She spoke in October at this security conference, with a very “interesting” topic:
Ties Between Government Intelligence Services and Cyber Criminals – Closer Than You
Think?
Date: 10/3/2017 Time: 10:00 A.M.
The past year has seen cyberthreat actors arrested, indicted or identified in intelligence reports by US and European governments that many experts believe point to potential ties between government intelligence services and cybercrime actors. In this session learn about the drivers and mechanisms between state and criminal cooperation through a case study that will explore how seemingly ordinary cybercrime can be combined with strategic espionage.
Speaker Info
- 10:45 A.M. Track: Threat Intelligence
Nellie Ohr Accenture Security
Byron Collie Goldman Sachs
https://www.fsisac-summit.com/files/galleries/threat_intel.pdf
thanks. i wonder what the date of the session announcement was.
lots of interesting comments on CTH about all of this.
here is one:
safvetblog says:
December 12, 2017 at 2:17 am
Quoting SD above: “One way to ensure secure communications with parties external to the U.S. would be the use of HAM radio operations. You simply establish the frequency to use, and the time of the conversation, and presto. That’s it. “Red-Dog-One to Red-Dog-Two, come in?” etc.”
The class of Ham license she has only allows operations on bands from 10 meters up through VHF/UHF. In these years of low sunspot activity, opportunities for external-to-U.S. communications in these bands are rare, and occur randomly. Not too good for trying to set up clandestine communications. Also, HF (long-haul) ham frequencies are well known and also well within the capabilities of NSA to intercept.
She might have better luck using VHF/UHF, but unless you use a repeater (which is like using a bull horn in a football stadium), point-to-point communication is restricted to line-of-sight. There are repeater networks that are cross-linked through the internet, but again, they are open for all to hear. There are digital ham radios available now, but none of them come with built-in encryption unless they have been modified by someone with a lot of technical know-how. IMHO, her getting a ham license could be nothing more than her wanting to get involved in a new hobby. Why would she pick a medium of communication that is by nature open for all to listen in? Better to stick with burner cell phones… The timing of her license could be suspicious, but is there any evidence that Steele also has a license?
One other thing – one doesn’t need a ham license to purchase ham radio equipment. Not even to just listen – the license is permission to transmit. Of course, one could just bootleg your communications, but then why apply for and get a license, which is a public record of your capability?
BTW. I have been an active ham for >60 years…