billions - of individual engagements purchased by means easily tracked to both the sender and the recipients.

Now how many of those were Russian organized-crime fronts, or Russian-intelligence fronts?

Or both?

@AWeissmann_ @FBI @GCHQ @csiscanada @AIVD @CyberGovAU @ericgarland @RepAdamSchiff @OCCRP @ARCYBER @USTreasury @TheJusticeDept Again, just one of four things sent to the FBI at the beginning of the year, and by no means the most important.

Or even the second.

And one of many such messages, most far more significant.

Nevertheless...

@AWeissmann_ @FBI @GCHQ @csiscanada @AIVD @CyberGovAU @ericgarland @RepAdamSchiff @OCCRP @ARCYBER @USTreasury @TheJusticeDept If over 700 political engagements is less than 10% of what a thinktank can find skimming social media...

Indicating they found several thousand or so commercial actions...

@AWeissmann_ @FBI @GCHQ @csiscanada @AIVD @CyberGovAU @ericgarland @RepAdamSchiff @OCCRP @ARCYBER @USTreasury @TheJusticeDept How many thousands of companies have already transmitted evidence demonstrating their guilt to authorities?

How many thousands of public figures, of varying degrees of prominence?

@AWeissmann_ @FBI @GCHQ @csiscanada @AIVD @CyberGovAU @ericgarland @RepAdamSchiff @OCCRP @ARCYBER @USTreasury @TheJusticeDept How many of these companies you can reach without even going on the Darknet... are literally fronts for Russian intelligence?

@AWeissmann_ @FBI @GCHQ @csiscanada @AIVD @CyberGovAU @ericgarland @RepAdamSchiff @OCCRP @ARCYBER @USTreasury @TheJusticeDept P.S. RICO?

With a dash of, say, espionage?

Which has *no* statute of limitations?

What a *glorious* way to pull in vast, disparate masses into some form of criminal conspiracy.

@AWeissmann_ @FBI @GCHQ @csiscanada @AIVD @CyberGovAU @ericgarland @RepAdamSchiff @OCCRP @ARCYBER @USTreasury @TheJusticeDept RICO statutes include “extortion, interstate theft, narcotics violations, mail fraud, securities fraud, currency reporting violations, certain immigration offenses, and terrorism related offenses” (per the Criminal RICO manual for federal prosecutors).

@AWeissmann_ @FBI @GCHQ @csiscanada @AIVD @CyberGovAU @ericgarland @RepAdamSchiff @OCCRP @ARCYBER @USTreasury @TheJusticeDept Hopefully there isn't a *whiff* of mail fraud and so forth in all these fraudulent online activities.

Like publicly vouching for your product, your service, or your candidate.

Or your international policies.

Or what have you.

@AWeissmann_ @FBI @GCHQ @csiscanada @AIVD @CyberGovAU @ericgarland @RepAdamSchiff @OCCRP @ARCYBER @USTreasury @TheJusticeDept Again, far from the biggest thing afoot, but possibly illuminating.

And yes, speaking of self-evident things.

If this is coming out now - even taking into account 6-months of lead time for the @FBI and no request on their part to keep it quiet...

@AWeissmann_ @FBI @GCHQ @csiscanada @AIVD @CyberGovAU @ericgarland @RepAdamSchiff @OCCRP @ARCYBER @USTreasury @TheJusticeDept There's likely something even more devastating on the #BigData front capable of surpassing the more-conventional methodology suggested above, and reaping evidence even more swiftly.

Still, while that alternative is balanced and honed to this purpose, this open vulnerability...

@AWeissmann_ @FBI @GCHQ @csiscanada @AIVD @CyberGovAU @ericgarland @RepAdamSchiff @OCCRP @ARCYBER @USTreasury @TheJusticeDept Is arguably more valuable if shared.

At least now.

And again, there's *so* much more afoot.

Sleep well.

