Taliban uses CC instead of BCC, exposes identity of 400+ contacts

A Taliban spokesperson sent out a press-release and used CC instead of BCC, exposing a long list of Taliban press-contacts, as well as several parties friendly to Taliban communiques.

The list, made up of more than 400 recipients, consists mostly of journalists, but also includes an address appearing to belong to a provincial governor, an Afghan legislator, several academics and activists, an l Afghan consultative committee, and a representative of Gulbuddein Hekmatar, an Afghan warlord whose outlawed group Hezb-i-Islami is believed to be behind several attacks against coalition troops.

Taliban Oops Reveals Mailing List IDs [Muhammad Lila, ABC] (via Techdirt)

I write books. My latest is a YA science fiction novel called Homeland (it's the sequel to Little Brother). More books: Rapture of the Nerds (a novel, with Charlie Stross); With a Little Help (short stories); and The Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow (novella and nonfic). I speak all over the place and I tweet and tumble, too.

MORE: afghanistan • oops • war • web theory

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eselqueso

You’ve got the title reversed, Cory.
- http://cobramcgiantballs.tumblr.com/ Xploder
  
  I didn’t want to be the one to tell him…
  - http://www.nathanhornby.com/ Nathan Hornby
    
    I did but I got here too late.
    - awjt
      
      I used BCC once instead of regular CC, and sixteen people wrote back, “what are you trying to hide?” You just can’t win sometimes.
      - acerplatanoides
        
        Not sure I want the Taliban getting a win, but I know what you meant. Own goals all around!
http://glitch.tl/ Michael Smith

Proper use of secure email is what separates amateurs like the Taliban from professionals like the CIA.
- spacedmonkey
  
  To be fair, Petreus is really an army boy, not a company man. If he’d been a proper spook, he wouldn’t have gone down in a sex scandal. (I think it was probably an inside job, in fact, because it’s totally their MO, and from all accounts they didn’t like answering to a GI.)
  - http://glitch.tl/ Michael Smith
    
    Yeah once you understood the personalities involved I suppose it could have been done with a few forged email headers. Very elegant and not even hi tech. Whole thing was spring loaded.
  - http://www.jjsaul.com Jim Saul
    
    I don’t know… I’m sure the actual working level are quite competent, but as always the higher the rank, the more likely that their primary skill is self-promotion.
    
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aldrich_Ames
    
    The CIA finally focused on Ames after it realized that despite a salary of only $60,000, Ames had been able to afford:
    
    A $540,000 house in Arlington, Virginia, paid for in cash;
    
    A $50,000 Jaguar automobile;
    
    Home remodeling and redecoration costs of $99,000;
    
    Monthly phone bills exceeding $6,000, mostly calls by Ames’s wife to her family in Bogotá, Colombia
    
    Tailored suits that replaced Ames’s former ‘bargain basement’ clothes, conspicuously finer than those of his CIA colleagues; and
    
    Premium credit cards whose minimum monthly payment exceeded his monthly salary.
  - Benjamin Eugene NElson
    
    Yes, of course. there’s no possible way he just could’ve misbehaved and got caught.
k0an

Blog title uses “BCC instead of CC”, exposes lack of copy editors.
margaretpoa

LMAO! I guess when you declare technology unholy or unMuslimlike or whatever, such mistakes are bound to happen. Seems a little hypocritical though, for a bunch of people to be sending out emails when, as the ruling Party in Afghanistan they banned, (other people), watching television.
- Boundegar
  
  It’s not about technology for them, it’s about content. Watching the muzzein pray on TV would be just fine. Jersey Shore, not so much.
- http://profiles.google.com/joshuabardwell Joshua Bardwell
  
  Your stereotypes are showing.
  - strangefriend
    
    In Afghanistan, I understand anything Bollywood is big.
    - Antinous / Moderator
      
      But they don’t even have movie theaters in Mecca!
nixiebunny

Sheesh! Even the Nigerian 419 scammers who fill my junk folder have the good sense to use Bcc.
http://twitter.com/jmv Jason M Vanderhill

I always get those two mixed up!
PhosPhorious

What’s the Pashto for “D’OH”?
Velocirapt42

See, the Taliban can’t use BCC and discloses embarrassing things on email- just like us!! Surely we can use this shared experience to realize our common humanity and forge bonds of togetherness.
- Jake0748
  
  Taliban… shared humanity? Not so much.
  - loroferoz
    
    Like it or not, we share that with the Taliban. And with the National Socialists of 1923-1945 and with any other group of human beings. Being humans and being liable to stupidity. I don’t know about holding hands and forging bonds… The key to get them to stop doing what they do without horrendous carnage is that they are humans.
http://grumer.org/ Avram Grumer

Imagine how much fun this title would’ve been if, instead of the Taliban, it’d been email between the BBC and BoingBoing (BB).
http://www.spockosbrain.com spocko

