Russian Nuclear Site Blueprints Exposed In Public Procurement Database (cybernews.com) 23
Journalists from Der Spiegel and Danwatch were able to use proxy servers in Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Russia to circumvent network restrictions and access documents about Russia's nuclear weapon sites, reports Cybernews.com.
"Data, including building plans, diagrams, equipment, and other schematics, is accessible to anyone in the public procurement database." Journalists from Danwatch and Der Spiegel scraped and analyzed over two million documents from the public procurement database, which exposed Russian nuclear facilities, including their layout, in great detail. The investigation unveils that European companies participate in modernizing them. According to the exclusive Der Spiegel report, Russian procurement documents expose some of the world's most secret construction sites. "It even contains floor plans and infrastructure details for nuclear weapons silos," the report reads.
Some details from the Amsterdam-based Moscow Times: Among the leaked materials are construction plans, security system diagrams and details of wall signage inside the facilities, with messages like "Stop! Turn around! Forbidden zone!," "The Military Oath" and "Rules for shoe care." Details extend to power grids, IT systems, alarm configurations, sensor placements and reinforced structures designed to withstand external threats...
"Material like this is the ultimate intelligence," said Philip Ingram, a former colonel in the British Army's intelligence corps. "If you can understand how the electricity is conducted or where the water comes from, and you can see how the different things are connected in the systems, then you can identify strengths and weaknesses and find a weak point to attack."
Apparently Russian defense officials were making public procurement notices for their construction projects — and then attaching sensitive documents to those public notices...
"Data, including building plans, diagrams, equipment, and other schematics, is accessible to anyone in the public procurement database." Journalists from Danwatch and Der Spiegel scraped and analyzed over two million documents from the public procurement database, which exposed Russian nuclear facilities, including their layout, in great detail. The investigation unveils that European companies participate in modernizing them. According to the exclusive Der Spiegel report, Russian procurement documents expose some of the world's most secret construction sites. "It even contains floor plans and infrastructure details for nuclear weapons silos," the report reads.
Some details from the Amsterdam-based Moscow Times: Among the leaked materials are construction plans, security system diagrams and details of wall signage inside the facilities, with messages like "Stop! Turn around! Forbidden zone!," "The Military Oath" and "Rules for shoe care." Details extend to power grids, IT systems, alarm configurations, sensor placements and reinforced structures designed to withstand external threats...
"Material like this is the ultimate intelligence," said Philip Ingram, a former colonel in the British Army's intelligence corps. "If you can understand how the electricity is conducted or where the water comes from, and you can see how the different things are connected in the systems, then you can identify strengths and weaknesses and find a weak point to attack."
Apparently Russian defense officials were making public procurement notices for their construction projects — and then attaching sensitive documents to those public notices...
Why can't they leak secrets like everyone else? (Score:5, Funny)
This stuff belongs in War Thunder forums!
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European journalists from Danwatch and Der Spiegel have obtained access to a massive trove of 2 million documentsdetailing Russia’s strategic nuclear facilities. Among them are detailed blueprints of the ultra-secret base in Yasny, where Avangard missiles are stationed, including everything from toilet locations and tunnel maps to security systems and surveillance cameras.
Good to see Russia managed to reverse engineered the toilets they stole from Ukriaine. The 3 day Special Military Operation wasn't a total waste.
Either an "own goal" or a "fake out" (Score:3)
This is either a major blunder by the Russians, or it's designed to deceive, either by its false-ness or by its incomplete-ness.
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This is either a major blunder by the Russians, or it's designed to deceive
We will know when we will have a cheap drone attack on a nuclear site.
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Journalism equals espionage? (Score:2, Interesting)
At what point does a reporter become a spy? Journalists believe they have the right not to be shot as intelligence agents because they aren't. But this case seems to confirm every authoritarian government's opinion that actually they are.
So - great story, but should they have done it?
Re:Journalism equals espionage? (Score:5, Insightful)
At what point does a reporter become a spy? Journalists believe they have the right not to be shot as intelligence agents because they aren't. But this case seems to confirm every authoritarian government's opinion that actually they are.
So - great story, but should they have done it?
"analyzed over two million documents from the public procurement database"
what part of that is considered "spying"?
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> what part of that is considered "spying"?
As is true in 99.999% of all cases, the part where powerful people are made to look like fools.
Re:Journalism equals espionage? (Score:4, Insightful)
At what point does a reporter become a spy? Journalists believe they have the right not to be shot as intelligence agents because they aren't. But this case seems to confirm every authoritarian government's opinion that actually they are.
So - great story, but should they have done it?
Sure. Journalist’s job is to uncover information, and if the Russians have lax enough security that they put sensitive information in publicly accessible databases, even if it requires use of proxy servers, then that is their problem, not the journalists.
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Meanwhile, in Soviet USA... officials with security clearance deliberately (?) leak top secret information to a journalist in their group chat.
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Trump declassified it by thinking about it so it's all ok
The words Trump and Thinking are not compatible.
Re:Journalism equals espionage? (Score:4, Insightful)
At what point does a reporter become a spy?
Generally it requires some level of effort to get non-public information that they know to be sensitive, and to use it to the detriment of the country they got the information from. This information was public, therefore not espionage.
Repressive regimes might have different definitions of espionage. Were you using one of those definitions?
Re:Journalism equals espionage? (Score:5, Insightful)
As for governments, I'll always support anyone airing their dirty laundry. The old saying about not doing anything you wouldn't want grandma to read about in the papers should apply to states as well and they'd be better for following that safe advice.
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At what point does a reporter become a spy?
At what point does mouth to mouth resuscitation become necrophilia?
Grandma told me a story once (Score:3, Interesting)
She'd been an engineer in the Soviet State Industrial Design Bureau in Kiev (GiProStrom). She designed factories and office buildings. She said she'd had to sign in to a secure room to look at floor plans for what she was working on, and she wasn't allowed to take notes. Because in Soviet Union, steel mills and the like were state secrets.
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Because in Soviet Union, steel mills and the like were state secrets
This makes sense. Moscow was probably concerned about the industrial infrastructure being bombed, either by US nukes or by the occasional local troublemakers that flew past the KGB radar.
Add that to the general paranoia that accompanies any authoritiarian regime, and "[the existence of, locations of, and floor plans of] steel mills and the like being state secrets" is is no suprise.
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At this point, almost everything is a state secret in Russia. The number of dead, wounded, missing, and captured soldiers, the state budget [newsweek.com], oil production [san.com], the list keeps growing. I seem to remember that even the road system around Moscow was a state secret and no maps could be made of it.
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Maskirovka? (Score:2)
Maskirovka is the Russian art of deception.