Ntrepid

Ntrepid is an American software, hardware, and cyber security company, registered in Florida and based in Herndon, Virginia.

History

In 2008, the Anonymizer company was acquired by the Abraxas Corporation, which was purchased by Cubic in 2010 for $124 million. Some of Abraxas' former employees left to form Ntrepid that same year. Lance Cottrell, founder of Anonymizer, is the chief scientist at Ntrepid. Anonymizer is wholly owned by Ntrepid.

Military contract

In March 2011, Ntrepid won a $2.76 million contract from the U.S. military for "online persona management." The contract was for the creation of technology which would allow for blogging activities on websites, exclusively outside of the United States, to "counter violent extremist and enemy propaganda." It would allow for one operator to anonymously create and control up to ten personas from one computer.

The project is overseen by U.S. Central Command (Centcom), whose spokesman Commander Bill Speaks stated that the operation would be carried out in Arabic, Persian, and Urdu.

The project is thought to be connected with Operation Earnest Voice.

External links

• Ntrepid official site

• Nick Fielding and Ian Cobain, "Revealed: US spy operation that manipulates social media", The Guardian, March 17, 2011. Retrieved March 24, 2011.
• Alex Spillius, "Pentagon buys social networking 'spy software'", The Telegraph, March 17, 2011. Retrieved March 24, 2011.
• Shaun Waterman, "U.S. Central Command ‘friending’ the enemy in psychological war", Washington Times, March 1, 2011. Retrieved March 24, 2011.