Special Report: Inside the UAE's secret hacking team of U.S. mercenaries

[InfoSec News <alerts () infosecnews org>]

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-spying-raven-specialreport/special-report-inside-the-uaes-secret-hacking-team-of-u-s-mercenaries-idUSKCN1PO19O

By Christopher Bing and Joel Schectman in Washington. Editing by Ronnie Greene, 
Jonathan Weber and Michael Williams
Reuters.com
January 30, 2019

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Two weeks after leaving her position as an intelligence 
analyst for the U.S. National Security Agency in 2014, Lori Stroud was in the 
Middle East working as a hacker for an Arab monarchy.

She had joined Project Raven, a clandestine team that included more than a 
dozen former U.S. intelligence operatives recruited to help the United Arab 
Emirates engage in surveillance of other governments, militants and human 
rights activists critical of the monarchy.

Stroud and her team, working from a converted mansion in Abu Dhabi known 
internally as "the Villa," would use methods learned from a decade in the U.S 
intelligence community to help the UAE hack into the phones and computers of 
its enemies.

Stroud had been recruited by a Maryland cyber security contractor to help the 
Emiratis launch hacking operations, and for three years, she thrived in the 
job. But in 2016, the Emiratis moved Project Raven to a UAE cyber security firm 
named DarkMatter. Before long, Stroud and other Americans involved in the 
effort say they saw the mission cross a red line: targeting fellow Americans 
for surveillance.

[...]



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