Another day passes with another terrorist attack, as like as not orchestrated on the ground via Thuraya, long favored by Al-Qaeda and now by ISIS as the preferred mode of secure satellite communications -- but trackable to an extent thanks to the work of companies such as Rheinmetall Defence, Ability, Delma and PKI. Given the many complications, doing so is no simple … [Read more...]
Gita Tech For Multi-Purpose Military SATCOM Interception
With tactical SATCOM interception, users often find themselves in a quandary. Should they adapt existing strategic systems for tactical needs? Or are tactical interception systems specifically designed for commercial SATCOM services the better option? And if so, what is best: a family of single-purpose products, each of which monitors a specific commercial SATCOM service, or a … [Read more...]
Long Engagement: Social Media Monitoring and GEOINT
With a user count well past the 1.0 billion mark, social media might seem the fastest growing communications vehicle on record, but hand-in-hand with this explosive growth has come another important “follower” nearly as big -- if far quieter -- the Social Media Monitoring system. Now as universal as social media itself, SMMS has evolved as a major component of OSINT relied on … [Read more...]
SciEngines: Terrorist Coronary Failure By Custom Hardware Attack
C5IS reviews SciEngines, a provider of FPGA-based cryptanalytic devices for custom hardware attack by military and government intelligence against encrypted terrorist and criminal communications. Off in some dusty corner of the ISIS caliphate, skilled cryptologists run an online college for initiates of the Islamic State on ways to conceal communications via encryption and … [Read more...]
Raytheon Visual Analytics: Opting Out of War Games
C5IS reviews Raytheon’s venture into visual analytics and asks: Why did Raytheon and the Pentagon pass on embracing visualization for warfighter intel and stick with the status quo -- the beleaguered Distributed Common Ground System (DCGS) so disliked by Special Forces and Marines? With just 9,800 U.S. troops left in Afghanistan on the tail end of America’s longest-running … [Read more...]