Press for Conversion! (Issue # 67) Fall 2012 46 of provisions with the European Union.” When asked about Verisign’s links to the DHS, and whether the com- pany is “involved with the war on ter- rorism,” Sclavos replied: “We are an avid participant in their information-sharing private-public partnership. We provide them tools that we have designed so that they can see the network and its trouble the same way we can, and then we’re involved in certain forensic activi- ties on an as-needed basis.” A current Verisign board mem- ber, Kenneth Silva, joined the firm in 2000, and served as chief security of- ficer, chief technology officer and sen- ior vice president. Before that, Silva worked for the US National Security Agency (NSA) and was its executive technical director for nine years. For 11 years before that, he was a senior analyst with the US Air Force. Besides assisting the DHS, Veri- sign helps large internet companies comply with requests from police and spy agencies. To conduct this privatized intelligence work, Verisign partnered with two Israeli spy firms that played central roles in the Bush-era warrant- less-wiretapping scandal. Both compa- nies, Narus and Verint Systems, have ties to the Israeli military and intelli- gence communities. (See previous is- sue, pp.43-47.) The mass-surveillance spying tools created by Narus and Ver- int were used to gather vast amounts of private internet data for the NSA, by AT&T and Verizon, respectively. (See “ATT,” in the previous issue, p.7, and “Verizon” in this issue, p.48-49.) Verisign also has its own inter- net surveillance product called Net- Discovery which has absorbed the spy- ing technologies of both Verint and Narus. In 2002, Verisign announced that Verint’s “STAR-GATE communi- cations interception product” would “provide VeriSign with the technol- ogy to intercept communications across various switching systems and the means to deliver intercepted communications content and call data to law enforcement agencies.” Then in 2005, Narus said that it had “signed an agreement with Veri- sign” to provide it with an internet “monitoring system that can be imple- mented at the network core to analyze and correlate traffic in real-time” to collect “subscriber information, histori- cal billing, [and] call detail records.” Verisign, and its Israeli-linked partners Verint and Narus, have been instrumental in creating what telecom industry writer Annalee Newitz aptly dubbed “the Wiretap Friendly Web.” Since 2003, Verisign has been exclusively represented in Israel by Comsign. Comsign was appointed by Israel’s Justice Ministry to be “the only entity issuing legal authorized elec- tronic signatures” in Israel. As “Veri- Sign’s certificate authority in Israel,” Comsign has the monopoly on Israel’s “digital authentication certificates.” This is significant because, as a representative of Comsign’s parent company, Comda Ltd, explains, “[e]ntire segments of the [Israeli] pub- lic” and the “the Defense Ministry” are required to have an “electronic signa- ture.” Comsign also issues electronic signatures to “judges and court admin- istration staff…[and] security officers.” Comsign’s customers in Israel include Pelephone (wholly-owned by Bezeq), as well as Cellcom, Leumi Verisign Inc erisign Inc erisign Inc erisign Inc erisign Inc. www.verisigninc.com/assets/datasheet-idefense-solutions-overview.pdf T his US-based company, which is coincidentally a mere 20- minute drive from CIA head- quarters, has very close ties to the in- telligence community. Verisign is also very well-located on the global infor- mation highway. According to infor- mation-technology journalist, Kieren McCarthy, Verisign “originally pos- sessed almost complete control of the internet.” Verisign still controls some of the web’s biggest root nameservers, in- cluding all internet sites ending with the .com, .net, .org and .edu suffixes. And, Verisign is happy to share its inside knowledge about how people use the web, with entities like the US Depart- ment of “Homeland Security.” Verisign’s control over .com and .net domains alone have given it 93 mil- lion of the world’s 184 million regis- tered websites. Until late 2010, when it sold its electronic authentication unit to Symantec, Verisign was the world’s largest provider of digital certificates. In 1995, Verisign spun off from RSA Security, a division of EMC Corp. (See previous issue, p.30.) Its assets have grown to US$2.4 billion, and an- nual revenues are at US$680 million. Because of its powerful roles in the business of running the internet’s infrastructure, Verisign is in a position to observe exactly what millions of peo- ple are doing online. Stratton Sclavos, who cofounded Verisign and has been its president, CEO and chairman, is now a Senior Advisor to the US Direc- tor of National