A shadowy company set up last September linked to a DARPA / FBI contractor who peddled a ‘lawful intercept’ internet spy device to government agencies and law enforcement a decade ago, took over a massive portion of the Pentagon’s idle internet addresses on the day of President Biden’s inauguration, according to an in-depth investigation by the Associated Press.
The valuable internet real estate has since quadrupled to 175 million IP addresses which were previously owned by the US Department of Defense – about 1/25th the size of the current internet, and over twice the size of the internet space actually used by the Pentagon.
“It is massive. That is the biggest thing in the history of the internet,” said Doug Madory, director of internet analysis at network operating company Kenntic.
The company, Global Resource Systems, was established by a Beverly Hills attorney, and now resides in a shared workspace above a Florida bank.
The company did not return phone calls or emails from The Associated Press. It has no web presence, though it has the domain grscorp.com.
Its name doesn’t appear on the directory of its Plantation, Florida, domicile, and a receptionist drew a blank when an AP reporter asked for a company representative at the office earlier this month.
She found its name on a tenant list and suggested trying email. Records show the company has not obtained a business license in Plantation.
Incorporated in Delaware and registered by a Beverly Hills lawyer, Global Resource Systems LLC now manages more internet space than China Telecom, AT&T or Comcast.” – Associated Press
One name is linked to Global Resource Systems in the Florida business registry – that of Raymond Saulino – who as recently as 2018 was listed in Nevada corporate records as a managing director of a cybersecurity/internet surveillance company called Packet Forensics.
According to the report, “The company had nearly $40 million in publicly disclosed federal contracts over the past decade, with the FBI and the Pentagon’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency among its customers.”
In 2011, Packet Forensics and Saulino, its spokesman, were featured in a Wired story because the company was selling an appliance to government agencies and law enforcement that let them spy on people’s web browsing using forged security certificates.
The company continues to sell “lawful intercept” equipment, according to its website. One of its current contracts with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is for “harnessing autonomy for countering cyber-adversary systems.”
A contract description says it is investigating “technologies for conducting safe, nondisruptive, and effective active defense operations in cyberspace.”
