A journalist wrote articles critical of the Kazakhstan government. The government did not like this and attempted to silence her. But they may have done more than just silence her. Perhaps they tried to spy on her too. The EFF investigated this case and went down a very interesting rabbit hole.
For another story about the EFF listen to episode 12 “Crypto Wars”.
Guest
Thanks to Cooper Q from EFF’s new Threat Lab. Also big thanks to Eva from EFF, Andrew Blaich and Michael Flossman from Lookout.
Thanks
Thanks to the reviewers who previewed this episode before it went live and provided valuable feedback. They include @greyhathackr, Nick, Brett, @r1otctrl, @Pyrostic, Karla and a bunch more who wish to remain unidentified.
Sponsors
This episode was sponsored by CMD. Securing Linux systems is hard, let CMD help you with that. Visit https://cmd.com/dark to get a free demo.
Sources/Links
- EFF’s Operation Manul
- Dark Caracal Paper by EFF and Lookout
- Operation Manul Talk at Blackhat
- Dark Caracal Talk at Kaspersky Summit 1/2
- Dark Caracal Talk at Kaspersky Summit 2/2
- Info about Irena Petrushova
Attribution
Artwork this episode by habblesthecat.
Theme music created by Breakmaster Cylinder. Theme song available for listen and download at bandcamp. Or listen to it on Spotify.
Additional music by Epidemic Sound.
Equipment
Recording equipment used this episode was the Shure SM7B, a cloudlifter, Audient ID4, Sony MDR7506 headphones, and Hindenburg audio editor.
Transcript
[FULL TRANSCRIPT]
JACK: [MUSIC] One of my favorite adventurous activities I used to like doing when I was younger was exploring abandoned buildings. I’ve been in abandoned schools, banks, industrial plants, churches, hotels, mines, tunnels, and office buildings. It’s pretty dangerous but I liked it. This one time I was exploring an old hospital with a friend and as we were walking through it, we heard a noise in one of the rooms. We looked inside and there was a cat sitting there, slowly waving its tail back and forth, staring at us. Right in the middle of the room was an empty cat food bowl. The cat seemed to be living there and someone was feeding it. It was strange but we kept walking down the long corridor of this abandoned hospital. We heard a noise behind us. I quickly turned around and I swore I saw a door swing closed way at the end of the hallway. But it was so far away and it was so quick that maybe I didn’t see it.