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U.S. Military Launches Spy Operation Using Fake Online Identities
Online Persona Management

The Huffington Post Amy Lee First Posted: 03/17/11 02:11 PM Updated:
03/17/11 02:11 PM

The U.S. Military has purchased software designed to create and control
false online personas in an attempt to use social media and other
websites to counter anti-U.S. messaging.

According to the contract between US Central Command (Centcom) and
California company Ntrepid, the software would let each user control 10
personas, each "replete with background, history, supporting details,
and cyber presences that are technically, culturally and geographically
consistent." The software would also be able to let personas "appear to
originate in nearly any part of the world" and interact through
"conventional online services and social media platforms," while using a
static IP address for each persona to maintain a consistent online
identity.

These false online personas, also known as "sock puppets," would be
equipped to seem like real people while entering online discussion
through blogs, tweets, chats, and more. With a false persona, a user
could discredit opponents, or create the semblance of consensus.

The Guardian explains, "The US military is developing software that will
let it secretly manipulate social media using fake online personas
designed to influence internet conversations and spread pro-American
propaganda."

Centcom spokesman Commander Bill Speaks told The Guardian that the
software "supports classified blogging activities on foreign-language
websites to enable Centcom to counter violent extremist and enemy
propaganda outside the US."

The technology would not be used in America. "We do not target U.S.
audiences, and we do not conduct these activities on sites owned by U.S.
companies," Speaks told the Washington Times.

At a senate hearing March 1, Centcom commander James N. Mattis said,
"Our enemies operate within cyberspace (and its associated relevant
physical infrastructure) to plan, coordinate, recruit, train, equip,
execute and garner support for operations against the U.S., its allies
and interests. Clearly, in the information age, our military must adapt
to this new domain of warfare."
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The online persona project is thought to fall under the domain of
Operation Earnest Voice, which oversees Centcom's Information
Operations, and in the words of Mattis, "seeks to disrupt recruitment
and training of suicide bombers; deny safe havens for our adversaries;
and counter extremist ideology and propaganda."

Online persona management looks to rely heavily on many American social
media outlets, like Twitter and Facebook. But the latter has
aggressively promoted its philosophy of tying real names to real online
identities, deleting profiles it suspects to be fake, or which use false
names. In fact, Facebook's terms of use clearly state, "You will not
provide any false personal information on Facebook."

The users controlling the personas would be hidden in a variety of ways,
including randomizing the IP addresses they accessed the software with,
and "traffic mixing," or blending web traffic with that outside of
Centcom to provide "excellent cover and powerful deniability."

The strategy may sound familiar. Last month, hacker group Anonymous
unloaded a batch of 50,000 emails from security firm HBGary, where
documents indicated that the firm was in the process of developing their
own persona management software. The document outlined some of the
proposed strategies for creating verisimilitude:

Using hashtags and gaming some location based check-in services we
can make it appear as if a persona was actually at a conference and
introduce himself/herself to key individuals as part of the exercise, as
one example. There are a variety of social media tricks we can use to
add a level of realness to all fictitious personas

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