Adapted by:
John Tones
WriterI've been writing about culture for twenty-something years and, at Xataka, I cover everything related to movies, video games, TV shows, comics, and pop culture.
Alba Mora
WriterAn established tech journalist, I entered the world of consumer tech by chance in 2018. In my writing and translating career, I've also covered a diverse range of topics, including entertainment, travel, science, and the economy.
In 2010, the Star Wars: Beyond the Unknown website, located at starwarsweb.net, represented what fan Internet looked like at the time. Its design would be considered terrible by today’s standards, filled with visual chaos and content that heavily reflected the fan perspective. In other words, it seemed a bit naive compared to modern standards.
However, behind this facade lay an operation orchestrated by the CIA for covert communication with its agents, utilizing an unusual purpose as a clever cover.
Communicating with the Force. The main goal of starwarsweb.net, which now redirects to the CIA’s official website, was to facilitate clandestine communication with informants in other countries. However, just over a decade ago, Iranian authorities uncovered that the website was part of a larger network of CIA-affiliated sites. As a result of this discovery, there was a tragic fallout, leading to the deaths of around two dozen CIA informants in China in the early 2010s.
Spy network. Security enthusiast Ciro Santilli began investigating partly due to his interest in Chinese politics and his monitoring of CIA operations in his home country of Brazil. He sought to uncover which websites, disguised as fan sites, were actually owned by the intelligence agency.
In his research, he stumbled upon different websites, including the Star Wars fan page. Other sites covered various topics, from tributes to figures such as American comedian Johnny Carson to weather and sports. These sites operated in up to 29 different languages and were active between 2004 and 2013.
The CIA’s IP addresses. Santilli uncovered which websites were part of the CIA’s network. This investigation culminated in a 2018 article by Yahoo! News and was further detailed in a 2022 Reuters report. According to Reuters, one of the CIA’s mistakes was the use of sequential IP addresses for its websites. Discovering one IP address made it easier to find others within the same network.
Amateurish work. This is just one example of many errors made by the CIA across the 885 web pages that comprised the network. Researchers pointed to the use of outdated technology, even for its time. The communication mechanisms between spies and the CIA were programmed in JavaScript or Flash, which provided minimal security guarantees.
Extortion. More importantly, research uncovered the methods the CIA employed to recruit spies. “After an Iranian drops off an application [via these websites], diplomatic officers are instructed to examine whether their employment history or family ties could make them valuable. A few days later, a promising applicant might receive a phone call asking them to return to the consulate to answer more detailed questions,” Reuters explained.
As the meetings progressed, they became increasingly demanding. “By the time the Iranian realizes he has given information to an intelligence officer, the unwitting informant has often made disclosures that could land him in jail,” the news agency added.
Images | Nolan Walsh | Star Wars: Beyond the Unknown
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