The sleep of the just.

cc: @NatSecLisa @NatashaBertrand @ZevShalev @NSAGov @BarackObama @SpeakerPelosi

@AWeissmann_ @FBI @GCHQ @csiscanada @AIVD @CyberGovAU @ericgarland @RepAdamSchiff @OCCRP @ARCYBER @USTreasury @TheJusticeDept @NatSecLisa @NatashaBertrand @ZevShalev @NSAGov @BarackObama @SpeakerPelosi A few details above deserve further clarification, so their gravity is more fully apparent.

If you're involved in RICO conspiracy, you're evidently culpable for all the crimes undertaken by said conspiracy, including even the ones you're not aware of.

@AWeissmann_ @FBI @GCHQ @csiscanada @AIVD @CyberGovAU @ericgarland @RepAdamSchiff @OCCRP @ARCYBER @USTreasury @TheJusticeDept @NatSecLisa @NatashaBertrand @ZevShalev @NSAGov @BarackObama @SpeakerPelosi And the statute of limitations apparently does not begin counting down until the last act undertaken in furtherance of the conspiracy.

Both of which seem critical if you're ever involved in a vast, sprawling RICO case which is elaborately documented.

@AWeissmann_ @FBI @GCHQ @csiscanada @AIVD @CyberGovAU @ericgarland @RepAdamSchiff @OCCRP @ARCYBER @USTreasury @TheJusticeDept @NatSecLisa @NatashaBertrand @ZevShalev @NSAGov @BarackObama @SpeakerPelosi Much of it in the public domain.

Speaking of which, while there are private Facebook groups and so forth, all of Twitter up until the end of 2017 was being archived in the Library of Congress.

Hence, it's a bit late to delete your pre-2018 tweets.

@AWeissmann_ @FBI @GCHQ @csiscanada @AIVD @CyberGovAU @ericgarland @RepAdamSchiff @OCCRP @ARCYBER @USTreasury @TheJusticeDept @NatSecLisa @NatashaBertrand @ZevShalev @NSAGov @BarackObama @SpeakerPelosi They're part of the public record, forever.

Speaking of which, cryptocurrency like bitcoin is a permanent, public, online, unerasable record of every transaction, held forever in the blockchain.

@AWeissmann_ @FBI @GCHQ @csiscanada @AIVD @CyberGovAU @ericgarland @RepAdamSchiff @OCCRP @ARCYBER @USTreasury @TheJusticeDept @NatSecLisa @NatashaBertrand @ZevShalev @NSAGov @BarackObama @SpeakerPelosi Worth noting if you paid for activities via cryptocurrency.

Or if trolls, companies and/or the controllers of botnets were paid via cryptocurrency.

@AWeissmann_ @FBI @GCHQ @csiscanada @AIVD @CyberGovAU @ericgarland @RepAdamSchiff @OCCRP @ARCYBER @USTreasury @TheJusticeDept @NatSecLisa @NatashaBertrand @ZevShalev @NSAGov @BarackObama @SpeakerPelosi Every bank in the world has to cooperate with a #FinCEN investigation, or they won't be countersigned by US banks, and hence Western banks, and hence any banks...

And will cease to be a bank.

Critical if you are tracking bank transfers, but often unnecessary.

@AWeissmann_ @FBI @GCHQ @csiscanada @AIVD @CyberGovAU @ericgarland @RepAdamSchiff @OCCRP @ARCYBER @USTreasury @TheJusticeDept @NatSecLisa @NatashaBertrand @ZevShalev @NSAGov @BarackObama @SpeakerPelosi There are likely at least two ways to track most global malware, which went through to the @FBI in late 2018 (with elaborations stretching out to early 2019).

Some of this would apply to tools such as laundering payments via clickfraud, though there are other methods.

