From around 2009 to 2013 under the Obama administration, the U.S. intelligence community experienced crippling intelligence failures related to its secret internet-based communications system. Problems originated in Iran and spiderwebbed to other countries, and was left unrepaired — despite warnings about what was happening — until more than two dozen sources died in China in 2011 and 2012 as a result. This had been noticed in the media, and confirmed by 11 former intelligence and national security officials.

The failure? Utilizing a bunch of innocuous looking internet sites – including a fake Star Wars fan site – which were compromised and then patterns figured out on how the CIA ran other sites the same way. It caused a chain reaction of exposing sources – who were promptly arrested or killed.

Reuters report in 2022, America’s Throwaway Spies, which went into further detail on how individual CIA agents were exposed by the Iranians, and included the incredible revelation that the IP addresses for the CIA’s sites were sequential, meaning that once one was identified it was easy to find others that likely belonged to the same network.

Links:

• https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/usa-spies-iran/
• https://www.yahoo.com/news/cias-communications-suffered-catastrophic-compromise-started-iran-090018710.html
• https://www.pcgamer.com/gaming-industry/the-cia-operated-a-network-of-gaming-sites-and-even-a-star-wars-fanpage-that-were-part-of-one-of-its-worst-ever-intelligence-catastrophes/