How to scam the government via Facebook

I’ve never really liked Facebook, but have fallen into its greedy little hands, knowing it is just about the best way to communicate with the younger generations, which at this point in my life, covers just about everyone I know.

Sometimes, some old friend from high school tries to “friend” me, and, since I don’t have a staff to take care of my incoming friend requests, or a company to manage my lists, I am always at a loss about how to say “thanks, but no thanks” to the many friend requests from people I really don’t give a damn about.

Not so for U.S. Admiral James Stavridis, NATO’s supreme allied commander. You see, he probably didn’t like Facebook, so some very smart spies did him a favor and opened a fake account in his name. Of course, many of his NATO friends went ahead and friended him, I mean, he’s the big boss, and lo and behold, Stavridis (the fake one) accepted their friend request. I can just see the face of all of the NATO underlings, thrilled at the chance of being Stavridis’ friend, at least virtually. I mean, it doesn’t get any better than that.

Last week, The Sunday Telegraph reported that he was also friended by some unfriendly factions, reportedly “state sponsored individuals in China” , giving them access to his friends’ private e mail addresses, phone numbers and photos. I have to say that I have always been a patriotic person, but I do love the creative aspect of this scam!

Stavridis is a big shot, was in charge of the operations to end Gadhafi’s regime and leads NATO forces in Europe. It is reported that although no state secrets were stolen (you think?) this was clearly an embarrassing situation, duh! and many of Stavridis’ friends had posted some personal details which could be harmful to their health, to say the least.

The solution? Are you sitting down? Please put down the Grande Latte you have in your hand, lest we have an accident here. We are told that NATO has asked senior officers and officials to open up their own FB account to prevent any further hanky panky. So if you want to “like” Stavradis, go ahead, I can (almost) guarantee, you will be liking the real one, and not a bogus one. https://www.facebook.com/james.stavridis

On a more serious note, which is hard for me to do after just seeing the photo on Stavridis’ page, there is clearly concern in the US about the threat of Chinese cyberwarfare. There is a report by the U.S.- China Economic and Security Review Commission (isn’t that an oxymoron?) that clearly warns of efforts by Chinese corporations to give the Chinese military access to cutting-edge techonology, aided of course by foreign partners, stepping all over themselves to do more business with China. All I can say is, politics, and business, make strange bedfellows.

It is good to know, though, that we are on top of this. Deputy Defense Secretary Ashton Carter, whom you could also like on FB, says that the US is not even “remotely satisfied” with the US’ ability to deal with cyberwarfare. Of course, Carter only has 20 “likes” on FB. Stavridis? over 8,000!

Oh OK, now you can sleep at night. Just make sure you turn off your computer.