Who didn't see this coming? According to a report from the cleverly named 404 Media, back in the day, what seemed to be fan-made Star Wars website at starwarsweb.net secretly operated as a communications channel the Central Intelligence Agency could use to talk to its agents abroad. Going to that address now just takes you directly to the official CIA website, but by using the Wayback Machine, we can see what it looked like back in its heyday.
It seems to have mostly looked like a repository for links to other Star Wars sites and forums. There's a little panel where CGI Yoda stands next to the covers for video games like Star Wars Battlefront II and LEGO Star Wars II. "Like these games, you will," he tells us. The banner at the top has a kid with a lightsaber next to the words, "Star Wars: Beyond the Unknown." Subtle, CIA.
The site was unearthed by security researcher Ciro Santilli. It was part of a network of hundreds of sites, most of them about news, used to clandestinely communicate with CIA assets around 2010. "We're now about 15 years past when these websites were being actively used, yet new information continues to drip out year after year," cybersecurity researcher Zach Edwards told 404 Media. "The simplest way to put it—yes, the CIA absolutely had a Star Wars fan website with a secretly embedded communication system—and while I can’t account for everything included in the research from [Santilli], his findings seem very sound."
The story gets even weirder. These sites were discovered by Iranian authorities and may have been linked to the killing of various CIA sources, mostly in China, from 2010-2012. This is simultaneously the silliest and most serious story I've ever heard.
I'm going to guess the CIA isn't using these sorts of techniques to talk to their agents today. I'm sure modern communication methods involve AI and are very fancy...or maybe you're one click away from opening a secret channel to the FBI. But probably not; after all, if WiC were a front for spy agencies, we wouldn't just tell you, would we? Or maybe that's exactly what we would do...
Anyway, enjoy these exciting stories:
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h/t PC Gamer