software
Software is a set of computer programs and associated documentation and data. This is in contrast to hardware, from which the system is built and which actually performs the work.
At the lowest programming level, executable code consists ...
Florida
Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...
and based in
Herndon
Herndon may refer to:
People
* Herndon (surname), an American surname
* Herndon Davis (1901–1962), American artist, journalist, illustrator, and painter
Places in the United States Communities
* Herndon, California, an unincorporated commun ...
,
Virginia
Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...
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.Shaun Waterman "U.S. Central Command ‘friending’ the enemy in psychological war" ''Washington Times'', March 1, 2011. Retrieved March 24, 2011.
Military contract
In March 2011, Ntrepid won a $2.76 million contract from the
U.S. military
The United States Armed Forces are the military forces of the United States. The armed forces consists of six service branches: the Army, Marine Corps, Navy, Air Force, Space Force, and Coast Guard. The president of the United States is the ...
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
The United States Central Command (USCENTCOM or CENTCOM) is one of the eleven unified combatant commands of the U.S. Department of Defense. It was established in 1983, taking over the previous responsibilities of the Rapid Deployment Joint Tas ...
(Centcom), whose spokesman Commander Bill Speaks stated that the operation would be carried out in
Arabic
Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic languages, Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C ...
,
Persian
Persian may refer to:
* People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language
** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples
** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...
Operation Earnest Voice
Operation Earnest Voice (OEV) is a communications program by the United States Central Command (CENTCOM). Initially, the program was developed as a psychological weapon and later thought to have been directed at jihadists across Pakistan, Afghanist ...