AI overlords of the world hacked: Fallout from the massive Palantir breach

How should Russia respond to news about the attack on the AI snooping company?

By Igor Bederov, cybersecurity expert

‘The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring’ (2001) Directed by Peter Jackson © New Line Cinema

Palantir Technologies has been hacked, according to well-known blogger Kim Dotcom. The company develops software for intelligence and big data analysis.

Palantir (named after the magical ‘seeing stones’ from ‘The Lord of the Rings’) doesn’t engage in surveillance in the conventional sense using spies, cameras, or bugs. Instead, it develops software that is sold to government agencies, military organizations, and large corporations.

Clients (like the CIA or the German police) upload all their data, and Palantir (its primary platforms are Gotham for military purposes and Foundry for business) then utilizes AI to transform this chaotic information into a coherent picture.

Essentially, it creates a ‘digital twin’ of reality, revealing connections that analysts could have never recognized on their own: for example, that a terrorist had called the cousin of someone who recently transferred money to a suspicious account.

The claims about wiretapping Trump and Musk are likely untrue or highly exaggerated. However, there’s no doubt that Palantir serves as a massive surveillance mechanism for monitoring America’s adversaries (and not only). It is an “operating system for war and intelligence,” providing agencies with a supercomputer that can see everything. But it’s the agencies themselves that feed this computer with data.

Read more

Back to the 19th century: Why is Russia targeting Ukraine’s energy grid?

Even if the hack is a hoax or only partially true, such a sensational story benefits various parties. It tarnishes the reputations of both Palantir and the CIA. The company was already at odds with human rights activists globally. In Europe, particularly in Germany and Switzerland, there’s growing hesitation to purchase the software out of fear that sensitive data would end up with a US intelligence agency.

Russia and China – which, according to Dotcom, will receive the data – may capitalize on the story. Finally, Kim Dotcom is a longstanding enemy of the American justice system (he faces piracy charges in the US), so any story that casts a shadow on the US establishment is profitable for him.

The most valuable data concerns Palantir’s developments for Ukraine. Should any documentation concerning the development of nuclear or biological weapons fall into Moscow’s hands, it could provide invaluable insights into Kiev’s ability to create a ‘dirty nuclear bomb’ or biological agents.

This would eliminate uncertainties and allow for the formulation of preemptive protective measures. Furthermore, disclosing the source codes or AI architecture employed by Israel in Gaza and adapted for use by the Ukrainian army would enable the development of more effective electronic warfare systems capable of deceiving those very algorithms.

The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of RT.