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Watching him watching you
New Scientist vol 178 issue 2399 – 14 June 2003, page 44
Eugenie Samuel (from our discussion board)
Excerpt:
“……the aim of TIA is to develop bots that look for characteristic and very specific
patterns of terrorist activity. "TIA is not data mining, it is hypothesis driven," says Jan
Walker, spokeswoman for DARPA. To do this, TIA bots will upload themselves to other
locations and incorporate themselves into the host code. They might reorganise a
database of credit card records that is only searchable under credit card number and
name, so it can be searched for certain kinds of purchase as well. Once on the host
system, the bot can run its search there, pulling out complex patterns in the data, such as
the coincidence of certain phone calls or travel plans. This information is then returned to
the intelligence agency via the internet or other data links.”
Interesting to note the comment from a DARPA spokeswoman, Jan Walkser that TIA is
not “data mining” , it is hypothesis driven ! That comment seems a little “defensive”
Definition of “Data Mining” in (Turban McLean Wetherbee p 413 )
“ Data mining is a tool used to search for and extract useful information from volumes
of data . Data mining is used in a process called knowledge discovery in databases
(KDD) etc )
Respectfully, surely the “bots” mentioned in the article are performing “data mining
“techniques” from huge volumes of data, albeit “automated” ?? The “hypothesis “ in this
context would be, which theory ? An “instruction” to a “bot” to search for certain
characteristics of data ? Surely an “instruction” programmed into some computer
software “code” is more than an “hypothesis?
The other interesting information was that TIA was originally named the:
Total Information Awareness program, then re-named the Terrorism Information
Awareness program due to members of the US Congress, and others being concerend
about privacy and civil liberties of American Citizens.hence “Orwellian “overtones in
the article.
I have provided a few “links” that I found when searching for DARPA , who interestingly
enough was ARPA , whom I am sure you are more than aware of
Part I: The history of ARPA leading up to the ARPANET
A climate of pure research surrounded the entire history of the ARPANET. The
Advanced Research Projects Agency was formed with an emphasis towards research, and
thus was not oriented only to a military product. The formation of this agency was part of
the U.S. reaction to the then Soviet Union's launch of Sputnik in 1957. (ARPA draft, III-
6). ARPA was assigned to research how to utilize their investment in computers via
Command and Control Research (CCR). Dr. J.C.R. Licklider was chosen to head this
effort. Licklider came to ARPA from Bolt, Beranek and Newman, (BBN) in Cambridge,
MA in October 1962. (ARPA draft, III-6)
This became of course the Internet
Source: http://www.dei.isep.ipp.pt/docs/arpa--1.html
Genoa II is also discussed on http://www.ai.sri.com/project/GENOAII
SRI’s Artificial Intelligence Centre
http://212.111.49.124/news-archive/tia/total-information-awareness.htm
http://infowar.net/tia/www.darpa.mil/iao/GenoaII.htm
http://www.epic.org/privacy/profiling/tia/
Total "Terrorism" Information Awareness (TIA)
The Electronic Privacy Information Centre
I assume these