[Effaustin-discuss] Fed proposal for Virginia cellphone data sharing network

[Gregory Foster]

On 11/22/14, 2:55 PM, Gregory Foster wrote:
> United States Attorney’s Office in the Eastern District of Virginia
> (~2011) - "A Proposal for the Creation of the Hampton Roads Telephone
> Intercept Sharing Network (HRTISN)" by Investigative Analyst Paul B.
> Swartz:
> https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/1364622-hampton-roads-usatty.html
> 
> via
> 
> arstechnica (Nov 21) - "Feds proposed the secret phone database used by
> local Virginia cops" by @cfarivar:
> http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2014/11/feds-proposed-the-secret-phone-database-used-by-local-virginia-cops/


The hardware and software infrastructure recommended by the federal
prosecutors office is called "Pen-Link" by Pen-Link, Ltd. (Lincoln, NE):
https://www.penlink.com/

Here's a listing of 339 federal contract events with Pen-Link, Ltd.:
https://www.fpds.gov/ezsearch/fpdsportal?indexName=awardfull&templateName=1.4.4&s=FPDS&q=VENDOR_FULL_NAME%3A%22PEN-LINK%2C+LTD.%22&x=32&y=15

And here's a graphic analysis of expenditures on Pen-Link hardware,
software, services, and training by year stacked by federal agency:
http://jsfiddle.net/gregoryfoster/eb2zgre2/7/embedded/result/

There are some interesting signs in the data which suggest the manner in
which familiarity with Pen-Link's capabilities spread throughout the
USG, geographically across the US (see DEA data), and across the world
(see State Department records - although Pen-Link, Ltd. also exports
across the globe).  The tripling of investment by the DEA in 2014 is
noteworthy.  GSA records over $50M USD worth of contract events dating
back to an initial engagement in 1995 by the DEA and the U.S. Marshals
Service.

gf

-- 
Gregory Foster || gfoster at entersection.org
@gregoryfoster <> http://entersection.com/