Private Eyes

["Dave Farber" <dave () farber net>]

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: *Hendricks Dewayne* <dewayne () warpspeed com>
Date: Sunday, October 23, 2016
Subject: [Dewayne-Net] Private Eyes
To: Multiple recipients of Dewayne-Net <dewayne-net () warpspeed com>


Private Eyes
The Little-Known Company That Enables Worldwide Mass Surveillance
By Ryan Gallagher & Nicky Hager
Oct 23 2016
<https://theintercept.com/2016/10/23/endace-mass-
surveillance-gchq-governments/>

It was a powerful piece of technology created for an important customer.
The Medusa system, named after the mythical Greek monster with snakes
instead of hair, had one main purpose: to vacuum up vast quantities of
internet data at an astonishing speed.

The technology was designed by Endace, a little-known New Zealand company.
And the important customer was the British electronic eavesdropping agency,
Government Communications Headquarters, or GCHQ.

Dozens of internal documents and emails from Endace, obtained by The
Intercept and reported in cooperation with Television New Zealand, reveal
the firm’s key role helping governments across the world harvest vast
amounts of information on people’s private emails, online chats, social
media conversations, and internet browsing histories.

The leaked files, which were provided by a source through SecureDrop, show
that Endace listed a Moroccan security agency implicated in torture as one
of its customers. They also indicate that the company sold its surveillance
gear to more than half a dozen other government agencies, including in the
United States, Israel, Denmark, Australia, Canada, Spain, and India.

Some of Endace’s largest sales in recent years, however, were to the United
Kingdom’s GCHQ, which purchased a variety of “data acquisition” systems and
“probes” that it used to covertly monitor internet traffic.

Documents from the National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden,
previously disclosed by The Intercept, have shown how GCHQ dramatically
expanded its online surveillance between 2009 and 2012. The newly obtained
Endace documents add to those revelations, shining light for the first time
on the vital role played by the private sector in enabling the spying.

Stuart Wilson, Endace’s CEO, declined to answer questions for this story.
Wilson said in a statement that Endace’s technology “generates significant
export revenue for New Zealand and builds important technical capability
for our country.” He added: “Our commercial technology is used by customers
worldwide … who rely on network recording to protect their critical
infrastructure and data from cybercriminals, terrorists, and
state-sponsored cybersecurity threats.”

Endace says it manufactures technology that allows its clients to “monitor,
intercept and capture 100% of traffic on networks.” The Auckland-based
company’s motto is “power to see all” and its logo is an eye.

The company’s origins can be traced back to Waikato University in Hamilton,
New Zealand. There, in 1994, a team of professors and researchers began
developing network monitoring technology using university resources. A
central aim of the project was to find ways to measure different kinds of
data on the internet, which was at that time only just beginning to take
off. Within a few years, the academics’ efforts proved successful; they had
managed to invent pioneering network monitoring tools. By 2001, the group
behind the research started commercializing the technology — and Endace was
formed.

Today, Endace presents itself publicly as focused on providing technology
that helps companies and governments keep their networks secure. But in the
past decade, it has quietly entered into a burgeoning global spy industry
that is worth in excess of an estimated $5 billion annually.

In 2007, Endace representatives promoted their technology at a huge
surveillance technology trade show in Dubai that was attended by dozens of
government agencies from across the world. Endace’s advertising brochures
from the show, which described the company’s products and promoted the need
for greater state surveillance, were published by WikiLeaks in 2013.

One Endace brochure explained how the company’s technology could help
clients “monitor all network traffic inexpensively.” It noted that
telecommunications networks carry many types of information: Skype calls,
videos, emails, and instant message chats. “These networks provide rich
intelligence for law enforcement,” the brochure stated, “IF they can be
accessed securely and with high precision.”

[snip]

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