'Trusted Third Party' Neustar Pays Chertoff Group To Talk FCC Out Of Handing Control Of Crucial Cell Phone Database To Foreign Company

from the don't-put-half-your-eggs-in-one-basket dept

Thanks to some financial prompting and aligned priorities, the Chertoff Group (home of former DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff and former NSA boss Michael Hayden) is sending a letter [pdf link] to the FCC in hopes of preventing control of a crucial cellphone number database from ending up in the hands of a foreign company.

Neustar's lobbying effort to stop a key federal number-portability contract from slipping away to Ericsson's Telcordia unit took another turn via a report sent to the FCC from Michael Chertoff, a former secretary of homeland security. The report, from Chertoff's security consulting firm, the Chertoff Group, concluded that the bidding terms for the contract related to national security were "insufficient in both scope and specificity when compared with widely accepted national and international standards."
While the long report goes into detail about certain potential security deficiencies, the real issue is the fact that putting this information in the hands of a foreign company might move it slightly more out of reach of law enforcement and national security agencies.
The FBI and other law-enforcement agencies said that although they had "no position" on which firm should get the contract, they wanted to air their concerns, especially that there would be no disruption in access to call-routing data "in real time or near real time."

"Law enforcement cannot afford to have a lapse in this vital service," the agencies told the FCC in a letter.
Neustar, one of the "trusted third parties" the government relies on to collect and deliver data from telcos as requested by subpoenas, warrants or even FISA court orders, is lobbying hard to maintain control of its local-number portability administrator (LNPA) position. Losing this contract would do some serious damage to the company.
The LNPA contract accounted for 60 percent, 50 percent and 49 percent of Neustar's revenue in 2011, 2012 and 2013, respectively, according to an annual filing at the Securities and Exchange Commission. Neustar has held the contract since 1997.
Since it can't afford to lose this contract, it can't afford to keep its lobbying efforts hidden.
Neustar did not say how much it paid Chertoff to write the report, indicating only that it was a "modest sum," according to the New York Times.
The Chertoff report does point out some security issues, it's really just stumping for the home team. It's not so much about hackers or foreign entities gaining access as it is about a host of government agencies losing access. Chertoff is closely tied to national security agencies, none of which would welcome any new speed bumps being placed between them and a cellphone database they access over 4 million times a year.

Telcordia, the "foreign" company that may end up with the contract, is already promising big savings and uninterrupted law enforcement access. It's also playing up the USA! USA! angle in hopes of gaining control of the database.
Telcordia has said the software code used for the system will be entirely domestic. "We are not using any of the code used and deployed in foreign installations at all, zero," Iconectiv CTO Chris Drake told the Post last month.
No dirty foreign code here. Just ones and zeroes from good, honest Americans like yourselves. Unconfirmed reports allege this statement was delivered by Drake while wearing a cowboy hat, against a backdrop of American flags.

The NSA (and other agencies) love "domestic" code. It makes for the best backdoors. Telcordia's statements appear to address any law enforcement concerns about accessibility, as well as the security implications raised by Chertoff's impa$$ioned plea on behalf of Neustar. No hurdles here. Just more business as usual.

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Filed Under: database, nsa, phone
Companies: chertoff group


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  1. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 1 Oct 2014 @ 9:14pm

    Is there anything not for sale?

    link to this | view in thread ]

  2. icon
    Ninja (profile), 2 Oct 2014 @ 4:13am

    Unconfirmed reports allege this statement was delivered by Drake while wearing a cowboy hat, against a backdrop of American flags.

    Unnoticed by the mainstream was the sayings in his T-shirt: IT'S JUST METADATA

    link to this | view in thread ]

  3. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 2 Oct 2014 @ 4:16am

    Um...

    Sorry to burst the patriotic bubble. Drake is Canadian.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  4. icon
    Vidiot (profile), 2 Oct 2014 @ 4:59am

    Not exactly foreign

    Telcordia is one of the original post-Judge-Green chunks of AT&T... a research unit with its roots in Bell Labs; the balance of The Labs is now owned by Alcatel, making them "foreign" in the same sense as Telcordia. That these US organizations now each have a multinational parent is only disturbing to those interests that would like to co-opt them and bend them to their will for illegal counterintelligence purposes.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  5. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 2 Oct 2014 @ 9:30am

    In a magical world full of dragons there is a 1st party that controls its own data and holds it close like its their personal property all the evil beings try to get this data but fail because everyone's a king and has the protection of of a magical dragon and all the other dragons come to it's aid in times of need fighting fiercely and over coming the evil beings " and then i woke up "

    link to this | view in thread ]

  6. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 2 Oct 2014 @ 10:24am

    Re: Not exactly foreign

    Speaking of dubious interests who want to co-opt companies, Neustar's other main claim to fame is that they run the DRM servers for UltraViolet. Basically, their main clients are domestic intelligence services and the MPAA.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  7. icon
    murgatroyd (profile), 2 Oct 2014 @ 11:02am

    How much are you willing to pay me for the answer to your question?

    link to this | view in thread ]

  8. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 2 Oct 2014 @ 11:39am

    Re: Um...

    I'm envisioning blank stares from some people... as they try to figure out what him being Canadian has to do with being un-American :D

    Interestingly, Canadians can't get the appropriate security clearance to handle some of this data, unless they're on-loan via CSIS or the RCMP and have passed the Canadian Top Secret clearance.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  9. icon
    orbitalinsertion (profile), 2 Oct 2014 @ 12:19pm

    Since when is Neustar trusted by anyone anywhere for anything?

    link to this | view in thread ]


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