Meta

United States
Tech giants' woes provide openings for security and intelligence firms

Budgetary cuts are prompting the tech 'big five', collectively known as GAFAM, to externalise intelligence, moderation and counter-disinformation to external providers. A number of firms are now marketing these services.

Taiwan, UAE
Taiwan's space industry makes foray into UAE with Tron Future

Tron Future's space observation technology is at the forefront of Taiwan's fledgling space industry, which is poised to dip a toe in the Emirati marketplace, hoping to secure a place in the kingdom's space programmes.

Russia
Financial intelligence remains last Russian bastion open to international cooperation

The discreet Russian financial intelligence service Rosfinmonitoring, which has been closely involved in international cooperation against the financing of terrorism, is an anomaly among Russian agencies, keeping the door open to cooperation on intelligence sharing with foreign partners.

Spotlight | Europe
Defence companies position themselves for new European cyber situational awareness platform

A European Cyber Situational Awareness Platform, to be built under a programme launched by the European Commission last month, will add another layer to the EU's hybrid warfare apparatus, which some big defence companies are already engaged in.

The Corporate Intelligence Village Voice
Spottiswoode goes to FTI, Exiger hires ex-BACB, Sanction Scanner in US and Chiron head writes book

Appointments, financial results, new contracts: each week, we report on events both big and small that matter in the global corporate intelligence community. This week, we go to New York, London, Paris and Istanbul.

LondonJocelyn Spottiswoode poached by FTI.

New York/LondonExiger Diligence hires AML expert Saba Ahmad.

Washington/IstanbulTurkish Sanction Scanner to screen potential sanctioned persons from US.

ParisHead of security firm Chiron publishes autobiography on former life as paratrooper.

Ukraine
Kyiv tries to stop Moscow benefiting from indirect IT support from the GAFAM

Although there are wide-ranging restrictions on the sale of military equipment and IT systems to Russia, some software and services are not covered by the sanctions. A group of experts is looking to remedy the situation.

France, Saudi Arabia
French consultants steer Saudi Arabia's Scopa Industries

The Saudi Arabian defence company Scopa Industries is tapping into French expertise through offshoots of the Saint-Etienne-based company Meta Productique.

Turkey, United States
Actum promotes Turkish economic interests in US

Previously represented by Mercury Public Affairs, the Turkey-US Business Council has recently appointed Actum, founded by former Mercury executives, to raise its profile in the US.

Israel, Serbia, Sweden
East and West battle for Serbia's mass surveillance software market

The Serbian government is engaged in a delicate balancing act, as it tries to combine state-of-the-art Swedish and American software systems with its already installed Chinese biometric surveillance systems. It is looking for Western technical support and financing to help it do this.

Spotlight | France, Israel, United States
Virtual HUMINT specialists test new avenues for their avatars

Though increasingly sought after by government intelligence services, virtual human intelligence tools have reached a developmental dead-end. Social media sites have been tracking down avatars responsible for online influence campaigns.

Spotlight | Greece, India, Israel
Interception specialists Intellexa and Cleartrail use their Signal capabilities as a sales argument

Although Whatsapp has long been the main target of the cyber-infiltration specialists, secure communications app Signal is now getting increasing attention from companies in the sector.

Spotlight | France, United States
Intelligence world heads into the metaverse

With a growing number of companies offering virtual-world simulation technology, Western armies and intelligence services are starting to get in on the game, branching out into the "metaverse" to optimise their operations and plan for a future where information will be gathered in this alternate space.

Ukraine, United States
Inside Kyiv's lobbying push in Washington

Since the start of the conflict, Ukraine's strategic ministries have been working to influence US decision-makers and bolster its information war effort. This is keeping a dense network of PR-savvy Ukrainians in DC and American defence experts very busy.

Spotlight | China, UAE, United States
Abu Dhabi's AI champion at crux of Sino-US cross-interest

In joining forces with US research centre Petuum, Group 42's AI lab is reinforcing the growing cooperation between Abu Dhabi and Washington in this area, which is increasingly based on Chinese financial interests.

United Kingdom
British investigators flock south to Florida Eldorado

Like the many East Coast corporate intelligence operators, British firms are now being drawn to the Miami sun after traditionally taking root in the concrete jungle of New York City.

Israel
Change of control at NSO's rival in strategic market Quadream

Guy Geva and Nimrod Reznik, who co-founded Israeli cyber intelligence company Quadream with Ilan Dabelstein, have sold their shares, just as competitor NSO finds itself in serious difficulty.

The Corporate Intelligence Village Voice
Raven Special Risks, CIFAL, Riskology, Sibylline

Appointments, financial results, new contracts: each week, we report on events both big and small that matter in the global corporate intelligence community. This week we go to London and Tashkent.

LondonFormer Control Risks exec Michael Haughey returns from Singapore.

TashkentJoanna Golas keeps CIFAL's French networks in the loop.

LondonRiskology bows out after the death of co-founder.

Austin/LondonSibylline handles Apple's intelligence threats.

United States
Linkedin strengthens threat intelligence with former Facebook staff

Professional social network Linkedin has been singled out as a Chinese intelligence data source and is strengthening its threat intelligence department by recruiting from Meta (formerly Facebook), which has been extending its teams in this field over the past three years.

Ireland, United Kingdom
Irish Data Protection Commission beefs up technical investigation capacities with help from private sector

The regulator, which has come under attack for not being tougher with the US tech giants, has teamed with a British forensics expert and four international accounting firms to bolster its investigations.