Big Brother is big business

08 June 2015 - 09:42 By Bloomberg

A company that helps governments monitor their citizens is peddling its expertise to corporate America. Verint Systems, which makes software that sifts through communications such as SMSes, phone calls and e-mails to help combat terrorism and crime, is touting its intelligence expertise to help companies defend themselves against hackers.Said CEO Dan Bodner: "Advanced cyber attacks are well-planned, targeted and stealthy . The mitigation approach needs to be based on intelligence tactics."With corporate America besieged by computer systems, intruders from around the world bent on stealing confidential information, bringing business to a halt or simply embarrassing ostensibly sophisticated enterprises, Verint is betting its skill at helping governments will give it an edge in the competition for private-sector contracts.Congress in the US voted last week to stop the National Security Agency from collecting bulk data records on Americans' phone calls.Even so, privacy concerns had not curbed demand for cybersecurity intelligence in either the public or private sectors, said Jeff Kessler, an analyst at Imperial Capital in New York.The global market for cybersecurity is growing. It might reach $40-billion in revenue by 2017, according to International Data Corporation and Bloomberg Intelligence data.Verint surpassed $1-billion in sales for the first time in the fiscal year ended January 31. ..

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