@AWeissmann_ @FBI @GCHQ @csiscanada @AIVD @CyberGovAU @ericgarland @RepAdamSchiff @OCCRP @ARCYBER @USTreasury @TheJusticeDept @NatSecLisa @NatashaBertrand @ZevShalev @NSAGov @BarackObama @SpeakerPelosi Further, botnets are essentially vast repositories of court-admissible evidence stored on computers not in the hands of the controlling hacker.

Combined with server logfiles holding data for up to a year, how many of those slow-running PCs mothballed in the attic hold evidence?

@AWeissmann_ @FBI @GCHQ @csiscanada @AIVD @CyberGovAU @ericgarland @RepAdamSchiff @OCCRP @ARCYBER @USTreasury @TheJusticeDept @NatSecLisa @NatashaBertrand @ZevShalev @NSAGov @BarackObama @SpeakerPelosi How many can be seized and examined under warrant?

And that's leaving aside the US counterhacking and taking over a botnet, such as North Korea's Joanap.

@AWeissmann_ @FBI @GCHQ @csiscanada @AIVD @CyberGovAU @ericgarland @RepAdamSchiff @OCCRP @ARCYBER @USTreasury @TheJusticeDept @NatSecLisa @NatashaBertrand @ZevShalev @NSAGov @BarackObama @SpeakerPelosi Now, what crimes could a few of these illegal-influence operations be involved in?

Beside trying to overthrow elections, undermine public-health measures during a pandemic, and so forth?

There's something evolutionary algorithms in psychological warfare.

@AWeissmann_ @FBI @GCHQ @csiscanada @AIVD @CyberGovAU @ericgarland @RepAdamSchiff @OCCRP @ARCYBER @USTreasury @TheJusticeDept @NatSecLisa @NatashaBertrand @ZevShalev @NSAGov @BarackObama @SpeakerPelosi Evolutionary algorithms take a multitude of programs and throw them at the same problem. You eliminate the ones that fail & mix together those that succeed.

But you can also do that with people & the stimulus directed at them.

@AWeissmann_ @FBI @GCHQ @csiscanada @AIVD @CyberGovAU @ericgarland @RepAdamSchiff @OCCRP @ARCYBER @USTreasury @TheJusticeDept @NatSecLisa @NatashaBertrand @ZevShalev @NSAGov @BarackObama @SpeakerPelosi For example, all those tweets and posts, shared articles, images, GIFs and/or videos on social media.

Where you have extensive data on views, reactions, further shares, comments and so forth.

What can you use this for besides analyzing individuals?

Shaping their mental state.

@AWeissmann_ @FBI @GCHQ @csiscanada @AIVD @CyberGovAU @ericgarland @RepAdamSchiff @OCCRP @ARCYBER @USTreasury @TheJusticeDept @NatSecLisa @NatashaBertrand @ZevShalev @NSAGov @BarackObama @SpeakerPelosi So you can take a bunch of program fragments, throw them a problem, keep what works best and toss the rest.

What happens if you do the same thing with stimulus in psychological warfare?

Aside from incredible harm and evil?

@AWeissmann_ @FBI @GCHQ @csiscanada @AIVD @CyberGovAU @ericgarland @RepAdamSchiff @OCCRP @ARCYBER @USTreasury @TheJusticeDept @NatSecLisa @NatashaBertrand @ZevShalev @NSAGov @BarackObama @SpeakerPelosi It's one thing to have mountains of hard evidence re: crimes.

But the computers can literally detail every minute detail & action the felonies, & literally record the whole thing.

Vast, complex PSYOPs managed with the precision of supercomputer.

@AWeissmann_ @FBI @GCHQ @csiscanada @AIVD @CyberGovAU @ericgarland @RepAdamSchiff @OCCRP @ARCYBER @USTreasury @TheJusticeDept @NatSecLisa @NatashaBertrand @ZevShalev @NSAGov @BarackObama @SpeakerPelosi Now imagine some group were hypothetically involved, such as Cambridge Analytica or Facebook.

Imagine if the records of the actions undertaken, and even the computers doing it, could be seized.

