On Tue, 15 Feb 2005 23:43:35 -0800, Michael J McCafferty <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Also, having been a contributing member of this list for gosh I have no > idea how many years... 7 ? 8? I hate to see people on it, make such > ridiculous accusations that are not based on fact, but only on paranoia or > guess work helped along by The X-Files and other works of fiction.
My original email on this subject was simply to state that 1) SAIC is embedded in the U.S. government to a significant degree, 2) Somebody managed to physically break in to SAIC and steal computers and information, and therefore 3) There is cause for concern. SAIC doesn't have to be a "spook agency" for this to be a big deal. I understand that SAIC is just a company. They make and sell deep science and technology systems. But they also make 90 percent of their revenue from the federal government [1]. According to their website, they are consistently named one of the top ten federal prime contractors. Their employees come not only from the military itself, but from the NSA and CIA as well. The point of those people, as Neil pointed out, is politics. SAIC develops technology for the NSA and the CIA as well as the military. According to their 2004 Annual Report [2], "We help the military and the intelligence community take advantage of the latest technologies to acquire and process intelligence data, transform it into actionable information for decision-makers and warfighters, and share and disseminate that information quickly and securely." Anyone remember the Usenet-monitoring software they developed for the Navy almost a decade ago? [1] http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/0205/020905k1.htm [2] http://www.saic.com/news/pdf/Annual-Report2004.pdf What do you think those thieves were doing breaking into SAIC? What were they after? And more importantly, why did they succeed? How could a company so heavily involved in national security have this happen to them? SAIC is *not* just a company. They're a company that matters. -todd -- [email protected] http://www.kernel-panic.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/kplug-list
