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Loompanics Unlimited
PRESENTS
Our Featured Author
Michael “Mick” Chesbro
Don't Be a Victim! How to Protect Yourself From Hoaxes, Scams, and Frauds is only one of several books that Mick has written to inform and enlighten as to how we can protect ourselves from the wide variety of those who would prey on our privacy. He takes aim at everyone from the guy next door, and the gossip down the street, to your brother-in-law or his mother, your local bank and grocery store, the meddling and muddling bureaucrats and rogue government agents who are into your privacy “for your own good,” as well as the usual panorama of identity thieves, stalkers, solicitors and anyone else who wants to profit from your private information.
Unlike many voices in the privacy movement of today, Mick has long been an advocate of “personal privacy and rightful liberty” and according to the Privacy Alert Newsletter is “firmly on the right side of the personal privacy issue.”
Now retired as Senior Counterintelligence Agent with the U.S. Department of Defense Special Operations, Mick currently devotes his time to writing, technical research and consulting, and serves as the director of the Auroral Radio Research Group. He is also a nationally registered Emergency Medical Technician (EMT) and amateur radio operator-call sign: KD7KLA.
Michael “Mick” Chesbro is a self-described 21st Century adventurer, author, and technologist. He is a Board Certified Forensic Examiner, a Fellow of the American College of Forensic Examiners and a diplomate of the American Board of Forensic Examiners and the American Board of Law Enforcement Experts. He holds degrees in security management, jurisprudence and paralegal studies, is a graduate of the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center, and professionally certified as a Protection Officer and Security Supervisor by the International Foundation for Protection Officers.
Interview Questions
LU – What is a 21st Century adventurer?
MC – I am frequently off on some sort of adventure. My hobbies center around outdoor activities (camping, hiking, hunting, and wilderness survival skills). Into these hobbies I incorporate my interest in amateur (ham) radio, and can often be found running my radios from a mountaintop or other remote location.
I was discussing some of these adventures on the radio (ham radio) with friends in South Africa when someone came up with the “21st Century adventurer, author & technologist” line. I liked the description and it seemed to fit, so I adopted it as my tag-line.
LU – It sounds like you have worked for the federal government for much of your adult life. What was it that brought you to seek life in the public service?
MC –I enlisted in the Army on my 17th birthday, and was in Basic Training one week later. I began my military career as a radio operator, and soon found myself assigned overseas attached to a military intelligence unit.
Near the end of my initial enlistment I was recruited into counterintelligence. I found counterintelligence work to be particularly challenging and enjoyable and it became my career. I spent much of my time in Europe and have also worked in Asia with almost my entire career being spent overseas.
LU – What was it that made you start questioning the intrusions of government into our private lives?
MC – I read the Constitution of the United States of America! Every person serving in any branch of the military, every federal law enforcement agent, and every government official of any consequence takes an oath wherein he swears to support and defend the Constitution of the United States of America against all enemies… However too few have actually read the Constitution and taken the time to think about and understand what they have read.
Beyond this I began to read such works as Alexis de Tocqueville's Democracy in America; Thomas Paine's Common Sense and The Rights of Man; and Joseph Story's commentaries on the Constitution of the United States, among other like writings.
Many of the actions of government today are the very antithesis of the intent of the Founding Fathers and the principles on which this great Republic is founded. The more I studied the Constitution and the principles of freedom, the more I began to question the intrusions of government into our private lives.
LU – Since you have degrees in law enforcement as well as forensic science, is it a safe guess that you worked as a public coroner at some point?
MC – Actually, no! People sometimes believe that all forensic science is forensic medicine, which is not the case. There are several branches of forensics or criminalistics. My personal specialty is technical surveillance and investigations in the automated environment.
LU – Would you explain that last answer a little more? Is this the equipment used or the way equipment is used or is it developing “equipment,” for lack of a better word? Automated environment? What is that? My dictionary defines forensic science as “the study and application of scientific facts and techniques to legal problems.” Is it then the legality of using technology in surveillance?
MC – Forensic scientists gather data to support the legal process. This data is often used as evidence in a court of law. The medical examiner may gather evidence from a corpse. The crime scene technician may gather fingerprints or analyze bloodstains. These experts gather data from the physical environment and present this information toward the resolution of legal problems.
The automated environment is “cyberspace.” It is the world of computers, telephone circuits, wireless networks, the radio frequency spectrum, and the like. The forensic scientist working in the automated environment gathers data in the form of bits, bytes and electrons. When you delete a file from your computer, that file is not really gone. Your cellular telephone acts as a beacon constantly reporting its position and by default your location. When you type on your keyboard, your every keystroke can be recorded and displayed to someone monitoring your computer system.
