Minutes before Trump left office, millions of the Pentagon’s dormant IP addresses sprang to life WaPo Technology section. Quote While the world was distracted with President Donald Trump leaving office on Jan. 20, an obscure Florida company discreetly announced to the world’s computer networks a startling development: It now was managing a huge unused swath of the internet that, for several decades, had been owned by the U.S. military. What happened next was stranger still. The company, Global Resource Systems LLC, kept adding to its zone of control. Soon it had claimed 56 million IP addresses owned by the Pentagon. Three months later, the total was nearly 175 million. That’s almost 6% of a coveted traditional section of internet real estate — called IPv4 — where such large chunks are worth billions of dollars on the open market. The entities controlling the largest swaths of the internet generally are telecommunications giants whose names are familiar: AT&T, China Telecom, Verizon. But now at the top of the list was Global Resource Systems — a company founded only in September that has no publicly reported federal contracts and no obvious public-facing website. That's interesting. 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Aug 5, 2021 by No Stars In My Eyes, LPN Mmmm- and now, three months later, stumbling across this post, I have to say, this is the first I've heard of it! Anything more on this (very late-breaking) news since then? 0 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Oct 11, 2021 by toomuchbaloney On 8/5/2021 at 12:49 PM, No Stars In My Eyes said: Mmmm- and now, three months later, stumbling across this post, I have to say, this is the first I've heard of it! Anything more on this (very late-breaking) news since then? My phone keeps purging the link to this site while maintaining the other AN link. https://www.tampabay.com/news/military/2021/04/24/pentagon-mystery-with-a-florida-connection-is-solved-sort-of/ Quote What a Pentagon spokesman could not explain Saturday is why the Defense Department chose Global Resource Systems LLC, a company with no record of government contracts, to manage the address space. “As to why the DoD would have done that I’m a little mystified, same as you,” said Paul Vixie, an internet pioneer credited with designing its naming system and the CEO of Farsight Security. The company did not return phone calls or emails from The Associated Press. It has no web presence, though it has the domain grscorp.com. Its name doesn’t appear on the directory of its Plantation, Florida, domicile, and a receptionist drew a blank when an AP reporter asked for a company representative at the office earlier this month. She found its name on a tenant list and suggested trying email. Records show the company has not obtained a business license in Plantation. It's difficult to discern the intentions of the Trump appointee who gave the green light to this. 0 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites