Cryptocurrency: Anomaly 6 - US Spy Firm Surveils Users For High Bidder, 1984 SpyVeillance

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https://www.mintpressnews.com/anomaly-6-surveil-crypto-users-highest-bidder/283036/

Shadowy US Spy Firm Promises To Surveil Crypto Users For the Highest Bidder

   Leaked files reviewed by MintPress expose how intelligence services the
   world over can track cryptocurrency transactions to their source and
   therefore identify users by monitoring the movements of smartphone and
   Internet-of-Things (IoT) devices, such as Amazon Echo. The contents
   comprehensively detonate the myth of crypto anonymity, and have grave
   implications for individuals and states seeking to shield their financial
   activity from the prying eyes of hostile governments and authorities.

   The documents are among a trove related to the secret operations of
   [48]Anomaly 6, a shadowy private spying firm founded by a pair of U.S.
   military intelligence veterans.

   The company covertly embeds software development kits, or SDKs, in
   hundreds of popular apps, then slices through layers of “anonymized”
   data in order to uncover sensitive information about any individual it
   chooses anywhere on Earth, at any time. In all, Anomaly 6 can
   [49]simultaneously monitor roughly three billion smartphone devices –
   equivalent to a fifth of the world’s total population – in real-time.

   Having previously [50]hawked its wares to U.S. Special Operations Command,
   as this journalist revealed on [51]December 6, Anomaly 6 is now using
   British private military company Prevail Partners – [52]heavily involved
   in the West’s proxy war in Ukraine – to market and sell its product to
   a variety of Western military, security, and intelligence agencies the
   world over. This is despite the company’s own founders fearing its
   global dragnet could be completely illegal under national and
   international data protection regimes.

   The company’s international surveillance reach could be more sweeping
   – and invasive – than even that of the C.I.A. and N.S.A. MintPress can
   reveal individuals, organizations, and states seeking to bypass
   traditional financial structures and systems loom prominently in Anomaly
   6’s mephitic crosshairs, and spying on their transactions is a pivotal
   component of its sales pitch to government and private clients. This
   Orwellian technology leaves cryptocurrency users the world over nowhere to
   hide.



Who watches the watchers?

   Ever since [53]Bitcoin’s launch in 2009, anonymity has been an
   absolutely fundamental tenet of cryptocurrency. The ability to make and
   receive payments incognito through a secure, decentralized platform
   without needing to register a named bank account, or even interact with
   established financial gatekeepers at any stage, was and remains a unique
   selling point for the asset.

   The principle of anonymity is taken so seriously by crypto practitioners
   and aficionados alike that industry platforms are [54]graded according to
   their levels of privacy. Many crypto entrepreneurs, some of whom manage
   hundreds of millions of dollars for clients, conduct business without ever
   disclosing their names, or any identifying information at all. Venture
   capital firms have even invested [55]vast sums in crypto ventures with
   wholly pseudonymous founders, an unprecedented sectoral development.

   [56]Anomaly SixAnomaly Six's website features no other data but the
   company name, contact and location

   In recent years, however, there have been several clear indications that
   cryptocurrency anonymity is under significant threat, and indeed could
   already have been mortally compromised by the U.S. intelligence apparatus.
   In June 2021, it was [57]revealed that the F.B.I. had successfully traced
   and recovered $2.3 million in Bitcoin extorted by hackers from Colonial
   Pipeline in a ransomware attack, which had shut down the company’s
   computer systems, causing fuel shortages and a spike in gas prices.

   U.S. officials declined to reveal how they tracked where the ill-gotten
   funds had ended up, and identified the ultimate owners of 23 separate
   cryptocurrency accounts belonging to DarkSide, the hacking collective
   responsible for the cyberattack, although [58]public statements by C.I.A.
   director William Burns in December that year may provide a clue. Speaking
   at a Wall Street Journal summit, he acknowledged that his Agency was
   engaged in “a number of different projects focused on cryptocurrency.”

   “This is something I inherited. My predecessor had started this,” he
   said. “Trying to look at second- and third-order consequences as well
   and helping with our colleagues in other parts of the U.S. government to
   provide solid intelligence on what we're seeing as well.”

