In addition, individuals should only be able to see those with whom they are connected through their local or extended networks. For most people, this would not include every analyst currently or formerly employed by any of the security agencies. Heather On 9/12/07, Michael Zimmer <michael.zimmer@nyu.edu> wrote:

I'm sorry, but I don't see the "disturbing trend" here. These are analysts (ie, sit in cubicles at Langley and interpret data) not field operatives (spies). Am I missing something?

-mz

On Sep 12, 2007, at 5:27 PM, Alexis Turner wrote:

...

I was tooling around on LinkedIn today and stumbled on the following horrifying realization: U.S. intelligence analysts announce their names, what they do, every position they have ever worked in, and a list of all their associates to a public audience on LinkedIn.

http://redheadedstepchild.org/lists/scratchpad/entry61/

Has anyone noticed this before? Other thoughts? -Alexis

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On 9/12/07, Michael Zimmer <michael.zimmer@nyu.edu> wrote:

Of course, intelligence operatives reportedly have their own sns: A- Space <http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,2178210,00.asp>

And their own wikipedia: Intellipedia. I spent a couple days this summer at the Director of National Intelligence's OSI conference. (Blog posts here: http://alex.halavais.net/category/intelligence/ ) While it is true that spies tend to have a secretive streak--who'd have thought!--it is essentially a knowledge-producing organization, and unless you are working in the clandestine services, you can generally say where you work. Many *choose* not to, because it raises questions that probably cannot be answered, but I'm guessing that many of us have had grad students who have worked for the intelligence services or contractors in some capacity. As an aside, at that conference several of the speakers noted that their one of their greatest interests for recruiting these days is for virtual ethnographers... -- // // This email is // [X] assumed public and may be blogged / forwarded. // [ ] assumed to be private, please ask before redistributing. // // Alexander C. Halavais // Social Architect // http://alex.halavais.net //

Michael, as Elijah pointed out, these people may just be analysts and contractors sitting in cubicles, but it doesn't mean they don't have very high level security clearances. I'm sorry, perhaps I'm being a little naive in my shock? But having lived in DC for several years and having driven regularly by buildings with all their windows bricked up (keep an eye out next time you drive around - it's really rather fascinating to see where these places occur), I am still flabbergasted that analysts would be so careless with their information. Incidentally, Elijah & Michael, my understanding of contractors is that while they do a wide variety of jobs, plenty of them are employed as analysts and work in the same building rubbing shoulders with the "real" analysts. I certainly found plenty of linkedin profiles that actually used the words "intelligence analyst" as a job descriptor. Fakesters? Perhaps. But I kind of doubt it. As to Alex's comment involving grad students likely being involved in this work - sure, that's to be expected. But do you actually know which ones are doing it, or are you left to speculate? My shock is not that they exist, but that they've "outed" themselves, as it were. To Heather, who pointed out that you cannot access their full network - no, you can't. But many of the individuals had links to their personal webpages, where there is further information on their private lives and associates. And using the combination of a name and city as found on linkedin is enough to take a short trip to whitepages.com. I can further envision a simple phishing attack using that information, whereby a person creates a fake linkedin profile matching the target's associate and requests to be added to their "friend's" network. Voila. Now they have access to a larger pool of names. Sorry. I still find it an unsettling, though perversely fascinating, use of social networking. -Alexis On Wed, 12 Sep 2007, elw@stderr.org wrote: ::> ::> I'm sorry, but I don't see the "disturbing trend" here. These are analysts ::> (ie, sit in cubicles at Langley and interpret data) not field operatives ::> (spies). Am I missing something? :: :: ::Folks who *really* work for the intelligence services are generally prohibited ::from revealing that fact for quite some time. :: ::Fakesters, maybe? That, or policies have changed lately... we knew one fellow ::who worked for No-Such-Agency in the database area, but it was something that ::was just not a topic of conversation... :: ::Most of the folks brought up by the search you link are employees of *defense ::contractors* - regular private citizens, but some of whom have an employment ::history that involves them having been somehow associated with a three-letter ::agency at some point. :: ::And there are *lots* of ways to be involved or associated with the 3-letter ::agencies. :: ::--elijah :: :: ::> > I was tooling around on LinkedIn today and stumbled on the following ::> > horrifying realization: U.S. intelligence analysts announce their names, ::> > what they do, every position they have ever worked in, and a list of all ::> > their associates to a public audience on LinkedIn. ::> > ::> > http://redheadedstepchild.org/lists/scratchpad/entry61/ ::> > ::> > Has anyone noticed this before? Other thoughts? -Alexis ::