Spin Hunters

Guest blogger for Spin Hunters for this month is Sam Aldis, the founder of darkstar.me.uk. Sam started as a blackhat/script kiddie but soon he has learned a life lesson when he broke into a big football(soccer) leagues site. Sam did not serve any sentence but he had to pay a hefty fine. This is how he turned into a whitehat and now he is in the process of setting up his own security company. [...]

One of the most common and useful tools in any crisis management strategy is the creation of a dark website. This practice is pretty common and it is one of the must- have policies in consumer sectors such as larger airlines, food/beverage companies, pharmaceuticals, financial enterprises and so on.

By definition, a dark website is a pre-made, non-visible website, that can be activated online when a particular crisis occurs. [...]

One of the biggest UK financial groups, HBOS, got the media attention last week by claiming that its structures had been targeted by a precise Black PR campaign. The news broke out with the allegations that the low record share prices of the group are being triggered by false speculations, disclosing that the bank was about to collapse and had sought an emergency funding by the Bank of England. [...]

Usually when we talk about Black PR (BPR) we refer to the ability to destroy our enemy’s identity and reputation. There are many approaches BPR practitioners can employ, but the basic aim in most cases remains one: to smash the basic relationship between the organization and its stakeholders. Of course the rules of the game change when we start thinking in terms of technology and more specifically the Web. Is there BRP on the Web? How does it differ from traditional black PR practices? [...]

I have a quite unique job and to the best of my knowledge only around 50 people worldwide are actually doing this for a living. Pretty cool, ah?! I am a professional spin hunter and I try to protect our corporate clients in terms of deliberate reputation and image attacks. The irony here is that although the cases of negative reputation campaigns are growing faster, the PR industry in general demonstrate a lack of knowledge about these matters and the way modern communication strategies operate. [...]

When I woke up this Monday I thought this would be one of those tedious weeks, when nothing really happens in the PR horizon. Thankfully, I was totally wrong!

The New York Times put a smile on my face with its shocking disclosure that the governor (now an ex-head) of the State of NY, Eliot Spitzer, has been linked to a VIP prostitution ring. Well, I must say I wasn’t very surprised. [...]

Detecting malicious identity attacks is one of the hardest tasks that many organizations face today. The reason why this is so, is because most of the BPR attacks are products of extremely sophisticated campaigns (yes, some people actually do this) and rely on the availability of special professional skills such as ethical information gathering, slander proficiency and business intelligence. [...]

Here is the BBC movie for the beginning of propaganda in America. Although is pretty old and probably most of you have already seen it, this story had a significant impact on me as a child and been a reason for my further professional choice.

It’s about the life of Edward Bernays (a.k.a The father of Spin) and the unique and original methods he developed during his career. [...]

Russia – a country impressive not only with its ample territory, but also with the ample number of associations which ring a bell in everyone’s mind. For some, it is just the land of pure vodka, cheap Kalashnikov and the bad guys from the famous James Bond movies. For others, it is a symbol of spoiled political regimes and unforgivably rich oligarchs. [...]