Think about the many times throughout the day that you touch the automated environment. You leave your home and drive to your office in the morning. On the way you stop for a cup of coffee and a couple of doughnuts. You pay with your debit card and have touched the automated environment. At your office you check your e-mail and send replies all of which are recorded and available to someone who knows how to recover it. You make some telephone calls and thus confirm your association with the persons called. During lunch you get a little cash from an ATM, again leaving evidence in the automated environment. On the way home you stop at a supermarket and do a little grocery shopping. You use the store's “shopper card” to receive a discount and at the same time enter an exact list of your purchases into the automated environment. Did you rent a video or check out a book from the library? This information is recorded and becomes available to anyone who knows where to look. Do you surf the Internet from your home computer? What you look at and what you download is available to anyone with the skill to recover this data.
This is the world of the forensic scientist working in the automated environment, and these are only a few of the capabilities that are commonly known to the general public. The bits, bytes, and tracks that you leave in cyberspace can be pieced together to provide a much more detailed picture of your life and activities than can ever be pieced together from clues in the physical world.
LU – If so, did that work experience influence your attitudes toward privacy?
MC – My work experience is perhaps the greatest single factor influencing my attitudes toward personal privacy. The ability of the government to look into the most private aspects of a person's life is clearly advantageous to the government, but is seldom beneficial to the person on whom the government directs its gaze.
The ability to recover your deleted computer files, to monitor keystrokes as you type on your computer keyboard, to scan your e-mail and listen to your telephone calls for key words and phrases is commonplace within certain agencies. We have all heard of projects such as “Echelon” and “Carnivore (DCS1000)”. However, the government's surveillance capability goes far beyond these projects. Your bank is required to report many of your financial transactions to the government. Government records are cross-referenced and tied to your national identity number (your Social Security Number (SSN)) making government surveillance of your actions even easier (try to get a driver's license, fishing license or any other license in any state and you will be required to disclose your SSN). Even more frightening is the fact that these cross-referenced records are available to the private sector where there may be no security controls whatsoever. This subjects you to crimes such as identity theft and stalking as well as even greater invasions of your personal privacy. This on-going surveillance of “We The People” is, we are told, for our own good. Of course we must ask ourselves whether this “surveillance society” is in keeping with the principles of the Constitution and the intent of the Founding Fathers in the early days of the Republic.
LU – What was it that brought you to your present attitudes, which do seem at odds in some ways with the work that you did prior to retirement?
MC – I don't think there was any one thing that brought me to my present attitudes. Certainly such events as the murder of Vickie Weaver by an F.B.I. sniper at Ruby Ridge, ID, and the gassing deaths of innocent children at the Seventh-day Adventists Branch Davidian Church in Waco, TX, and the cover-up in Oklahoma City following the bombing of the federal building had a great deal to do with my present attitude.
However, I believe that overall my present attitudes come from years of watching ever-increasing disregard by the government for the rightful liberties of “We The People.” What rogue government agencies can do to any of us is truly frightening.
LU – Senior Counterintelligence Agent evokes all kinds of ideas about espionage and the like. Is this something you can enlighten us about or have you taken a vow of silence or whatever it is they make you do upon leaving the service? (Or have I been watching too many movies?)
MC – By definition a Counterintelligence Agent: "Conducts sabotage, espionage, treason, and sedition investigations. Conducts liaison with foreign agencies. Plans and conducts counterintelligence investigations. Applies fundamentals of military and civil law. Detects, neutralizes, and exploits counterintelligence targets. Conducts low-level source operations. Conducts covert collection and technical operations and surveillance. Conducts counterespionage investigations and operations. Provides counterintelligence / HUMINT support for multidiscipline counterintelligence products. Plans and conducts counterintelligence force-protection source operations. Conducts offensive and defensive CI operations and collection operations."
This is a longwinded way of saying that the counterintelligence section of a government agency protects that agency from internal and external hostile influence. Simply put counterintelligence agents protect the government's secrets!
Obviously the details of any actual missions are classified and not something I will ever discuss in a public forum. When leaving the counterintelligence service we all do in fact take a “vow of silence” and sign a non-disclosure agreement.
LU – Exactly what is the Auroral Radio Research Group?
MC – The Auroral Radio Research Group is a small, private, non-profit group established for scientific and educational purposes. The group's membership consists of ex-military intelligence, counterintelligence, special operations personnel and other technicians interested in the use of the electromagnetic spectrum for intelligence purposes. We conduct on-going research and experiments toward these ends.
LU – What other books have you written?
LU – What kind of consulting do you do and how can folks get in touch with you if they want your help?
MC – I consult on technical security and privacy issues. The best way to obtain current contact information for me is by going to my web-site, The Chesbro Network at http://www.chesbro.net. There is a current postal address and e-mail address posted on the web-site.
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- The Security Officer's Resource Guide
- Privacy for Sale: How Big Brother & Others Are Selling Your Private Secrets For Profit
- The Complete Guide To E-Security: Using The Internet & E-Mail Without Losing Your Privacy
- Freeware Encryption & Security Programs: Protecting Your Computer & Your Privacy
- The Privacy Handbook: Proven Countermeasures for Combating Threats to Privacy, Security, and Personal Freedom
- Wilderness Evasion: A Guide to Hiding Out & Evading Pursuit in the Wilderness
I currently have a contract to write a book about communications for survival and self-reliance. That book should be completed sometime in 2003. |
