How sham online profiles fooled American spies and British soldiers alike
1st October 2010
A security researcher has infiltrated the highest levels of America’s intelligence agencies using nothing more than Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and a picture of a pretty woman.
Some organisations did prove too tough for Ryan to crack, though. “I didn’t manage to make any friends in the CIA, the FBI or Secret Service,” he admits. “The mentality there is different: they just don’t trust you from the beginning. And it was harder to get friends from colleges than it was from security and intelligence. The universities I picked… were prestigious and kind of cliquey. If they don’t remember you, they’re not going to talk to you.”