Not just the evidence but the crimes themselves, frozen in evidentiary amber.

@AWeissmann_ @FBI @GCHQ @csiscanada @AIVD @CyberGovAU @ericgarland @RepAdamSchiff @OCCRP @ARCYBER @USTreasury @TheJusticeDept @NatSecLisa @NatashaBertrand @ZevShalev @NSAGov @BarackObama @SpeakerPelosi Consider specific GIFs used, datatags in ads, video clips, etc.

Think about all the precise pieces of stimulus not only visible as being managed, but easily tracked across a host of servers and databases, as very specific code came up again and again.

@AWeissmann_ @FBI @GCHQ @csiscanada @AIVD @CyberGovAU @ericgarland @RepAdamSchiff @OCCRP @ARCYBER @USTreasury @TheJusticeDept @NatSecLisa @NatashaBertrand @ZevShalev @NSAGov @BarackObama @SpeakerPelosi Then think of all the tech companies, media assets, entertainment assets, politicians, hackers and others being precisely coordinated with similar talking points and timetables...

Showing further collusion in the evolutionary algorithms, botnet support, bitcoin payments, etc...

@AWeissmann_ @FBI @GCHQ @csiscanada @AIVD @CyberGovAU @ericgarland @RepAdamSchiff @OCCRP @ARCYBER @USTreasury @TheJusticeDept @NatSecLisa @NatashaBertrand @ZevShalev @NSAGov @BarackObama @SpeakerPelosi Yes, I'm apparently the inventor of the concept, but never said anything about it other than to note how cataclysmically suicidal it was.

Mentioned repeatedly in an SF context in 2011.

I literally shelved a lot of positive applications to avoid this one.
eclipsephase.com/comment/20628#…

@AWeissmann_ @FBI @GCHQ @csiscanada @AIVD @CyberGovAU @ericgarland @RepAdamSchiff @OCCRP @ARCYBER @USTreasury @TheJusticeDept @NatSecLisa @NatashaBertrand @ZevShalev @NSAGov @BarackObama @SpeakerPelosi Why? Because if you're targeting tens of millions, potentially a couple hundred million Americans, you're targeting not just normal citizens, but those suffering from PTSD, paranoia, severe aversions, early dementia, etc.

People expressly vulnerable to this manipulation.

@AWeissmann_ @FBI @GCHQ @csiscanada @AIVD @CyberGovAU @ericgarland @RepAdamSchiff @OCCRP @ARCYBER @USTreasury @TheJusticeDept @NatSecLisa @NatashaBertrand @ZevShalev @NSAGov @BarackObama @SpeakerPelosi And consider the evidence...

"Undoubtedly someone will do a mass public search - or *has* done a mass search - on all #cryptocurrency identifiers. It's hard evidence. Other data points will crop up. Emails, names, pseudonyms, organizations, businesses, hang-outs."

@AWeissmann_ @FBI @GCHQ @csiscanada @AIVD @CyberGovAU @ericgarland @RepAdamSchiff @OCCRP @ARCYBER @USTreasury @TheJusticeDept @NatSecLisa @NatashaBertrand @ZevShalev @NSAGov @BarackObama @SpeakerPelosi "Take the map & superimpose #FARA, #FinCEN, #DeutscheBank, #Cypriot banks, money laundering, Transition emails, misappropriated copyrights, flipped witnesses..."

@AWeissmann_ @FBI @GCHQ @csiscanada @AIVD @CyberGovAU @ericgarland @RepAdamSchiff @OCCRP @ARCYBER @USTreasury @TheJusticeDept @NatSecLisa @NatashaBertrand @ZevShalev @NSAGov @BarackObama @SpeakerPelosi "#Kompromat reaped by #botnets, online logfiles of everything, warrant-seized evidence, media subversion."

