Reuters / Larry Downing
Iran was able to use Google to hack into a secret CIA communication network that was being used to contact agents and informants around the world—a breach that appears to have triggered the exposure and execution of Agency sources in China and Iran, Yahoo News reports. Iranian counterintelligence officers were reported to have been tipped off about the existence of the web-based comms network most likely by a double-agent who was invited onto one of the sites. Once they knew it existed, they were able to use advanced Google searches to locate similar websites that were also being used by the CIA to speak to assets in foreign countries. That allowed the Iranians to listen in and potentially identify spies. Despite the compromise in Iran, the CIA continued to use the system between 2009 and 2013. China later hacked into the same network, and reportedly identified more than two dozen CIA sources who were then killed. “We’re still dealing with the fallout,” said one former national-security official. “Dozens of people around the world were killed because of this.”