   While it’s certainly true that cryptocurrency’s anonymity is
   attractive to criminal elements and terrorist groups, there are a wide
   variety of entirely legitimate reasons for seeking privacy in financial
   transactions, and preventing regulators, big banks, and governments from
   keeping an eye on what one is doing.

   For example, political and social movements of every stripe in all corners
   of the globe [59]have embraced the asset, as they can be financially
   supported from overseas without any paper trail being left at either end.
   In turn, activists can send money to each other and make purchases in
   secret, and organize events and construct local and international support
   networks, leaving authorities none the wiser.

   [60]In Venezuela, cryptocurrency has provided vital respite to an entire
   country, as crippling [61]U.S.-led sanctions have in recent years deprived
   both its government and citizens of access to, and the ability to buy,
   even basic necessities, including food and medicine. The national
   currency’s value reduced to almost zero, crypto transactions offer a
   literal lifeline by which goods and services can be accessed, and import
   and export restrictions imposed by Washington circumvented.

   [62]IFrame



‘Patterns of life’ and ‘bed down locations’

   A February 2021 U.N. special rapporteur [63]report on the impact of
   American sanctions on Venezuela ruled they were “collective
   punishment,” and Caracas lived on just 1% of its pre-sanctions income.
   [64]The previous March, Alfred de Zayas, formerly an independent expert
   for the United Nations Human Rights Council, calculated that over 100,000
   Venezuelans had died as a result of the restrictions.

   Despite this monstrous human toll, and [65]countless calls from prominent
   rights groups and international institutions to end the suffering,
   Washington rigidly enforces the sanctions regime, and seeks to harshly
   punish any individual or organization helping Caracas skirt restrictions.
   While measures have [66]eased slightly following Russia’s invasion of
   Ukraine, the Stateside prosecution of Colombian businessman Alex Saab,
   abducted from Cape Verde in October 2020, for selling food to the
   Venezuelan government [67]is ongoing.

   Saab could be soon joined in the dock, if Anomaly 6 has anything to do
   with it. One of the company’s leaked sales presentations provides
   several case studies showing how its spying technology can be used by
   security and intelligence services to “derive understanding of the
   actions of individuals associated with sanctions violations.”

   By homing in on the location of the Venezuelan government’s sanctioned
   cryptocurrency exchange, the National Superintendence of Cryptoactives and
   Related Activities (Sunacrip), which manages all crypto activities in the
   country, Anomaly 6 identified two specific IoT devices “which show the
   value of the A6 dataset in this endeavor.”

   .

   Scouring data generated at the site back to January 1, 2020, Anomaly 6
   found thousands of signals emitted by IoT devices and smartphones. From
   there, it “built out the pattern of life for the devices in that
   search” – in other words, the locations device owners traveled to and
   from, when, and where they lived. In all, these devices produced “over
   593,374 geographic points of reference”, in Argentina, Colombia, and
   Venezuela.

   From this amorphous corpus, Anomaly 6 identified one device with “a
   unique travel pattern which makes it worth further investigation.” In
   particular, its movements indicated a “very well-defined pattern of life
   in and around Caracas” – although the company professed to be “much
   more interested in its travel to the Colombian border in the Cúcuta/San
   Antonio del Táchira border area.”

   .

   That Anomaly 6 was able to track this device while in flight was said to
   highlight a “unique aspect” of its dataset. The device “took a less
   than seven hour trip from Caracas to San Antonio del Táchira (Juan
   Vicente Gómez International Airport) which landed (or was on final
   approach at 0923 on 23 Feb).”

   “With less than 10 flights a day on average to this airport (pre-Covid
   19), it would not be difficult to ascertain a short list of personalities
   of interest with access to Venezuelan passenger name records,” Anomaly 6
   bragged. “Additionally, we can see that this device transits to the
   border crossing locations in the short time it was located in the area.”

   This border area was of note for Anomaly 6 as, “according to open source
   reporting, historically, Venezuelans have used border areas for cash
   pickup/drops to skirt sanctions put in place by the international
   community.” Such activities “provide access to hard currency to actors
   and governments which have been cut off from U.S. dollar trading
   platforms.”

