CIA Starts Hi-Tech Venture Capital Firm

Your Mama writes "Hoping to insure that the nation's spies have the latest information technology in the rapidly changing Internet age, the Central Intelligence Agency has established a venture capital company to nurture high-tech companies..." The NY Times has the story. The reference to Major Boothryod alone makes it worthwhile to get your free NYT registration if you don't already have one. Isn't that right, Mr. Bond?

Comments

What the F*ck?

[Black_Macrame]

Ok, most of us are comp nerds with little knowledge of what the CIA actually does.

Well, I do. I have been a political activist almost as long as I have been a computer nerd. I've chatted with ex-CIA guys over beers, including a few that have left the 'Company' to renegade against them.

All I really have to say is, isn't this a wonderful chance for them to insert backdoors into every product hard and soft? Full access to all company data, schematics, code, and so on. It is a BAD idea to do business with the CIA (jezuz, they specialize in destabilizing other countries' goverments). I'm sure some slimey individuals and companies will do business with them, but I hope the marketplace shows that they have no place in the private sector, and they shrivel up and die.

I will boycott any product produced in conjunction with them, but I fear, what if they strike a deal with chip manufacturers or OS producers?

Does anyone know any way we can stop this? Is it legal for the govt. to start a private enterprise like this? They are unrestricted in the private sector...

Why the surprise and fear?

[Stonehand]

The Federal Government has been subsidizing tech for many, many years; for instance, (D)ARPA funds vast amounts of research at universities and other institutions, and a lot of that is for developing technology that is useful for both civillian and military usage. Mobile computing, overhead imagery databases, autonomous highway-capable cars...

There are just two twists here. One is that it's the CIA (and behaving unusually openly for them, but perhaps there are regulations about companies revealing investors?). The other is that they've picked up on venture capital as a method of funding, in constrast to the old ways of research subsidies, specific contracts and so forth. This means that they can indirectly fund different companies, but not lock either themselves or their beneficiaries into a specific system.

This means that Joe, Angie and Fred, Inc., a hypothetical new startup, could -- even before having a clear application that's ready to ship and fulfills a specific niche -- be eligible to receive seed money, presumably in exchange for a stake in the company. Then, this stake can be later sold and re-invested elsewhere, if they (the CIA's VC firm) hold to the idea of their being non-profit and self-sustaining. That's the theory, anyway.

In that regards, the CIA's interests are multiple. One, it gets an idea of who's around. No doubt they're always interested in getting people who can help them analyze the information they bring in, and they get enough that they need automation. Two, it lets them boost domestic tech, which is a Good Thing to stay competitive with other nations that do the same, only often moreso. The CIA would rather not depend upon the graces of foreign governments to import superior tech. Three, it's cleaner-looking than direct contracts and subsidies, and lets people realize that not everybody at the CIA is a spook trying to latch on to informed Muscovites or find-and-forward Saddam's current whereabouts to the Mossad.

The obvious downsides? One is that they might, if they find particularly nifty tech, try to appropriate it or at least make it non-exportable. It also does raise conflicts of interest questions, but these could be resolved if the VC firm is set up intelligently (read: if it's managed anything like a blind trust. Difficult, 'tho.).