Meet the security researcher who found Andrew Tate’s secretive data leaking online

Straight Arrow exclusively reported last week that a security researcher discovered a leak of more than 12 terabytes of data from “manosphere” influencer Andrew Tate’s online empire. Now, that security researcher is sharing what went through his head during the discovery exclusively for readers of Confidential Informant.

The security researcher, who asked for anonymity over fears of legal retribution from Tate’s attorneys, found all the data exposed in the publicly available code for Tate’s “War Room” program. The program, which costs $2,400 per year, teaches men to amass wealth, attract and control women and “penetrate” the elite.

Seventy-six paid course videos were exposed, including those that taught members how to exploit the sexual misbehaviors of wealthy individuals — along with archives of raw, unedited video from numerous War Room events in locations such as Miami, Dubai and Romania.

I asked the researcher what made him look into Tate, who is being held in a federal detention center in Miami as he fights extradition to the United Kingdom to face sexual assault charges.
”I’m a security researcher, it’s what I do,” he said. “I look at platforms and apps for vulnerabilities.”

After finding so much data exposed in the War Room’s public code, he said, “honestly, I was surprised at how bad it was.”

But it was the content that compelled him to reach out to me to share his findings.

“That’s when it went from a security research project to something that needed to be public,” he said. “They’re literally teaching men to control every aspect of women’s lives, food, clothing, friends, sexual behavior, with punishment for non-compliance.”

Prior to publication, I reached out both to a representative at the War Room and to Tate’s lawyers but didn’t receive a reply. Since the story went live, the security researcher said, the exposed data, including the videos, have all disappeared.

If you haven’t yet, you can read the full story here.

What I’m reading

• ICE Plans to Spend Millions on Boston Dynamics Dog Robots: 404 Media reports on a DHS announcement that revealed ICE plans to buy at least $1 million dollars worth of robots to “improve officer safety.” The robots would be purchased from Boston Dynamics, the company best known for producing the dog-like robot known as SPOT.
• LEAKED: Tate’s “Penetrating The Elite” Course Could Ruin Extradition Defense: The popular YouTube channel Legal Mindset, run by licensed attorney Andrew Esquire, breaks down Straight Arrow’s recent exclusive regarding the leak of data from “manosphere” influencer Andrew Tate’s online empire.
• DHS using obscure law to snoop on journalists, non-profits and unions: The Guardian breaks down how DHS is deploying an obscure legal maneuver in an effort to obtain private information on journalists, non-profits and unions. In just one example, the government obtained six months of telephone records from a Minneapolis journalist without the journalist’s knowledge.

What do you want to know?

A reader asks: How prevalent are Flock’s license plate reader cameras?

Flock Safety says it has deployed more than 120,000 license plate reader cameras in 49 states. Of those, more than 111,000 have been independently located and mapped.

But while Flock is the biggest name in the industry, it isn’t the only manufacturer of license plate readers. Through crowdsourcing, the website Deflock.org has documented the locations of 137,259 cameras from multiple companies.

Those numbers, however, are constantly changing. Deflock also tracks how many cities have rejected or taken down license plate reader cameras, a number that currently sits at 153. And if you’re interested to see whether your license plate is one of the 4,686,527 plates known to have been searched by the government, thanks to audit logs released under the Freedom of Information Act, you can head over to HaveIBeenFlocked.com.

That’s all for this week. If you have a question you’d like me to answer about privacy, send me an email at mthalen@san.com, reach out on Signal at @mikaelthalen.12, or share it below. I’ll keep all your personal details private.