*Europe's hidden security crisis*
/How data about European defence personnel and political leaders flows
to foreign states and non-state actors/
https://www.iccl.ie/digital-data/europes-hidden-security-crisis/
*Real-Time Bidding (RTB) allows foreign states and non-state actors to
obtain compromising sensitive personal data about key European personnel
and leaders.*
*Key insights:*
* Our investigation highlights**a widespread trade in data about
sensitive European personnel and leaders that exposes them to
blackmail, hacking and compromise, and undermines the security of
their organisations and institutions**. **
**
* These data flow from Real-Time Bidding (RTB), an advertising
technology that is *active on almost all websites and apps*. RTB
involves the broadcasting of sensitive data about people using those
websites and apps to large numbers of other entities, *without
security measures to protect the data*. This occurs billions of
times a day.
* Our examination of tens of thousands of pages of RTB data reveals
that *EU military personnel and political decision makers are
targeted using RTB*.
* This report also reveals that *Google* and other RTB firms *send RTB
data about people in the U.S. to Russia* and *China*, where national
laws enable security agencies to access the data. *RTB data are also
broadcast widely within the EU in a free-for-all, which means that
foreign and non-state actors can indirectly obtain them, too*.
* RTB data often include location data or time-stamps or other
identifiers that make it relatively easy for bad actors to link them
to specific individuals. Foreign states and non-state actors can use
RTB to spy on *target individuals’ financial problems, mental state,
and compromising intimate secrets*. Even if target individuals use
secure devices, data about them will still flow via RTB from
personal devices, their friends, family, and compromising personal
contacts.
* In addition, private surveillance companies in foreign countries
deploy RTB data for*surreptitious surveillance*. We reveal
“Patternz”, a previously unreported surveillance tool that uses RTB
to profile 5 billion people, including *the children of their targets*.
* Our examination of RTB data reveals *Cambridge Analytica style
psychological profiling* of target individuals’ *movements*,
*financial problems*, *mental health problems* and vulnerabilities,
including if they are likely*survivors of sexual abuse*.
* *Real-Time Bidding's security flaw is a national security problem*.
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