Foreign Policy 2016 05-06

THE SECURITY ISSUE THE DEVIL YOU DON T KNOW TO SPIES, DAVID VINCENZETTI IS A SALESMAN. TO TYRANTS, HE IS A SAVIOR. HOW THE ITALIAN MOGUL BUILT A HACKING EMPIRE. MAY/JUN 2016 $8.99 U.S./CAN

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contents 05|06.2016 028 Fear This Man David Vincenzetti built a spyware empire. Is the Italian mogul a code breaker or an arms dealer? by DAVID KUSHNER 038 Hidden in Plain Sight Millions of selfies are taken each day. Why the flood of visual data might be the antidote to surveillance states’ overreach. by HASAN ELAHI 044 The Miner’s Guide to the Galaxy Two U.S. companies want to drill asteroids for riches. The question is whether they are prepared to share the bounty with foreign competitors. by MATTHEW SHAER 052 The Evolution of an Idealist Jim Kim once advocated the World Bank’s abolition. Today, as its president, he is roiling the organization by eschewing old priorities. Is he destroying the bank—or saving it from itself? by ANDREW RICE ON THE COVER ILLUSTRATION BY David Foldvari Photograph by JOHN LOOMIS

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contents 05|06.2016 Sightlines Observation Deck 008 062 APERTURE Exit the King MAPPA MUNDI photographs by MATHIAS DEPARDON/INSTITUTE A Head of STEAM 016 by DAVID ROTHKOPF THE THINGS THEY CARRIED 066 The Celebrity Tutor NATIONAL SECURITY interview by CHRISTY CHOI What America Hath Wrought 018 DECODER by JAMES BAMFORD North Korea’s 068 Maritime Industry ECONOMICS by JOSHUA HUNT The “C” Word 020 VISUAL STATEMENT by GILLIAN TETT Daesh and Cultural Alzheimer’s 070 by SELÇUK DEMIREL BOOKS 022 INNOVATIONS Lines of Resistance Smart Search-and-Rescue, by ADAM KIRSCH Robotic Hearing, and More 072 by NEEL V. PATEL CULTURE 024 THE EXCHANGE False Idols Tobias Zielony and Anna Badkhen by MICHELA WRONG on Checking Privilege 074 THE FIXER Out and About in Tangier interview by AIDA ALAMI 005 Contributors 076 The Final Word

David Rothkopf CEO AND EDITOR, THE FP GROUP Mindy Kay Bricker Benjamin Pauker Yochi Dreazen EXECUTIVE EDITOR, PRINT EXECUTIVE EDITOR, ONLINE MANAGING EDITOR, NEWS Seyward Darby Rebecca Frankel Lara Jakes DEPUTY EDITOR, PRINT DEPUTY EDITOR, ONLINE DEPUTY MANAGING EDITOR, NEWS Cláudia de Almeida, Margaret Swart (o Banquinho) Cameron Abadi CREATIVE DIRECTORS SENIOR EDITOR, ONLINE Amanda Silverman Amy Finnerty STORY EDITOR, PRINT BOOKS AND CULTURE EDITOR, PRINT SENIOR EDITOR, TEA LEAF NATION SENIOR STAFF WRITERS David Wertime Dan De Luce, Keith Johnson, Colum Lynch MIDDLE EAST EDITOR SENIOR REPORTERS David Kenner David Francis, John Hudson, ASIA EDITOR Molly O’Toole Isaac Stone Fish STAFF WRITERS AFRICA EDITOR Elias Groll, Paul McLeary, Siobhán O’Grady Ty McCormick COPY CHIEF EUROPE EDITOR Michael Crescione Alicia P.Q. Wittmeyer DEPUTY COPY EDITOR ASSOCIATE EDITORS Shannon Schweitzer Siddhartha Mahanta, Jake Scobey-Thal INTERACTIVES AND EDITORIAL FEATURE DESIGNER ASSISTANT EDITORS C.K. Hickey Bethany Allen-Ebrahimian, VICE PRESIDENT, EVENTS Ilya Lozovsky, Benjamin Soloway CONTRIBUTING EDITORS William Inboden, Charles Kenny, Christina Larson, Aaron David Grace Rooney ASSISTANT DIGITAL PRODUCER Daniel Altman, John Arquilla, Miller, Thomas E. Ricks, J. Peter Peter Bergen, David Bosco, Scoblic, James Traub, Stephen M. DIRECTOR, EVENTS Reid Standish Ian Bremmer, Rosa Brooks, Walt, Micah Zenko Christian Caryl, Mohamed A. Stephanie Cherkezian FELLOWS El-Erian, Peter D. Feaver, David E. Hoffman, PRESS DIRECTOR Megan Alpert, Henry Johnson CONTRIBUTING PHOTO EDITOR, PRINT Maria Ory SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT AND CHIEF REVENUE OFFICER James Wellford SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT, CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER Christopher Cotnoir 2009 NATIONAL MAGAZINE AWARD Allen Chin VICE PRESIDENT, ADVERTISING SALES GENERAL EXCELLENCE ASSISTANT TO THE CEO Duc Luu Foreign Policy SUBSCRIPTIONS SUBSCRIBER SERVICES Foreign Policy, P.O. Box 283, Congers, NY 10920- Ann Kingston VICE PRESIDENT, EDUCATION SALES 11 Dupont Circle NW, Suite 600 0283; ForeignPolicy.com/subscription-services; Washington, D.C. 20036 e-mail: [email protected]; (800) 535-6343 in JUNIOR ACCOUNTANT Keith Arends PUBLISHING OFFICE U.S.; (845) 267-3050 outside U.S.; Publications (202) 728-7300 mail agreement no. 40778561. Rates (in U.S. Henry Riggs DIRECTOR OF MARKETING AND AD SUBSCRIPTIONS funds): $59.99 for one year. NEWSSTAND AND OPERATIONS (800) 535-6343 BOOKSTORE DISTRIBUTION Curtis Circulation 4 MAY | JUNE 2016 Company, 730 River Road, New Milford, NJ 07646- Matthew J. Curry ADVERTISING 3048; (201) 634-7400. BACK ISSUES $10.95 (202) 728-7310 per copy. International airmail add $3.00 per copy; DIRECTOR, INTERNATIONAL online: ForeignPolicy.com/buy-back-issues; e-mail: © 2016 by The FP Group, a division of Graham [email protected]. SYNDICATION REQUESTS Aaron Schumacher Holdings Company, which bears no responsibility Contact Matthew Curry (202) 728-7351; for the editorial content; the views expressed in [email protected]. OTHER MARKETING ASSOCIATE the articles are those of the authors. No part of this PERMISSION REQUESTS Copyright Clearance publication may be reproduced in any form without Center, Inc. (978) 750-8400; www.copyright.com. Hanna Berman permission in writing from the publisher. SENIOR WEB DEVELOPER Saxon Stiller WEB DEVELOPERS Priya Nannapaneni, David Varndell

contributors 05|06.2016 Andrew Rice Matthew Shaer has written about is a contributing development issues writer at the New in Africa for more York Times Magazine than a decade. He and a correspon- is the author of The dent for Smith- Teeth May Smile sonian magazine. but the Heart Does His reporting has Not Forget: Murder appeared in Harper’s, and Memory in Fortune, Men’s Uganda and a con- Journal, New York, tributing editor Fast Company, at New York. His Popular Science, work has appeared and Wired, among in the New York other publications. Times Magazine, A native of Boston, Bloomberg Business- he now lives with his week, the Guardian, wife and daughter and elsewhere. in Atlanta. DAVID FOLDVARI David Kushner Hasan Elahi “At the beginning of an assignment, I’ll draw on anything: sketch- is the author of is an artist who books, a tablet I have that is basically a digital canvas, and even bus Masters of Doom examines issues of tickets and envelopes. I like to make a lot of little drawings, even if and Alligator Candy, surveillance, citi- I don’t have a cohesive vision yet, just to see how different combi- his latest book. A zenship, and migra- nations of designs, colors, and shadings fit together. The sketches contributing editor tion. His work has and early drawings often end up in the final, while the polished at Rolling Stone, been presented at stuff gets discarded. For this cover, I wanted the tone of the sketch he has written for major exhibition to match that of the man who was profiled, David Vincenzetti. Ini- publications includ- venues worldwide, tially, I hid his face in complete darkness, but in the end that made ing the New Yorker, and he has spoken him seem too menacing. Instead, I retained a bit of the mystery Vanity Fair, and the at the Tate Modern that exists in the article.” New York Times and the World Eco- Magazine. Kushner nomic Forum. An is a Ferris profes- associate professor sor of journalism at of art at the Uni- Princeton University versity of Maryland, and has taught Elahi was recently also at New York named a 2016 University. Guggenheim fellow. Corrections: During 2015, Carla Dirlikov Canales was residing in Baltimore. In the November/December issue of FOREIGN POLICY, an article mistakenly stated that she was living in Philadelphia. Additionally, El Camino Project, the group for which FP honored Dirlikov Canales, performed Mexican heritage music. The article stated that it performed Mexican Baroque music. FOREIGNPOLICY.COM 5