Intelligence who coun- cils the US President, the National Se- curity Council and the Homeland Se- curity Council on intelligence issues. In a 2005 interview, Sclavos revealed that Verisign has “shared our technol- ogy and our software-monitoring tools with the Department of Homeland Se- curity [DHS] since almost its first days” and had “just agreed to the same kind Canada P Canada P Canada P Canada P Canada Pension Plan ension Plan ension Plan ension Plan ension Plan Inv Inv Inv Inv Investment estment estment estment estments 20 20 20 20 2012 shar 12 shar 12 shar 12 shar 12 shares es es es es=$56 $56 $56 $56 $56 million million million million million (Dir (Dir (Dir (Dir (Direct & indir ect & indir ect & indir ect & indir ect & indirect inv ect inv ect inv ect inv ect investment estment estment estment estments) s) s) s) s) 20 20 20 20 2011 shar 1 shar 1 shar 1 shar 1 shares es es es es=$66 $66 $66 $66 $66 million million million million million (Dir (Dir (Dir (Dir (Direct inv ect inv ect inv ect inv ect investment estment estment estment estments only) s only) s only) s only) s only)
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Press for Conversion! (Issue # 67) Fall 201246
of provisions with the European Union.”When asked about Verisign’s
links to the DHS, and whether the com-pany is “involved with the war on ter-rorism,” Sclavos replied:
“We are an avid participant in theirinformation-sharing private-publicpartnership. We provide them toolsthat we have designed so that theycan see the network and its troublethe same way we can, and then we’reinvolved in certain forensic activi-ties on an as-needed basis.”
A current Verisign board mem-ber, Kenneth Silva, joined the firm in2000, and served as chief security of-ficer, chief technology officer and sen-ior vice president. Before that, Silvaworked for the US National SecurityAgency (NSA) and was its executivetechnical director for nine years. For11 years before that, he was a senioranalyst with the US Air Force.
Besides assisting the DHS, Veri-sign helps large internet companiescomply with requests from police andspy agencies. To conduct this privatizedintelligence work, Verisign partneredwith two Israeli spy firms that playedcentral roles in the Bush-era warrant-less-wiretapping scandal. Both compa-nies, Narus and Verint Systems, haveties to the Israeli military and intelli-gence communities. (See previous is-sue, pp.43-47.) The mass-surveillancespying tools created by Narus and Ver-int were used to gather vast amounts ofprivate internet data for the NSA, byAT&T and Verizon, respectively. (See“ATT,” in the previous issue, p.7, and“Verizon” in this issue, p.48-49.)
Verisign also has its own inter-net surveillance product called Net-Discovery which has absorbed the spy-
ing technologies of both Verint andNarus. In 2002, Verisign announcedthat Verint’s “STAR-GATE communi-cations interception product” would
“provide VeriSign with the technol-ogy to intercept communicationsacross various switching systemsand the means to deliver interceptedcommunications content and calldata to law enforcement agencies.”
Then in 2005, Narus said that ithad “signed an agreement with Veri-sign” to provide it with an internet“monitoring system that can be imple-mented at the network core to analyzeand correlate traffic in real-time” tocollect “subscriber information, histori-cal billing, [and] call detail records.”
Verisign, and its Israeli-linkedpartners Verint and Narus, have beeninstrumental in creating what telecomindustry writer Annalee Newitz aptlydubbed “the Wiretap Friendly Web.”
Since 2003, Verisign has beenexclusively represented in Israel byComsign. Comsign was appointed byIsrael’s Justice Ministry to be “the onlyentity issuing legal authorized elec-tronic signatures” in Israel. As “Veri-Sign’s certificate authority in Israel,”Comsign has the monopoly on Israel’s“digital authentication certificates.”
This is significant because, as arepresentative of Comsign’s parentcompany, Comda Ltd, explains,“[e]ntire segments of the [Israeli] pub-lic” and the “the Defense Ministry” arerequired to have an “electronic signa-ture.” Comsign also issues electronicsignatures to “judges and court admin-istration staff…[and] security officers.”
Comsign’s customers in Israelinclude Pelephone (wholly-owned byBezeq), as well as Cellcom, Leumi
VVVVVerisign Incerisign Incerisign Incerisign Incerisign Inc.....
www.verisigninc.com/assets/datasheet-idefense-solutions-overview.pdfThis US-based company, whichis coincidentally a mere 20-minute drive from CIA head-
quarters, has very close ties to the in-telligence community. Verisign is alsovery well-located on the global infor-mation highway. According to infor-mation-technology journalist, KierenMcCarthy, Verisign “originally pos-sessed almost complete control of theinternet.”
