HP Dragon Helps Track Telecom Use For Feds

By Nick Mokey May 2, 2007

The government is watching you. Or they can, anyway. Hewlett-Packard announced on Thursday a new way for telecommunications service providers to store information about what their customers are doing, and quickly retrieve it at the government’s request. The HP Data Retention and Guardian ONline (DRAGON) system is intended to help governments fight against global terrorism, organized crime and drug trafficking.

The need for systems like DRAGON is driven by tightening government legislation that determines what records service providers must keep on hand. Although actual content is never stored, the details of tracking land lines, cell phones, VoIP phones, email, voicemail, Internet usage, text messaging, and other features can add up to terabytes worth of data every year.

Besides collecting all that data and making it intelligible, keeping it all under lock and key is another challenge for service providers. HP’s system provides encryption for the stored data, authentication control to limit who accesses it, and auditable system operations.

“Governments are starting to place large and complex burdens on carriers, and they need help from experienced partners,” said Fernando Elizalde, senior industry analyst for Frost and Sullivan, in a statement. “HP is entering this emerging market as one of the early leaders.” The system has already been employed at seven service providers in Italy and Turkey.

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