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Private Intelligence Agencies
A private intelligence agency (PIA) is a private sector (non-governmental) or quasi-non-government organization devoted to the collection, analysis, and exploitation of information, through the evaluation of public sources (OSINT or Open Source INTelligence) and cooperation with other institutions. Some private intelligence agencies obtain information deceptively or through on-the-ground activities for clients. Private agencies have made their services available to governments as well as individual consumers; they have also sold their services to large corporations with an interest or investment in the category (e.g. crime, disease, corruption, etc.) or the region (e.g. Middle East, Vietnam, Prague, etc.) or to investigate perceived threats such as environmental groups or human rights groups. Some private intelligence agencies use online perception management, social media influencing/manipulation campaigns, strategic disinformation (such as fake news production/propaganda product ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Private Sector
The private sector is the part of the economy which is owned by private groups, usually as a means of establishment for profit or non profit, rather than being owned by the government. Employment The private sector employs most of the workforce in some countries. In private sector, activities are guided by the motive to earn money, i.e. operate by capitalist standards. A 2013 study by the International Finance Corporation (part of the World Bank Group) identified that 90 percent of jobs in developing countries are in the private sector. Diversification In free enterprise countries, such as the United States, the private sector is wider, and the state places fewer constraints on firms. In countries with more government authority, such as China, the public sector makes up most of the economy. Regulation States legally regulate the private sector. Businesses operating within a country must comply with the laws in that country. In some cases, usually involving multinati ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hakluyt & Company
Hakluyt & Company is a British strategic advisory firm. The company is headquartered in London. Hakluyt was founded by former officials of the British Secret Intelligence Service (MI6). The company has recruited several former British spies and journalists from ''The Financial Times''. The name of the company comes from the geographer Richard Hakluyt. The firm is chaired by Paul Deighton, and the other members of the board include managing partner Thomas Ellis, Paul Dimitruk, Don Viera, and Jean Tomlin. Its head office is in Upper Brook Street, Mayfair. It also has branches on Park Avenue, Manhattan and Raffles Place, Singapore. Board and personnel In 2024, former managing partner Varun Chandra was appointed by Prime Minister Keir Starmer to become his new business and investment adviser. He was succeeded by Thomas Ellis. Hakluyt's international advisory board is chaired by former British foreign secretary, Lord William Hague. Hague assumed the role in 2024, succeeding Ni ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Groupe GEOS
GEOS is an international corporation based in France. The core activity of the group is risk management. Chronology Establishment GEOS was set up in 1997. The ambition of the group’s founders, Stéphane Gérardin and Thierry Laulom, was to deliver a French security management solution for companies faced with criminal threats and political risk. Business development In the beginning, the main activity of the company was security escort for dignitaries and security audits in Algeria. The service package was gradually expanded; in 2000 the group delivered a range of services in geographical zones including Africa, South-East Asia and North America. As of 2004, the group saw turnover increase making the opening of the company’s capital to investors possible. Continental Risk, a holding company, acquired 34% of the group’s capital. The firm is owned by Guillaume Verspieren. 2008: Reinforcement of share capital With turnover of 34 million euro recorded in 2008 the expansion ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fusion GPS
Fusion GPS is an opposition research and strategic intelligence firm based in Washington, D.C. The company conducts open-source investigations and provides research and strategic advice for businesses, law firms and investors, and political campaigns. The "GPS" initialism is derived from "Global research, Political analysis, Strategic insight". History The company was co-founded in 2011 by Glenn R. Simpson, a former investigative reporter and journalist for ''Roll Call'' and ''The Wall Street Journal'' and Peter Fritsch, a former ''Wall Street Journal'' senior editor. Work Opposition research on Mitt Romney Fusion GPS was hired in 2012 to do opposition research on U.S. presidential candidate Mitt Romney. In February 2012, the magazine '' Mother Jones'' published an article on Frank VanderSloot and his company Melaleuca, who combined had given $1 million to a super PAC supporting Mitt Romney. In January 2013, VanderSloot sued ''Mother Jones'' for defamation in the Febr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Emerdata Limited
Emerdata Limited is a political consulting company based in London, formed in 2017 after filing for insolvency of Cambridge Analytica. Emerdata is accused by privacy advocates as its rebranded form and is headed by several of its executives. Background Former employees of Cambridge Analytica and SCL moved to successor firms, these companies dissolved with acquisition by holding company Emerdata Limited. The company now appears to be largely owned by Rebekah Mercer and Jennifer Mercer, according to Cambridge Analytica's bankruptcy filing in New York. Cambridge Analytica was before partially owned by their family, including their father Robert Mercer, a computer scientist who made contributions to brown clustering. In July 2018 the Emerdata director was Jacquelyn James-Varga. Rebekah and Jennifer Mercer were appointed as directors of the company in the same year. The Federal Trade Commission of the United States has imposed to sue Cambridge Analytica after misusing data scraped ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Control Risks Group
