Waypoints: About TrueCrypt, spies, and AI
I.
Crazy to think that while Edward Snowden and I taught people to keep their data safe with TrueCrypt, the tool’s alleged creator Paul Le Roux was busy plotting murders, buying drugs from the North Koreans, and helping the Colombians set up their own meth lab. Evan Ratliff details Le Roux’s life as a criminal kingpin in The Mastermind – the U.S. sentenced him to 25 years in 2020. Turns out Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai was right when he told me “Le Roux’s involvement with TrueCrypt is the least interesting part of the story.”
II.
I wrote about Louis Budenz – labor activist, journalist and decade-long communist spy – in my Journalist and Spy newsletter a couple of months ago, based on FOIA documents I had recently obtained from the CIA. I finally got around to uploading those documents, so you can view them here.
III.
Madison Square Garden – where Taylor Swift got married this month – is suing WIRED for its reporting on the company’s surveillance operation. An internal database tracked and categorized hundreds of individuals, labeling some “LGBTQIA,” “DO NOT HOST,” and low to high “risk.” In response, WIRED removed the paywall from two stories Madison Square Garden does not want you to read, making them free for everyone. You can read them here and here.
IV.
The Wall Street Journal has the backstory on the U.S. - UAE agreement on AI, complete with spycraft, diplomacy, and lobbying. Emirati AI giant G24 is mentioned too, run by former DarkMatter staff – the firm created to help the Gulf state spy on rivals, activists, and journalists with former NSA hackers. In November, Microsoft announced a strategic partnership with G24 as part of a $15.2 billion investment in the UAE.