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APERTURE THE THINGS DECODER VISUAL STATEMENT INNOVATIONS THE EXCHANGE Oil has been a boon How U.N. sanctions What does Daesh Forest-scouring Tobias Zielony and to Azerbaijan’s eco- THEY CARRIED targeting North have in common drones, an artificial Anna Badkhen nomic growth. But Why Hong Kong’s Korea’s shipping with the Nazis? ear, and finally a on debunking will black gold also celebrity tutor dons industry awakens They’ve both way to keep stereotypes about cause the country’s Roger Vivier heels Pyongyang’s cre- imposed cultural personal data on the world’s refu- demise? | P. 08 and drinks 10 Red ative spirit. | P. 18 Alzheimer’s. | P. 20 lockdown. | P. 22 gees. | P. 24 Bulls a day. | P. 16 What do we mean by “society” if most of the world lives on the edge? | P. 24 Illustration by GEN RAMIREZ

aperture photographs by MATHIAS DEPARDON/INSTITUTE Exit the King In Azerbaijan, oil reigns. The country sits atop some 7 billion barrels of reserves. Post-Soviet industrial development, along with surging oil prices, generated monu- mental economic growth starting in the early 2000s. So prized is black gold that spas in the central town of Naftalan try to treat psoriasis, arthritis, and gout with crude soaks (right). ¶ Yet oil’s recent slump has sent Azerbaijan, where energy provides 67 percent of fiscal revenues and 95 percent of exports, into crisis. GDP growth, already down to single digits after the boom years, contracted in 2015 along with barrel prices. To deflect a bailout, the government floated the manat in December and enacted strict currency controls in January. Meanwhile, oil wealth lines politicians’ pockets: Azer- baijan ranks 119 out of 167 in Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index. ¶ Belgian-French photographer Mathias Depardon documented oil’s slip- pery legacy in Azerbaijan over several years “to show,” he says, “the sociopolitical tran- sition and untethered urban gentrification of an authoritarian society based on the economy of oil.” 8 MAY | JUNE 2016

SIGHTLINES

aperture In 2007, construction began on the Flame Towers, gaudy addi- tions to Baku’s skyline; projected to cost $350 million, the towers— photographed in May 2012— now house luxury apartments, a Lamborghini dealer, and a Fairmont resort.

SIGHTLINES Top: In May 2015, people relax Top: Two men lounge in the on Baku’s historic seaside sand as oil rigs loom in the promenade. Built in 1909, the once-pristine sea view from walkway was recently extended Shikhov Beach. Most of in an oil-funded construction Azerbaijan’s oil production blitz. Bottom: A man sits on comes from offshore reserves. Shikhov Beach; the waters here Bottom: A tour bus sits are polluted by industrial waste. abandoned on the coast.

aperture On the outskirts of Baku, a fruit vendor sells melons in August 2015. The oil boom sent Azer- baijan’s poverty rate plummet- ing, but according to the Asian Development Bank (ADB), reduction in rural areas has lagged behind that in cities. 12 MAY | JUNE 2016

SIGHTLINES Women sit by a fountain in Baku’s popular Sahil Bagi Park in April 2012. The ADB estimated last year that Azerbaijan’s gross national income per capita was roughly 10 times larger than it was in 2001. The manat’s free float will likely depress this figure.

aperture Top: A man sits in a bath at the Naftalan Sanatorium in September 2015. The healing properties of the city’s oil have been legendary since Marco Polo reported on them. Bottom: Oil has been extracted from fields in Balakhani, a Baku sub- urb, since the 19th century. A woman undergoes a treatment for laryngitis at the sanatorium last year. The government promotes Naftalan as a tourist destination, but its location— less than 10 miles from Nagorno- Karabakh, a site of recurring conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia—is precarious. 14 MAY | JUNE 2016

SIGHTLINES FOREIGNPOLICY.COM 15

2 The 1 Celebrity Tutor Kelly Mok 3 4 1 2 3 4 5 6 Lozenges Laptop Red Bull Dresses Roger Vivier heels “Tutor Queen” advertisement I go through at least I hook this up to a I know it’s a lot, but I often look Some girls that five boxes of 24 projector during I have more than through maga- I teach will ask, Every three lozenges a month. sessions and teach 10 of these a day. zines to see what “Where did you get months, my com- Talking as much using PowerPoint Coffee doesn’t work the students like your shoes?” The pany books a stu- as we do, all tutors slides. I also use anymore. Before to wear. Especially shoes are some- dio and stylists, lose their voices. it to occasionally we get famous, we when we shoot times too expen- and we make these Being in the class- update the center’s have to spend a advertisements, sive for them to fliers to recruit room is like being Facebook page. lot of time study- I want to wear buy, but I use them students. During on a talk show. I It has thousands ing the exam something that as motivational my first photo have to be engag- of followers, and ourselves while lets me stand out tools to get them to shoot, it took ing. If the students it’s one of the main preparing our from the crowd. study. I tell the girls probably about find me boring, ways we tutors materials. For two Every teacher has that if they work 100 takes to get a they won’t come communicate with years, I just slept a particular image; harder, then they good one. Now I’m back next month. students. three hours a night. mine is very girly. can get their own. more used to it. 16 MAY | JUNE 2016 Photographs by PHILIPP ENGELHORN / REDUX PICTURES

the things they carried SIGHTLINES interview by CHRISTY CHOI 6 5 8 KELLY MOK’S FACE graces magazines, bill- 7 boards, and bus decals throughout Hong 10 Kong. She makes more than $128,000 annually. She owns two luxury cars and 9 wears shoes that cost a third of Hong Kong’s average monthly salary. The 30-year-old is 7 8 9 10 living the high life—all because she helps teenagers pass exams. Pens Microphone Textbook Car keys Mok is among Hong Kong’s “tutor kings The students For the biggest I literally wrote I usually drive the and queens,” a class of local celebrity forged have seen my classes we actually the book myself. Mercedes-Benz, in the frenzy surrounding high-stakes stan- photo in maga- connect multiple It’s exam-oriented, which I bought dardized tests that determine students’ zines, online, or rooms together. so it’s all about last year. I also college eligibility. Cultural expectations of around town and The class can have test-taking skills have a BMW—I academic achievement, as well as legions of often want auto- over 200 students, and tricks. It tells got that one about affluent families, have made private tutor- graphs, so I carry and you have to you the most com- two years ago. ing big business—to the tune of $132 million a marker all the make sure every- monly asked ques- These cars are as in 2014 alone. Over 85 percent of high school time. I sign leaflets one can hear. tions and how fancy as I’ll get, seniors receive private supplementary edu- for them. They’ll During the summer, best to answer. I’ve though. Anything cation, often at one of about 900 tutoring come up after when it’s peak studied the exams nicer would be centers that promise to teach students the class and ask to season, I can spend for years and know too much for me; tricks they need to make the grade. take photographs six days a week what the examin- I’d be worried together too. inside these rooms. ers are looking for. I’d crash it. Mok works for one of the most popular centers, King’s Glory Education, and has made a name for herself by catering to elite students hoping to ace their way into the Ivy League or Oxbridge. Every year, she says, over 80 percent of her students pass an English-language exam; dozens go on to top universities. Mok is also attractive— slim build, bright smile, doe eyes—which for King’s Glory is a big advantage in the competitive world of student recruitment. “[The students] ask whether I’m single or married. I don’t tell them, of course,” she says. “It’s like how some celebrities don’t answer because it affects the number of fans they have.” Her services are expensive—a 30-hour course costs $3,600—and Mok admits that she’s paid merely to teach to the test. Yet she takes her work seriously, and her fame too. “We need to have a good image,” Mok told FOREIGN POLICY in January. “A lot of students see tutors as their idols.” FOREIGNPOLICY.COM 17

decoder by JOSHUA HUNT Selected North Korean ship activity at port and sea SHIP TYPE REGISTERED OWNER Korea Yujong Shipping Co. Ltd. OIL CHEMICAL LENGTH 70.3 meters LIVESTOCK FISH Yujong 1 BUILT 1984 DRY GOODS Yujong 2 Yujong 3 REGISTERED OWNER Theresa Begonia Korea Yujong Shipping Co. Ltd. LENGTH 63 meters CURRENT FLAG BUILT 1986 DEMOCRATIC PEOPLE’S REGISTERED OWNER REPUBLIC OF KOREA China Dandong Xianghe TUVALU LENGTH 80.7 meters North Korea’s 1. Oil and Chemical: BUILT 1975 Maritime Industry U.N. sanctions exclude oil imports; REGISTERED OWNER ON FEB. 28, the cargo freighter Jin Teng, fly- Pyongyang’s 17 known Elena Shipping Co. Pte. Ltd. ing the flag of Sierra Leone, arrived in the vessels collect much Philippines. It was using what’s known as of the country’s crude LENGTH 110.5 meters a “flag of convenience”—to subvert regula- from Russia, the Middle tions or fees, shipping companies often reg- East, and South Asia. BUILT 1994 ister vessels in foreign states. In this case, But the country still the device was meant to obscure the fact manages to flout the DAY that the Jin Teng was, in fact, a ship hail- law. In March 2014, ing from North Korea, a country recently Libya’s navy chased REGISTERED OWNER in hot water for testing nuclear devices a North Korean tanker Al Jabri Trading Est. and conventional missiles. The ruse was out of the port of Sidra, undone days later when the boat’s name where it had loaded LENGTH 100.8 meters turned up on a U.N. Security Council list $24 million worth of sanctioning 31 North Korean vessels. About illicit oil purchased from Al Iman BUILT 1978 a week after, another North Korean ship, the armed separatists. Bassant Theresa Begonia, was detained at a different Paek Sa Bong REGISTERED OWNER Philippine port, flying the flag of Tuvalu. 2. Fish and Livestock: Al Jehani Shipping & Sons Est. ¶ The two boats were the first to be held North Korea’s three after the latest wave of U.N. sanctions, but known livestock LENGTH 66 meters Pyongyang has a long history of skirting carriers travel abroad international law. For decades, merchant for months at a BUILT 1964 ships have helped the isolated state gener- time. Meanwhile, the ate much-needed hard currency through the country’s fishing REGISTERED OWNER illegal trafficking of drugs, arms, and coun- vessels troll the waters Chungjin Fishery Station terfeit currency. In 2003, for instance, a for- around the Korean mer North Korean missile scientist told the Peninsula. In the last LENGTH 90 meters U.S. Senate that a single ferry transported three months of 2015, most of the parts needed for Kim Jong-il’s more than a dozen BUILT 1984 rogue missile program. The country also small North Korean relies on its fleet of more than 200 known fishing vessels washed REGISTERED OWNER merchant vessels to transport oil from ashore in Japan—filled Hong Kong BonVoyage Shipping Russia, livestock from Sudan, and palm with corpses. Whether oil from Malaysia. It is buoyant trade with they were unlucky LENGTH 97 meters China that most busies the fleet, but that fisherman or defectors, could become idle if North Korea’s chief as some have surmised, Xin Sheng Gang BUILT 2009 ally follows through on an early April prom- remains uncertain. ise to ban crucial imports and exports. REGISTERED OWNER 3. Dry Goods: Golden Soar Development Co. Ltd. North Korea’s cargo ships transport every- LENGTH 105.5 meters thing from food to AK47s. But they also Jin Teng BUILT 1997 carry tons of illicit gold, as well as coal exports REGISTERED OWNER worth about $1 billion Orang Shipping Co. Ltd. each year, the U.S. Treasury estimates. LENGTH 131 meters O Rang BUILT 1988 REGISTERED OWNER Kumrung Trading Co. Ltd. LENGTH 82.9 meters Kang Nam 1 BUILT 1989 NOTE: THE DATA SHOWN ABOVE ARE NOT COMPREHENSIVE OF EACH SHIP’S MOVEMENT OVER A 180 DAY PERIOD. SOURCES: THOMSON REUTERS, VESSELTRACKER, AND SEAWEB 18 MAY | JUNE 2016

