SockPuppet/AstroTurf Alerts

[elfismiles]

Air Force Wants Troll Persona Management Software
February 18th, 2011

Via: Federal Business Opportunities:
https://www.fbo.gov/index?s=opportunity ... e&_cview=1

Online Persona Management Service. 50 User Licenses, 10 Personas per user.

Software will allow 10 personas per user, replete with background , history, supporting details, and cyber presences that are technically, culturally and geographacilly consistent. Individual applications will enable an operator to exercise a number of different online persons from the same workstation and without fear of being discovered by sophisticated adversaries. Personas must be able to appear to originate in nearly any part of the world and can interact through conventional online services and social media platforms. The service includes a user friendly application environment to maximize the user’s situational awareness by displaying real-time local information.
http://cryptogon.com/?p=20609

AND ... because talk of wikileaks can't be far behind on any thread foreverafter...

Wikileaks vs UFO Disinformation?
Posted on February 15, 2011 by Mark

When the first mention of UFOs in the tranche of diplomatic papers unveiled by Wikileaks proved to be less than explosive, the ufological rumour machine went into interstellar overdrive with a wackyleak of its own, released on 17 January via ‘Allnewsweb’:

New secret UFO Wikileaks cable revealed

<snip>

Now I don’t want to make any grand leaps of conspiratorial connectivity, but I will propose the following:

if someone was trying to discredit Wikileaks – and there are many people and organisations who might wish to do so – then one way to do it might be to stir up nonsense UFO stories (the ‘Allnews’ posting was just a few days after the first bona fide, if unsensational, UFO-related diplomatic paper had gone public) and disseminate them via a grass roots, broadly right-leaning political movement. This would certainly add an extra dimension to the idea of astro-turfing!

Whether Michael Cohen is an apolitical hoaxer, perhaps one hoping to turn a fast web-buck (see Kandinsky’s comment below), an overzealous believer in ET visitation, a ‘private security’ specialist working on behalf of someone else, or a mixture of all of the above, remains to be seen. In the mean time it’ll be interesting to look into the amount of cross over between the Tea Party movement, which is a very broad church, and the UFO/Exopolicial movement.

http://miragemen.wordpress.com/2011/02/ ... formation/

Mark cites the recent HBGary / Anonymous scandals which have there own threads around these parts.

Which of course reminds us of this / which I don't think can be reposted enuf:

Booze Allen Hamilton and FOIA Distraction Strategems
http://parapolitical.wordpress.com/2007 ... trategems/

Psy-ops propaganda goes mainstream by Sharon Weinberger – Slate Magazine
http://anomalyaudio.wordpress.com/2008/ ... -magazine/

[JackRiddler]

.

Yo. Going to post the persona part on an HBGary thread, since that was, in fact, the latest thing to come out about Aaron Barr -- plans for persona management.

.

[hava1]

Methinks some of us here experienced the R and D, on this board.

I also think some of it is done in ISrael, as usual. I am reminded of the late Israeli Blogger (was also mentioned here by Jeff I think) called "rapunzel", and another blogger comes to my mind, from ISrael, who was attacked by something like that, originating in Germany though (Israelis and hebrew speaking Germans) a couple of years ago. Looking back on these bizarre cyber attackes, it rings a bell, and not the bells of freedom.

on edit= the Rapunzel case ended in suicide.

Also, i am reminded of another person I know who was thus attacked by a Canadian grouping under the name "shed" (the person's real name was Jesse, from I believe saskachwan). She is ISraeli, but her entire life was gamed using internet and Cell phone and TV kind of driving her to the edge. I thought she was nuts but I saw some of it. I guess that the next generation of those troll software management. Anyway, as usual, I am picking on the little things, like unethical experimentation on Jews. (sorry for sidetracking...)>

[barracuda]

Whether Michael Cohen is an apolitical hoaxer, perhaps one hoping to turn a fast web-buck (see Kandinsky’s comment below), an overzealous believer in ET visitation, a ‘private security’ specialist working on behalf of someone else, or a mixture of all of the above, remains to be seen.

Afaik, Cohen is a phoney "psychic" radio show personality who has branched out into the UFO field, probably sensing some overlap between the two audiences.

