Spotlight | United States
Thiel carves niche in US intelligence imagery

France, United Kingdom
UK's OSINT Industries in talks to acquire France's OSINTracker

Set up barely a year ago, the British open source intelligence firm OSINT Industries is trying to make its mark in an increasingly competitive sector. The fledgling firm hopes to acquire OSINTracker's data visualisation tool, which could help it achieve its goals.

Spotlight | China, Russia, Ukraine
China's Piesat trades with Moscow to deploy drones in Ukraine

The Chinese firm Piesat, a partner of Russian intelligence since the start of Moscow's war on Ukraine, has begun to sell its drones to Russia, to make up for the Russian armed forces' colossal losses of unmanned aircraft.

Spotlight | United States
NUVIEW and Array Labs in race to launch LiDAR satellite constellations

The US startup NUVIEW wants to carve out a niche for itself in the market of laser imaging satellites. Its main competitor operating in this new frontier of geospatial intelligence is the more established American tech firm Array Labs.

The Tech Times
Whooster tested by US Marshals, Sergio Caltagirone leaves Dragos

Whether in SIGINT, GEOINT, OSINT or cyber, we report each week on developments great and small in the world of the technical intelligence providers.

ArlingtonUS Marshals call in Whooster for their OSINT.

BaltimoreFormer NSA analyst Sergio Caltagirone says goodbye to Dragos.

United States
FBI faces increasing political scrutiny as election security and counter-espionage work piles up

FBI head Chris Wray needs to continue adapting the bureau to meet new internal and external threats. Paradoxically, the supposedly traditionally conservative organisation is confronted by increasingly fierce attacks from the Republican Party.

China, United States
Washington moulds new multilateral strategy in 'China Initiative' follow-up

After pressure from the FBI, the 'China Initiative' has undergone an official name change. Washington is now keen to take a harder line and involve its Indo-Pacific allies in a drive to both rid itself of spies and protect itself from the Chinese Communist Party.

United States
HawkEye scores first US space-based SIGINT contracts

The US radio frequency signals specialist has been selected to provide its data to the US geospatial intelligence agency NGA and work with Space Force as competition in the sector heats up.

United States
Planet's SPAC deal reveals the scale of the challenges it faces

By using a SPAC to obtain a stock exchange listing, US New Space GEOINT pioneer Planet, had to release information which shows the scale of the financial and industrial challenges which still lie ahead of it.

Cyprus
TRG prepares to enter European market

The Cyprus-based firm TRG Research And Development is adapting its unstructured data processing solution to meet the needs of European intelligence services.

United States
Guidepost poaches from Gavin De Becker

Former federal prosecutor Bart Schwartz's Guidepost Solutions, which specialises in [...]

United States
FBI externalises FISA audit for greater credibility

On September 23, the FBI issued a tender for assistance [...]

United States
Five Eyes urged to collaborate on future AI standards

The National Security Commission on Artificial Intelligence (NSCAI), an independent committee established by Congress in 2018, called on the US [...]

United States
Former FBI investigators examined Bezos' iPhone for FTI

FTI Consulting hired a crack team of former FBI Cyber Division investigators to probe the hacking of Amazon chief Jeff [...]

Japan, United States
Palantir targets Japanese market

The US data mining company Palantir sent Fabrice Bregier, the [...]

United States
Silvus guides drones without GPS

Wireless communications specialist Silvus Technologies has integrated positioning and navigation functions into its radio equipment that can take over when GPS signals are jammed.

United States
Shadow IT, the next big thing in IT security

Launched by former Darpa and CIA experts, the startup Expanse is helping the Pentagon to detect the connection of unauthorised computers to its networks. Other companies, such as Israel's Axonius, are also positioning themselves in this marketplace.

United States
Banks woo ex-spies to run fusion centres

Banking giant Citi is currently hiring staff to beef up its Cyber Security Fusion Center (CSFC). The new facility will [...]

United States
Ex-Israeli intelligence captain Lital Leshem, from Black Cube to Erik Prince

As director of relations with investors at Erik Prince's personal [...]

United States
Anja Manuel helps Thiel's freight logistics company Flexport in Asia

Flexport, the Californian company that markets data processing and brokerage [...]

