[cryptome] Re: Using Playstation 4 and other Internet gaming options for secure transmission of secret instructions

  • From: Shaun O'Connor <capricorn8159@xxxxxxxxx>
  • To: cryptome@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
  • Date: Wed, 18 Nov 2015 20:50:50 +0000

Hi Doug.
I don't know any specific documents on the subject but at a guess an analysis of game theory might be an interesting avenue of enquiry sinc, e if my hunch is right there are parrellels between complex game play and strategic planning and logistics,

Just a wee stab in the dark about a subject i know practically nothing about

ATB

Shaun

On 18/11/2015 15:59, doug wrote:

Dear Colleagues,
Chien Fume kindly raised the item in a recent posting, regarding terrorist organisations using the likes of PS4 to communicate and transmit instructions between its leadership and its cells in the recent Paris shootings and bombings. He mentioned a document from Edward Snowden and I notice that a number of newspapers have also raised the subject. However, I have been unable to find any research papers on the subject.

I am rather intrigued by this, as GCHQ is now to employ, at a UK taxpayers expense of £2 billion, an extra 1900 members of staff to become expert gamers so that the terrorists can be stopped in their tracks. (What a fun time we live in... :-)). We have come a long way from the good old days of board games such as Diplomacy...:-).

I know that Bletchley, during World War 2 used transactional analysis as a major part of its code-breaking exercises, providing cracks derived from where they emanated, when they were sent, to whom and how long they were, their length and frequency both in terms of how often and on what wavelength, and the ability to decipher some of the content, from the likes of weather messages to UBoats etc; so the subject is not new.

I am not familiar with internet gaming and just wondered if terrorist organisations, rather than using sophisticated intelligence and cryptograpy actually use steganography perhaps, or some kind of argot in the exchange tokens or bitcoins or via networks set up under the guise of playing a game on PS4 and such like. With the increasing sophistication and mass surveillance developing on the internet, including the amassing of huge amounts of metadata; then it is obvious that those who wish to communicate in secret will develop all sorts of new methods and ways of passing on information, rather than using TOR, or Tails or encryption of various kinds and strengths.

Anyone point my nose to any research into this area?
ATB
Dougie.



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