In the mean time it’ll be interesting to look into the amount of cross over between the Tea Party movement, which is a very broad church, and the UFO/Exopolicial movement.

I think there are actors in the realm of "exopolitics", people like Stephen Bassett pursuing the release of government documents related to UFOs, who probably do bear watching in terms of background and motivation.

[justdrew]

well, this is fucking huge. This confirms everything.

as far as UFO's go... I think it's time to retire the subject. If there are UFO's they can come tell us so. Otherwise it's just a waste of time to even think about.

[elfismiles]

I've been wanting to explore Persona Management Software capabilities and the latest questions about Luka Magnotta's alleged online presence (and dare I say, trolls like "Socrates" - Seth Allen) who seem to have mastered the mass-multiusername trolling tactics seems like a good enough excuse to resurrect related topics / threads.

Persona Management Software

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=as5dgA0wuXE

Categorized | Cyberwarfare
Persona Management Software Helps Hide Statistics That Would Raise Suspicion by Website Statistics Analyzers
Filed Feb 21 2011 05 PM CDT. Tags: Persona Management Software, Posse Comitatus Act, web statistics

Federal Business Opportunities website seeking vendors for Persona Management software that would have capability for allowing users to infiltrate websites without detection (or raising suspicion) by web statistics software.

Details have been removed since the fob.gov website has also removed the details of this information. Out of respect for the federal government, and in case details were removed for national security issues, GLOBALCONFLICTMAPS.COM has also removed our summary of information that was once publicly available on the fob.gov
Where background information from Wikipedia is included,
original work is modified and is released under CC-BY-SA.

http://www.globalconflictmaps.com/2011/ ... -software/

IT scams, sockpuppet armies, and the rest...
viewtopic.php?f=8&t=31304&hilit=Persona+Management+Software

Persona Management
From Project PM
(Redirected from Persona management)
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Persona management entails the use of software by which to facilitate the use of multiple fake online personas, or "sockpuppets," generally for the use of propaganda, disinformation, or as a surveillance method by which to discover details of a human target via social interactions. Various incarnations of this capability have been discovered in the form of patents, U.S. military contracts, and e-mail discussions among intelligence contractors.
[edit] Known Aspects

In the wake of the HBGary investigation, it was discovered that the federal contractor had bid on a call for applications by the USAF to develop persona software for apparent propaganda and/or infiltration purposes. CENTCOM later admitted to using such capabilities abroad, but denies using them in the English language or in a way that would explicit target U.S. citizens, an action which would be illegal. Global Business Solutions and Associates LLC, Uk Plus Logistics, Ltd., NevinTelecom, Bunker Communications and Planmatrix LLC., were also among those bidding to provide such software, according to documents discovered by Raw Story. The contract was later discovered to have been won by Ntrepid, which still later was confirmed to be a wholly-owned subsidiary of Cubic Corporation and led in large part by execs and employees of the latter firm.

On October 15th, 2010, HBGary Federal CEO Aaron Barr emailed Mantech CEO Robert Frisbie about considering Palantir Technologies for help "..on some of the integration for link analysis and data correlation. We will likely be able to get into some of the persona management logic.." Barr here attached the PDF titled Social Media Persona Development. At some point, Barr also deployed a primitive single persona, intended to represent an intelligence contracting employee and USAF veteran, on Facebook and Twitter. During his attempt to infiltrate Anonymous, Barr also planned to create at least two fake personas with the intention of using the first to "discredit" the second in order to gain influence within the movement. In both instances, Barr seems to have relied on manual trickery rather than employing specialized software of the sort that's been developed elsewhere.

Patent 20090313274, created in an apparent join effort by IBM and the U.S. military (four members of which are listed as inventors), describes specific workings of a reasonably advanced persona management system, or at least a component thereof, providing software-based linguistic capabilities in order to retain "linguistic integrity" from conversation to conversation.

DARPA's July 2011 BAA (Broad Agency Announcement) entitled Social Media in Strategic Communications indicates that such software will increasingly form a broad programmatic area of military operations, rather than being acquired piecemeal or in covert dealings, as has been the case in the past.