@AWeissmann_ @FBI @GCHQ @csiscanada @AIVD @CyberGovAU @ericgarland @RepAdamSchiff @OCCRP @ARCYBER @USTreasury @TheJusticeDept @NatSecLisa @NatashaBertrand @ZevShalev @NSAGov @BarackObama @SpeakerPelosi "PS. Add #Darknet sites - seized or active, intelligence operatives, data sources like the al Qaeda donation/money-laundering records taken during the Bin Laden raid..."

@AWeissmann_ @FBI @GCHQ @csiscanada @AIVD @CyberGovAU @ericgarland @RepAdamSchiff @OCCRP @ARCYBER @USTreasury @TheJusticeDept @NatSecLisa @NatashaBertrand @ZevShalev @NSAGov @BarackObama @SpeakerPelosi "...deep-cover Russian spies under "re"-issued IDs exposed by a #BigData search to check for the preceding ID."

@AWeissmann_ @FBI @GCHQ @csiscanada @AIVD @CyberGovAU @ericgarland @RepAdamSchiff @OCCRP @ARCYBER @USTreasury @TheJusticeDept @NatSecLisa @NatashaBertrand @ZevShalev @NSAGov @BarackObama @SpeakerPelosi Then take everything from, say, Cambridge Analytica's alleged actions - & remember that "stimuli" is in discrete packets distributed by automated systems, often unaltered - & realize it shows *more* connections, *more* coordination, *more* flagged accounts.

@AWeissmann_ @FBI @GCHQ @csiscanada @AIVD @CyberGovAU @ericgarland @RepAdamSchiff @OCCRP @ARCYBER @USTreasury @TheJusticeDept @NatSecLisa @NatashaBertrand @ZevShalev @NSAGov @BarackObama @SpeakerPelosi And *then* layer everything else on top of this map. 4 million+ documents from Cohen, who could be repository or *the* repository of US Mob archives? *Everyone* treasoning on Signal & WhatsApp? & every *other* cataclysmic data blunder out there?

@AWeissmann_ @FBI @GCHQ @csiscanada @AIVD @CyberGovAU @ericgarland @RepAdamSchiff @OCCRP @ARCYBER @USTreasury @TheJusticeDept @NatSecLisa @NatashaBertrand @ZevShalev @NSAGov @BarackObama @SpeakerPelosi And you *literally* do all of this in the context of all but hand delivering not only the data but unprecedented data-processing power in dealing with it.

As you've broken it *all* down into discrete packages - #bitcoin searches, commercial encryption, PSYOPS stimuli - for them.

@AWeissmann_ @FBI @GCHQ @csiscanada @AIVD @CyberGovAU @ericgarland @RepAdamSchiff @OCCRP @ARCYBER @USTreasury @TheJusticeDept @NatSecLisa @NatashaBertrand @ZevShalev @NSAGov @BarackObama @SpeakerPelosi Like a hologram, the more data, the more angles of analysis and exposure, the clearer this 3-dimensional image becomes.

But as we animate it across time, it becomes more than a sculpture of light, but a recreation of the living crimes themselves.

@AWeissmann_ @FBI @GCHQ @csiscanada @AIVD @CyberGovAU @ericgarland @RepAdamSchiff @OCCRP @ARCYBER @USTreasury @TheJusticeDept @NatSecLisa @NatashaBertrand @ZevShalev @NSAGov @BarackObama @SpeakerPelosi Preserved in evidentiary amber.

But far from frozen.

@AWeissmann_ @FBI @GCHQ @csiscanada @AIVD @CyberGovAU @ericgarland @RepAdamSchiff @OCCRP @ARCYBER @USTreasury @TheJusticeDept @NatSecLisa @NatashaBertrand @ZevShalev @NSAGov @BarackObama @SpeakerPelosi And yet there's more.

These are "embarrassingly parallel problems."

Parallel processing through clusters (Beowulf, Hadoop, etc) rarely reaches its full, overwhelming potential.

Problems are rarely broken down into a host of simple parts for them.

