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AIVD

Intelligence-sharing agreements between various countries are nothing new; the United States' "Five Eyes" understanding between Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the U.k., and the U.s.a. is one well-known top-level alliance for sharing signals intelligence that dates back to the post-WW2 era. It's simply one of many systems, both formal and informal, the United states of america has in place for sharing data with our allies (and, in certain specific instances, countries we normally wouldn't label that way).

Generally, we don't find out which nations specifically contribute intelligence in which cases, this being a cataclysmic breach of operational security in its own right. Simply a recent report suggests the Dutch national intelligence service shared critical information with US agencies dorsum in 2022 and 2022 — material that underpinned the findings of fact issued past the United states of america national intelligence communities joint assessment that Russia had hacked the DNC and interfered in the 2022 ballot.

According to a new report published by de Volkskrant, the Dutch intelligence agency AIVD penetrated the computer network of a university adjacent to Red Square back in 2022, only to later realize they had tapped into APT29, aka Cozy Bear, i of the Russian authorities-affiliated organizations that penetrated the DNC and targeted other US government departments at various points. I question raised by many during the tumultuous 2022 U.s.a. presidential ballot was how the United states regime and its diverse institutions could be certain of its analysis. Then-candidate Trump once argued that the individual behind the intrusions "could exist somebody sitting on their bed that weighs 400 pounds."

Nosotros at present know why various authorities agencies were certain of their conclusions. The building the Dutch hackers compromised had a closed-circuit Television network. Over a menstruum of months, the AIVD team was able to watch everything the Russians did, including which specific individuals came and went. Ane reason the U.s.a. intelligence agencies were so confident Russia was responsible was that the Dutch did a cracking lead of early on legwork to demonstrate that known Russian intelligence operatives were working within Cozy Comport.

The de Volkskrant story implies that the Dutch regime began targeting the Russians later on the downing of MH17. In the aftermath of that assail, both the US and Ukraine stated that the missile was nearly certainly fired from a Soviet-era Buk missile system.

Part of a Buk missile system battery.

Part of a Buk missile system battery. The command vehicle is on the left; the launcher in the eye has a built-in radar arrangement.

Russia starting time claimed MH17 was shot down by a Ukrainian Su-25, earlier cycling through a variety of alternatives — it was a Ukrainian Su-25, using an Israeli missile, no, it was a Ukrainian Buk missile system (fired past Ukrainians as part of a false flag). Or that the plane was really MH370 and full of corpses when it took off from Amsterdam. Or that the Ukrainian military was trying to assassinate Putin. The one thing Russia wasn't interested in doing was admitting that Russian federation had anything to do with the set on in any manner, shape, or course. Of the 298 people killed, 193 were Netherlands citizens. As motivations get, the idea that the netherlands might've been motivated to become hacking effectually to see what it could find isn't much of a stretch.

In November of 2022, the AIVD sees Cozy Bear launching attacks on the United states of america State Department. Information technology and the armed services arrangement MIVD coordinate with the FBI and NSA to thwart the attack in real fourth dimension, with the Dutch literally watching the operation via CCTV provided courtesy of APT29. The intense assault occurs over 24 hours, and the Dutch aid is critical enough that the NSA begins coordinating with AIVD directly.

This attack is the 1 NSA Deputy Director Richard Ledgett referred to equally "paw-to-manus combat," in a speech at the Aspen Institute in March 2022. At the time, Ledgett said the NSA had been assisted past a Western intelligence bureau, one that had managed to hack the surveillance cameras being used by the attacking agency. Now we know the identities of the players — we had assistance from the Dutch, who'd been watching the Russians (and verifying their identities) for months at the time the attacks took place.

The de Volkskrant report notes that the Dutch may have traded information on Russian hacking attempts and tactics to the U.s.a. in exchange for information on the MH17 assault. The last twist in the story is that Dutch sources are obviously quite unhappy with the way Ledgett revealed the US had cooperated with a "Western ally" in its defense of the Country Department back in 2022, because such assets are non supposed to be disclosed. But the story besides implies that information revealed by the Dutch is office of why the various US government intelligence agencies were so confident in their own conclusions on who hacked the DNC.