US EditionThe CIA used a Star Wars fan site to secretly communicate with spies
- The CIA covertly used a Star Wars fan website around 2010 to send coded messages to agents abroad through technical fan discussions online.
- This method arose from the agency’s need for hidden communication, but Iranian authorities discovered the network, exposing the sites and triggering agency efforts to reconfigure.
- The sites contained passwords embedded in Star Wars chit-chat, which led to login portals enabling classified exchanges amid fan debates, blending spycraft with fandom culture.
- Security researcher Ciro Santilli identified hundreds of such domains, and a Reuters report confirmed sloppy coding linked to the exposure and later deaths of CIA sources, especially in China.
- This episode illustrates that even advanced intelligence operations can fail due to developer errors, resulting in severe consequences and ongoing revelations years later.
39 Articles
39 Articles
A Star Wars fan site visibly served as a front for the CIA to communicate with its spies. The American agency reportedly developed numerous sites in the 2000s to exchange secretly with its spies.
The CIA Created And Ran A Fake 'Star Wars' Fan Site For Use As Part Of Spy Network
Darth-Vader-mask-and-helmet-Star-Wars The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has done a lot of strange things over the years, but this is one of their more interesting attempts. It has now been revealed that the CIA created and ran a fake Star Wars fan site for use as a tool to communicate with its spy network. The CIA-ran website StarWarsWeb.net had all the usual items one would expect to see on a Star Wars fan site: news, images, video games, t…
At one time, he communicated through this with some of his foreign spies.
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