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visual statement “Daesh is engaged in a destructive frenzy. Through decapitations and massacres, it annihilates people who don’t embrace its vision of Islam. It also sacks antiqui- ties: the splendors of the Middle East, traces of lost civilizations, and imprints of our ancestors. Daesh is spreading terror as the Nazis once did when they mur- dered en masse, pillaged Europe, and burned art they deemed immoral or decadent. Faced with this barbarism, we feel powerless. As an artist, I am anxious that proof of the past is disappearing, snatched away from future generations. Daesh is imposing a form of cultural Alzheimer’s on the world, clouding collective memory and national identity with the smoke of ruined lives and communities—and leaving behind only ashes.” THE ARTIST 20 MAY | JUNE 2016

SIGHTLINES

innovations by NEEL V. PATEL Hot on the Trail Of Mice and EVERY YEAR, Switzerland neural network that mim- A new drone uses Magnets responds to about 1,000 back- ics the human brain—that smart software country search-and-rescue allows the drone to process to find missing For centuries, the only way to (SAR) emergencies—hikers and recall visual experiences. persons in dense study the brain was post- injured in falls, thrill-seekers By having the robot digest forests and moun- mortem dissection or, worse, who’ve gone missing, camp- about 20,000 images of trails tainous areas. lobotomies that often resulted ers stranded by rock slides in the Alps, the researchers in living patients suffering brain or floods. Currently, the nor- trained it to recognize signs ILLUSTRATION: ALEX KUEHNE; PHOTO COURTESY UZH; USI; SUPSI damage. Thankfully, neurosci- mal way to find people is of both official and man- ence has progressed rapidly— to dispatch human teams, made paths—say, beaten dirt and humanely—in recent years, sometimes into dangerous or softened grass—as well so deciphering the brain’s mys- parts of the Alps. This work as their trajectories. In prac- teries doesn’t require so much is time-consuming; about tical terms, this means the slicing and dicing. Now scientists 10,000 manpower hours are drone, which has two cam- at the University of Virginia are expended annually in Swit- era lenses, can spot and then throwing decidedly blunt instru- zerland alone. Emergencies autonomously steer itself ments into the mix: magnets. in other trekkers’ paradises, along routes that missing They developed a synthetic gene such as Nepal and Peru, people may have followed or that links the neuronal activity only add to the global total. even blazed themselves. The of dopamine, which creates plea- research team found that surable feelings, to the brain’s Now, elevating opera- the device has an 85 percent mediation of iron. They then tions off the ground, a team accuracy rate in identify- spliced the gene into six mice of Swiss researchers has ing trails—3 percent higher and exposed the animals to developed an SAR drone. than humans trying to do the magnets—causing them to be Aerial missions offer several same on foot. hit with a whoosh of dopamine- obvious benefits: Drones induced happy vibes. are relatively cheap these The next phase is teach- days, several can be released ing the drone—still a pro- Remote magnetic manipu- simultaneously to scan dif- totype—to recognize faces. lation could revolutionize treat- ferent areas in short order, With different software (not ments for neurological diseases. and they don’t place human yet developed), the device Doctors could one day control responders in harm’s way. could learn to distinguish misfiring neurons that cause The newly developed device, human features in images, Parkinson’s, schizophrenia, and however, isn’t like the run- alert responders to individ- other diseases, reducing or elim- of-the-mill drones saturating uals’ precise locations, and inating their effects. Thanks to the commercial market. In possibly even describe what the “Magneto” gene, as its inven- fact, it may be smarter than condition they are in. The tors call it, the brain may soon the average human. drone, in other words, will be more scrutable than ever. be able to do all the search- The machine’s navigation ing in emergencies. Humans software relies on a specially will only have to swoop in designed algorithm—sup- for the rescue. ported by a “deep learning” 22 MAY | JUNE 2016

SIGHTLINES 110 MILLION To Catch a Killer Common Sense That’s how many U.S. MOST HIV TESTS don’t actu- adults were hacked from ally check for the virus that The quest for artificial intelligence (AI) isn’t just about May 2013 to May 2014. causes AIDS. Rather, assays building computers that think like people do. Smart Each Internet-connected search blood samples for anti- machines need to be able to see, hear, smell, taste, and device a person owns bodies that humans produce feel—incredibly complex processes through which uses a different firewall, to fight the pathogen. Partic- humans absorb and distill external data. This win- putting all at risk if one ularly in the early phases of ter, researchers at the Institute of Neuroinformatics is compromised. So Har- infection, the immune sys- in Zurich ventured into this new frontier when they vard and MIT researchers tem may not respond strongly unveiled a silicon cochlea. The device is a very un-hu- have developed “Sieve,” enough for a test to get a pos- manlike block of circuit boards and buttons attached an app to store data itive result. In fact, the U.S. to a pair of microphones. The mics function like ears, in a single, personalized Department of Health and detecting sound across thousands of frequencies. chunk of the cloud. Human Services advises, Audio captured by the cochlea is run through ana- “[I]f you get a negative result lytical software to identify its source; by measuring within three months of your how fast sound waves hit the mics, the software can most recent possible exposure, also estimate the precise distance of their origin. Con- you need to get tested again at veniently, the cochlea requires only 55 microwatts of the three-month mark.” Other power (basically, a pair of AA batteries). The research- disease screenings, including ers’ long-term goal is to create a multimodal sensory ones for hepatitis and various system—they’ve also built an artificial retina—that cancers, are stymied by similar would allow AI to experience the world in all its col- problems. orful, noisy, smelly, tasty, and palpable glory. Early detection, however, just took a big leap forward. Stanford University research- ers have developed a method of identifying antibodies by tagging them with short DNA strands. In lab analyses, these tags show up in far greater numbers than do proteins, which most existing tests use, making the antibodies much easier to identify. The research- ers used their method in thy- roid-cancer screenings and found that it outperformed conventional detections by as much as 10,000 times. The team is now developing tests for diabetes and HIV, which could help doctors spot some of the world’s most intractable diseases before they’re able to do their deadly work. FOREIGNPOLICY.COM 23

the exchange Are journalists checking their privilege when covering refugees? For all the connectivity enveloping the world, how well do humans really know one another? That question is at the heart of photographer TOBIAS ZIELONY’s project The Citizen. Exhibited at the 2015 Venice Biennale, the series captured the challenges that activist-refugees from Africa face while living in Germany. Writer ANNA BADKHEN examines similar themes in her work. She has embedded with nomadic herders in Mali, carpet weavers in Afghanistan, and fishermen in Senegal— experiences that have shaped her perspective on community, displacement, and empathy. Badkhen, from the capital of Senegal, and Zielony, from Berlin, recently connected on the phone to discuss who lives on global society’s fringes (hint: maybe not the poor) and how to avoid creating journalism that’s merely background noise. TOBIAS ZIELONY: Over the last five, six years, there has TOBIAS ZIELONY PHOTOS: COURTESY TOBIAS ZIELONY LEFT ; KAEL ALFORD RIGHT been a very strong political movement of refugees liv- ing in Germany, fighting for their rights to study and be deported; in this very insecure situation, work and actually to move within the country. These they would be going to demonstrations. activists in The Citizen were leaving this passive, victim- They were using all the experiences they like position they were put in, and they became pro- had brought from political struggles else- active; they finally had a voice in the public and a where, in Italy or in their home countries, face. Something that really struck me before making to Germany. ANNA BADKHEN: This is what this project was when I talked to an African refugee- an artist’s or a storyteller’s path really is: activist from the group Lampedusa in Hamburg, whose to challenge the notion of seeing what a members relocated from the Italian island and now migrant is, or what the story is. Otherwise want permanent residence in Germany. He said: we’re creating wallpaper, we’re creating ele- “Everybody’s talking about the Mediterranean and vator music. A huge chunk of humanity is the dangerous and traumatic journey over the sea. But on the move. And I think that what we are for us, we would be happy if people talked more about compartmentalizing is that today migra- the situation that we have here in Europe and in Ger- tion is our common story—and historically many, and also the situations in our home countries.” migration is the common story, of course. So I thought there would be something for me to do, We’re still all immigrants wherever we live, to work in Germany and look at the situation here and except perhaps the people who still live in also try to find ways to connect it with the situations the Horn of Africa. These assumptions or in the countries the people came from, which, in this case, were African countries. At the time, it was really, really hard and frustrating for them to be in Germany. I think the policy of the government was basically to make refugees’ lives hell, so they would leave on their own. So I was amazed by the bravery of these activists. Anytime the police knocked on their door, they could 24 MAY | JUNE 2016

