How a Team of Geeks Cracked the Spy Trade 187
drunken_boxer777 sends us to The Wall Street Journal for a lengthy article on a small tech company, Palantir Technologies, that is making the CIA, Pentagon, and FBI take notice. The submitter adds, "And yes, their company name is a reference to what you think it is." "One of the latest entrants into the government spy-services marketplace, Palantir Technologies has designed what many intelligence analysts say is the most effective tool to date to investigate terrorist networks. The software's main advance is a user-friendly search tool that can scan multiple data sources at once, something previous search tools couldn't do. That means an analyst who is following a tip about a planned terror attack, for example, can more quickly and easily unearth connections among suspects, money transfers, phone calls and previous attacks around the globe. ... With Palantir's software 'you can actually point to examples where it was pretty clear that lives were saved.'"
Sounds like trojan spyware to me (Score:4, Insightful)
With a name like Palentir, it sounds like trojan spy program, not a Google like search tool.
Re:Great! (Score:5, Insightful)
And creates a great risk of corruption among those who use it.
The Palantir Tool is a Double-Edged Sword (Score:5, Insightful)
What happens when you aim the same tool at ordinary people like Slashdotters? You will discover sexual orientation, adultery, etc.
In other words, the same tool saving us from the terrorists can also defeat the last barriers protecting our privacy. If an intelligence officer in the government hated a particular SlashDotter (due to her articles in this forum), that officer could easily identify her address, her friends, her bank accounts, her adulterous lover, etc. Can you say, "blackmail"?
Re:Bad summary (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Bad summary (Score:2, Insightful)
The summary seems to be a description of a meta-search engine, which is rather common. (Dogpile).
The actual product seems MUCH more interesting than the silly summary. It compartamentalizes secret info, so if you are classified for level 5, you can still search and find info that is level 6, even if the file also has level 4 information. It can also tag information so that if your level 5 clearance is not enough to tell you how person A is connected to person B, you can still know that the connection exists.
Yeah, but if you are classified for level 5 and look at level 6, which presumably is above your classification, then you are in fact looking at classified work even if it has level 4 work - which means the levels of classification are being broken and the security is compromised. And if person A is a 5 and looking at classification 6 which is connected to person B it in effect blows any security clearances out the door. Of course, person C who is a 4 looking at person B who is a ....I've gone cross-eyed, dizzy and I'm nauseous.
Re:Call me dense... (Score:5, Insightful)
It's interesting in the context of this discussion that Tolkien's Palentir were more than just viewing devices. They could also be used to communicate with other stones, and I think for other purposes. Anyway, when one of the stones fell into evil hands, the Dark Lord was able to use his power over it to control anyone foolish enough to try and use one of the remaining stones.
There's a lesson here I think.
Uhh... No. Wrong perspective... (Score:5, Insightful)
Good guys used it too. To defeat Sauron AND to "keep the world safe".
In fact... Good guys made all 7 Palantir mentioned in LotR.
Sauron got his hands on one of those and used it to corrupt Saruman and Denethor.
So... No. It is not "the tool the evil guy used to control the world."
The message would be that "power corrupts". In this case - power in the form of knowledge or information.
What Palantir really lacked was a decent firewall. No protection whatsoever.
Very intuitive user interface though. And they were practically indestructible.
Re:Reference to LotR (Score:1, Insightful)
Thanks, my internet is down, I was unable to google that myself.
So how are you posting this?
Read between the lines (Score:1, Insightful)
Palantir is a startup with Clarion (a hedge fund) VC backing. Clarion is now using their connections to showcase their holding via the WSJ. Sounds like Clarion is trying to dump their investment and cash out.
Re:Palin? (Score:5, Insightful)
... a badly written child's fantasy world ....
Now now, Tolkien's Middle-earth was a badly-written ADULT'S fantasy world.
Re:Bad summary (Score:4, Insightful)
It's all about need to know. If you knowing why is necessary to draw a conclusion, you'll eventually be granted this access.
Under the old system, you outright wouldn't even know that a connection exists, nevermind whether you need to know whether that connection is important or not.
Re:The Palantir Tool is a Double-Edged Sword (Score:3, Insightful)
No software cannot determine your sexual orientation, nor your hidden adultery. It does not read minds, or hearts. It does not magically know events from the past or the future.
Now, if you went online and posted about your homosexual adulterous relationship on a board that publicly reveals your IP address, then yes, a tool could indeed find it. In that case, who defeated the last barrier of your privacy? Did the tool? Or is it your own darned fault?
Re:The Palantir Tool is a Double-Edged Sword (Score:2, Insightful)
Myself and others have talked tons of trash about the U.S. intelligence agencies and leadership on Slashdot and in real-life. The American intelligence agencies would have to be hard-up for funding and job security if they're going to data-mine Slashdot and then go on fishing expeditions to try and find voices of dissent.
I noticed that none of the info in TFA involved plots within the U.S., just "western targets" overseas. Yawn, public plots to kill westerners in the Middle East are a dime a dozen. We see what a fat lot of good that's doing us, in fact our best solution there just to throw enough money at people to get them to turn snitch. All they really want is to feed their families. If you'll notice, that's also the tactic-du-jour stateside: throw money at snitches(many of them already caught and snitching for a break or lower sentence) and proxies just like the RIAA did with MediaSentry. In short, the American intelligence services are a clusterfuck of corporate bureaucracy and dangerous outsourcing and they should be disbanded and rebuilt from scratch. The CIA's resistance to the recent disclosure of their torture techniques on the grounds of "national security" and "harm to the intelligence community" are an insult to our intelligence.
badly written? (Score:3, Insightful)
i'm guessing you thing Twilight and Harry Potter are works of genius?
i'm surprised more people haven't taken your flamebait.
Re:Reference to LotR (Score:3, Insightful)
Thanks, my bookshelf fell down, and I was unable to read it myself.
Re:Call me dense... (Score:1, Insightful)
Question: Where in the Constitution does it say that "THEY" can't use aggregated multi-database search engines to investigate American citizens for no stated reason?
Answer: It's under the 2nd amendment.
As privacy is directly an implied tenet of the inalienable right of liberty we hold so dear, isn't it time we set about protecting it directly?
It's far too easy to label someone a 'potential' terrorist and ruin their life. There's far too little recourse when this system is used in error.
A police state is much more efficient than a libertarian society. Imagine the conveniences you could enjoy, locked up safely at home.