(https://www.anonymizer.com/img/enterprise_icon.png)
(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/72/GCHQ-aerial.jpg/800px-GCHQ-aerial.jpg)
Does anyone else know why some people might think it is strange that the first image is inspired by the second one.? ???
Which one is the oldest?
If you're asking in a compare/contrast way?
Well, the top company is Ntrepid. An American corp dedicated to data collection (data mining) and the tools to let the average person or business do the same. Complete with what appear to be proxy IP packages to do it in something like real anonymity. (Data mining is both a personal and professional interest of mine, so it hit a note of recognition.)
The second one is one of the best known buildings in the world, if one is familiar with national security services. They put the U in UK for how the GCHQ makes your business, their business as a full time deal. If there is a single source for running the totality concept...that would be where I'd look first.
Of course, it would be quite a coup for the watchers to start-up and own Ntrepid, wouldn't it? Watch the most paranoid private sector watchers, by giving them the sense that they can watch without BEING watched ...all the while, using the very tools made by the most powerful overseers in the world.
It just makes ya weak some days, doesn't it?
Quote from: ArMaP on October 04, 2014, 02:00:53 PM
Which one is the oldest?
I'm assuming it is the second one.
QuoteAbout Anonymizer
As the global leader in online privacy, anonymity, and identity protection solutions, Anonymizer continues to push the envelope with products that allow consumers and organizations to remain safe, secure, and anonymous each time they go online. With a pristine 18-year history of protecting customer online identities, our products and services have protected countless web searches and personal communications.
Our Mission
Anonymizer makes your online privacy our personal mission, which is why we cannot and will not correlate an individual user with any of the websites you visit. Our system is built in a way that makes us incapable of tracking your Internet activities. We believe what you do online is your business, no one else's, so the only logs maintained by Anonymizer are the time of log in and the amount of bandwidth utilized.
For more information about our logging and privacy policies, please review our EULA and privacy policy.
https://www.anonymizer.com/about.html
It just amuses me that they have modelled their logo on the building which houses the UK equivelent of NSA - GCHQ. GCHQ are probably one of the two biggest snooping organisations on Earth and a company selling VPN solutions to protect our privacy and anonymity made their symbol a copy of GCHQ headquarters. ::)
Perhaps it is a GCHQ front. I emailed them to see if they wanted to explain the resemblance. :o
I might email them again and send them a link to this thread.
I'm going to look at the symbols of other VPN providers to see if there are moree clues.
Quote from: Wrabbit2000 on October 04, 2014, 02:05:30 PM
Of course, it would be quite a coup for the watchers to start-up and own Ntrepid, wouldn't it? Watch the most paranoid private sector watchers, by giving them the sense that they can watch without BEING watched ...all the while, using the very tools made by the most powerful overseers in the world.
It makes sense to me. ;)
Do Ntrepid own Anonymizer then?
Quote from: Pimander on October 04, 2014, 03:20:29 PM
It makes sense to me. ;)
Do Ntrepid own Anonymizer then?
I believe you are onto something there. This is a header area from the Ntrepid site:
(http://www.oldhippie.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=508&d=1412433829)
After doing a bit more checking, I found a bit more information for what its worth. The Abraxas Corporation 'acquired' Anonymizer in 2008. Abraxas Corporation is also, for those who recognize the name, the people who brought us TrapWire (https://www.trapwire.com/). That was apparently an effort from the same company begun in 2004 and marketed in 2007. That came prior to the merger with Cubic Corp, and each can make their own determination of how tangled THAT particular web gets to being.
That leads to Ntrepid. Ntrepid merged with Cubic, from how I am reading it, in 2010, whereby it got the assets of Abraxas Corporation but not necessarily Abraxas Applications, tho they are seeminly tied together at that stage. (someone with more background in business may want to take a look at this too).
End result tho seems to be that Ntrepid owns Cubic, which owns Abraxas Corp, which in turn owns TrapWire...Formerly Abraxas Applications. That puts Anonymizer squarely in Ntrepid's ultimate basket through subsidiary ownership.
Isn't corporate backtracking fun? Err.....not. :)
ZDNet: Examining the ties between TrapWire, Abraxas and Anonymizer (http://www.zdnet.com/examining-the-ties-between-trapwire-abraxas-and-anonymizer-7000002770/)
Wrabbit, they have removed the logo from the Anonymizer website mate. I only emailed them about it an hour or two ago.