SIGHTLINES wealthy parts of the world are not curi- AB: I grew up in Leningrad, USSR, and I ous. In a way, The Citizen is not just offer- ing a pinhole into another way of being in have worked and lived in the Global South the world; you’re also holding up a mirror prejudices, I think, are important to con- to how we’re seeing the world. The other for most of my life. So in a way I could say front within us and within our audience on assumption is among people in the Global a daily basis. In talking about the bravery South, that the Global North is absolutely that while I’m not an outsider by birth, I of activists—when somebody, readers or disinterested in their lives. And to a large viewers, would imagine they’d be hiding extent, it is true. The Global North is not am the “other,” but I think that none of us in their apartments, hiding from perse- really interested in how most of the world cution—that’s already a challenge to the lives. But by reaching out to African news- really has to be an outsider because we are popular assumption. papers, you are challenging the assump- tion of the intellectuals in Africa. They’re in a constant process of reassessing and TZ: The idea that I actually had with the saying, “Oh, well. Here is actually a West- project was to turn around, let’s say, more ern journalist who wants to reach out,” so self-challenging, doing a kind of incessant traditional ideas of Western journalism— you’re crossing the other way, which I think reverse that direction and work with news- is tremendously important. interrogation. It’s a continuous plotting of papers in Africa and with African writers. Basically, I would photograph refugees here ANNA BADKHEN our prejudices: What is the “other”? We’ve in Germany and then publish the pictures in Sudan or Ghana or Cameroon, and so on. been using words in this conversation like African journalists were often surprised when I approached them with that idea; “edges of society.” What do we mean by it was kind of unusual to say to someone in Cameroon, “Look, I have these pictures “society” if most of the world lives on the here of these activists in Germany. Are you interested in publishing them?” I don’t edge? Perhaps we have to challenge our think this happens so often. And a lot of the writers, actually, would link the stories notion of what “edge” is and what “soci- of refugees in Europe with refugees within Africa, within their own countries. When ety” is. And we have to be a little bit honest they talk about refugees, they’re mostly thinking about refugees within Africa. with ourselves and say, “Well, we’re talking And this is something we forget quite a lot. Some Africans say, “The people who about the wealthy” or, “We’re talking about actually make it here [Germany] are pretty privileged.” They say, “Yeah, what are they the privileged as society, and we’re talking complaining about? They’ve made it to Europe.” But obviously there’s also a lack about the poor and the non-privileged as of knowledge and information about what it means to come here and what the situa- the edge,” and then challenge that and ask tion actually is for people who’ve made it here. AB: I think that your work challenges ourselves why. This is a very difficult task two assumptions: One is that assumption of the Western media that our audience because it’s uncomfortable. TZ: It’s diffi- is in the West, and that people in the less cult, especially as a photographer. Obvi- ously, I’d like to think that there is no “us” and “them,” or no center and no periphery. And I hope that somehow in my work I can break down these boundaries, at least for a glimpse or for a little moment. But obvi- ously we have to acknowledge the inequal- ities that exist. I don’t think it makes sense to just ignore those facts. But on a personal level and working with people, I try to over- come this notion of the “other.” I would say there is something that is almost contra- dictory in my work—both a strong feeling of intimacy or empathy and this feeling of distance. Q This conversation has been condensed for publication. Go to FOREIGNPOLICY.com to read the extended version, or listen to the discussion by subscribing to FP’s Global Thinkers podcast on iTunes. FOREIGNPOLICY.COM 25

How will you change the world? A CENTURY OF SERVICE Since its founding in 1919, SFS has been preparing young people to be global leaders in business, tech, development, security, and—of course —government. SFS Join the Legacy. Walsh School of Foreign Service sfs.georgetown.edu Graduate and undergraduate degrees in international affairs

the security issue AFTER TERRORISTS HIT BRUSSELS, Istanbul, and Ouagadougou in early 2016, politicians’ anxiety about protecting states peaked. Security requires obstructing borders and killing enemies, many argued: Republican presidential hopefuls stoked fears of assaults on America, while Turkey’s president promised a war against terrorism. Yet as FP’s Security Issue shows, this debate encompasses more than bellicose dogma. David Kushner reports on David Vincenzetti’s Hack- ing Team, which bags millions selling spyware to governments, and questions the difference between a state’s tool and a tyrant’s weapon. Matthew Shaer scrutinizes the private sector’s push to mine asteroids, finding that the rush for resources in space is largely unregulated. Artist Hasan Elahi argues that selfies actually create privacy by sticking fingers in Big Brother’s eyes. And Andrew Rice profiles World Bank President Jim Kim, whose philosophy that improving human health braces national stability has agitated bank veterans. Security, it turns out, contains multitudes. —THE EDITORS Photographs by HASAN ELAHI

By David Kushner FEAR VIN Illustrations by David Foldvari A IS MOG OR

TDHAIVSIMD AN CENZETTI BUILT SPYWARE EMPIRE. THE ITALIAN UL A CODE BREAKER AN ARMS DEALER?

AS THE SUN ROSE OVER THE BANKS OF THE SEINE AND THE MEDIEVAL, HALF TIMBERED HOUSES OF ROUEN, FRANCE, ON JULY 13, 2012, Hisham Almiraat opened his inbox to find “Denunciation” in the subject line of an email. “Please do not mention my name or anything,” wrote the sender, Imane. “I do not want any trouble.” The editor and co-founder of Mamfak- inch, a pro-democracy website created in Morocco during the Arab Spring, Almiraat was one of his country’s most outspoken dissidents and someone accustomed to cryptic emails: Moroccan activists faced jail time for their views and risked their jobs, or even their lives, for speaking out against their government. From Norman- dy’s capital city, where Almiraat was in medical school, the bespectacled 36-year- old spent his time—in between classes and hospital shifts—mentoring, coaching, and editing more than 40 citizen journal- ists. The group covered the roiling unrest back in Almiraat’s homeland, where he RORISTS. BUT THERE, ON MARQUIS would soon return after completing his studies. (Almiraat contributed to FOR- EIGN POLICY in 2011.) Almiraat and his colleagues also trained Mamfakinch’s writers to use encryption software, most notably the Onion Router, so that their online activities remained anonymous and shielded. Tor, as it’s widely known, masks a user’s identity and physical location. “People were relying on us to protect their…reputations, their careers, and probably also their freedoms,” Almiraat says. “All of that could be put in jeopardy if that were made public.” It was precisely this forethought that had earned Mamfakinch the Breaking Borders Award, sponsored by Google and the citizen-me- dia group Global Voices, for its efforts “to defend and promote freedom of speech rights on the Internet.” But on that July morning, just 11 days after receiving the award, Almiraat read the message from Imane and knew “some- thing wasn’t right.” A website link directed him to a document labeled “Scandal,” 30 MAY | JUNE 2016

which, once downloaded, was blank. and notorious dealer in online spycraft: His associates received the same note. the Hacking Team. Suspicious, Almiraat promptly for- The Blackwater of surveillance, the warded the email to an activist he knew, Hacking Team is among the world’s few who then sent it to Morgan Marquis-Boire, dozen private contractors feeding a clan- a dreadlocked, tattooed 32-year-old digital destine, multibillion-dollar industry that activist who’d grown up hacking in New arms the world’s law enforcement and Zealand under the nickname “Mayhem.” intelligence agencies with spyware. Com- A top security researcher at Google, Mar- prised of around 40 engineers and sales- quis-Boire had made waves recently as a people who peddle its goods to more than volunteer detective for Citizen Lab, a tech- 40 nations, the Hacking Team epitomizes nology research and human rights group at what Reporters Without Borders, the inter- the University of Toronto; he and several national anti-censorship group, dubs the colleagues had found evidence that sug- “era of digital mercenaries.” gested Bahrain was using surveillance soft- ware—a product intended for government The Italian company’s tools—“the hack- spying on suspected criminals—against ing suite for governmental interception,” supporters of political reform. its website claims—are marketed for fight- ing criminals and terrorists. But there, on After a month-long analysis of the Scan- Marquis-Boire’s computer screen, was dal file, Marquis-Boire contacted Almiraat chilling proof that the Hacking Team’s with disturbing news: Anyone who had software was also being used against dissi- opened the document had been infected dents. It was just the latest example of what BOIRE’S COMPUTER SCREEN WAS PROOF THAT THE HACKING TEAM WAS EQUIPPING A REPRESSIVE REGIME. with highly sophisticated spyware, which Marquis-Boire saw as a worrying trend: had been sent from an Internet protocol corrupt regimes using surveillance compa- address in Morocco’s capital of Rabat. Fur- nies’ wares for anti-democratic purposes. ther research comfirmed that the Supreme Council of National Defense, which ran When Citizen Lab published its find- Morocco’s security agencies, was behind ings in the October 2012 report “Backdoors the attack. Almiraat and his colleagues had are Forever: Hacking Team and the Tar- essentially handed government spies the geting of Dissent?,” the group also docu- keys to their devices, rendering Tor, or any mented traces of the company’s spyware other encryption software, useless. Moroc- in a document sent to Ahmed Mansoor, a co’s spooks could read the Mamfakinch pro-democracy activist in the United Arab team’s emails, steal their passwords, log Emirates. Privacy advocates and human their keystrokes, turn on their webcams rights organizations were alarmed. “By and microphones—and spies likely had fueling and legitimizing this global trade, been doing exactly those things and more we are creating a Pandora’s box,” Christo- since the intrusion in July. pher Soghoian, the principal technologist with the American Civil Liberties Union’s That wasn’t all. Marquis-Boire and other Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project, experts found “a trail of bread crumbs told Bloomberg. from a surveillance company that, you’d think, would have left no bread crumbs, The Hacking Team, however, showed no let alone a trail,” he recalls. Tucked in the signs of standing down. “Frankly, the evi- source code of the Scandal document, a dence that the Citizen Lab report presents few small lines had been left behind in in this case doesn’t suggest anything inap- error. And they were the first fragments propriately done by us,” company spokes- that ultimately led to the most powerful man Eric Rabe told the Globe and Mail. As media and activists speculated about FOREIGNPOLICY.COM 31