Especially not at this scale.

@AWeissmann_ @FBI @GCHQ @csiscanada @AIVD @CyberGovAU @ericgarland @RepAdamSchiff @OCCRP @ARCYBER @USTreasury @TheJusticeDept @NatSecLisa @NatashaBertrand @ZevShalev @NSAGov @BarackObama @SpeakerPelosi These are.

And worse, not only is the evidence online, and in formats easily assimilated and merged...

But they were doing all of this on the cusp of quantum computing, and particularly quantum search.

Grover's algorithm.

@AWeissmann_ @FBI @GCHQ @csiscanada @AIVD @CyberGovAU @ericgarland @RepAdamSchiff @OCCRP @ARCYBER @USTreasury @TheJusticeDept @NatSecLisa @NatashaBertrand @ZevShalev @NSAGov @BarackObama @SpeakerPelosi So our capacity to analyze this data is unfathomably greater than it appears.

Either in the near future.

Or now.

@AWeissmann_ @FBI @GCHQ @csiscanada @AIVD @CyberGovAU @ericgarland @RepAdamSchiff @OCCRP @ARCYBER @USTreasury @TheJusticeDept @NatSecLisa @NatashaBertrand @ZevShalev @NSAGov @BarackObama @SpeakerPelosi Consider the hard evidence, yet again.

Running social-media psychological warfare w/de facto evolutionary algorithms is simple enough, even if you don’t know what you’re doing.

Existing marketing metadata has already been honed for this work.

@AWeissmann_ @FBI @GCHQ @csiscanada @AIVD @CyberGovAU @ericgarland @RepAdamSchiff @OCCRP @ARCYBER @USTreasury @TheJusticeDept @NatSecLisa @NatashaBertrand @ZevShalev @NSAGov @BarackObama @SpeakerPelosi Pick stimuli based on what metadata you have.

Keep switching it out based on quantifiable reactions & intended goals.

@AWeissmann_ @FBI @GCHQ @csiscanada @AIVD @CyberGovAU @ericgarland @RepAdamSchiff @OCCRP @ARCYBER @USTreasury @TheJusticeDept @NatSecLisa @NatashaBertrand @ZevShalev @NSAGov @BarackObama @SpeakerPelosi Endlessly duplicated and distributed evidence, w/a clear chain of custody through the conspirators, sequenced w/automated precision.

Think about how many elements are endlessly repeating in even a minor feint.

@AWeissmann_ @FBI @GCHQ @csiscanada @AIVD @CyberGovAU @ericgarland @RepAdamSchiff @OCCRP @ARCYBER @USTreasury @TheJusticeDept @NatSecLisa @NatashaBertrand @ZevShalev @NSAGov @BarackObama @SpeakerPelosi Phrases, gifs, links, video clips...

Data packets.

Elements revealing in themselves, given who uses them, with what timing, and with what coordination in the outside world.

But how many were transparently created for this work?

@AWeissmann_ @FBI @GCHQ @csiscanada @AIVD @CyberGovAU @ericgarland @RepAdamSchiff @OCCRP @ARCYBER @USTreasury @TheJusticeDept @NatSecLisa @NatashaBertrand @ZevShalev @NSAGov @BarackObama @SpeakerPelosi Intentionally? Ahead of time?

And do the records at Cambridge Analytica or elsewhere indicate that a particular clip was pre-planned?

Do they reference it before it happens?

& does *anyone* reference events like mass shootings before they happen?

@AWeissmann_ @FBI @GCHQ @csiscanada @AIVD @CyberGovAU @ericgarland @RepAdamSchiff @OCCRP @ARCYBER @USTreasury @TheJusticeDept @NatSecLisa @NatashaBertrand @ZevShalev @NSAGov @BarackObama @SpeakerPelosi Again, timing can be deadly.

Including who is involved, and *when.*

What they may know, or their actions & data may reveal, in turn.