I love how we are still using cc and bcc. Think of all the people who have grown up never seeing a piece of carbon paper who still use this naming convention.
Correctness Man “Be sure to carbon copy me on the email.” Me. “What’s that?”Correctness Man. “We used to have to roll a piece of carbon paper in between the original letter and a blank sheet of paper to get a copy made. Then people could get a poor imitation of the original to keep.”Me. “Dude we don’t use carbon paper anymore, it’s all digital why don’t we just say, “Be sure to copy me on the email.”
Correctness man, “Don’t confuse me with your technology! I might have to use electronic mail but I demand we use terminology from the 18th century. Besides, if I leave off the carbon part of carbon copy it could just be the letter c. and people would think it was part of a., b., series or a stray copyright mark also when I want you to use blind carbon copy to hide names it would just be bc and that might be confused with Before Christ or the comic strip B.C. or British Columbia and that is a bad thing.
Now back to work! I’m reading a new book on my Kindle and it’s a real page turner.
- margaretpoa
  
  We actually have a customer who still orders carbon paper forms. We had a good laugh about that while speculating what happens after we run out of our limited supply.
  - Just_Ok
    
    can’t you just photocopy more of it?
    - Jeff Parnes
      
      Just call it courtesy copy instead of carbon copy and the abbreviations still work – that what folks in my neck of the woods ask for – a courtesy copy.
- http://www.facebook.com/sheri.l.williamson Sheri L. Williamson
  
  “…it’s a real screen swiper”??
- acerplatanoides
  
  I bet Twinkie will remain a playful euphemism for a lot longer.
- Antinous / Moderator
  
  Well, it is called email. And you probably get it via post office protocol.
Kevyn Jacobs

Bad post title. BCC & CC are reversed.
- acerplatanoides
  
  Did you proofread the comments?
AnthonyC

Anyone else wonder if maybe “Taliban chooses to sacrifice unwitting pawns to associate people they don’t like w/ themselves in the eyes of their enemies”?
- http://profiles.google.com/joshuabardwell Joshua Bardwell
  
  Call me a tin-foil hatter, but that was my first thought. Hell, my first thought was that the email came from the CIA, and was a total forgery in the first place.
- http://daruiburns.tumblr.com/ Dlo Burns
  
  But then again people screw up email daily (or hourly in places I’ve worked at)
manveruppd

I’m sorry but this had to be done: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sjgc4JqfWR4
oldtaku

[Reply All] REMOVE ME FROM THIS CHAIN OR YOUR FILTHY HEADS WILL BE REMOVED FROM YOUR PIG BODIES. Insha’allah.
Andy Reilly

Probably the same guy who keeps pissing off the entire mailing list of cell operators by always hitting “Reply All”.
- rocketpjs
  
  And only to say something stupid like ‘I agree lol ;)”
Guest

Wow … see how easy it might be to get on the kill list!
http://thisisonlya.blogspot.com robcat2075

The Taliban only knows 400 people?
- http://daruiburns.tumblr.com/ Dlo Burns
  
  or just that cell
http://twitter.com/kpkpkp Kevin Pierce

Just because the Taliban is emailing you doesn’t mean you’re interested in what they have to say.
- TWX
  
  No, but it’s also possible that you are involved in some capacity with providing materiel support, and their choosing to identify you in particular does provide some justification for now investigating you.
  - http://twitter.com/kpkpkp Kevin Pierce
    
    buy louis vuitton bag for viagra pills surplus
    - TWX
      
      Spammers generally send to more than 400 recipients.
      
      Spammers generally send to any and all e-mail addresses that they can.
      
      Spammers generally are not killing people.
      
      This looks more like a subscription mailing list or targeted mailing.
  - Andy Davie
    
    The fine article specifically mentioned it was a list of press contacts. Are you saying because the Taliban sent the BBC or whoever a press release decrying the actions of imperialist infidels, they should investigated for providing material support?!
Mitchell Glaser

Because the title of the post remains uncorrected, I suspect that Cory was being ironic. And I fell for it.
Jake0748

Fuck the fucking Taliban. They are the most evil, worthless douchebags on the planet. Who cares if they do internet or email wrong? They murder people, kids in particular.
- rocketpjs
  
  Which is different from blowing them up from the sky, a more humane approach that merely does not differentiate between children and adults.
  
  Taliban are scum, but they are not the only scum around.
- TWX
  
  I think that people care because it’s possible that many e-mail recipients are previously-unknown Taliban sympathizers, possibly active collaborators. If any are collaborators, denying the Taliban use of their resources will weaken the Taliban, and could help to end the fighting. Even if no collaborators can be identified, if any have collaborated they may stop collaborating for fear of being caught now that they’re suspected.
  - Andy Davie
    
    Did you guys even read the SUMMARY of the article, or were you in too big of a hurry to spout off your uninformed opinion? IT WAS A LIST OF JOURNALISTS AND PRESS OUTLETS AND WELL-KNOWN SYMPATHIZERS.
- http://twitter.com/drnels Nels P. Highberg
  
  Then aren’t you glad this exposes Taliban sympathizers?
Just_Ok

What I find odd is that the Taliban uses Creative Commons.
- BillStewart2012
  
  Should have used GNU FDL, or at very least a BSD license, with its explicit “It’s Not My FAULT” clause.
Ipo

Oh good. I’m not on that list.
Paul Renault

It’s not just the Taliban who don’t know the difference between CC and BCC….

http://cryptome.org/2012/11/pentagon-bcc-nope.htm