which countries the Italian firm served, the media platforms, instant-messenger pro- founder and CEO of the Hacking Team, grams, video-conferencing software—that David Vincenzetti—from his sleek, white they could use to plot. Police, who lacked office inside an unsuspecting residential in-house computer-security teams at the building in Milan—took the bad press in time, were not equipped to fight back. And stride. He joked with his colleagues in a pri- private contractors typically specialized in vate email that he was responsible for the defensive technology, such as anti-virus “evilest technology” in the world. software, not programs that could attack and decrypt criminals’ tools. A tall, lean 48-year-old Italian with a taste for expensive steak and designer For Vincenzetti, the tragedy was a busi- suits, Vincenzetti has transformed him- ness opportunity. With only one client so self over the past decade from an under- far—Milan’s Polizia Postale, the local law ground hacker working out of a win- enforcement branch that focuses on Inter- dowless basement into a mogul worth net crime—the budding entrepreneur set millions. He is nothing if not militant out to convince Spain’s government just about what he defines as justice: Julian how crucial his spyware could be in the Assange, the embattled founder of fight against terrorism. WikiLeaks, is “a criminal who by all means should be arrested, expatriated to the The son of a teacher and agricultural United States, and judged there”; whis- chemicals salesman, Vincenzetti was a self- tleblower Chelsea Manning is “another taught hacker, seduced by cryptography lunatic”; Edward Snowden “should go to at the age of 14. The teenager spent hours jail, absolutely.” reading computer forums online. Deci- phering codes reminded him of the chess “Privacy is very important,” Vincen- tournaments in which he often competed: zetti says on a recent February morning a complex series of offensive and defensive in Milan, pausing to sip his espresso. “But moves until the shrewdest player won. “A national security is much more important.” hacker is someone who passes through gaps. A hacker never breaks the front door,” Vincenzetti’s position has come Vincenzetti says. “I was a hacker,” he adds. at a high cost. Disturbing incidents “A good hacker.” have been left in his wake: a spy’s sui- cide, dissidents’ arrests, and countless Shortly after Vincenzetti enrolled at human rights abuses. “If I had known the University of Milano-Bicocca in 1993, USINESSES AND GOVERNMENTS AGAINST HACKERS. BUT, HE WONDERED, WHAT WOULD HAPPEN IF HACKERS how crazy and dangerous he is,” Guido the school hired him as a network and Landi, a former employee, says, “I would security administrator, a job for which never have joined the Hacking Team.” he should have qualified only after he received his degree. “He was very well ON MARCH 11, 2004, four commuter trains known,” recalls former classmate Stefano cruising through Madrid’s early-morning Zanero, now an associate professor at the rush hour were hit by 10 large explosions. university. “He was one [of the] geeks that The bombings, which left nearly 200 peo- were beginning to understand how the ple dead and 1,800 injured, marked the Internet worked.” deadliest terrorist attack in Spain’s his- tory. The incident was all the more fright- Vincenzetti saw the nascent techno- ening because the perpetrators likely were logical landscape as requiring a new kind inspired by reading about al Qaeda online, of gamesmanship. The security industry and they had at their disposal an arsenal was dominated by companies focused on of new, cheap digital technologies—social defending businesses and governments against hackers. But, he wondered, what 32 MAY | JUNE 2016

would happen if hackers were instead “It was very exciting to be part of this.” Though the Hacking Team does not unleashed as a mode of security? “I was For potential clients, Vincenzetti crafted track how clients use RCS after a sale, Vin- trying to foresee the future,” he says. cenzetti says he does monitor the media an elevator pitch, boasting RCS’s security to ensure clients do not commit crimes. Between 2003 and 2004, Vincenzetti features: To guarantee anonymity, cus- “Should questions be raised about the pos- and two college friends worked in their tomers would only use code names when sible abuse of HT software in human rights dank, underground apartment and coded calling the Hacking Team’s product-sup- cases,” the company states in its customer what would become the Hacking Team’s port line, and the company’s crew would policy, “HT will investigate to determine flagship software. Called the Remote Con- not have access to clients’ collected data. the facts to the extent possible. If we believe trol System (RCS), it commandeers a tar- “It would be very dangerous for the people one of our customers may be involved in get’s devices without detection, allowing working here,” he says now. an abuse of HT software, we will contact a government to deploy malware against the customer as part of this investigation. known enemies. (The product was later At Vincenzetti’s start-up, days burned Based on the results of such an investiga- dubbed Da Vinci, then Galileo.) Think of by as employees coded. Then, a few tion, HT will take appropriate action.” (By it as a criminal dossier: A tab marked “Tar- months after the terrorist attack in Madrid, way of example, Vincenzetti tells me he gets” calls up a profile photo, which a spy Vincenzetti’s pitch landed. Spain’s Secret severed his contract with Russia in 2014, must snap surreptitiously using the camera Service became the Hacking Team’s sec- before the invasion of Crimea, after read- inside the subject’s hacked device. Beside ond customer. With his newest deal sealed, ing reports about corruption, murder, and the picture, a menu of technologies (lap- Vincenzetti remembers thinking to him- other news of what, he says, “Russia was top, phone, tablet, etc.) offers an agent the self, “‘Hey, David, this company is going becoming.”) ability to scroll through the person’s data, to have a future.’” including email, Facebook, Skype, online According to Vincenzetti, China, Nige- aliases, contacts, favorite websites, and IN VINCENZETTI’S MIND, RCS wasn’t a sinister ria, Pakistan, and Iraq, to name a few geographical location. Over time, the soft- technology; however, its dual-use poten- repressive states, have requested the Hack- ware enables government spooks to build tial—for both peaceful and military appli- ing Team’s services. He has had “countless a deep, sprawling portfolio of intelligence. cations—was not lost on the businessman. chances” to sell to them, he says, but he has “We were very quick to understand the declined every time. Even still, he admits Installing RCS isn’t always easy. Spies power of a tool like ours,” he says. Exist- vetting has been an imperfect process. In must get it into technology quickly and ing international arms regulations did 2011, Sudan—the president of which the secretly—say, in the seconds a phone not cover spyware, so Vincenzetti and his International Criminal Court had indicted passes through security at a border check- colleagues were responsible for gauging on genocide charges—came calling. The point. Moreover, each device a target uses the ways clients might use the company’s following year, the country’s National Intel- must be infected separately. Yet there are products. His employees, he says, never ligence and Security Service paid 960,000 myriad options for delivery: a USB, DVD, took this lightly. WERE INSTEAD UNLEASHED AS A MODE OF SECURITY? “I WAS TRYING TO FORESEE THE FUTURE,” HE SAYS. public Wi-Fi network, or even a QR code The Hacking Team’s existing customer euros (around $1.3 million) for RCS. disguised as something enticing (such as policy—posted on its website one year after Vincenzetti says his life had become an ad for an escort service). Citizen Lab exposed the Italian firm—vows to sell only to governments, not to corpora- exceedingly busy at that point. It wasn’t In the early days, Vincenzetti framed tions or individuals. (Vincenzetti says the uncommon for him to think that a month the Hacking Team as important defend- company declines frequent requests from had passed when it had been only a week. ers of international security—a mod- people who want to spy on their spouses.) He awoke regularly at 3 a.m. to exercise— ern-day Justice League dreaming up Yet it will not, under any circumstances, whether that day he was meeting with the technology that governments could use sell to a country blacklisted by the United FBI in Washington, negotiating a seven-fig- to protect their citizens. Alberto Pellicci- States, European Union, United Nations, ure deal in South Korea, helping cops infil- one, the lead developer of RCS for mobile NATO, or the Association of Southeast trate cartels in Mexico, or working from his devices and a former artificial-intelli- Asian Nations. To help Vincenzetti review Milan office—and then spent the rest of gence researcher, was among those who clients in advance of sales, he says he hired his waking hours in a nonstop whirlwind eagerly joined Vincenzetti’s cause. “This Bird & Bird, an international law firm head- of deal-making and coding. was supposed to be used against terror- quartered in London. ists and criminals,” Pelliccione explains. By 2013, Vincenzetti counted around 40 governments, including the United States, FOREIGNPOLICY.COM 33