[edit] Firms known to be involved

Cubic Corporation/Ntrepid/Abraxas

C5i

Mantech

HBGary Federal

US Air Force
[edit] See Also

* Persona Development
* Cognitive Infiltration
* SMISC: Social Media in Strategic Communication (DARPA-BAA-11-64, PDF) - 14.07.2011

Retrieved from "https://wiki.echelon2.org/w/index.php?title=Persona_Management&oldid=3288"
Personal tools

* This page was last modified on 5 January 2012, at 18:59.

https://wiki.echelon2.org/wiki/Persona_management

Re: The first global cyber war has begun
viewtopic.php?p=405293#p405293

ECHELON 2 - METAL GEAR OP

http://www.wiki.echelon2.org

Main Page
From Echelon 2
Jump to: navigation, search

The purpose of this wiki is to provide a centralized and actionable data set regarding the nature of Metal Gear.

Joining OpMetalGear

This is a crowdsourced investigation focused on research and analysis. If you care that the surveillance state is expanding in capabilities and intent without being effectively opposed by the population of the West, you can assist in making this an actionable resource for journalists and activists. Consider spending half an hour doing research on the companies and government agencies listed on this wiki, or even adding new subjects for investigation as appropriate. The best place to start is the community portal; from there, you can move to Resources for links to the 6+ gigs of HBGary email for analysis (search function to return soon) or if that's too daunting, perhaps start by reading Media Reports and then Google up articles, press releases and other materials with relevant information to be added.

Do not editorialize when contributing; simply add pertinent facts and link to source material. Employ the same writing style one finds at Wikipedia. If you'd like to contribute information to our data set without editing the wiki yourself, you may do so by sending the info to transistor@hushmail.com. If you have personal knowledge about this topic for any reason, please consider letting us know via that e-mail address.

Those interested in starting groups similar to Project PM should see our Guide to Pursuants.

Entities of Particular Interest

Team Themis: Palantir, Berico, HBGary

Booz Allen Hamilton

In-Q-Tel

TASC

Ntrepid

Abraxas

Northrop Grumman


http://wiki.echelon2.org/wiki/Main_Page

Metal Gear
From Echelon 2
Jump to: navigation, search
[edit] Components of Metal Gear

Persona management: The deployment of entirely fake online personas controlled en masse by a human operator. Increasingly, this process is software-assisted, allowing a single individual to control fifty "people," at least in the case of the apparatus requested by the USAF when putting out bids to federal contractors such as HBGary. Such personas tend to be equipped with biographical data sufficient to present a front of legitimacy even to those with whom the personas communicate. Those communications in turn are regulated via software-based filters that aid in maintaining situational integrity throughout the entirety of each persona's interactions with its human targets; as is described at great length in this 2007 patent (hilariously portrayed as a method by which busy executives might better ensure that they do not say anything bizarre or insulting when dealing with foreign nationals despite that the fact that the authors happen to be working out of U.S. military installations in Virginia in conjunction with IBM, which itself does not seem to have ever gotten around to releasing any such product), linguistic and geographical considerations are taken into account automatically, along with a variety of others, in order to streamline the age-old internet practice of sockpuppeting, possibly towards the end of Cognitive Infiltration.

Identification: Attempts at identifying anonymous internet participants by way of a variety of means. Steps taken by former HBGary CEO Aaron Barr throughout the HBGary/Anonymous Affair to identify suspected Anonymous participants tended to hinge, for instance, on comparing the login times of various individuals on a range of social networks and IRC channels in order to determine a data set to which other information could then be added in order to make determination as to the identities of those being monitored. There also exist other, more conventional techniques that produce accurate results rather than the worthless ones achieved by Barr. Having said that, there does exist the possibility that Barr was on the right track, having been unsuccessful in this instance only because of his own extraordinary incompetence.

Surveillance: Persona management, attribution, and data collection and modelling are all components of surveillance methods as practiced by states and other entities. Echelon (later Einstein3) and Carnivore (later DCS1000, then NaruInsight) are good examples of major SIGINT apparatuses run respectively by AUSCANNZUKUS (or "Five Eyes") and the FBI; each takes in a sizable portion of everyday communications to be afterwards organized into a useful data set. See Palantir for examples of advanced collection and modeling capabilities of the sort that have already been planned for deployment (though since presumably canceled, having been exposed) in conjunction with other tactics against such targets as Wikileaks and opponents of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
[edit] Primary Engineers

Palantir – Analysis Framework

HBGary – Malware/Endpoint data

Splunk – Data Mining

Narus, Netwitness, Fidelis – Network data

Endgame Systems– external cyber environment data

http://wiki.echelon2.org/wiki/Metal_Gear

Echelon 2:Community portal
From Echelon 2
Jump to: navigation, search
[edit] PLEASE NOTICE THAT THERE IS NO HTTPS. WE ARE UNSURE WHEN THIS WILL BE FIXED.