@AWeissmann_ @FBI @GCHQ @csiscanada @AIVD @CyberGovAU @ericgarland @RepAdamSchiff @OCCRP @ARCYBER @USTreasury @TheJusticeDept @NatSecLisa @NatashaBertrand @ZevShalev @NSAGov @BarackObama @SpeakerPelosi It's more than just a few Yandex tags here, or the same paint-by-numbers hit piece there.

Coordinating on this scale and effectively recording the whole thing means you practically have the crime itself, not just the evidence, graven in stone.

@AWeissmann_ @FBI @GCHQ @csiscanada @AIVD @CyberGovAU @ericgarland @RepAdamSchiff @OCCRP @ARCYBER @USTreasury @TheJusticeDept @NatSecLisa @NatashaBertrand @ZevShalev @NSAGov @BarackObama @SpeakerPelosi This is why coordinating PSYOPS and general harassment through #botnets is so insane.

The sheer scale of traceable, relentlessly repeating evidence, all of it stored on a host of insecure devices, even if your keystone processors are secure.

@AWeissmann_ @FBI @GCHQ @csiscanada @AIVD @CyberGovAU @ericgarland @RepAdamSchiff @OCCRP @ARCYBER @USTreasury @TheJusticeDept @NatSecLisa @NatashaBertrand @ZevShalev @NSAGov @BarackObama @SpeakerPelosi Now ask, if so much of your activity is being handled on computers not under your direct control, in nations hostile to your aggressive strategies, how much intelligence have you exposed beyond your intel and financial assets and specific operations?

@AWeissmann_ @FBI @GCHQ @csiscanada @AIVD @CyberGovAU @ericgarland @RepAdamSchiff @OCCRP @ARCYBER @USTreasury @TheJusticeDept @NatSecLisa @NatashaBertrand @ZevShalev @NSAGov @BarackObama @SpeakerPelosi Remember what we said above about digging into the past.

But providing your adversaries with an ocean of digitized and analyzable hard data regarding your activities, especially ones thought invisible, offers immense insight into your operations and goals.

@AWeissmann_ @FBI @GCHQ @csiscanada @AIVD @CyberGovAU @ericgarland @RepAdamSchiff @OCCRP @ARCYBER @USTreasury @TheJusticeDept @NatSecLisa @NatashaBertrand @ZevShalev @NSAGov @BarackObama @SpeakerPelosi We will do mass data forensics on increasingly vast data sets as a given with the emergence of quantum and post-zetascale supercomputing.

@AWeissmann_ @FBI @GCHQ @csiscanada @AIVD @CyberGovAU @ericgarland @RepAdamSchiff @OCCRP @ARCYBER @USTreasury @TheJusticeDept @NatSecLisa @NatashaBertrand @ZevShalev @NSAGov @BarackObama @SpeakerPelosi What happens when #botnets are becoming involved in controversies in particular industries?

Even if they’re taking opposing sides?

Or when they’re driving hacks or DDoS attacks against specific industries?

@AWeissmann_ @FBI @GCHQ @csiscanada @AIVD @CyberGovAU @ericgarland @RepAdamSchiff @OCCRP @ARCYBER @USTreasury @TheJusticeDept @NatSecLisa @NatashaBertrand @ZevShalev @NSAGov @BarackObama @SpeakerPelosi These are exactly the data points you would review in quantum/zetascale data forensics.

Not by themselves, but superimposed against that larger set of databases referenced above.

@AWeissmann_ @FBI @GCHQ @csiscanada @AIVD @CyberGovAU @ericgarland @RepAdamSchiff @OCCRP @ARCYBER @USTreasury @TheJusticeDept @NatSecLisa @NatashaBertrand @ZevShalev @NSAGov @BarackObama @SpeakerPelosi Another example?

#Botnets would show distinct changes in the operation of individual computers but also changes at scale in masses of them.

Always on, strange operating hours, changes in sites accessed.