Looks like I just got moved up the GCHQ watch list. Hello British Intelligence. :P
Quote from: Pimander on October 04, 2014, 02:41:51 PM
I'm assuming it is the second one.
I don't know if it is, but that site exists since the 1990s.
QuoteIt just amuses me that they have modelled their logo on the building which houses the UK equivelent of NSA - GCHQ.
I don't think they did, I think I have seen other logos/drawings/signs/whatever like that, several years ago.
Quote from: Pimander on October 04, 2014, 03:57:34 PM
Wrabbit, they have removed the logo from the Anonymizer website mate.
What do you mean? I just saw it there. ???
I can't see it on their website now. Can anyone else in the UK see that logo using the link to their site I provided? I'll restart my browser and try again.
ArMaP, are you saying you do not think that the logo is a stylised version of GCHQ headquarters (the doughnut)?
QuoteBuilt to modernise and consolidate GCHQ's multiple buildings in Cheltenham, The Doughnut was completed in 2003, and GCHQ moved into the building in 2004.[1] It is the largest building constructed for secret intelligence operations outside the United States.[6]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Doughnut
I guess we need to know when that logo first appeared?
Quote from: Pimander on October 04, 2014, 04:14:55 PM
ArMaP, are you saying you do not think that the logo is a stylised version of GCHQ headquarters (the doughnut)?
Yes, that's what I'm saying. :)
Quote from: ArMaP on October 04, 2014, 04:18:17 PM
Yes, that's what I'm saying. :)
I disagree.
I can see the logo on their website in the business solutions tab now I restarted my browser. All this internet espionage is enough to make me paranoid. ;D
Quote from: Pimander on October 04, 2014, 04:24:54 PM
All this internet espionage is enough to make me paranoid. ;D
Dont worry, they know what your are doing ;)
;D
Quote from: Pimander on October 04, 2014, 03:57:34 PM
Looks like I just got moved up the GCHQ watch list. Hello British Intelligence. :P
Sounds like clearing your browser brought the logo back and visible?
I do see what you're saying with it tho. The whole chain of companies and specifically what ION is designed to do and service runs a civilian parallel to what GCHQ does in a MUCH larger and much further reaching way. Data mining is data mining when it comes down to it with modern methods with modern transfer speeds tho... Really..scale is all that changes in dramatic ways.
The logo would be like a defense contractor making theirs to resemble our Pentagon tho? They couldn't come all that close, because I'm sure that's a protected symbol or trademark or however they'd call it when used in an identifiable way in the same context. So...It'd be stylized in a way far enough to be good on it's own, but make the same mental connection you made to anyone in the market for what they happen to do for a living. Makes sense.
As far as paranoia.. Heck... mind over matter. The watching doesn't matter if we give it no mind or time. They look for people being sneaky anyway. Just be out front and open with whatever, and these days? The idiots off hunting bogeymen will pass right by. They watch too much, is what has come to cripple them, IMO.
Quote from: Wrabbit2000 on October 04, 2014, 09:26:44 PM
As far as paranoia.. Heck... mind over matter. The watching doesn't matter if we give it no mind or time. They look for people being sneaky anyway. Just be out front and open with whatever, and these days? The idiots off hunting bogeymen will pass right by. They watch too much, is what has come to cripple them, IMO.
I agree that people can be too obsessed about it all. If you are dealing with leaked government material or want to protect your sources then you can't be too careful. Some stuff I would not discuss on the interweb without taking precautions. ;)
Jokes aside, I started looking at the VPN providers with that in mind to see whether I thought they can be trusted as it is cheaper than setting up my own. Well in view of the fact that these type of company are also selling information gathering services then there is no chance really.
I'm trying not to start joking again..... Now I'm beginning to doubt whether even OpenVPN will be secure if I set up my own. ::)
You guys might be interested in some leaked ION Company Documents from WikiLeaks:
Such gems as:
Gathering Open Source Intelligence Anonymously
Anatomy of a Social Network: Finding Hidden Connections and True Influencers in Target Data
https://wikileaks.silk.co/page/ION-Internet-Operations-Network (https://wikileaks.silk.co/page/ION-Internet-Operations-Network)
https://wikileaks.org/spyfiles/docs/NTREPID_2011_IONInteOper_en.html (https://wikileaks.org/spyfiles/docs/NTREPID_2011_IONInteOper_en.html)
Having read some of that information I am tempted to hire them. :)
Of course, being involved with providing services for spooks hardly inspires confidence that they don't have back doors in their proprietary technologies or that they won't record what you do. I'd even suggest that even if the company do not sell data to the NSA and GCHQ then some of their employees will work for said organisations. ;)
I am so tempted to set up a company myself to protect online identities and so forth. I'd also like to make it easier for people to leak information to us securely but I don't trust the companies who sell these services. It is a shame as they do have promise for activists overseas, privacy protection, human rights campaigning, politics and more.
