{"id":1211423,"date":"2026-02-21T11:10:52","date_gmt":"2026-02-21T11:10:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/EHiaLdqwMGrkdn8zSDnZK5"},"modified":"2026-02-21T11:10:52","modified_gmt":"2026-02-21T11:10:52","slug":"the-cia-operated-a-network-of-gaming-sites-and-even-a-star-wars-fanpage-that-were-part-of-one-of-its-worst-ever-intelligence-catastrophes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/the-cia-operated-a-network-of-gaming-sites-and-even-a-star-wars-fanpage-that-were-part-of-one-of-its-worst-ever-intelligence-catastrophes\/","title":{"rendered":"The CIA operated a network of gaming sites and even a Star Wars fanpage that were part of one of its worst-ever intelligence catastrophes"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Head to the URL starwarsweb.net<\/a> and you may be somewhat surprised to find yourself on the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) homepage. But check it out on the Wayback Machine in December 2010, which is when it first appeared, and you’ll find what looks to be a fairly standard Star Wars fanpage<\/a>.<\/p>\n

There’s a kid with a lightsaber at the top, the tagline “beyond the unknown” as well as “May the Force be with you”, links to various other Star Wars resources, and for some reason Master Yoda is recommending Star Wars Battlefront 2, Star Wars: The Force Unleashed 2, Lego Star Wars 2, and Star Wars the Clone Wars: Republic Heroes. “Like these games, you will” runs the text alongside.<\/p>\n

This site, unearthed by security researcher Ciro Santilli<\/a> and first reported on by 404Media’s Joseph Cox<\/a>, is one of hundreds created by the CIA from around 2010, and part of a network that was used to covertly communicate with CIA assets abroad. These sites were first discovered by the Iranian authorities, and may be linked to the killing of various CIA sources in China over the period 2010-2012<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Santilli’s research throws up much more than starwarsweb.net. The majority of the sites Santilli has identified as being in this network seem to be news sites, with a smattering focused on areas like sports, music and gaming. Among the gaming urls involved are havenofgamerz.com, hitpointgaming.com, activegaminginfo.com, myonlinegamesource.com, and kings-game.net.<\/p>\n

To take the first example, havenofgamerz.com can again be viewed on the Wayback Machine<\/a>. Promising “the latest game reviews, previews and videos”, it claims “nobody knows games and gamers like the Haven of Gamerz”, features a sidebar of (legitimate) gaming outlets, and a few categories for reviews, trailers and previews. It’s not going to be giving IGN any sleepless nights but, at a glance, does look like a generic gaming site.<\/p>\n

Santilli says that the languages used across these sites suggest they were targeting users in Germany, France, Spain, and Brazil.<\/p>\n

“It reveals a much larger number of websites,” says Santilli. “It gives a broader understanding of the CIA’s interests at the time, including more specific democracies which may have been targeted which were not previously mentioned and also a statistical understanding of how much importance they were giving to different zones at the time, and unsurprisingly, the Middle East comes on top.”<\/p>\n

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