February 19, 2011 02:52 AM UTC

Robo-sockpuppets coming to your blogsite, soon?

• 3 Comments
• by: richardmyers

We have now crossed into a "new frontier in informational science." Recent technological developments enable computers to interpret text input, respond as a human would respond, and marshall data access that is superior to the most knowledgeable humans in a given realm. While this development offers exciting new possibilities in a variety of fields such as research and medicine, if coupled with other developments, it may portend grave new abuses for social media and the blogosphere. Specifically, one individual, well-funded and equipped, may have the ability to create and manage dozens, or hundreds of virtual identities on a variety of social media sites, thereby manipulating public opinion, and forming an artificial consensus on policy issues.

Due to the efforts of a group of online hackers, we now know that the United States government (more specifically, the U.S. Air Force) has contracted for exactly such a capability.

An “army of sockpuppets”, after the jump…

The product would involve "creating  an army of sockpuppets, with sophisticated ‘persona management’ software that allows a small team of only a few people to appear to be many, while keeping the personas from accidentally cross-contaminating each other … the team can actually automate some functions…" This is but the latest disturbing revelation in the fallout from some sixty thousand email messages obtained by the hacker group Anonymous from security company HBGary Federal. This defense  contractor "has ties to the federal government, Hunton & Williams, DOD, NSA, and the CIA – whose enemies are labor unions, progressive organizations, journalists, and progressive bloggers."

Since this one contract for software supporting up to 500 “personas” was filled last June, the fake online army could already be here (or somewhere) now. And no one knows how many similar contracts may have been filled.

HBGary Federal, through a consortium of three technology firms calling themselves Team Themis, was also pitching a smear campaign against the likes of ThinkProgress, and forcing Salon blogger Glenn Greenwald to choose between pushing his ideals, and losing his job. Their client was none other than the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which sought to insulate itself from any fallout by coordinating the scheme through their law firm, Hunton and Williams.

HBGary Federal was also working through the Hunton and Williams law firm with Bank of America to undermine an anticipated release of embarrassing internal documents by WikiLeaks. The U.S. Justice Department recommended Hunton & Williams to Bank of America’s General Counsel, suggesting that the Justice Department is participating in the effort to defend corporations against bad publicity.

These developments should cause considerable angst for bloggers and online activists. We might wish to believe that the Air Force aims only to use its armies of fake virtual people to spy on others (terrorists? soldiers? citizens?), or to manipulate public opinion via websites in Afghanistan, Iraq, or perhaps Egypt, or Bahrain. But we should keep in mind that social media sites such as Facebook are worldwide. And, given such technology and the demonstrated propensity to consider using dirty tricks, what is to stop a client such as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, mega banks, or Wall Street hedge fund managers, not to mention the BP’s (and Enrons?) of the world, who routinely contract with the same security companies, from utilizing such technologies for their own nefarious purposes?

The released emails indicate that HBGary also possessed a version of the notorious Stuxnet Worm that took down many of Iran’s uranium enrichment facilities (possibly with intent to "repurpose" it?), and it appears that Aaron Barr, the CEO of the HBGary Federal subsidiary recklessly damaged reputations of innocent individuals, whether for bragging rights or to drum up business. While HBGary has alleged that they’ve been framed as well as hacked, arguing that the hackers had taken a few days before releasing the emails and therefore could have falsified them, the other two companies that comprised Team Themis have apologized and cut ties. Obviously, fake online personas, false-flag operations, smear campaigns and faked documents don’t sound like such great activities when the veil of secrecy is lifted. Meanwhile, i’ve read that there are approximately ten thousand security companies out there. What do you suppose the other 9,997 are doing?

Note: the first link in this article concerns IBM Corporation’s Watson computer, famous for having defeated two renowned champions at the television game Jeopardy. Watson is linked herein only to emphasize the astonishing new capabilities of computer technology (for good or worse). IBM and Watson are not in any way implicated in the depredations of some other parties discussed in this article. –richard myers