3 chapters across the catalog
A 2011 plot involving intelligence contractors HBGary and Palantir is revisited, which aimed to discredit progressive voices like Glenn Greenwald. The hosts suggest Greenwald may have been set up or targeted long before the Snowden leaks were published in The Guardian.
The U.S. State Department is funding an "Internet in a Suitcase" project to help dissidents in repressive regimes bypass government-controlled servers using mesh technology. However, critics like John Young and the hacker collective Anonymous warn that these systems allow the U.S. to monitor and influence foreign activists. The program is also linked to "persona management" software that allows a single user to control multiple fake online identities to manipulate social media narratives.
HBGary Email Leak and FBI Encryption Backdoors
A massive leak of emails from security firm HBGary has exposed the company's tactics for infiltrating social networks and manipulating online personas. Simultaneously, FBI General Counsel Valerie Caproni has expressed concerns about the "going dark" problem caused by encrypted communications. The FBI is pushing for mandatory backdoors in digital services like Skype to ensure government access to plain-text data.