@AWeissmann_ @FBI @GCHQ @csiscanada @AIVD @CyberGovAU @ericgarland @RepAdamSchiff @OCCRP @ARCYBER @USTreasury @TheJusticeDept @NatSecLisa @NatashaBertrand @ZevShalev @NSAGov @BarackObama @SpeakerPelosi Enough markers & real-time analysis of online activity might reveal a new #botnet forming or an existing one being activated.

& determine responses to counter, disrupt and deactivate them.

Having numerous botnets to reference would tell you more.

@AWeissmann_ @FBI @GCHQ @csiscanada @AIVD @CyberGovAU @ericgarland @RepAdamSchiff @OCCRP @ARCYBER @USTreasury @TheJusticeDept @NatSecLisa @NatashaBertrand @ZevShalev @NSAGov @BarackObama @SpeakerPelosi But again, for those buying this influence, and tied to any such criminal conspiracy, it's worse than it sounds.

@AWeissmann_ @FBI @GCHQ @csiscanada @AIVD @CyberGovAU @ericgarland @RepAdamSchiff @OCCRP @ARCYBER @USTreasury @TheJusticeDept @NatSecLisa @NatashaBertrand @ZevShalev @NSAGov @BarackObama @SpeakerPelosi What if you were involved in a grave criminal conspiracy, and did not opt to flip in time?

What if you have no evidence or testimony to proffer on it that law enforcement needs?

@AWeissmann_ @FBI @GCHQ @csiscanada @AIVD @CyberGovAU @ericgarland @RepAdamSchiff @OCCRP @ARCYBER @USTreasury @TheJusticeDept @NatSecLisa @NatashaBertrand @ZevShalev @NSAGov @BarackObama @SpeakerPelosi Not everyone in a company, campaign or conspiracy is going down together.

Someone will talk.

Or their emails will.

What about the people who are left?

If they dig really deep?

@AWeissmann_ @FBI @GCHQ @csiscanada @AIVD @CyberGovAU @ericgarland @RepAdamSchiff @OCCRP @ARCYBER @USTreasury @TheJusticeDept @NatSecLisa @NatashaBertrand @ZevShalev @NSAGov @BarackObama @SpeakerPelosi A fully cooperating witness has to describe every crime they were not only party to, but every crime they were ever aware of, in their life.

@AWeissmann_ @FBI @GCHQ @csiscanada @AIVD @CyberGovAU @ericgarland @RepAdamSchiff @OCCRP @ARCYBER @USTreasury @TheJusticeDept @NatSecLisa @NatashaBertrand @ZevShalev @NSAGov @BarackObama @SpeakerPelosi One thing to keep an eye on is what I like to call "contagion."

So many of these ecosystems - DC, LA, NY - conspiracies and criminal operations may seem small and tightly interconnected.

With evidence on *everybody,* tipping points hit when *everyone* knows they should proffer.

@AWeissmann_ @FBI @GCHQ @csiscanada @AIVD @CyberGovAU @ericgarland @RepAdamSchiff @OCCRP @ARCYBER @USTreasury @TheJusticeDept @NatSecLisa @NatashaBertrand @ZevShalev @NSAGov @BarackObama @SpeakerPelosi 9/11 shortselling, LIBOR manipulation, mortgage-market manipulations in general, the 2008 financial collapse, money laundering of all kinds.

Things could get very interesting, as proffers and evidence unearth completely unrelated crimes.

@AWeissmann_ @FBI @GCHQ @csiscanada @AIVD @CyberGovAU @ericgarland @RepAdamSchiff @OCCRP @ARCYBER @USTreasury @TheJusticeDept @NatSecLisa @NatashaBertrand @ZevShalev @NSAGov @BarackObama @SpeakerPelosi So. The flaws in illegal-influence networks arguably aren't the largest factor in these investigations, even if you count everything they branch out into.

But they are significant and far reaching.

More will emerge into the public light, in good time.