Verisign still controls some ofthe web’s biggest root nameservers, in-cluding all internet sites ending with the.com, .net, .org and .edu suffixes. And,Verisign is happy to share its insideknowledge about how people use theweb, with entities like the US Depart-ment of “Homeland Security.”
Verisign’s control over .com and.net domains alone have given it 93 mil-lion of the world’s 184 million regis-tered websites. Until late 2010, whenit sold its electronic authentication unitto Symantec, Verisign was the world’slargest provider of digital certificates.
In 1995, Verisign spun off fromRSA Security, a division of EMC Corp.(See previous issue, p.30.) Its assetshave grown to US$2.4 billion, and an-nual revenues are at US$680 million.
Because of its powerful roles inthe business of running the internet’sinfrastructure, Verisign is in a positionto observe exactly what millions of peo-ple are doing online. Stratton Sclavos,who cofounded Verisign and has beenits president, CEO and chairman, isnow a Senior Advisor to the US Direc-tor of National Intelligence who coun-cils the US President, the National Se-curity Council and the Homeland Se-curity Council on intelligence issues.In a 2005 interview, Sclavos revealedthat Verisign has “shared our technol-ogy and our software-monitoring toolswith the Department of Homeland Se-curity [DHS] since almost its first days”and had “just agreed to the same kind
Canada PCanada PCanada PCanada PCanada Pension Planension Planension Planension Planension PlanInvInvInvInvInvestmentestmentestmentestmentestmentsssss
202020202012 shar12 shar12 shar12 shar12 shareseseseses=====$56 $56 $56 $56 $56 millionmillionmillionmillionmillion(Dir(Dir(Dir(Dir(Direct & indirect & indirect & indirect & indirect & indirect invect invect invect invect investmentestmentestmentestmentestments)s)s)s)s)
2020202020111111 shar1 shar1 shar1 shar1 shareseseseses=====$66 $66 $66 $66 $66 millionmillionmillionmillionmillion(Dir(Dir(Dir(Dir(Direct invect invect invect invect investmentestmentestmentestmentestments only)s only)s only)s only)s only)
Fall 2012 (Issue # 67) Press for Conversion! 47
Le’Israel and Partner Communications.(See previous issue, pp.11, 17, and thisissue, pp.13-14 and 29.) Another cor-porate client, named “#6 Road opera-tor,” manages Israel’s Highway #6. Thismajor toll road, also known as theItzhak Rabin Highway, is described inApartheid Roads: Promoting Settle-ments, Punishing Palestinians, as oneof the “Main Israeli-only Roads” whichhelp to “provide a fast link for the colo-nies to most locations inside Israel.”
Through the creation of a busi-ness called iDefense, Verisign alsoserves as a private intelligence agencyproviding “Security Intelligence Serv-ices” to “information security execu-tives.” iDefense says it offers “24/7 ac-cess to accurate and actionable cyberintelligence related to vulnerabilities,malicious code, and global threats.”
However, Rob Rosenberger, theco-founder/editor of Vmyths, a websitereporting the “Truth About ComputerSecurity Hysteria,” has a very differ-ent view of iDefense. In a scathing cri-tique, Rosenberger describes its 2001“Israeli-Palestinian Cyber Conflict” re-port as “fearmongering.” He notes thatit “uses the right trigger words,” piecharts, graphics, and even “genuinehate language in an obvious attempt tomake the cyber-war seem dire.”iDefense, Rosenberger says, “wantsyou to think they monitor ‘escalatingcyber attacks’ in the Gaza region.”However, “[i]n reality,” he says, Veri-sign’s reports merely document
“a bunch of teenage hacker wanna-bees who lob ping packets at eachother. iDefense knows reportershave a fetish for juicy computer se-curity stories, so they prostitutethemselves in return for publicity.”
