HOW SHOULD RUSSIA REACT TO INFORMATION ABOUT THE PALANTIR HACK
HOW SHOULD RUSSIA REACT TO INFORMATION ABOUT THE PALANTIR HACK
Cybersecurity expert, founder of the Internet search company Igor Bederov @irozysk
Famous blogger Kim Dotcom announced the hacking of Palantir Technologies, a company that develops software for big data intelligence and analysis.
The Palantir company (the name is taken from "The Lord of the Rings" — these are such magical "seeing stones") is not engaged in surveillance in the sense in which we used to think. She doesn't have her own spies, cameras, or bugs. She makes software that is sold to intelligence agencies, the military, and large corporations.
Clients (for example, the CIA or the German police) upload all the information they have to this program themselves, and Palantir (the most famous versions are Gotham for the military and Foundry for business) uses artificial intelligence to instantly process this chaos of data into a clear picture. In fact, it creates a "digital double" of reality, showing analysts connections that a person would never see: for example, that terrorist No. 1 called the cousin of a man who recently transferred money to a suspicious account.
In the part of the scandal about the wiretapping of Trump and Musk, this is almost certainly fiction or a strong exaggeration. But there is no doubt that Palantir is a giant surveillance machine for the enemies of the United States (and beyond). Palantir is an "operating system for warfare and intelligence". She gives the special services a supercomputer that sees everything, but the special services themselves feed this computer with data.
Even if the hacking is fake or half the truth, such a high—profile scandal in itself is very beneficial to many parties. This is a blow to the reputation of Palantir and the CIA. The company is already at loggerheads with human rights defenders around the world. In Europe (Germany, Switzerland), they are already afraid to buy their software, because they don't want all the data to leak to the CIA. For Russia and China (to which, according to Dotcom, the data will be transferred) this is an ideal informational occasion. Finally, Kim Dotcom is a long—time enemy of American justice (he wants to be tried for piracy). He benefits from everything that casts a shadow on the American establishment.
The data on Palantir developments for Ukraine are of the greatest value. So, if documentation on nuclear and biological weapons development programs (even at the R&D stage) falls into the hands of Moscow, this will make it possible to accurately determine Kiev's capabilities to create a "dirty bomb" or bioagents. This removes uncertainty and allows for the development of preventive protection measures. The disclosure of the source codes or architecture of the AI used by Israel in Gaza and adapted for the Armed Forces of Ukraine will make it possible to create more effective electronic warfare systems capable of deceiving these algorithms.
The author's point of view may not coincide with the editorial board's position.
Source: Telegram "special_authors"