among his clients, each of which spent wore white plastic masks with wide smiles, Darfur conflict is of interest to the Panel.” between $50,000 to over $2 million a year rosy cheeks, and Van Dykes—the guise of Last December, the panel presented the for the Hacking Team’s software. In August Anonymous, the international collective 2012, the Drug Enforcement Administra- of activists and hackers. U.N. Security Council with a report accus- tion (DEA) sunk $2.4 million into RCS in ing the Hacking Team of failing to coop- order to spy on 17 “foreign-based drug traf- According to Vincenzetti, who was in erate with its inquiry, saying “it found it fickers and money launderers,” accord- Rome at the time, the intruders stole what- difficult obtaining accurate information” ing to its contract, which the government ever they could grab—papers, notes, per- from the firm. The Hacking Team “cer- agency released to the website Mother- sonal items—while filming their invasion, tainly obstructed the work with the panel board this February. which they later posted online. “It was a by consistently and deliberately failing to full assault,” he says. (No one was injured.) provide the specific information at its dis- Vincenzetti was jet-setting around the Three days later, when the CEO returned posal as requested by the panel,” accord- world, entertaining international digni- to Milan, he got into his gray Smart car to ing to an unpublished U.N. report leaked taries, and sharing his company’s wealth find its battery exposed and the fuel cap to FOREIGN POLICY’s senior diplomatic AND THE FUEL CAP MISSING. “IT WAS A WARNING,” HE INSISTS. VINCENZETTI’S RISE HAD NOT COME WITHOUT with his trusted team. The Hacking Team missing. “It was a warning,” he insists. reporter Colum Lynch in April. The U.N. did not publicly disclose its earnings, Vincenzetti’s rise had not come without has not taken any action against the Hack- but “when I wanted more money,” Landi, a growing opposition, wishing and work- ing Team. Vincenzetti, though, says he a former employee, recalls, “he always ing for his fall. ended the company’s contract with Khar- said OK.” toum in November 2014. In June 2014, the Hacking Team received In the wake of Citizen Lab’s explosive a fax from the U.N.’s Security Council Com- Looking back, Vincenzetti claims that report in October 2012, some members mittee, referencing another Citizen Lab had he been more informed about Sudan, of Vincenzetti’s staff began questioning report released earlier that year. Inter- he “would have never sold to them.” But whether the “people we are selling to are national sanctions prohibited the sale of he will not say he regrets the deal. “We using [the software] in the right way, within “arms...including military equipment,” didn’t break any law,” he goes on, non- the boundaries of law or not,” explains Pel- wrote Lipika Majumdar Roy Choudhury, plussed about the experience. “It just liccione. The RCS developer was not part coordinator of the U.N.’s panel of experts happened.” In other words, the com- of Vincenzetti’s customer-review process. on Sudan. The company’s dealings with pany made an error in judgment—nothing But when Pelliccione posed this query to that country may have constituted a vio- more. But even that wouldn’t be tolerated his superiors, he says he was reassured that lation of this ban. for much longer. “they were checking everyone to make sure there were no abuses.” Vincenzetti’s team pushed back. ITALY IMPLEMENTED THE Wassenaar Arrange- Alessandra Tarissi De Jacobis, a lawyer ment, a multinational pact that controls the OUTSIDE CRITICS WERE anything but san- from Cocuzza & Associati Studio Legale export of dual-use goods, on Jan. 1, 2015. guine. The company’s notoriety grew, who advised Vincenzetti on the mat- The arrangement, originally created in particularly among privacy advocates. ter, informed him in an email that sell- 1996, had been amended to include sur- In March 2013, Reporters Without Bor- ing RCS to Sudan was akin to hawking veillance software, which meant the Italian ders included Vincenzetti’s operation it Tortas de Milanesa. “If one sells sand- government would now vet the Hacking in its annual “Enemies of the Internet” wiches to Sudan, he is not subject, as far Team’s clients. After previous run-ins over report, warning that online surveillance as my knowledge goes, to the law,” she what he calls his “inefficient” informa- posed “a growing danger for journalists, wrote. “HT should be treated like a sand- tion on customers, Vincenzetti considered bloggers, citizen-journalists, and human wich vendor.” The U.N. had a different the Wassenaar a relief. “Now they tell me rights defenders.” That autumn, about 20 opinion: “The view of the panel is that as exactly what is allowed and what is not activists stormed their way past the Hack- such software is ideally suited to support allowed,” he explains, “and I’m very happy ing Team’s frosted glass door in Milan. military electronic intelligence (ELINT) about that.” One protester shouted through a micro- operations it may potentially fall under phone, while others waved fliers with slo- the category of ‘military…equipment’ or Behind the scenes, however, Vincen- gans like, “United We Stand” and “#Stop ‘assistance’ related to prohibited items,” zetti had attempted to work around the Watching Us.” Many of the demonstrators Choudhury wrote. “Thus its potential use rules before they even came into effect. in targeting any of the belligerents in the In late 2013, according to leaked emails, 34 MAY | JUNE 2016

the businessman was negotiating with the it wasn’t new information. In other words, Saudi Arabian government to sell the king- as Landi and others had already believed, dom a majority stake in the Hacking Team, Hacking Team employees were under sur- which would give the Saudis controlling veillance too. “We accepted this,” Pellicci- interests. Though Vincenzetti won’t con- one says. “They know where you are and firm or deny the talks, part of the appeal, where you go.” But Rabe, the Hacking it seems, was to set up shop beyond the Team spokesman, rebuts this claim: “No Wassenaar’s scope. “The newco should be surveillance of Hacking Team employees away from countries adhering to the new, has occurred.” forthcoming export regulations on ‘offen- sive technologies’ which will [be] dictated Angered by the rising tide against him, by the recent Wassenaar Arrangement,” and frustrated by Citizen Lab’s reports Vincenzetti wrote to his contact in Saudi condemning the Hacking Team, Vincen- zetti publicly defended his company. In A GROWING OPPOSITION, WISHING AND WORKING FOR HIS FALL. IN JUNE 2014, THE HACKING TEAM RECEIVE Arabia. “We would like the newco to be in a November 2014 letter to the Intercept, a country which will not impair the export which had published Marquis-Boire’s of our technology.” (Vincenzetti says he analysis of the Hacking Team’s tech- does not recall the correspondence or this nology, Vincenzetti dismissed his foe as particular comment.) “a tireless wolf-crier on the issue of pri- vacy as he defines it—apparently requir- The negotiations fell apart for unknown ing anyone to be allowed to do anything reasons. Vincenzetti insists only that his without fear of detection.” (In an email, company has taken an unfair beating Marquis-Boire described his reaction to about other dealings in Saudi Arabia, Vincenzetti’s words as one of “amuse- which Citizen Lab disclosed in its 2014 ment?”.) Reporter Brian Donohue fired report. “We have clients in Saudi Arabia,” off a response on the security blog Threat he says. “Is Saudi Arabia a democracy? Post, which read, “Interestingly, Vincen- No, it’s a kingdom. You can approve or zetti does not directly say in his letter not approve this. I am not the judge of that his company does not sell products this. Still, there is something which is very to despots.” clear: There is al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. It is very strong, very orga- Privately, Vincenzetti dialed back his nized, very active...and invariably strikes cavalier attitude. Later that November, a in Saudi. These terrorists can be fought client asked in an email whether it would over there.” He would not comment on be possible to record a Hacking Team Riyadh’s human rights record. training for later use. “Definitely NOT!!!” Vincenzetti responded. “Imagine this: a Yet the discussions with Saudi Ara- leak on WikiLeaks showing YOU explain- bia telegraphed to many Hacking Team ing the evilest technology on earth! :-) You employees that the company might be would be demonized by our dearest friends “a sinking ship,” Landi says. “They were the activists, and normal people would trying to sell the company so there was point their fingers at you.” Yet he couldn’t not much attention on making a good help but continue to savor his company’s product.” Pelliccione agrees: “The com- reputation. “Definitely, we are notorious, pany became more and more opaque,” probably the most notorious name in the he says. “I decided I don’t need to do this offensive security market,” he emailed for a living.” Daniele Milan, his operations manager in May 2015. And that, Vincenzetti added, Pelliccione quit in February 2014, fol- “is great.” lowed by Landi and others. Landi claims that when he gave notice, Vincenzetti said FOREIGNPOLICY.COM 35