Thank you for your valuable contributions to our ongoing efforts in exposing the degree to which the government of the United States is willing to treat its citizens as criminals by default.

Check this page's Discussion tab and idle in #projectpm @ irc.project-pm.org; see Project PM Roster for contacts.

If you'd like to help but don't know where to start, head to Resources and grab a few gigs of email to help read, analyze and catalog. That's going to be the biggest help. If that sounds like too much effort for your lazy ass, you could always take a look at pages needing work and orphaned pages.

Emails should be web-searchable again by the end of the month. - Papers 20:54, 16 May 2011 (UTC)

Players: Those responsible for the specification, creation and implementation of Metal Gear technologies, as well as their means and methods.

Resources: Where to find the HBGary email base, as well as software and sites with which to conduct research and OPS.

Publications: Government, military and private reports as well as relevant ebooks

Research: Needs some transfers into Publications and a general rework.

Media Reports: Still much missing

Forums: These are the forums where we discuss about anything related to this project or others.

http://wiki.echelon2.org/wiki/Echelon_2 ... ity_portal

[Simulist]

well, this is fucking huge. This confirms everything.

Indeed it does.

(Sim writes more than a year after you posted that. But still...)

[dqueue]

Smiles,
Thanks for those links. Looks like promising areas of research. A rabbit hole, or two, for which I hope to make some time.

I don't know if the persona management angle applies in the case of Luka Magnotta. It just seemed a question worth asking due to his heavy online presence. I'm glad for your response in that thread, and your bumping of this thread.

[elfismiles]

Yer welcome! Yeah, Luka could just be a poster-child for sock-puppet-trolling technique.

Introduction to Operation Metal Gear

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TX3_f2aGYig
Uploaded by BarrettBrown on Apr 13, 2011

Metal Gear is a term we've applied to the combined use of persona management (fake internet people operated en masse by a software-assisted human operator), attribution (identification and surveillance of those who'd prefer to remain anonymous), and advanced data collection and modelling. Our earlier investigation into HBGary, Palantir, and the like shows that such methodology has already been misused at high levels; our intent is to root out any other ongoing or planned misuse by public and private entities and then expose them. Download an IRC client and join us at irc.anonops.ru #opmetalgear or irc.freenode.net #opmetalgear to assist in this campaign or start your own investigation with the help of the following information:

Operation Metal Gear main page:

http://opmetalgear.zxq.net/OMG/Home.html

Example of our ongoing research:
http://pastebin.com/jyd4gPwJ

Tech Herald article on Metal Gear:
http://bit.ly/h4UXwp

Guardian article on Metal Gear:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/20 ... l-networks

[elfismiles]

HBGary: Now run by a "former" CIA guy
http://cannonfire.blogspot.com/2012/06/ ... a-guy.html

CentCom: Government Not Using Persona Management Software in United States
By Sean | Published: February 25, 2011

According to a spokesperson for US Central Command, Persona Management Software is not being used by the US government inside the United States and that the program is limited to “foreign, non-English speaking” websites.

Lt. Cmdr. Bill H. Speaks, spokesperson for US Central Command, said the program “supports classified activities outside the [United States]” on “non-English speaking websites.”

When asked if the program could be used by private security firms for domestic operations, Speaks declined to comment, saying only that the program did not exclusively belong to the US government.

According to Speaks, the contract was awarded in August of 2010 to software and contracting companies, not HBGary as previously insinuated by other outlets. HBGary Federal was one of the parties interested in applying for the contract in July of last year. However, the software is not necessary to create fake profiles on social media sites. The software only allows individuals to shield their identities with greater ease.

UPDATE: 3/17/11 – Speaks also indicated that the winner of the contract was a company called Intrepid Inc and Anonymizer owned by Abraxis Corporation, which according to its website, “develops special technology and implements trusted unique technical solutions to address the global challenges faced by the National Security community.”

