New World Newsfeed: The CIA in Second Life

Recent dispatches from the outside world...

Spies' Battleground Turns Virtual - Washington Post, 2/8
That law enforcement officials have been tracking virtual worlds as a potential platform for criminal and terrorist activity is not news-- I interviewed a top Al Qaeda expert on that topic last year.  What's news is this passing revelation:

The CIA has created a few virtual islands for internal use, such as training and unclassified meetings, government officials said.

I've long heard rumors that this was the case, but this is the first public confirmation I'm aware of. Hat tip: Joey Seiler at Virtual World News.

Comments

[dandellion Kimban]

Now there is a real griefing target.

[Patchouli Woollahra]

SL may have lost the ability to cloak the existence of islands, but it still retains its ability to deny public access to islands...

And as with RL, there are ways to cope with the inability to go invisible now: building primshields over islands, or rezzing innocuous architecture. Using misleading names for islands that are not meant to be publicly known of would be another cyber-stealth tactic possible.

But disallowing classified meetings would still be a good idea given the impracticality of ensuring every LL and Vivox staffer has proper security clearance. xD

This was a fait accompli thing. I'm just surprised it took this long for an admission of SL as a lower-level spycraft venue to come out.

[Ann Otoole]

if they want to hire a builder to build something way better and realistic than those fugly glass/metal crackerboxes then they are free to send money my way.

[Noone is innocent]

""Unfortunately, what started out as a benign environment where people would congregate to share information or explore fantasy worlds is now offering the opportunity for religious/political extremists to recruit, rehearse, transfer money, and ultimately engage in information warfare or worse with impunity."

I think indeed this is a serious threat. I am already tired of being haressed by army or navy recruiters on the street, but now they've also moved into SL. Horrible news.