   .

   A “second device of interest” was found to have traveled to Medellín,
   Colombia, and its “pattern of life” indicated its owner had
   “connections to the financial/banking environment.”

   “Both of these devices exhibit [patterns of life] that warrant further
   exploration, especially when combined with fact [sic] they have been
   located at the Sunacrip HQ,” Anomaly 6 concluded. “Further
   investigation can find bed down locations as well as other insights for
   business locations, international travel, and other device co-location.”



The Devil turns around

   Due to a [68]highly successful mainstream media campaign over many years
   to demonize the government of Venezuela, and by extension its people, it
   is likely some American citizens will be entirely unsympathetic to
   Caracas’ plight, and approve of efforts to prevent the state bypassing
   sanctions. However, the ease with which Anomaly 6’s tools of mass
   surveillance could be domestically deployed, and the likelihood they
   already have, should give them pause.

   As I revealed in my [69]initial report, Anomaly 6 can identify U.S.
   smartphone users by name, address and travel history. Another leaked sales
   presentation details how by linking a single anonymous individual’s
   smartphone signal recorded in North Korea to a network of hotels, schools,
   and other sites, the company determined with pinpoint accuracy their
   identity, marital status, where they worked and lived, the names of their
   children and the schools and universities at which they study, and more.

   Such capabilities would no doubt be of much interest to the C.I.A. and
   N.S.A. - [70]both of which are in theory prohibited from spying on U.S.
   citizens, but have been recurrently embroiled in controversy for engaging
   in such activity.

   Concerningly, it has [71]been revealed that the C.I.A. for many years
   sought to bulk collect international financial data in service of tracking
   the Islamic State’s funding sources, and incidentally vacuumed up
   voluminous quantities of sensitive information on U.S. citizens in the
   process.

   Heavily redacted records related to the connivance were unearthed due to
   pressure from senators Ron Wyden and Martin Heinrich of the Senate Select
   Committee on Intelligence. Upon reviewing the material, [72]they wrote to
   U.S. Director of Intelligence Avril Haines, righteously admonishing the
   C.I.A. for brazenly ignoring longstanding constitutional checks and
   balances on the Agency’s domestic activities.

   “[The C.I.A.] has done so entirely outside the statutory framework that
   Congress and the public believe govern this collection, and without any of
   the judicial, congressional or even executive branch oversight that comes
   with FISA collection,” they fulminated.

   Anomaly 6’s services, of course, mean the C.I.A. and N.S.A. can dodge
   restrictions at home, without fear of landing in hot water. Other agencies
   permitted to monitor Americans can likewise now do so without a warrant
   too. And there is no reason to believe that its spying would be restricted
   to financial transactions, either

   “Anomaly 6 data can be used in multiple use cases to support cyber
   intelligence and operational use end states,” the leaked crypto sales
   deck declares. “By utilizing multiple targeting methodologies, this data
   can support the building of a far superior intelligence picture that
   enables clients to move towards actionable end states. Fusing A6 data with
   other classified and unclassified data sets places the client at the
   forefront of the cyber mission space.”

   Other leaked Anomaly 6 files openly discuss how its technology is ripe for
   both “counterintelligence” and “source development” purposes, and
   it’s not merely U.S. citizens in the firing line. The firm boasts of
   having spied on the movements of “devices from other friendly
   countries,” including members of the Five Eyes global spying network,
   and France and Germany.

   In other words, Anomaly 6 turns every citizen on Earth into a potential
   “person of interest” to intelligence agencies, and thus a target for
   recruitment, surveillance, harassment, and much, much worse, the most
   intimate details of their private lives easily accessible by shady actors
   with a few clicks of a button, and without their knowledge or consent.

   While the mainstream media is yet to acknowledge the leak of the
   company’s sensitive internal papers, this has all the makings of an
   Edward Snowden-level international scandal of historic proportions. If
   Anomaly 6 is to be successfully stopped in its tracks, and Western
   intelligence agencies prevented from egregiously violating the privacy of
   innumerable individuals without compunction or oversight, it will require
   concerted collective action from concerned citizens worldwide.

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