The private security firm HBGary Federal was attacked by internet hacker group Anonymous earlier this month in which over 70,000 emails were copied and posted to the internet. The posted emails seemed to indicate that the company was planning to use “fake people” on social media sites to infiltrate and discredit their perceived political enemies.

Related Article
US Government Software Creates ‘Fake People’ on Social Networks to Promote Propaganda
(Listen to my BBC interview on Persona Management Software here.)...

http://seankerrigan.com/centcom-governm ... ed-states/

I believe the following are the publicly available variety...


Social Networking Manager Software - Best software for managing popular social networking sites!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c8AoZg16mC4

Published on May 13, 2012 by TheTwittertool

http://www.social-networking-manager.com

Social Networking Manager Software

What is Social Networking Manager Software ? A new easy way of managing your social networking accounts. This software allows you to login and to save up to 8 accounts for each social networking account, also it will allow you to login to more then one social networking site just by opening a different page.

This software also saves your messages, which will make it easy for you to paste your messages quickly onto the page. you can save upto 4 messages for each account and you can do this by just right clicking. on the page which will paste your messages to your account.

This software is easy to use for everybody whether your a normal internet user or an internet marketer.

You can use this software for the following social networking sites (Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, DeviantArt, LiveJournal, Tagged, Orkut, CafeMom, Badoo, Meetup, Mylife, myYearbook, LinkedIn)

networking tools, social network tools, social networking software, social network tool, social network marketing, facebook tool, MySpace tool, Twitter tool, DeviantArt tool, LiveJournal tool, LiveJournal tool, Tagged tool, Orkut tool, CafeMom tool, Badoo tool, Meetup tool, Mylife tool, myYearbook tool, LinkedIn tool

[elfismiles]

It was back in 2007 that DreamsEnd blogged about some of the tools out there for such persona management - he mentioned this software / service which I just found re-mentioned in a recent blog post:

Thursday, May 24, 2012
Cognitive Infiltration

<snip>

Check out this promotional graphic. The company's website from whence it originated, no longer has it available on their server. Upon first coming across this pic, I mistook it for a typical TheOnion or The People's Cube type of political satire.



http://hawaiianlibertarian.blogspot.com ... ation.html

DE's article was titled "Gaming Google: Information Warfare on the Internet" and the relevant part stated:

And there are other techniques, of course. Check out this article about a company that advertises itself as “professional blog warriors”. You pay them and they go and post comments all over the place in the blogosphere to get your point noticed. (Their print ad is the graphic at the top of this post.)

Are you ready for a blog attack?

Get ahead of your opponent with Professional Blog Warriors.

Be prepared to “flood the zone” with comments from professionals who are ready to put your talking points on the blogosphere 24/7.

Whether it’s defense or offense, Advantage Consultants has a dedicated team of experienced blog warriors ready to advance your candidate or campaign.

Why wait for the attack? Launch your attack with a battery of blog and forum comments aimed at all media and blog sites in your district.

Contact us today and let us show you the Advantage in professional blog warfare.

And that’s also a handy way to spread links around as well. Or consider Wikipedia, from which I quote often for convenience. But it’s purely for convenience I assure you. You are likely aware that anyone can go an edit articles on Wikipedia. There’s even a handy “history” tab on each article to see what changes have been made and by whom. Supposedly, malicious or inaccurate changes get caught fairly quickly.

[elfismiles]

Astroturfing: How "Persona Management Software" is being Used to Drown the Voice of Democracy"
Dianne Dyslin - MSPC 3050 - April 25, 2012
http://www.slideshare.net/dmdyslin/astr ... -ppt-42512

[elfismiles]

How-To ... Detect Sock-Puppets
by elfismiles » 18 Apr 2013 20:41
viewtopic.php?f=8&t=36276

NY Attorney General Eric Schneiderman Fines 19 SEO and Marketing Companies for Fake Google and Yelp Reviews in Yoghurt Shop Sting
International Business Times UK
September 25, 2013 7:17 AM GMT
By Lianna Brinded : Subscribe to Lianna's RSS feed | September 25, 2013 7:17 AM GMT

The New York Attorney General has slapped 19 companies with a $350,000 fine after his office unearthed fake review writing for Google Local, Yelp, and others in a yogurt shop sting.