It is so difficult to work out who to trust. Is it surprising we get paranoid. (No I'm not a terrorist.) ::)
Just because your paranoid, does not mean they're not out to get you..
As a side note, it might be an idea to start compiling a list of 'their' public and private security forces.
I know I've accidentily stumbled across a few obscure one's this year, with some rather interesting pojects going on.
Things have 'stepped up' a few notches in the UK, like they were behind schedual, and had some catching up to do - sharpish.
Tories trying to push through things everywhere, in a manner so that it's hard to keep up.
I have a feeling Labour might come around next, but they will continue with the Tory model. If this happens, I think this is the ultimate time we need to go to war with our political parties (or the system as a whole, from a tin hat point of view).
We'll all be out of work and on food ration cards in 3 years -_-
Hell to the muvaf#### no!
Quote from: Pimander on October 04, 2014, 11:09:58 PM
If you are dealing with leaked government material or want to protect your sources then you can't be too careful.
You do raise a good point I need to start thinking about on the Sources side of it. It's something I hadn't really thought of that much, since I haven't dealt with anyone in pursuing journalism to this point who shared anything beyond what could be devastating to a private individual. The 'worst' of that sort of thing wasn't even shared in the context of my story writing anyway, so it hadn't really crossed my mind. Hmm... Yeah, Uncle Sam is working hard on violating privacy to such things these days, eh?
As far as me personally? My first business contact with the FBI was on the wrong side of an interrogation table when I was 21. You may have heard of the case.... A little twit in Oklahoma decided to park a truck downtown and let it explode in a very rude way. I happened to be a few hundred miles away in a trucking classroom on that morning (which saved my bacon..since I was basically a 'drifter' by choice for the year or more before that...err...that would have been more than awkward). So, I figure that started my Federal file and there it's been since. Of course, half a dozen work related background checks for federal regulations and what I go through to maintain a CCW permit tends to say 'they' don't see anything too objectionable, but I honestly don't give the issue that much time to care.
They are literally drowning in an ocean of data while losing trust from within toward those who handle it and make sense of it. Instead of pausing to get better at handling what they have? They're not even slowing down in adding ways to collect even more info. More and more....atop what they cannot properly use for the occasional useful task now. (Real attacks they miss.... Bogus attack intel they publicly wet their pants and close Embassies over....and pretty much nothing having worked domestically but to piss off the public).
The watchers are their own worst enemy and it reminds me of the man who would give everything to be King, only to find himself King of a poisoned realm. It's having everything, to the point of having nothing. I do give the whole system time for personal amusement tho. There is plenty of that these days. :)
Quote from: Sinny on October 05, 2014, 11:21:14 AM
I have a feeling Labour might come around next, but they will continue with the Tory model. If this happens, I think this is the ultimate time we need to go to war with our political parties (or the system as a whole, from a tin hat point of view).
I think there is scope for a new mass movement to challenge the big parties. Labour are no longer likely to represent the many.
We all want liberty, privacy, fairness and protection of our culture from alien cultures. Doesn't sound that confusing really does it? That is the potential power of such a movement.
Because building such a movement will be a threat, the undemocratic forces that would move against it would require the core membership to be very well protected when operating online.
Quote
Hell to the muvaf#### no!
Here here. :)
Quote from: Wrabbit2000 on October 05, 2014, 12:55:52 PM
As far as me personally? My first business contact with the FBI was on the wrong side of an interrogation table when I was 21.
There is a file on me too (in the UK). I was a bit of a campaigner and involved with radical politics when younger. I am told just being arrested at an anti-capitalist demo can get you listed as a category 3 terrorist! That is without being convicted of any crime. Supposedly in a democracy. Interestingly the file has never stopped me working under the official secrets act so make of that what you will. ;)
I agree with your sentiment about the king of a poisoned kingdom. The idea they have worked on is that the end justifies the means. I think that often the means determines the end.