C5IS reviews ALBEDO Telecom, a provider of hand-held devices for packet capture at wirespeed in tactical scenarios. Mention the phrase “packet capture” and the mind automatically races to Deep Packet Inspection (DPI) integrated with active or passive devices that gather targeted court-ordered intercepts -- or, alternately, to massive NSA-level or “Great Firewall of China” … [Read more...]
GOS Systems: All That Glitters is not Touchstone Gold
GOS Systems, the UK-based provider of surveillance and secure communications systems, has experienced a turbulent year. Their story is a case study in what can go wrong when a good company is taken over by an outsider with zero experience in the industry. The long and the short of it: While GOS Systems was making the rounds of international ISS events presenting its DIAL … [Read more...]
NORSI-TRANS: Russia Probes the Global Surveillance Marketplace
C5IS reviews Russia’s NORSI-TRANS, a provider of surveillance systems for lawful intercept, passive mobile monitoring, data retention and analytics. One overarching observation that can be made of Russian surveillance vendors: They mirror their counterparts in the Western marketplace, offering products used not only by law enforcement but also intelligence and … [Read more...]
Court Tosses ACLU NSA Metadata Suit — Who Cares?
On Friday October 23, the ACLU saw its two-year-old metadata suit against the NSA summarily rejected. Judge T.S. Ellis III, Chief Magistrate of the Eastern District Court of Virginia, ruled that the ACLU's lawsuit was based on "the subjective fear of surveillance" and thereby inadmissible. Maybe he should have ruled the privacy advocates need to stay current on the news, … [Read more...]
Shoot-Out: Top Multi-Play Surveillance Vendors
The following data on Multi-Play Surveillance Vendors is excerpted from our forthcoming book, "Surveillance Industry Buyer's Guide." Which company offers the most versatile array of surveillance technologies -- France's AQSAQAM, Germany's ATIS Uher, India's ClearTrail, China's Sinovatio? What about Pen-Link, Savvius and Verint of the U.S? Is there an advantage in choosing … [Read more...]