Verint Systems
Verint Systems (NASDAQ: VRNT ) is an American company for the development and distribution of hardware and software for signal intelligence. The company is headquartered in Melville, Huntington (New York). Verint employs 3200 people worldwide, was for many years a subsidiary of the Israeli software company Comverse Technology Comverse Infosys and operated under. For the beginnings of the company are located in Israel and the company maintains close ties to the intelligence of the country, more precisely, to the unity of 8200, the local NSA counterpart. Approximately half of the employees of Verint is employed in Israel. Verint solutions are used by more than 10,000 organizations in 150 countries.
As Kenneth A. Minihan, was appointed in the 1990s, director of the NSA, to the Board of Verint, this led to speculation that Verint was jointly conducted as NSA - Mossad operation.
In 2006, the founder and CEO of Verint Jacob " Kobi " Alexander, a former Israeli intelligence officer, charged in the United States among others for fraud in connection with electronic data, for securities fraud and for mail fraud, was on the most wanted list of the FBI, fled to Namibia, where he has been fighting for several years against extradition to the U.S..
In 2007, a former commander of the Israeli Intelligence Service Unit 8200 on the technology of the company Comverse (owner of Verint ) is based on the technique of Unit 8200th 2013 confirmed Neve Gordon, Professor of Political Science at Ben- Gurion University, in an interview with the time, there was an intensive transfer of knowledge and professionals between intelligence and " private sector "; many company founders and employees have previously worked in the unit 8200.
In February 2013 Verint Systems was independent of Comverse, but that still owns shares.
In addition to the then Israeli Narus (since 2010 a subsidiary of the U.S. defense and aircraft manufacturer Boeing) was also indirectly involved in the Verint Room 641A scandal in 2006 and the PRISM and surveillance scandal in 2013. With developed by the companies technology the NSA draws a broad band from the global internal communications. This technology has been funded by the Bush administration in Mexico.
According to Snowden leaks
January 2014 was the western Swiss daily newspaper Le Temps reveal that the department Sommaruga, Federal Department of Justice and Migration (FOM ) on December 18, again a supply contract with Verint for the monitoring system Interception System Switzerland (ISS ) signed the covenant, wherein the collar manufacturer Verint wanted to keep secret. This ISS will monitor the telephone and Internet communications in the future with the Swiss police, should cost 13 million francs. Company Verint, was considered in the following discussion as follows dubious that security policymakers in the event wanted to address immediately so expressed Jean-Christophe Schwaab: "Who ordering from a company such as Verint devices, " could the key to it just as good equal to the NSA passed ". And Guido Rudolphi, a Zurich specialist in computer and data security, Schwaabs fears confirmed: " All units from the United States have installed backdoors ( rear doors), can ferret out everything by the secret services. " And he stressed that such contaminated hardware might also be the best professionals in retrospect not make sure ". Backdoors These are like electronic sleeper - you noticed at best, when they are activated from the outside "