Google Cozies Up to the Pentagon

On Monday , the Defense Department ’s best - known geek announced that she wasleaving the Pentagon for a job at Google . It was an unexpected move : Washington and Mountain View do n’t trade top executives very often . But it should n’t fall as a complete surprise . The net colossus has had a long and deep complicated kinship with America ’s military and intelligence communities . reckon on the topic , the fourth dimension , and the thespian involve , the Pentagon and the Plex can be customers , job partners , adversaries , or mistrustful ally . Recruiting the director of Darpa to bring together Google was just the latest move in this intricate dance between colossus .

But in the hall of the Pentagon and America ’s intelligence agencies , Google casts a comparatively small trace , at least compared to those of big defensive measure declarer like Lockheed Martin , Booz Allen Hamilton , and Northrop Grumman , and SAIC . Yes , a small fistful of one - meter Googlers joined the Obama administration after the 2008 election , but most of those hoi polloi are now back in the secret sphere . for certain , Google turned to the electronic internet defense specialistsat the National Security Agency , when the company became the target of a sophisticated hacking military campaign in 2009 . The Lockheeds and the Northrops of the worldshare with the Pentagoninformation about computer virus and malware in their networks every twenty-four hour period .

Government work is , after all , only a minuscule part of Google ’s job . And that admit the Plex to take a nuanced , many - tined access when dealing with spooks and generals . ( The fellowship did not respond to request to comment for this article . )

Hostinger Coupon Code 15% Off

Google has afederally focused sales force , marketing its search gismo and its apps to the government . They ’ve sold millions of dollars ’ worth of gear to the National Security Agency’ssecretive eavesdroppersand to the National Geospatial - Intelligence Agency’ssatellite watchmen . And they ’re seduce major inroads in the mobile grocery store , whereAndroid has become the operating arrangement of choicefor the military machine ’s burgeon smartphone experiments . But unlike other concern run in the Beltway , Google does n’t often customize its merchandise for its Washington client . It ’s a for the most part take - it - or - leave - it approaching to merchandising .

“ They crap all over any request for customization , ” says a former Google executive . “ The attitude is : ‘ we know how to progress software . If you do n’t know how to use it , you ’re an idiot . ' ”

Some of that software , though , only made it to Mountain View after an extract of government activity cash . Take the mapping firm Keyhole , punt by In - Q - Tel , the investiture arm of the Central Intelligence Agency . Google bought Keyhole in 2004 – and then work it into the backbone for Google Earth , which has become a must - have tool in all sort of imagery analysis cellphone . When I visiteda team of Air Force targeteers in 2009 , a Google Earth map highlight all the know hospitals , mosque , burial ground , and school in Afghanistan helped them nibble which buildings to bomb or not .

Burning Blade Tavern Epic Universe

Around the same time , theinvestment arms of Google and the CIAboth put hard currency into Recorded Future , a caller that monitor social medium in actual meter – and essay to use that data to predict upcoming events .

“ Turns out that there are several natural place to take an power to harvest and examine the net to prognosticate future event , ” e - mails immortalize Future chief operating officer Christopher Ahlberg . “ There ’s search , where any innovation that provide improved relevance is helpful ; and intelligence , which at some horizontal surface is all about predicting events and their implications . ( Finance is a third . ) That made Google Ventures and In - Q - Tel two very natural investors that provides us hook into the worlds of hunting and word . ”

Google is pretty much the only company that publishes the number of asking it receive – a tactic which sometimes do teeth to grind in D.C. But it ’s essential to the well - being of Plex ’s core line : its consumer lookup ad . Google , as we all know , keeps a titanic amount of information about every aspect of our on-line life . Customers for the most part have trusted the troupe so far , because of the quality of its products , and because there ’s some sensory faculty that the Plex and the Pentagon are n’t switch data point wholesale . These small acts of impedance wield that perceived roadblock .

Ideapad3i

Not long ago – in the middle of the last decade , say – Google held an almost talismanic power inside military and intelligence agency . Google made seek the WWW simple-minded and straightforward . Surely , the governing ought to be able to do the same for its databases .

“ You kept hearing : ‘ how come this ca n’t work like Google , ' ” read Bob Gourley , who served as the Defense Intelligence Agency ’s Chief Technology Officer from 2005 to 2007 . “ But after a while the technologists got educated . You do n’t really want Google . ”

Or at least , not in that way . Even complex WWW search are single filament of information . news analysts are hunting for interlocking chains of event : Person A in the same cafe as person B , who chats with person C , who gives some cash to soul D. Those query were so intricate , government engineers had to program each one in by hand , not so long ago . But lately , more sophisticated tools have fall onto the grocery store ; the troops and spooks have catch better at desegregate their databases . Google ’s products are still used , of course . But it ’s just one vendor among many .

Last Of Us 7 Interview