CIA Invests In Anti-Cybercrime Startup

wiredmikey writes "Launched by the CIA in 1999, In-Q-Tel's mission is to identify and partner with companies developing cutting-edge technologies that serve the national security interests of the United States. In-Q-Tel has invested an undisclosed sum in Silver Tail Systems, an emerging online fraud prevention and analytics company, an investment they say enables them to offer powerful technology companies in the US intelligence community and further protect the nation's assets."

Comments

that crown and handcuffs photo

[dredwerker]

made me think of some bondage with THE ;) royal family - Prince Charles and Camilla and handcuffs is just a wrong image.

Re:that crown and handcuffs photo

[cappp]

A wrong image perhaps...but now I've got something to replace reciting baseball scores with when I next have to uh cross the finish line second.

Commercial?

[oakbox]

This reads more like a commercial than an article for Slashdot.

What's up with that?

Or am I simply not seeing the big picture here?

- oakbox

Silver Tail Systems

[cappp]

If you're wondering what Silver Tail does: TFA provides the following

“Silver Tail Systems solution monitors website traffic and identifies anomalies in real-time. Their unique system creates models of what is normal traffic for a website’s population and uses that to identify threats,” said William Strecker, Executive Vice President of Architecture & Engineering and CTO at IQT. “Our strategic investment in Silver Tail Systems enables us to offer this powerful technology to our customers in the U.S. intelligence Community and further protect our Nation’s assets.”

Silver Tails own website adds

New ways of combating fraud: The global threat landscape is rapidly changing and evolving. Sophisticated criminals always find ways around traditional fraud protection solutions. Silver Tail Systems has technology which monitors all web traffic and detects what is normal website behavior and what behavior is looking anomalous according to user statistics constantly updated by the hour. This real-time monitoring helps combating fraud as it emerges. Receiving alerts about suspicious web traffic lets the website administrator quickly identify the type of threat occurring and investigate the attempted attack. Once an attack is identified easy rules will divert the bad actors in real-time, protecting the website from being compromised.

Any of the techy people feel like explaining this to the rest of us? Am I exposing my ignorance by assuming it's basically a giant spreadsheet comparing whats happening now with what happened then?

Re:Silver Tail Systems

[vegiVamp]

> monitors website traffic and identifies anomalies in real-time.

mod_security.

> creates models of what is normal traffic for a website’s population and uses that to identify threats

Looking for peaks in the bandwith and connection rate graph.

Re:Silver Tail Systems

[Anonymous Coward]

So many things wrong with this.
Bad idea - hmm - maybe they talk in the park, or use paper/ dead drops or sd cards with magnets.

First, they did it with mail and phones and then mobile phonecalls - ignoring the bit that they are not supposed to be bugging Americans domestically. They even demo the software for bookmakers, say before a horse race, big game old old hat. Maybe they do the same think on the futures and stockmarket rooms - who knows? Even the police have this 'technology'

They have had 'Vampire Taps' on the main internet artery for yonks. But educated people reckon it is too big to bug, even for them - so one has to start targeting bits.
heres how:
1) Remove Bittorrent and Game sites
2) Remove Porn and online shopping
3) Sort mail by language - move Arabic and Persian to the top of the list
3.5) Repeat for Skype
4) And Chinese - after removing fast food orders
5) treat IP connections and protocols just like phone numbers
6) Run reports/ Create cubes trends std deviation etc
7) Put in budget submission - you have found 100 million suspicious people
8) This is exactly what Walmart and the marketing companies already do
9) This is what the IRS has failed to do

One thinks silver tail will become gold road , and all they will dig up is the worlds 2nd biggest porn collection , and a lot of their own having affairs.

Re:Silver Tail Systems

[rtb61]

Also Silver Tail will release endless end of the world press release about computer viruses infecting people and destroying the planet, unless of course they get hundreds of millions of dollars in CIA approved funding (which of course will be used in off the books hacks of other nations including and especially allies).

Re:Silver Tail Systems

[Nyder]

If you're wondering what Silver Tail does: TFA provides the following

“Silver Tail Systems solution monitors website traffic and identifies anomalies in real-time. Their unique system creates models of what is normal traffic for a website’s population and uses that to identify threats,” said William Strecker, Executive Vice President of Architecture & Engineering and CTO at IQT. “Our strategic investment in Silver Tail Systems enables us to offer this powerful technology to our customers in the U.S. intelligence Community and further protect our Nation’s assets.”

Silver Tails own website adds

New ways of combating fraud: The global threat landscape is rapidly changing and evolving. Sophisticated criminals always find ways around traditional fraud protection solutions. Silver Tail Systems has technology which monitors all web traffic and detects what is normal website behavior and what behavior is looking anomalous according to user statistics constantly updated by the hour. This real-time monitoring helps combating fraud as it emerges. Receiving alerts about suspicious web traffic lets the website administrator quickly identify the type of threat occurring and investigate the attempted attack. Once an attack is identified easy rules will divert the bad actors in real-time, protecting the website from being compromised.

Any of the techy people feel like explaining this to the rest of us? Am I exposing my ignorance by assuming it's basically a giant spreadsheet comparing whats happening now with what happened then?

