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...]
Best Electronic Surveillance Companies of 2014
The vote is in for the Best Electronic Surveillance Companies of 2014. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first effort to examine surveillance companies side-by-side and pick winners that provide superlative value to "customers" -- law enforcement and intelligence agencies, the military, and of course, communications service providers that must meet compliance … [Read more...]
Cato Institute Surveillance Conference Grills Google’s Eric Schmidt
Arch conservative think tank The Cato Institute today hosts its first conference on surveillance, featuring presentations by and interactions with leading politicos and tech industry figures including Google's Eric Schmidt. The Cato Institute Surveillance Conference is being live-streamed at www.cato.org/live Of note: Discussion with Google Exec Chairman Eric Schmidt, … [Read more...]
Privacy International Hacked Via Drupal Backdoors
Just to end the week on an ironic note -- Privacy International, the self-styled anti-surveillance watchdog, has suffered a painful bite on its hindquarters: a major site hack due to backdoors in its Drupal content management system. PI's website is down, and has been in that condition for days. The usually (ahem) vigilant PI evidently missed the warning from Drupal in late … [Read more...]
December: The Best Surveillance Companies of 2014
C5IS will close the year by naming The Best Surveillance Companies of 2014. We're fully aware that in some quarters the names of honorees might be considered something of a rogue's gallery -- but we disagree. Year end is the time to give credit where due to the leading vendors whose work makes such an important contribution to protecting national security and public … [Read more...]