Saturday, June 15, 2013

How Potato Prices Can Be Used To Predict Attacks In Afghanistan

Snooping On Potato Prices In Afghanistan To Predict Attacks -- Forbes

Among the cornucopia of reportage on government espionage, one article in particular caught my eye. Earlier this week a Wall Street Journal story on surveillance technology used by the National Security Agency makes mention of a program called Real Time Regional Gateway (RTRG).

Used to predict insurgency attacks in Afghanistan, RTRG monitors intelligence gathered from drones with high-powered cameras and sensors. The “snooping” program also analyzes in-country data including phone conversations, road-traffic patterns, public opinion and, somewhat unexpectedly, the price of potatoes at market.

According to the WSJ, this system, when analyzing 90-day batches of data, has the ability to forecast attacks 60 percent to 70 percent of the time.

Read more ....

My Comment: A good friend of mine told me once that we are all creatures of habit. I guess those who work for the National Security Agency .... and who use the program (Real Time Regional Gateway (RTRG)) .... would agree with this comment.

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