Research published in today's New York Times on the Nov. 26, 2008 terrorist strike in Mumbai blames poor coordination between the CIA, GCHQ and Indian intelligence -- and by inference also questions the value of systems such as Palantir. Are these accusations true or just a red herring planted by the report's backers, which include Pro Publica and Edward Snowden? Let's take a … [Read more...]
Cisco, Huawei and Semptian: A Look Behind the Great Firewall of China
As the surveillance and censorship network monitoring 1.2 billion people, the Great Firewall of China is at once the most complex and little understood in-country electronic surveillance system on the planet -- even though much of its core technology is American made, and Chinese developers themselves often get an assist from U.S. tech leaders. The principle application used … [Read more...]
Clearing the Air on Deep Packet Inspection
Recently C5IS was taken to task by a maker of deep packet inspection (DPI) that objected to our inferring their product was licensed by other companies for surveillance purposes. Under public investigation and in the face of evidence showing they had indeed previously sold DPI for surveillance, the company had reason to be concerned. So much so, in fact, that they’ve exited … [Read more...]
Lone Wolf Terrorist Attacks: Can Narus Help?
More than a decade has passed since public exposure of the NSA’s reliance on Narus deep packet inspection (DPI) to help analysts build connections that expose terrorist groups. Overall, the technology has proved invaluable. But whether it works for “lone wolf” attacks -- not as broadly devastating but every bit as high profile as massive terrorist assaults -- remains an open … [Read more...]
SpeechPro: A Bug in Russia’s Popular Voice Biometrics Tool?
In business for nearly a quarter of a century, SpeechPro provides voice recording, biometrics and forensic tools for surveillance and commercial purposes in 73 countries. They partner with some of the leading tech companies in the world: Cisco, Avaya, Oracle, Genesys and Panasonic. In July of this year Speech Technology Magazine, the leading trade pub, named SpeechPro a “star … [Read more...]