#sigint

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2025/02/04/citizen-lab/#nso-group

Since 2001, Ron Deibert has led Citizen Lab, the world's foremost "counterintelligence group for civil society," where they defend human rights activists, journalists and dissidents from the digital weapons deployed by the world's worst autocrats and thugs:

https://citizenlab.ca/

Citizen Lab's work is nothing short of breathtaking. For decades, this tiny, barely resourced group at a Canadian university has gone toe to toe with the world's most powerful cyber arms dealers – and won.

Today, Simon and Schuster publishes Chasing Shadows, Deibert's pulse-pounding, sphinter-tightening true memoir of his battles with the highly secretive industry whose billionaire owners provide mercenary spyware that's used by torturers, murderers and criminals to terrorize their victims:

https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Chasing-Shadows/Ronald-J-Deibert/9781668014042

Mercenary spyware companies are based all over the world, but the global leader in providing these tools is Israel, where the signals intelligence Unit 8200 serves as a breeding ground for startup founders who grow wealthy serving dictators around the world, thanks in part to Israel's lax export standards for cyberweapons.

Most notorious of these companies is the NSO Group, whose Pegasus malware has been deployed by corrupt, narco-affiliated Mexican politicians, murderous Saudi royals, and dictators in Central Asia, Latinamerica, and all around the world.

anon asked:

How did The Boss meet the The Sorrow seeing as he didn’t seem to have an illegal trade like the other cobras :o?

even if the sorrow is, officially, a civilian, he isn't a man who's unfamiliar with crime. in his time working as a lawyer and a notary he's had a lot of experience with various documents. if anyone would know how to forge a couple of medical or financial records, it would be him. him and the boss met doing official business and as time passed they became closer as partners. still, both were hesitant what would marrying to a gang leader mean for the sorrow's civilian life and career, yet after much consideration he decided to change his life for the better alongside a woman he fell in love with. it's incredibly unfortunate he got killed before he could set up his branch of operations properly.

liquid-doghead asked:

I'm sure you've been told how goddamn cool BFD is many a time but I'll tell you once more... I've loved the ways the more "minor" characters/characters who won't play as a direct role in the story as the main four are incorporated. Those little details give the universe so much life. The askdump was excellent thank you Cobras anon.... wherever you are........

I'll continue that trend (and try not to ask about about everyone I can think of). What do you think Para-medic and Sigint are up to? I imagine they're in Zero's pocket, but I wonder how exactly their roles would translate to the grittiness of BFD.

thank you so much! really, every single person interested in my stupid idea is just as important to me as the other. i'm gonna go on a ramble about my experience creating bfd, so the actual answer is in the second paragraph. i didn't expect to be able to expand the bdf universe beyond 5 or 6 characters, but it's been very fun. the asks really do inspire me to think outside the box and fill in things i otherwise wouldn't. of course, because i didn't set everything up beforehand and working backwards, i reckon i'm gonna change things around as better ideas come to mind and plot holes start to appear. so what you're witnessing is basically my brainstorming, throwing shit at the wall and see what sticks phase. im afraid it may dissapoint somehow, but im having fun :)

now, sigint and para-medic have a lot going on in their time. while both are zero's partners, he respects their privacy and autonomy enough.

sigint deals in guns and tech. not everyone knows this, but most weapons people buy they get from him, even if they come through a dozen of different hands first. not everyone can afford his most sought after high-fidelity tech, though. he would have loved to get his hands on the fury's manufacturing facility, but after the foxhounds missed their chance in the initial struggle for power, going after it right now would mean certain war. and even though they have a definite advantage, zero is firmly against it.

para-medic is owner of many private hospitals in town. their primary purpose is to treat fellow gang members in critical conditions, since the government institutions aren't exactly welcoming. zero sponsors her to keep his men alive, but also to fund her research projects — not only with money, but with unwilling human participants who were already sentenced to die. recently she's been dabbling into how different widespread drugs affect the body when mixed with eachother.

anon asked:

What does Ocelot do around the club? Other than beating V up and getting wine from Kazzy?

while kaz might say otherwise, ocelot's constantly busy while he's on the clock. his main responsibility is, of course, vetting fighter, approving profitable and entertaining matchups and avoiding problematic ones. to do so, he's constantly watching. every. single. fight. from every win to every loss. his brain is a neatly stacked catalogue of all the people that come and go through the cage. he can't do all that alone, though — fights are a time for discussions among him and john. without his opinion, ocelot wouldn't be catching on all the little details. of course, his predictions aren't always fool-proof. many things can happen in the heat of battle unexpectedly — like that time a newbie with only two fights under his belt beat their veteran, quiet, and put himself on both their radars. since then, john hasn't been himself.

anon asked:

Did Kaz used to wear that same "outfit" he gave to Venom that one time lmao?

WHO ARE THE PATRIOTS? For Dummiez