We talk about security and the current state of the security system (police, intelligence services, and the military).
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What is security
00:02:05 What is security: Security VS Safety.Security: unexpected events that go back to an actor,Safety: maintaining a status.00:07:20 Entropy: things decay. Security is not a natural state, butmust be maintained.
00:09:10 Evil people: psychpaths, predators.00:09:50 Circumstances: acting irrationally.00:10:25 Hackers: Red Hats, joy of overcoming security systems.00:11:11 WASP Privilege: no exposure to threats, stuff works most ofthe time, no incentive to learn about security.
Systems
00:12:29 High trust society VS low trust society: Low trust comeswith high cost and less functional societies.
00:16:16 Symptoms of societies with low trust: differentenvironments are what make them.
00:16:50 Universal core values of humans: self-preservation,protecting family and friends, private zones, no drama.
00:18:05 High trust society needs maintenance, will get erodedquickly by few “bad actors”.
00:19:05 How can you turn a low security, low trust environment intoa high security, high trust environment? Parallel developments also
possible: high security, low trust societies.
00:19:40 Trust builds from history of interactions.00:20:13 To change, bad memories must die (social memory). SeeThomas Kuhn (1962): The Structure of Scientific Revolutions
00:22:10 Western states want to make people dependent on security(stateism) and increase state control. Thus, individuals externalize
security, and state is presented as the White Knight.
00:25:15 Are we being played/gamed/manipulated by the state andstate actors?
00:27:38 Just doing our jobs.00:29:50 Machiavellianism: concepts how states can work.00:31:20 Hegelian concepts: totalist and collectivist states andpolitics.
00:33:20 Look at systemic issues.Institutions
00:33:30 Inspecting institutions: 1) Police.00:39:00 Policemen’s selection bias: everyone is a potentialcriminal or at least a suspect.
00:40:20 Documentation work of police activity by example of firingweapons.
00:42:30 Bureaucracy can work.00:47:30 Police in uniform VS civilian police: both are for peacepreservation.
00:48:00 Military is directed outwards.00:49:00 Carl von Clausewitz: war is the extension of politics[original: war is the continuation of politics by other means].
00:49:39 Border guards are the middle layer between military andpolice (control of territorial boundaries VS maintaining territorial
integrity VS maintain security within the borders).
Intelligence services
00:50:00 Intelligence services:Classification: Intelligence service for proper and covert action00:51:00 Similarities and differences to Journalism: Areintelligence services also ad-driven?
00:51:48 Intelligence Agencies report only news that can beactionable.
00:53:40 Domestic and Foreign Intelligence Services.00:54:20 Objective reporting: Not mission driven, but report driven.00:54:41 Two classes of intelligence services: Report requestscoming out of intelligence circle, or mission driven services
(Bundesverfassungsschutz, for example).
00:56:30 FBI: police organization plus intelligence aspect.00:57:05 Intelligence services are about information, other servicesare about action.
00:57:40 Staatsschutz and German Intelligence: police is for preventand investigate crimes.
00:59:05 Forensics is for police, subversive or maybe illegalactions are for intelligence work. In Germany, it’s clearly
seperated; in USA, not so much.
01:02:15 CIA: Considered as Intelligence Agency. Gather informationis their mandate, not catch criminals.
01:05:10 Sending in intelligence to change things: huge toolkit toact available.
01:05:50 Intelligence and Military Covert Actions are not Security,but political action. However, it‘s a security issue for the other
side.
International organisations
01:06:47 International Security Organizations (Europol, Interpol).No police powers, limited investigation powers.
01:08:45 Working groups: example SIS (communicating warrants in EU).01:09:58 Organizations: example Le Circle (high-ranking intelligencechiefs), Munich Security Forum (conference with high-level security
chiefs).
01:15:00 Why is their image so skewed in the public? (The „SpyStory“)
01:18:00 Rubicon Series (2010)01:19:25 CSI Series (2000) - all about forensic analysis of crimescenes, but in reality it‘s not the dominant part, only few
questions can be answered.
01:21:28 Playbook crime following the standard model VS outliers.01:22:55 Being secretive about methods means keeping the advantagefrom opponents: intelligence agencies VS intelligence agencies from
other countries; police VS criminals.
01:23:40 Sources 1) Scientific Fields: Criminalistics, Criminology.(Education Material for people that train police, manuals and
coursework can be brought on Amazon, also check out libraries).
01:25:34 Sources 2) Reports: Indictments, Warrants (a lot arepublic, depending on country). Caveat: contains successes and legal
processes only.
01:27:08 Sources 3) Private Conversation with Policemen,Investigators, Intelligence People to get a more accurate picture
about their work.
Public private partnerships
01:29:39 Private Security Services.01:30:45 Cybercrime Investigations: Takedown of Cyberpunker 2 (200servers in a German bunker).
01:32:25 Private Companies helping the police in CybercrimeInvestigation.