Since 2001, Verisign’s Middle-East reports have gone from bad to farworse. In the iDefense Security Intelli-gence Team’s “2009 Cyber Threats andTrends” report, there is a section on“The Greater Middle East and CentralAsia.” The report contains no mentionof any threats posed by pro-Israeli in-dividuals or organisations, let alone theIsraeli military, police or intelligenceforces. Instead, iDefense focuses en-tirely on what it calls “militant Islamicuse of online resources.” Smacking ofIslamophobia, this Verisign report re-fers to “Muslim hackers,” “Islamic
Hacktivism,” cyber-threats from “in-digenous militant Islamist movements,”and “militant jihadists” that collaboratewith “cyber criminals.” Verisign’siDefense report also hypes up the threatof “cyber fraud operations in supportof Islam,” and speaks of “Islamic cybercartels” and “Muslim extremists…[who] justify the use [of] cyber fraud…to fund their agendas.” iDefense alsogives extremely dire warnings about
“the propensity among Middle East-ern hackers — particularly Arabic-speaking users with ideologicalleanings — to justify their actionsonline with religious fatwas, or Is-lamic decrees, no matter how tenu-ous their reasoning may be.”
Such blatantly one-sided reportsfrom iDefense’s “Security IntelligenceTeams” are no doubt lapped up 24/7by Verisign clients in government andbig business, as well as those in intelli-gence and law enforcement communi-ties. These iDefense customers can thenuse Verisign’s “intelligence” to ration-alize their own biased policies and ac-tions which ignore, or even support,Israel’s military actions, its occupationof Palestinian land or its many trans-gressions of international law.
ReferencesVerisign Reports 10% Year-Over-Year RevenueGrowth in 2010, January 27, 2011.ht tps : / / inves tor.ver i s ign .com/re leasede ta i l .cfm?ReleaseID=546077
“VERISIGN On the Record: Stratton Sclavos,”San Francisco Chronicle, January 9, 2005.www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/01/09/BUG22AFFKP47.DTL#ixzz1du8nnxNw
Verisign, Wikipediaen.wikipedia.org/wiki/Verisign
Robert Poe, “The Ultimate Net MonitoringTool,” Wired, May 17, 2006.www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/2006/05/70914
“Narus Signs Agreement with VeriSign to Al-low IP Compliance and Security Products to beOffered as Managed Services,” Dec. 6, 2005.www.narus.com/index.php/news/296-narus-signs-agree-ment-with-verisign-to-allow-ip-compliance-and-secu-rity-products-to-be-offered-as-managed-services
Verint Receives First STAR-GATE Order FromVeriSign, June 3, 2002.verint.com/corporate/releases_view.cfm?article_level1_category_id=7&article_level1_id=263&pageno=2&year=2002
Mark G. Levey, “NSA Scandal: NeuStar - TelcomScapegoat or NSA Front Company?” Daily KOS,May 20, 2006.www.dailykos.com/story/2006/05/20/212011/-NSA-SCANDAL:-NeuStarTelcom-Scapegoat-or-NSA-Front-Company
Mark G. Levey, “NSA Scandal (Pt. 2): Verint –NSA’s Foreign Partner,” Democratic Under-ground, May 26, 2006.www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x1290021
Annalee Newitz, “Milking the Internet surveil-lance cash cow: Wiretap-friendly Web,” Enter-prise Security, April 6, 2004.www.theregister.co.uk/2004/04/06/fbi_wiretap_bonanza/page2.html
Kenneth J. Silvainvesting.businessweek.com/businessweek/research/stocks/people/person.asp?personId=22102292
Stratton D. Sclavosinvesting.businessweek.com/research/stocks/private/person.asp?personId=223389
About uswww.comda.co.il/eng/main.asp?id=31
Hila Yaakobi, “Comda - Envisioning a Transi-tion to a Secure, Efficient and Paper-Free Elec-tronic World,” Jobnetwww.jobnet.co.il/content.aspx?Category=961
Profilewww.comsign.co.il/eng/main.asp?id=103
ComsignTrust, June 2009.www.comsigntrust.com/userfiles//ComSignTrust%20%20authomated%20system%20for%20electronic%20signatures.pdf
iDefense Security Intelligence Serviceswww.verisigninc.com/en_US/products-and-services/network-intelligence-availability/idefense/index.xhtml
Rob Rosenberger, “Raid on E-tebbe, part 5,”Vmyths, March 13, 2001.vmyths.com/column/1/2001/3/13/
2009 Cyber Threats and Trends, Dec. 12, 2008.www.verisigninc.com/assets/whitepaper-idefense-2009trends.pdf
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about “Muslim hackabout “Muslim hackabout “Muslim hackabout “Muslim hackabout “Muslim hackererererersssss,”,”,”,”,”“Islamic Hacktivism,” “mili-“Islamic Hacktivism,” “mili-“Islamic Hacktivism,” “mili-“Islamic Hacktivism,” “mili-“Islamic Hacktivism,” “mili-
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