France, Germany
DGSI and BKA get into big data

The German and French internal intelligence services are keen to get on with mining the masses of data they possess. [...]

France, United States
Palantir nabs Fabrice Bregier

According to our sources, the US data mining firm Palantir is poised to hire Fabrice Bregier, the former number two [...]

Israel, United States
Thiel supports Ehud Barak's startup Carbyne

The Israeli startup Carbyne, which previously went by the name [...]

France
Bernard Emie Hobnobs with Karp and Thiel at Bilderberg

After Patrick Calvar performed similar duties in 2015 (IOL 737), [...]

Spotlight | France
New Space revolution a blow to French GEOINT companies

The shake-up of the satellite imagery market that started in the US is making its effects felt on the French Geospatial-Intelligence (GEOINT) sector.

United States
DSS, Trump's watchdog against Chinese investment

The Defense Security Service (DSS), the Pentagon's counter-intelligence service, launched a tender in February to externalise the analysis of data [...]

France
Amazon puts ANSSI to the test

Amazon Web Services (AWS), which does a lot of work for the Pentagon and the US intelligence community (IOL 791), [...]

Qatar, United States
Palantir plants flag in Doha

Palantir, the US intelligence community's big data darling, has its [...]

Spotlight | China
Beijing pursues plan to dominate GEOINT sector

China intends to profit from the shake-up in the satellite imagery sector in Western countries to get its hands on American know-how and develop its own capacities.

United States
Intelligence community urges Congress to renew Section 702

Senior U.S. intelligence leaders are asking Congress to renew Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act before it expires [...]

United States
Despite Trump, Congress builds cyberdefence against Russia

Although the White House continues to play down the role of Russian interference in the US elections last year, the [...]

Europe, United States
Sale of DigitalGlobe may cool GEOINT speculation

Canada's MDA is struggling to finalise its acquisition of DigitalGlobe while funds have also dried up for new companies in the GEOINT sector, suggesting a slowdown in what used to be a feverish marketplace.

United States
Planet ever closer to the NGA

The geospatial intelligence startup has been contracted to supply US intelligence with imagery from Syria and Iraq, Iran and North Korea.

France
Dataiku, French firm, seeks to rival Palantir

Specializing in processing huge amounts of data and predictive algorithms, the French firm Dataiku is increasingly positioning itself to vie [...]

United Kingdom
May played Trump card to sack GCHQ chief

The sudden departure of Robert Hannigan as head of GCHQ, [...]

United States
Ex-Ashton Carter aide goes to amazon

Iram Ali, who was former US Secretary of Defense Ashton [...]

United States
SpaceX beefs up its security

SpaceX, the start-up that builds space launchers for Elon Musk, [...]

France
DGSI gets new technical director

Patrick Guyonneau has been appointed to head the technical department [...]

China, United States
FBI makes very political arrest

The arrest of US diplomat Candace Marie Claiborne by the [...]

United States
NSA sheds light on technology transfer to the private sector

The latest issue of the National Security Agency’s (NSA) quarterly [...]

United States
Peter Thiel has big GEOINT 2.0 plans

The Silicon Valley billionaire and Donald Trump supporter has been advancing his pawns in the low-cost observation satellite business.

France
The DGSI

The DGSI, France's internal intelligence service, has finally signed a [...]

France
DGSI courts Palantir

The French internal intelligence service, which is completely overwhelmed by the fight against terrorism in France, has turned to the US data mining specialist for help.

United States
Google's wings clipped by shutter control

Having burst onto the Geospatial-Intelligence (GEOINT) scene a year ago, Google and others newcomers in the market have since bowed down to the federal government.

United States
The NGA

The NGA is pursuing its policy of greater openness to [...]

Spotlight | United States
NGA opens arms to private sector

Robert Cardillo, the director of the National Geospatial-intelligence Agency (NGA), is looking to revolutionise the agency's relationship with the burgeoning GEOINT private sector. The agency recently published its new strategy with regard to new companies in the sector (see here).

Elon Musk continues great trek into satellite Internet

The US tech mogul originally from Pretoria, Elon Musk, is working on bringing his services to southern Africa.

Amazon sets up its "cloud" in the smart Hay Riad district

American e-commerce giant Amazon has opened the offices of its [...]