Eric Schneiderman revealed that a raft of search engine optimisation (SEO) companies created dummy accounts and paid writers from the Bangladesh and the Philippines $1 to $10 per review after his office set up a fake yoghurt shop in Brooklyn, New York and sought help to combat negative comments.

"Consumers rely on reviews from their peers to make daily purchasing decisions on anything from food and clothing to recreation and sightseeing," said Schneiderman in a statement.

"This investigation into large-scale, intentional deceit across the Internet tells us that we should approach online reviews with caution."

The sting, dubbed Operation Clean Turf, also revealed that companies created hundreds of bogus accounts to circumvent website review controls.

Schneiderman's office also unearthed a number of firms that allegedly got family, friends, and employees to write positive reviews.

This included an adult entertainment club, a laser hair removal firm and a family owned bus company.

Schneiderman said the fake reviews broke the law against false advertising and deceptive business practices.

The Adverts for Fake Writers

Schneiderman's office said it also discovered solicitations on massive US websites such as Craigslist.com, Freelancer.com and oDesk.com to hire people to write fake reviews.

The office provided an example from one SEO company which posted the following:

We need a person that can post multiple positive reviews on major REVIEW sites. Example: Google Maps, Yelp, CitySearch. Must be from different IP addresses... So you must be able to have multiple IPs. The reviews will be only few sentences long. Need to have some understanding on how Yelp filters works. Previous experience is a plus...just apply --)we are a marketing company.

In another example, a spa in New York City was looking for help writing fake reviews:

I need someone who is a YELP expert to post positive reviews for a spa that will not be filtered using legitimate existing yelp accounts must have at least 10 friends on Yelp. Please be a yelp expert!! I will pay $10 per-review after 3 days they must meet the criteria above.

In this example, a nightclub in New York City was looking for people to post the reviews "without getting flagged":

Need Review Posters for Yelp, Citysearch, Google

Hello...We need someone to post 1-2 reviews daily on sites like: Yelp, Google reviews, Citysearch and any other similar sites. We will supply the text/review. You must be able to post these without getting flagged. This will be a long term assignment that will last at least 3 months. You are bidding per week. We are offering $1.00 dollar for every post. Thank you

Yelp Shares Fall

Yelp shares plummeted by 9% after the statement was released but the group said it welcomed the crackdown.

Yelp said it was critical that the company protect the integrity of its content and it would continue to work with law enforcement agencies as well as taking steps itself to combat fraud.

"More than 100 million visitors come to Yelp each month, making it critical that Yelp protect the integrity of its content," said Aaron Schur, Yelp's Senior Litigation Counsel in a statement.

"We take many steps to do this, including the use of automated filtering software, leveraging our vast user community for tips about suspicious content, undercover sting operations, legal action, and cooperation with law enforcement.

"We applaud NY Attorney General Schneiderman for his willingness to tackle the issue of illegal fake reviews head on, and for his success in shutting down these operators.

We look forward to continuing to cooperate with the New York Attorney General's office and any other interested law enforcement office or regulator to protect consumers and business owners from efforts to mislead."

http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/articles/50880 ... man-ny.htm

[elfismiles]

YELP critics must be identified, court rules in online landscape altering decision

In a decision that could reshape the rules for online consumer reviews, a Virginia court has ruled that the popular website Yelp must turn over the names of seven reviewers who anonymously criticized a prominent local carpet cleaning business.

The case revolves around negative feedback against Virginia-based Hadeed Carpet Cleaning. The owner, Joe Hadeed, said the users leaving bad reviews were not real customers of the cleaning service — something that would violate Yelp’s terms of service. His attorneys issued a subpoena demanding the names of seven anonymous reviewers, and a judge in Alexandria ruled that Yelp had to comply.

...

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/201 ... #pagebreak

[JackRiddler]

Bumping for renewed relevance thanks to the new Intercept story on NSA/GCHQ efforts to sock-puppet and fuck up the Internet.
http://rigorousintuition.ca/board2/view ... =8&t=37795

Air Force persona management software story from 2011:
http://journals.democraticunderground.c ... iddler/962