01:32:40 Analyzing digital evidence: Given to a lab from a privatecompany. (Cyberforensics, not done by police)
01:34:18 White-Collar Crime: Fraud, Commercial Fraud cases etc.Corporate Investigators for hire: Forensic Accountants, etc. (Police
work only for special investigator power, or force powers.)
01:37:10 Corporations can use private security services when policeare bound legally (for example, in bribing), then sanatize the data
and give it to the police.
01:41:28 Informal communication lines… like in every otherindustry. (But with special privileges: Police, Military,
Intelligence)
01:43:04 Presumably Cardinal Richelieu: „If you give me (three, ortwo) six lines written by the hand of the most honest of men, I will
find (seven reasons) something in them which will hang him.“, this
quote might be originated by memorialist Françoise Bertraut de
Motteville (1723), and was later paraphrased.
01:44:46 Real-life cases have a lot of ambiguity going on. It‘s awork of probabilities, not a binary process.
01:45:45 Can you cover up a crime as a non-corrupt policeman?01:46:50 Private Security Services exploit the ambiguity ofpolicework (someone bringing you from outside a full case, only
verification needed, negative evidence often gets lost).
01:48:21 Political Aspect: which crimes are deemed important?01:49:20 Lobbying and capital power: Intellectual Property Crimes.01:50:44 Industry identifies perpretators and delivers them topolice.
01:50:58 Filesharing: Machine investigating and filing reports,backchanneling, automated sting operation (example, IP-Echelon).
01:56:08 Private Agencies provide: Analysis of evidence, productionof leads, investigation.
01:56:26 Money Laundering: not based on investigative results, buton information provided by for example NGOs (example, Transparency
International).
01:59:28 Chain Analysis Companies produce risk scores forCryptocurrency Adresses (public keys).
02:01:05 Face recognition to identify suspects: example, ClearviewAI (finding people software)
02:02:20 Police relies on outside, unchecked influence: PrivateActors (non-illegmitate).
Private Intelligence
02:03:25 Recap of Episode:What outside input is influencing the policePolicy definitionIntelligence field02:04:22 Tax crimes: special investigators who actively try to findcriminals.
02:04:39 Organized Crime: preventitive task of police (dismantlingorganizations, Staatsschutz).
02:05:35 Civil Disobedience: infiltration by police and privatecompanies.
02:07:00 Private Security: 3 categoriesprivate intelligence servicesprivate security servicesprivate military contractors.02:09:38 Private Intelligence is information gathering.02:09:53 Private Intelligence VS corporate espionage.02:11:11 First example.02:15:00 Why is there so much cheap spy tech for sale?02:19:53 Second example: credit suisse incident.02:21:12 Some serious health concerns for the operators andmiddlemen (in-betweens).
02:24:05 Birds of a feather flock together: blurry lines ofcorporate, state, and private decision makers (different sides of
the law).
02:26:29 Book/Thesis: Stephan Blancke (2011): GeheimdienstlicheAktivitäten nicht-staatlicher Akteure (private intelligence
activities by non-state actors)
02:27:11 Private inflitrators, informants and agent provocateurs.02:28:10 Extinction rebellion and very active activists.02:30:30 Capture bounties.02:32:45 A quiet business: private infiltration intelligenceservices (IMSI-catchers) are often ex police, ex military etc.
02:34:40 Sharing information services between intelligence: 4 eyes,14 eyes.
02:38:05 HCPP and game theory: will the cryptoanarchists ever getsomething done?
02:39:00 Today’s security system is like antique byzantine, easy tounderstand from outside, inside not easy to understand- even for the
players themselves.
02:40:25 Ross Ulbricht and Silk Road made agents run with money—isit the only case, only in this direction?
02:42:00 State systems’ marketing: “protect and serve” by angels?But, ACAB is also wrong.
02:45:55 Take personal responsibility for own security.Outlook
02:48:40 Developments/outlook: technologies that make globalizationpossible, organizational technologies, reporting and communication.
02:50:25 Old days: reporting was sampling (today: big data, AI).02:51:00 New incentive structures: financial markets. Old: financialmarkets were not global, slow. Today: Global financial markets mean
indirect profit from activities like war, markets can be complex,
distributed, longer reach.
02:52:50 Even dumb criminals can use smart technologies (Dropgangs).02:54:00 The mastermind/ intelligent criminals VS random criminals:attribution becomes problematic (witness problem, no review
pointers).
02:57:24 Book: Evan Ratliff (2019): The Mastermind. Drugs. Empire.Murder. Betrayal. (Paul LeRoux)
Wrap up
03:00:59 Donation ReportReading Recommendations
Thomas Kuhn (1962): The Structure of Scientific RevolutionsMachiavelliHegelCarl von ClausewitzRubicon Series (2010)Stephan Blancke (2011): Geheimdienstliche Aktivitätennicht-staatlicher Akteure (private intelligence activities by
non-state actors)
Evan Ratliff (2019): The Mastermind. Drugs. Empire. Murder.Betrayal. (Paul LeRoux)
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