Control Risks is a global risk and strategic consulting firm that specializes in political, security and integrity risk assessments. History Control Risks was formed in 1975, as a professional adviser to the insurance industry. A subsidiary of insurance broker Hogg Robinson, the firm aimed to minimize their exposure to kidnap and ransom payouts. The firm expanded its capabilities when these crisis management and incident response specialists were joined by political and security risk analysts, before becoming independent in 1982 following a management buyout. See also * ArmorGroup * FTI Consulting * Navigant * Eurasia Group * Kroll * Constellis Constellis, formerly Blackwater, is an American private military contractor founded on December 26, 1997, by former Navy SEAL officer Erik Prince. It was renamed Xe Services in 2009, and was again renamed to Academi in 2011, after it was acqu ... * Pinkerton References External links *{{official, url=http://www.controlrisk ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Booz Allen Hamilton
Booz Allen Hamilton Holding Corporation (informally Booz Allen) is the parent of Booz Allen Hamilton Inc., an American company specializing in intelligence, AI, and digital transformation. It is headquartered in McLean, Virginia, in the Washington metropolitan area, with 80 additional offices around the globe. The company's stated core business is to provide consulting, analysis, and engineering services to public and private sector organizations and nonprofits. History 20th century The company that was to become Booz Allen was founded in 1914, in Evanston, Illinois, when Northwestern University graduate Edwin G. Booz founded the ''Business Research Service.'' The service was based on Booz's theory that companies would be more successful if they could call on someone outside their own organizations for expert, impartial advice.Booz Allen Histor ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
BAE Systems
BAE Systems plc is a British Multinational corporation, multinational Aerospace industry, aerospace, military technology, military and information security company, based in London. It is the largest manufacturer in Britain as of 2017. It is the largest defence contractor in Europe and the seventh largest in the world based on applicable 2021 revenues. Its largest operations are in the United Kingdom and in the United States, where its BAE Systems Inc. subsidiary is one of the six largest suppliers to the United States Department of Defense, US Department of Defense. Its next biggest markets are Saudi Arabia, then Australia; other major markets include Canada, Japan, India, Turkey, Qatar, Oman and Sweden. The company was formed on 30 November 1999 by the British pound sterling, £7.7 billion purchase of and merger of Marconi Electronic Systems (MES), the defence electronics and naval shipbuilding subsidiary of the General Electric Company plc (GEC), with British Aerospace ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Archimedes Group
Archimedes Group is a Tel Aviv-based private intelligence agency that has operated political campaigns using social media since 2017. History The current CEO of Archimedes is a former director of the Brussels-based European Friends of Israel lobbying group. This individual has also served as a political adviser in Israel's parliament and an ex-intelligence agent for the Israeli air force. Other senior executive include Yuval Harel, Fabio Goldman, Uri Ben Yosef, Ariel Treiger, and Rafi Cesana. In 2019, it was banned from Facebook for "coordinated inauthentic behavior" after Facebook found fake users in countries in sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America and Southeast Asia. Facebook investigations revealed that Archimedes had spent some $1.1 million on fake ads, paid for in Brazilian reais, Israeli shekels and US dollars. Facebook gave examples of Archimedes Group political interference. The Atlantic Council's Digital Forensic Research Lab said in a report that "The tactics employed b ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
AggregateIQ
AggregateIQ (AIQ) previously known as SCL Canada is a Canadian political consultancy and technology company, based in Victoria, British Columbia. History AIQ was founded in 2013 by Zack Massingham, a former university administrator and Jeff Silvester. As of February 2017, AIQ employed 20 people and was based in downtown Victoria, British Columbia. AIQ has attracted controversy over its involvement in the Vote Leave and BeLeave campaigns in 2016 and the Cambridge Analytica scandal that broke out in 2018. Two years after the Brexit vote in 2016, it was revealed that AggregateIQ had been paid £3.5 million by four pro-Brexit campaigning groups - Vote Leave, BeLeave, Veterans for Britain, and Northern Ireland's Democratic Unionist Party - to design software aimed at aggregating personal data and influencing voters through messaging on social media. Under UK law, co-ordination between groups during an election is prohibited. In May 2018, a Facebook executive testified before ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Aegis Defence Services
Aegis Defence Services is a British private military and private security company with overseas offices in Afghanistan, the United Arab Emirates, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Libya, Somalia and Mozambique. It is part of the Aegis Group of companies, which includes Aegis LLC, which is based in the United States. It was founded in 2002 by Tim Spicer, who was previously CEO of the private military company Sandline International; Jeffrey Day, an entrepreneur; and Mark Bullough and Dominic Armstrong, former investment bankers. It is a founding signatory of the International Code of Conduct for Private Security Providers, inaugurated on 9 November 2010, a 'Swiss government convened, multi-stakeholder initiative that aims to both clarify international standards for the private security industry operating in complex environments, as well as to improve oversight and accountability of these companies.' It was a founding member of the British Association of Private Security Companies (BAPSC), a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
