Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector. ======================================================================== Archives Available at:
http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/ <A HREF="">ctrl</A> ======================================================================== To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Om
--- Begin Message --- -Caveat Lector-CIA's new form of spyware
The software works quietly, noticing your work habits and tracking everything you research and write. Then it finds other employees working on the same issue and, if you choose, links you to share information.
An Orwellian upgrade gone amok? Hardly.
The application by Palo Alto-based Tacit Knowledge Systems is one of several technologies the CIA, FBI and other three-letter intelligence agencies are using to manage and share information.
While the contract size and deployment details are classified, one thing is clear and now, thanks to the 9/11 report, more openly discussed: Managing knowledge within and among the nation's intelligence agencies is a new No. 1 priority.
"Already a great deal has been done to ease the communication challenges within the intelligence community," said CIA spokeswoman Michelle Neff. "The budget and the actual system itself is classified."
Classified, yes. A total mystery, no.
Growing investment roster
In-Q-Tel, the CIA's venture arm, has invested in roughly 30 companies since it launched in 1999 with the goal of finding and developing technology in the private sector which can also be used in the intelligence community.
Six of those companies -- Attensity, Inxight, Metric Stream, PiXlogic, Stratify and Tacit Knowledge Systems -- are based in the Bay Area (see chart) and focus on knowledge management and data mining.
Although backing by In-Q-Tel and the accompanying introduction to the spook community doesn't guarantee a contract, it sure helps.
"The trick to doing intelligence work is you need to already be part of the intelligence community," said Payton Smith an analyst at Input, a Reston, Va.-based company which tracks government spending. "You can't just show up on the CIA's doorstep and say 'Give me a contract.' "
Indeed, the list of leading IT security vendors in 2003 (which includes sales to the intelligence community) reads much like prior years. System integrators, including Northrop Grumman Corp., Electronic Data Systems and Science Applications International Corp. (SAIC) scored the most business from Uncle Sam, securing prime contracts and winning 9 percent, 8 percent and 5 percent of government security spending, respectively.
Those companies, in turn subcontract parts of the job to other companies -- a lengthy list of players not reported by the government.
In-Q-Tel portfolio manager Joe Addiego indicated that many, if not all of his portfolio companies have partnerships or customer deals with those prime contractors. Attensity, for example, counts SAIC, General Dynamic and Northrop among its partners.
"The CIA, NSA, FBI, DIA ... they like our software and they pay us real money, but they won't talk to anybody about it," said Craig Norris, CEO of Palo Alto-based Attensity. "A lot of the things we do for them are classified. Sometimes we don't even know precisely what they're doing with our technology."
Driving growth
Attensity revenue, which also comes from enterprise customers like Whirlpool and John Deere, has been doubling for the past three consecutive years. The company now employs 45, is growing and is slated to do roughly $8 million in revenue for fiscal 2004.
Tacit Knowledge Systems is also feeling a boost. The 4-year- old company is expanding its 20-person work force, and although CEO David Gilmour declined to discuss revenue figures, he indicated the company is banking on new business from the intelligence community. Spending on intelligence is expected to grow from $7.7 billion this year and roughly $10.5 billion by 2009, according to Input.
Said Gilmour: "The concept of providing information on a need-to-know basis, like it was during the Cold War, just doesn't apply anymore. It's the defining opportunity for our company in the government space."
In-Q-Tel's Addiego said his group is continuing to look for new tech companies to invest in and help provide part of a solution to the intelligence community. An example of how the companies could work together?
An intelligence agency could use BBN Technologies to monitor an Al Jazeera broadcast from Iraq, translate the voice stream into Arabic text and then use Language Weaver to translate the Arabic into English. The intelligence agency could then use gear from a company like Intelliseek (which transforms unstructured data into information) and add that into an information grid created by Palo Alto-based Attensity.
Agents could then quantify and analyze threat factors.
Said Addiego: "We look for pieces of technologies (in companies In-Q-Tel invests in) and then link them together into tool chains. There's no possible way any entrepreneurial company can provide all the needs to the CIA and FBI."
Lizette Wilson covers technology for the San Francisco Business Times.
http://www.bizjournals.com/industries/high_tech/e_commerce/2004/08/02/sanfrancisco_story6.html
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/291926/
~~~~~~~~~~
Military spying on soldiers
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,10296384%255E601,00.html
~~~~~
Spying in America: How the Pentagon is Overcoming Privacy Laws to Spy At Home
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=04/06/15/1410250~~~~~~~
Intelligence: The Pentagon�Spying in America?
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/5197014/site/newsweek/
~~~
TIA (Total Information Awareness) IS STILL ALIVE AND WELL
http://www.capitolhillblue.com/artman/publish/article_4648.shtml
Do you Yahoo!?
Yahoo! Mail - 50x more storage than other providers!
Please let us stay on topic and be civil.-Home Page- www.cia-drugs.org
OM
Yahoo! Groups Sponsor
ADVERTISEMENT
Yahoo! Groups Links
www.ctrl.org DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substance—not soap-boxing—please! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'—with its many half-truths, mis- directions and outright frauds—is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply.
- To visit your group on the web, go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/cia-drugs/
- To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
- Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service.
Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector. ======================================================================== Archives Available at:
http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/ <A HREF="">ctrl</A> ======================================================================== To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Om
--- End Message ---
