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posted by Editor on Wednesday September 26, @09:32AM
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SilentRunner allows companies to track their workers' Internet use by drawing pictures and maps of computers, showing the links and rates of communication between them. The software was originally developed by Raytheon, which spun off a separate company to market it. Raytheon designed SilentRunner to protect businesses against intellectual-property theft, but it can also be used to check whether an employee is utilizing the Internet for private or business purposes, and to determine if too many emails are being sent to suspicious recipients. There are some screenshots of the tool here, here, and here. Raytheon also has some pictures in its product brochure (PDF).
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While intriguing, the product seems questionable. Visualization in theory should make the raw data much easier to understand. But the graphics that I can barely see on that website seem very difficult to interpret. Maybe it'd be easier with the textual detail which is (presumably deliberately) too small to read. But if you have to take a 4.5 day course to begin using them properly (+3 more days if you want to be "advanced"), I wonder whether teaching people about log files gives them a more flexible, powerful understanding of what's going on? Shades of Unicenter-TNG...
--Greg
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by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 26, @04:22PM EST (#2)
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yet another 'legal' invasion of privacy.
somehow, i think if the founding fathers could see how the constitution has been twisted and contorted to fit everyone's needs, they would cry.
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don't forgot. the company's computers are private property, so they have EVERY right to monitor the usage of them.
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by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 28, @12:00PM EST (#4)
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From someone who knows about SR ... and (honestly) just happened to stumble across your site by chance ...
1- in re: the SR training course
Yes, the graphic on the web look badly. The
real interface does not.
The visualization is very easy to "get into" -- understandable. The 2d and 3d graphics represent data relationships in a very intuitive fashion.
The course is to (1) learn the interface ... this is a complex tool, and also (2) to get you to see data in a non-orthagonal way. You need to learn to "see" and understand data relationships in ways you've never thought of.
If you've seen it ... it makes the hairs on the back of your neck stand up with how damned good it is at SIGINT.
2- in re: invasion of privacy
Yes, you can assume the engine behind SR is used in Echelon and Carnivore (but dumbed down and made into a completely passive tool, not attack abilities). So, yes -- its scary. But, "founding fathers ... invasion of privacy" ... oh please! The founding fathers wouldn't side on the set of people *broadcasting* their private data around (cordless phones, wireless keyboards/mice, wireless ethernet, wireless cell phones and sending your email in the clear across thousands of miles). You're faulting the law enforcement folks for simply, passively watching what flys by? and for placing listeners around to get more signal? ... stop broadcasting.
If I wrote my credit card # and expiration date and sent them to you on a postcard, at work ... then I'm a bit naive for thinking the postal workers at USPS -- or your office mail clerk -- can be trusted not to abuse it. Duh!
But I do side with you on the point where you may be implying that the gov't would strong-arm ISPs into giving them prime listening locations for their collectors.
-- Mr Anonymous
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