ONE EARLY MORNING in July 2015, Vincen- years: “The leadership was dismissive over zetti was mid-pushup when his operations human rights and privacy, which [Vincen- manager called his cell phone. “We’ve been zetti] saw as negative to their business attacked,” Vincenzetti recalls Milan saying. interests.” Marquis-Boire was also sur- prised to find surveillance photographs A hacktivist known as Phineas Fisher of himself in the Hacking Team files, taken had hijacked the Hacking Team’s official when he was giving a lecture in Italy. Twitter account and posted an ominous message: “Since we have nothing to hide, Vincenzetti saw things very differently. we’re publishing all our emails, files, and The leak potentially foiled countless hours source code.” Following the message was and millions of dollars his customers had a link to more than 400 gigabytes of the spent gathering intelligence. Dangerous tar- company’s most sensitive data. (A year gets—terrorists, murderers, and kingpins— WEBS OF SURVEILLANCE LAID BARE. THE HACKING TEAM’S TECHNOLOGY HAD BEEN RENDERED USELESS: THE prior, Phineas Fisher had attacked Hacking could learn that they were under watch and Team competitor Gamma Group, leaking slip into hiding or, worse, retaliate. 40 gigabytes of marketing and technical information on the company’s surveillance Vincenzetti says some clients told him software, FinFisher, which was then being their investigations ground to a halt; oth- used in Turkey, Oman, and elsewhere.) ers reported that they had to move in on targets early, using whatever limited evi- In the coming hours, spies around the dence they had collected. Last August, Ita- world awoke to find their webs of surveil- ly’s Chief of National Police Alessandro lance laid bare. The Hacking Team’s tech- Pansa testified at a government intelli- nology had been rendered useless: The leak gence hearing about the leak’s aftermath. had made some 80 percent of the com- “Italian law enforcement was forced to stop pany’s source code visible online, mean- its activity,” he said, “causing great dam- ing antivirus companies would soon get to ages to many critical investigations, espe- work patching fixes. “It will become dead,” cially regarding terrorism.” Vincenzetti told his staff. The code that he had built on invisibility now glowed in the Much of this government panic hap- dark. Writing in the IB Times, security ana- pened behind closed doors, but a scandal lyst John McAfee described the hack as “a in South Korea provided a rare, public por- uniquely monumental event that threat- tal into the leak’s fallout. South Korea’s main ens to bring down a well-known name in intelligence agency, the National Intelli- the mass surveillance industry.” gence Service (NIS), had been under fire since September 2014, when a Seoul court The leak exposed a trove of customer found a former intelligence chief, Won Sei- invoices confirming links to repressive hoon, guilty of using agents to post 1.2 mil- regimes, including Ethiopia, Bahrain, lion negative messages online in an effort to Egypt, Kazakhstan, Saudi Arabia, Russia, destroy the 2012 presidential campaign of an and Azerbaijan. After years of claiming opposing political party. The Hacking Team it evaluated customers, it became glar- breach fanned these flames by confirming ingly clear that the Hacking Team either that South Korea had purchased spyware, did not care about human rights abuses or which activists worried was being used to had been negligent in assessing them. As keep tabs on government opponents. Bruce Schneier, a leading security analyst, wrote on his blog shortly after the leak, the Less than two weeks after the hack, an “sleazy company…has been lying.” NIS spy—whom police identified only by the last name Lim—was found dead of car- For Marquis-Boire, the breach was val- bon monoxide poisoning in his car, which idation of what he had been arguing for was parked on a mountainside road out- 36 MAY | JUNE 2016

side Seoul. On his passenger seat, he left a In addition to the latest RCS, he has three Mamfakinch. In the months that followed three-page suicide note written on yellow new tools. He won’t discuss two of them that July day, when Almiraat first knew paper in which he took responsibility for in great detail; however, when pressed, something had gone terribly wrong, volun- buying the Hacking Team’s technology he hints at what’s to come with one of the teers, the lifeblood of his group, dwindled but vowed that it had been used only to tools, saying, “If you can get close to a Wi-Fi from 30 to five. “By showing they can vio- spy on North Korea. “It was a mistake on device, irrespective of the protection of the late the privacy of our work,” he says of the my part,” he wrote. “But there is nothing to network, we can extract a lot of information Hacking Team, “they sent a chilling effect be worried about over any of my actions.” from it.” Then, in what may be Vincenzetti’s over the whole business of online dissent.” boldest, most controversial claim to date, Subsequent reporting revealed that, in he says his company can now decrypt Tor. Morocco remains a Hacking Team cli- a closed-door meeting, the NIS admitted No longer will his clients have to bait a Tor ent. Vincenzetti says his company law- to using the spyware more than 200 times user in order to circumvent the anonymity fully engaged with a government that, he to track North Korea’s illegal arms trade, as notes in an email, “is an ally of the U.S. and LEAK HAD MADE SOME 80 PERCENT OF THE COMPANY’S SOURCE CODE VISIBLE ONLINE, MEANING ANTIVIRU well as Pyongyang’s spooks in South Korea. software—as Morocco did with the Scandal a partner in the fight against terrorism. The NIS also claimed to have arrested Chi- file it sent to Mamfakinch. Now, Vincenzetti nese drug dealers thanks to intelligence boasts, his software can “break” Tor. “I can Morocco is also an ally of most European gleaned with the technology. In response, put a box in this room which will decode all the editorial board of the English-lan- your encrypted traffic on the fly,” he tells nations, and Moroccan intelligence agen- guage JoongAng Daily wrote in support me. “Logins, passwords, locations, real user of the government’s deal with the Hack- name, real site names.... It’s black magic.” cies recently provided France with essen- ing Team. “Intelligence gathering, surveil- lance and cyber activities through hacking This kind of decryption would not tial information to locate the terrorists in techniques are necessary for a state spy only transform law enforcement, but also agency in today’s world,” the board wrote. threaten to destroy the protection that pri- Paris and in Bruxelles.” “Cyberskills and technology are crucial to vate citizens, namely political dissidents, fight North Korea and criminal groups that have come to expect online. Jeff Moss, a What lessons, if any, he takes from are getting more and more sophisticated.” security analyst and founder of the Def Con hacker conference, is dubious of Vincen- instances in which his clients have com- PHINEAS FISHER’S IDENTITY is unknown, zetti’s claim—but if true, he says, it would but Vincenzetti has said the hack was an be “a severity 10” bug that the Tor commu- mitted abuses is not clear. Perhaps he is not inside job. (Italian authorities have not yet nity would have to race to fix. brought charges against anyone.) What- concerned with learning any. “Having the ever the case may be, the attack hurt the This device, Vincenzetti insists, is in company’s bottom line. Vincenzetti says use already. He cannot say who, exactly, tools to fight terrorism in states where ter- the Hacking Team lost around 20 percent is employing it: Once he sells his tools to of its customers in the months after the agencies, he does not know which spies are rorists may operate,” he writes in his email leak, including the United States; in 2015, using them, where, or why. “I don’t even the company reported $14 million in rev- have their phone numbers most of the about Rabat, “protects innocent people enue. “I respect the clients who decide to time,” he says. “They have mine.” stop working with us,” he says. there and elsewhere.” WHILE VINCENZETTI’S TEAM touts its updated That his private emails were exposed RCS, Almiraat is still feeling the effects of These days, Vincenzetti is busy travel- does not faze him. “If you want to read it, the company’s older version. The activist is read it,” Vincenzetti says. “I don’t care. awaiting trial for “threatening the internal ing the world to recruit new customers, fol- I’m myself.” Of much more concern has security of the state,” in the words of the been fixing his company’s goods. For three Moroccan penal code, a crime that carries lowing a schedule resembling his earliest, months after the breach, the Hacking Team a five-year sentence. Four other Mamfak- rewrote its spyware from scratch into what inch contributors now face similar charges. frenetic Hacking Team days. As with his big Vincenzetti calls a “much better” product. This is just the latest fallout of Moroc- break after the Madrid attacks, he sees an co’s use of Hacking Team software against increasingly urgent demand to hack and track criminals—from San Bernardino to Paris to Brussels to Istanbul. He may have lost business in last sum- mer’s breach, but as much as the incident hit his company, it may also have hyped it; he’s gained four new contracts in the past year. So is he indebted to Phineas Fisher for forc- ing the Hacking Team to improve its wares? Vincenzetti smiles sheepishly. For him, the answer is easy. Q DAVID KUSHNER (@davidkushner) is author of Masters of Doom and Alligator Candy, and a Ferris professor of journalism at Princeton University. FOREIGNPOLICY.COM 37

HIDDEN

IN FOREIGNPOLICY.COM 39

PLAIN

SIGHT FOREIGNPOLICY.COM 41



NONCOMISSIONED OR SECONDARY CREDIT TK THE SELFIE GETS LITTLE RESPECT AS AN ART FORM. Snapping an image of one’s face with a phone held at arm’s length and sharing it with the world cer- tainly seems hollow and narcissistic. But I view the selfie differently. In the age of the War on Terror, it can be a highly political act—whether the shooter realizes it or not. ¶ Driven by fears of terrorist attacks and leaks of state secrets, the U.S. government has doubled down on surveil- lance. I know this fact well. In 2002, I was mistakenly accused of being a terrorist and investigated by the FBI. After the debacle, I decided to help the bureau out by taking pictures of my every mundane move and location: airports I transited through, food I ate, hotel beds where I slept, even the toilets that I used. Then I would post the photos online, where the FBI—along with anyone else—could see them. Over the past 14 years, I have posted more than 80,000 pictures, taken with various generations of cameras and phones. These selfies are different from most; they aren’t of my face, as I’ve decided to turn the camera around. Yet they offer an ever-open window into my “self” as it wanders through and interacts with the world. ¶ The images are deliberately unorganized on a website that does not have a user-friendly interface. A lot of time, focus, and energy, by an FBI agent or other viewer, would be required to thread together the thousands of points of information. This is how self- documentation at once mimics and defies state surveillance: My selfies are acts of aggressive compliance, telling both everything and nothing about me. They create a barrage of public information so vast that it is little more than noise—data camouflage that affords me a relatively anonymous life. ¶ On a far broader scale, the millions of selfies taken each day (if not each hour) blur the vision of watchful governments. With the widespread use of digital tools, we have perhaps as many producers of information on the planet as we have consumers. The collection of data, generated at an ever-increasing rate, is no longer as important as the overwhelming task of analyzing everything that is archived. People maintain privacy by living publicly. ¶ Conflicts have often midwifed new artistic expression: World War I and Dadaism, World War II and abstract expressionism, Vietnam and pop art. Today, “selfism” is following in these revered footsteps. It’s no coincidence, I would argue, that many selfies imitate the vantage point of security cameras: taken from a high angle, looking down at the subject, as though from a lens suspended in the corner of a room. The post-9/11 era is shaping an art form that can both acknowledge and resist governments’ overreach into private lives. BY HASAN ELAHI FOREIGNPOLICY.COM 43

