Senior RCMP Civillian member busted for espionage

[CaptainCrunch]

Reading a book on defectors and spies there are three levers to recruitment


Money is the most common one and foreign services are good at targeting it, they learn about their targets through rumors and internet hacking. They position a nice sum of money to motivate.


Ideology - Was huge in the last century, it was easy to find people sympathetic to for example communism and they were the most willing participants. They also became the best recruiters to build a spy network.


Loneliness/Sex - You find the outcast or the lonely and you basically offer him or her companionship, a sympathetic ear, a shoulder to cry on, or a ideal mate, this one usually takes the longest and is the least certain, but is the most popular in spy movies.


With the above comes blackmail, once you do it once no matter how small, you can never walk away, you're hooked like a dying fish.


The most important thing that's promised, is that you'll be protected when things go wrong. There's an escape plan in place. But that's rarely true.


I would expect with the current case, that we're going to find out that he was in debt and got money to bail himself out.

[CaptainCrunch]

https://twitter.com/user/status/1173697405105135617

the arrest of a senior rcmp official was the fruit of a 2018 international police operation that targeted the encrypted communications service phantom secure, sources have told global news.


An outfit that sold untraceable smartphones to criminals so they could evade police, phantom secure was dismantled last year by authorities in the u.s., canada, australia, hong kong and thailand.


The arrest of phantom secure ceo vincent ramos in washington state in march 2018 led police to sensitive rcmp information that had been offered up for sale, according to the sources.


While ramos did not know the identity of the person allegedly brokering the rcmp information, canadian investigators traced it to a list of suspects who had access to it, the sources said.

ut sources told global news the investigation began with the phantom secure case and the arrest of ramos, 41, a canadian serving a 108-month sentence in a texas prison.
Phantom secure bought smartphones, stripped them of their functions and installed an encrypted email system so the phones could only communicate with each other, according to the fbi.


The phones had 10,000 to 20,000 users, many of them “top-level” organized crime leaders, said police, who claimed the phones were used to co-ordinate drug trafficking, murders and money-laundering.

[LChoy]

Originally Posted by CaptainCrunch

Reading a book on defectors and spies there are three levers to recruitment


Money is the most common one and foreign services are good at targeting it, they learn about their targets through rumors and internet hacking. They position a nice sum of money to motivate.


Ideology - Was huge in the last century, it was easy to find people sympathetic to for example communism and they were the most willing participants. They also became the best recruiters to build a spy network.


Loneliness/Sex - You find the outcast or the lonely and you basically offer him or her companionship, a sympathetic ear, a shoulder to cry on, or a ideal mate, this one usually takes the longest and is the least certain, but is the most popular in spy movies.


With the above comes blackmail, once you do it once no matter how small, you can never walk away, you're hooked like a dying fish.


The most important thing that's promised, is that you'll be protected when things go wrong. There's an escape plan in place. But that's rarely true.


I would expect with the current case, that we're going to find out that he was in debt and got money to bail himself out.

Just to add to this post, the classic acronym is MICE for the approach to cultivate and turn assets

Money - While very common motivator, it is also the most commonly detected giveaway, especially if the asset begins to obviously spend beyond their means

Ideology - As crunch mentioned, probably more common during the cold war, but modern examples include data leakers (Snowden and Chelsea Manning) where the asset's motivated by a cause

Coercion (extortion/blackmail) - May not always be negative control, but promises to allow an asset's family to live a normal life in the West, or seek first world medical treatment are common Coercion methods. However this an approach that best works short term as eventually the controller either needs to grant the carrot, or the asset controller gets burnt because they are either caught or the hold over them dissolves

Ego (Emotion) - This one is quite subtle and has overlap with the other 3. Like Cap mentioned, this approach is targeting an asset's core emotions, such as loneliness and a need for belonging, so this is where something like a honeytrap can be successful. Another example is where you target someone that has an ax to grind, someone who's been passed over for promotion throughout their career, or feels they don't get the respect they deserve. In this case money isn't the primary motivation but their need to get a sense of revenge against their organization or country

Also should be noted that recruiting assets rarely involve just 1 approach, and that the approach will change over time.

From history, Ideologues and the Ego/emotional driven drivers are the most destructive as they are the most difficult to detect

LChoy

[Zulu29]

Originally Posted by LChoy

Just to add to this post, the classic acronym is MICE for the approach to cultivate and turn assets

Money - While very common motivator, it is also the most commonly detected giveaway, especially if the asset begins to obviously spend beyond their means

Ideology - As crunch mentioned, probably more common during the cold war, but modern examples include data leakers (Snowden and Chelsea Manning) where the asset's motivated by a cause

Coercion (extortion/blackmail) - May not always be negative control, but promises to allow an asset's family to live a normal life in the West, or seek first world medical treatment are common Coercion methods. However this an approach that best works short term as eventually the controller either needs to grant the carrot, or the asset controller gets burnt because they are either caught or the hold over them dissolves

Ego (Emotion) - This one is quite subtle and has overlap with the other 3. Like Cap mentioned, this approach is targeting an asset's core emotions, such as loneliness and a need for belonging, so this is where something like a honeytrap can be successful. Another example is where you target someone that has an ax to grind, someone who's been passed over for promotion throughout their career, or feels they don't get the respect they deserve. In this case money isn't the primary motivation but their need to get a sense of revenge against their organization or country

Also should be noted that recruiting assets rarely involve just 1 approach, and that the approach will change over time.

From history, Ideologues and the Ego/emotional driven drivers are the most destructive as they are the most difficult to detect

LChoy

Apparently this guy was $90,000 in debt, so I’m guessing money was the motivation here.

[afc wimbledon]

Originally Posted by Zulu29

Apparently this guy was $90,000 in debt, so I’m guessing money was the motivation here.

which of course begs the question what the hell was CSIS, or who ever is responsible for over seeing whether our spies are 90,000 in debt, shagging strippers, Thai ladyboys or snorting the output of Columbia over the average long weekend doing not keeping track of this?