It’s a good time to be a spy. Even better, a maker of spy technology.
According to documents The Wall Street Journal obtained from a secretive surveillance conference held near Washington, D.C., the market for “off-the-shelf” spying products is booming, up from near zero before the September 11, 2001 attacks to $5 billion a year today.
Fueling the growth is the rise in online and mobile communications, and the sheer volume of messages and phone calls to be tracked. Products at the show help governments hack into users’ computers, or boast of capturing “tens of thousands of simultaneous conversations” from cellular networks.
How will all this information be used? Don’t ask show Jerry Lucas, president of the company that put on the show. “We don’t really get into asking, ‘Is this in the public interest?’” he said.
Read more at The Wall Street Journal.