The Miner’s Guide to the Galaxy Two U.S. companies are determined to drill asteroids for space’s riches. But are they prepared to share the trillion-dollar sky with foreign competitors? by Matthew Shaer Illustrations by Brown Bird Design 44 MAY | JUNE 2016



tech firm Deep Space Industries (DSI) NEOs, as they’re called, are small. Others and DSI’s chief scientist, envisions a future PREVIOUS PAGE : PHOTOGRAPH BY ESA 2010 MPS FOR OSIRIS TEAM MPS/UPD/LAM/IAA/RSSD/INTA/UPM/DASP/IDA is headquartered on the second story of are substantial and potentially packed full where “ever more remote and ever more an aging office building at the edge of of water and various important miner- massive reservoirs of resources” take astro- NASA’s Ames Research Center, not far als, such as nickel, cobalt, and iron. One nauts farther and farther from our planet. from the town of Mountain View, Cal- day, advocates believe, those objects will “First to the Near Earth Asteroids and the ifornia. Established in 1939 as a labora- be tapped by variations on the equip- moons of Mars, then to the asteroid belt, tory for the National Advisory Committee ment used in the coal mines of Kentucky then to...[the] Trojan asteroids and the for Aeronautics, a predecessor to NASA, or in the diamond mines of Africa. And outer moons of Jupiter, then to the Sat- Ames is now part government research for immense gain: According to industry urn system and the Centaurs,” and so on, site, part industrial park, and part open-air experts, the contents of a single asteroid to infinity. museum—visitors pass rows of decommis- could be worth trillions of dollars. sioned rockets and the hulking skeleton of Copies of Lewis’s book lined two shelves Hangar One, where the Navy once parked Kfir pitched me on the long-term plan. in DSI’s headquarters, where the vibe was its experimental blimps in the 1930s. Shim- First, a fleet of satellites will be dispatched more nerd lair than sleek startup. A poster mering nearby in the Pacific coast sun lies to outer space, fitted with probes that can for the new Star Wars movie hung on a the sprawling aerospace facility owned by measure the quality and quantity of water wall; a chunk of real meteorite, found over Google’s Sergey Brin and Larry Page. and minerals in nearby asteroids and com- a century ago in Namibia, stood on dis- ets. Later, armed with that information, play; and cans of Coke cluttered the snack “The first time I came to Ames, I had the mining companies like DSI will send out table. Working inside what appeared to be feeling I was standing between the history vessels to mechanically remove and refine an old utility closet, chief engineer Grant of spaceflight and its future,” Sagi Kfir, an the material extracted. In some cases, the Bonin hunched over a desktop computer, aviation attorney, told me when I visited take will be returned to Earth. But most of designing the code that will help power earlier this year. “You’ve got NASA labs the time, it will be processed in space— the first asteroid probes that DSI plans to here, but at the same time you’re in Silicon for instance, to produce rocket fuel—and launch in 2017. Behind him, an electrical Valley,” he said. “Hard to think of a more stored in container vessels that will serve panel spouted a bouquet of colorful wires. exciting place to be.” as the equivalent of gas stations for out- bound spacecraft. Kfir pointed me in the direction of his Kfir is 43, with a high forehead, tawny office. A resident of San Diego, Kfir com- hair he wears tied in a bun, and the kind This possiblity isn’t so unrealistic, mutes once a week to Ames, 1,000 miles of leanness that comes from hours of yoga Kfir said. Consider the recent and seis- round trip, but if the constant travel was practice. (His wife, Britta, is an instruc- mic growth of the space industry, he sug- wearing on him, it didn’t show—his eyes tor.) Since 2012, he has served as DSI’s gested, as we climbed the stairs to DSI’s were bright, his skin SoCal bronze. He wore chief lawyer, a job that encompasses both second-floor suite. Every year, the private slacks and a button-down, with cactus-pat- legal-counsel duties—liaising with legisla- spaceflight sector grows larger, and every terned socks. tors, vetting contracts—and the full-time year the goals become grander. Jeff Bezos, proselytization of his company’s mission: founder of Amazon and the space explo- “You get used to the pace,” he said, tak- laying the foundation for an asteroid min- ration company Blue Origin, has spoken ing a pull from a large coffee mug marked ing industry that one day will lead to a of the day “when millions of people are “Kiss my Asteroid.” “It’s the life of a startup. sprawling and profitable space economy. living and working in space”; Elon Musk’s You go, go, go seven days a week. Because SpaceX is expected to reveal a Mars colo- you believe.” To evangelists of asteroid mining, the nization plan this year. heavens are not just a frontier but a vast For now, belief—and a fervid sense of and resource-rich place teeming with “But how are they going to sustain this enthusiasm—represent the core of the DSI opportunity. According to NASA, there are new space economy?” Kfir asked rhetor- business model. After all, the company, and potentially 100,000 near-Earth objects— ically. He nudged open DSI’s office door. its only major competitor in the asteroid including asteroids and comets—in the “Easy: by mining asteroids.” Bezos, Musk, mining arena, Washington-based Plane- neighborhood of our planet. Some of these and the other billionaires who plan to be tary Resources, are dealing in hypothet- cruising around space in the near future icals: equipment that remains largely in won’t be able to do so without celestial the planning phase, a market that won’t pit stops. fully emerge for years, if not decades, and a science that has yet to be tested in any In his book, Asteroid Mining 101: Wealth meaningful way. for the New Space Economy, John S. Lewis, professor emeritus of Cosmochemistry and Perhaps it’s not surprising, then, that Planetary Atmospheres at the University of some critics have suggested Planetary Arizona’s Lunar and Planetary Laboratory Resources, which is backed by millions in venture capital—including cash from 46 MAY | JUNE 2016

Eric Schmidt of Google—and the scrap- For skeptics, pier, less-moneyed DSI, are nothing more asteroid mining is, than vanity projects. Writing on the Dis- for the time being, covery News website in April 2012, the a glitzy but far- month Planetary Resources co-founder fetched venture Peter Diamandis unveiled his company’s that will distract mission, space journalist Ian O’Neill dis- both attention missed the venture as “deliberately vague and dollars (who knows how many technological iter- from eminently ative steps are needed before a sustainable more achievable mining operation can begin anyway?).” missions. He also argued it was wholly unrealis- tic: “In short, the only thing that seems Asteroid mining was very much on the celestial bodies. Only 16 countries are party unique about today’s announcement is mind of science-fiction writers such as to the agreement; the United States, con- that a group of very well-respected and Isaac Asimov, who in his 1944 short story cerned about the constraining effect the smart entrepreneurs and billionaires have Catch That Rabbit (anthologized in the pact might have on its spaceflight pro- clubbed together and thought asteroid 1950 book I, Robot), placed two bored cor- grams, has declined to be involved. mining seemed cool.” For O’Neill and porate overseers on an asteroid, where they other skeptics, asteroid mining is, for watched a team of robotic miners plying For the most part, entrepreneurs weren’t the time being, a glitzy but far-fetched their trade. Celestial extraction also figured terribly public about their celestial designs venture that will distract both attention prominently in Jack Williamson’s popular until the late 1990s. Then Jim Benson, a and dollars from eminently more achiev- 1951 novel, Seetee Ship, set in a galaxy pop- headstrong Washington millionaire who able—and perhaps more scientifically ulated by roguish and well-armed miners, had made his fortune on software, came vital—missions, such as continuing the known affectionately as “rock rats.” onto the scene, touting his asteroid mining exploration of Mars. company, SpaceDev. Certain of the fortune Until relatively recently, however, poli- to be made from the skies, Benson unveiled For the 12-person team at DSI, and the cymakers and scientists alike assumed that plans to probe the 4660 Nereus asteroid, 50-person team at Planetary Resources, if the technology were ever to be imple- roughly a year-long trip from Earth. Not however, asteroid mining isn’t just a mented in real life, it would be govern- only that, the businessman affirmed that dream. It’s the future—one in which all ments, not private contractors, with the he would not accept any government fund- those deep-pocketed private spaceflight money and the rockets to do the actual ing for the mission, writing in an email companies (to say nothing of NASA) will mining. The foundational tracts of space correspondence, “This will help draw be eager to pay by the bucket load for law articulate this notion. attention to the need to establish private access to space’s riches. DSI and Planetary property rights in space.” Benson would Resources, both of which are determined While the 1967 Outer Space Treaty discover, however, that the hardware and to profit from a 21st-century extraterres- clearly states that no single country has the computer chipsets required to get a rocket trial gold rush, might be the equivalent of right to “appropriation by claim of sover- to an asteroid were costly, even for a mil- the mining barons of yore. eignty,” the treaty doesn’t address whether lionaire, and he was forced to let go of the a country can exploit planetary resources mission. (Unsuccessful in the asteroid busi- But first, they have to get to the rocks. for financial gain. Thus, an American ness, Benson moved on to related ventures, entrepreneur considering mining aster- including space tourism. In 2008, he died T he idea that outer space oids would face something of a legal void: at the age of 63 after being diagnosed with could one day be mined for On the one hand, nothing in international a malignant brain tumor.) sustenance or human gain law (or at least international law ratified by stretches back centuries. As the United States) says the business isn’t But computers continued to get faster early as the late 1800s, for instance, the allowed. Then again, there is nothing that and cheaper. By the mid-2000s, Silicon Russian scientist Konstantin Tsiolkovsky specifically says that it is. Meanwhile, the Valley was filled with young technologists prophesized the construction of mines 1979 Moon Agreement bans the militariza- interested in exploring outer space—often on the surface of asteroids. In 1926, Tsi- tion of the moon and the “alteration” of innovators who had become extremely rich olkovsky released his 16-point plan for the colonization of the galaxy. Point 14 was “the perfection of mankind and society.” Point 12 was “the exploitation of asteroid resources” to achieve autonomy from Earth. FOREIGNPOLICY.COM 47