Sure, what they are saying is, they monitor all the web traffic a site does, then analyse that data to make a "standard" web pattern for that website. Then they compare their "standard" to what's coming in, and if something doesn't match normal traffic patterns, they will check it out.

They will alert whomever the attack is upon.

So basicly, lets say your a banking web site, and during normal off hours, there is suddenly a lot of traffic hitting their servers. They would know from their "standard" that something is different, and they would do whatever from there. Which would probably be getting a hold of the IT of that website and letting them know somethings going on.

But ya, your right about the big spreadsheet, because that's basicly what they are doing.

Now, of course, let me list the problems here.

CIA is funding a "security" website that does it's security by monitoring all your traffic, keeping data about it, and comparing that with traffic coming in and out.

Yes, i only listed 1 problem, and I clearly said problems. It wasn't a mistake. That one problem is plural.

Suspicious?

[aaaaaaargh!]

In future, better not do anything suspicious like clicking on the wrong links or visit a website in an unusual order! Because that might get you killed by an unmanned aerial vehicle... However, no need to worry about the government. As long as you do exactly the same as everybody else, you're completely safe.

Re:Suspicious?

[Buggz]

It looks like a lot of lawyers might get a decent payday when the first slashdot effect hits.

Not just fraud

[nomad-9]

Apart from that specific article, the more important point IMO is that IQT's mission is not just "fraud", but whatever is supposed to serve "national security". The latter being increasingly used as an excuse to monitor as many people as possible.

In 2009 for example, IQT invested in a company called "Visible Technologies" which specialized in social media monitoring & tracking, such as the monitoring of blog posts or tweets. Another company IQT invested in, "Recorded Future" , extracted "time and event information from the Web". Another one would be "Attensity, with its own web 2.0-monitoring service.etc...

Nothing really new here: extensive Web monitoring & electronic surveillance by Big Brother in the name of cybersecurity. Dubious overall efficiency but enormous potential for privacy violations.

Re:Not just fraud

[sempir]

If I hadn't read it here I wouldn't have believed it! Imagine doing something like that. That's terrible. I'm shocked to the core. Just going to lie down for a bit!

Very interesting!

[AaronAdamic]

Worth reading.

Cyber Crime Security

[dontgetshocked]

If it's so good,why are we finding out about it? Shouldn't this be kept secret?

probably a good move, just look at facebook

[xiando]

in-q-tel knows what they are doing, just look how much personal information & profit they've gotten out of that facebook thing.. http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2008/jan/14/facebook

*DRUMROLL*

[crow_t_robot]

This is the "big story" about what the CIA is investing in!:

http://www.silvertailsystems.com/images/forensics_a.jpg

CUTTING EDGE!
/downsrim

Re:*DRUMROLL*

[slick7]

This is the "big story" about what the CIA is investing in!: http://www.silvertailsystems.com/images/forensics_a.jpg CUTTING EDGE! /downsrim

A bigger story would be...Why did CIA agents die in Afghanistan? The biggest producer of opium and hashish. A drug deal gone wrong? When's the last time that happened?

Re:CIA operating in the U.S.?

[crow_t_robot]

The internet isn't limited to the U.S.

Here's an idea

[elrous0]

How about the CIA/NSA/FBI invest in a company that further protects the interests of the *U.S. Constitution*?

Re:Here's an idea

[slick7]

How about the CIA/NSA/FBI invest in a company that further protects the interests of the *U.S. Constitution*?

How about the CIA/NSA/FBI/KBR/DHS/KFC/TGIF/ABC/DO-RE-ME/1-2-3 invest in themselves that further protects themselves and damn the constitution.
The DEA is the strong-arm of the drug-dealing CIA, which is the supplying agency of the DEA. How black does a black project have to be?

Re:CIA operating in the U.S.?

[TheCarp]

Since when does the CIA care what is legal or illegal?

Was it legal when they sprayed a small town in France with LSD? Was it legal when they dosed men in NYC without their knowledge? Was it legal when they worked out deals to sell arms in contravention of congressional decisions? Maybe when they were helping import cocaine as part of those same deals? Oh wait... maybe they cared about the legality of torturing prisoners or kidnapping people?

The CIA is about doing what the CIA wants to do. Legal or not. If they cared about the law, you might become deluded into thinking that they work for us. You would be wrong.

-Steve

Re:CIA operating in the U.S.?

[slick7]

Since when does the CIA care what is legal or illegal?

Was it legal when they sprayed a small town in France with LSD? Was it legal when they dosed men in NYC without their knowledge? Was it legal when they worked out deals to sell arms in contravention of congressional decisions? Maybe when they were helping import cocaine as part of those same deals? Oh wait... maybe they cared about the legality of torturing prisoners or kidnapping people?

The CIA is about doing what the CIA wants to do. Legal or not. If they cared about the law, you might become deluded into thinking that they work for us. You would be wrong.

-Steve

To paraphrase...I have a bad feeling about this Obi-Wan, that's no website, it's a trap!

Re:CIA operating in the U.S.?

[slick7]

The internet isn't limited to the U.S.

But it started here, just ask Al Gore.

Re:CIA operating in the U.S.?

[TheCarp]

Its ok, they are throwing a party to celebrate going legitimate. It is a little strange that they are only inviting people who criticized them in the past, and that they are covering the floors in plastic but... hey why worry? They are going legit right?