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Swearing in of Joe Biden as the President of the United States of America was a new dawn in many respects. But the day also revealed a piece of news that was eluding the public eye. Global Resource Systems LLC, a mysterious company was given the duty to manage an idle space on the Internet that was owned by the Department of Defense.

This news is big because space contains 175 million addresses. It is almost twice the size of what the Pentagon uses. According to Doug Madory, “It is massive. This is the biggest thing in the history of the Internet.” Doug is the Director of Internet analysis at a network operating company, Kentik.

To explain the work done by GRS, chief of Pentagon’s Defense Digital Service Brett Goldstein issued a statement. It said, “The military hopes to ‘assess, evaluate and prevent unauthorized use of DoD IP address space.” It also said that the project hopes to contain cyberattacks on U.S networks. But it failed to give the details of the project as well as the company.

According to some specialists, the idle space that has been given to GRS LLC is, perhaps, being used by the authorities as a ‘honeytrap’ to attract hackers. Just in case, any hacker tries to hack that space, it will be easy for the authorities to track him. Or, maybe, it is being used to collect some hidden information that may be useful for the intelligence agencies.]

When some reporters tried to get more information about the company, they failed. The phone calls went unanswered. The emails could not get any reply. The company should have been located at its address in Florida but it was not the case. Even the receptionist was not aware of any such tenant.

Wait, there are more mysteries. No license was issued in Florida to any company called Global Resource Systems. Strange, isn’t it?

Through the records of the company, the media could get one name. Raymond Saulino. But just like the company he allegedly owns; he was also not reachable. Interestingly, he has two companies registered under his name. One surveillance company called Packet Forensics and one Tidewater Laskin Associates. Both of the companies were too not reachable. Although there is a phone number registered for Tidewater Laskin, it simply directs you to an automated voice box. There is no option to talk to any person from the company. The mystery just keeps spiraling.

Packet Forensics, interestingly, has signed various contracts with the FBI and Pentagon in the past. The same company along with Raymond drew headlines in 2011. The company had signed a contract with the government to supply a device to them. That device could be used to gather information about the browsing history of people. The authorities can then use the data collected according to their whims and fancies.

 

There is another mystery that surrounds the company. There was a company that was caught sending fraudulent emails in order to dupe the clients, some ten years ago. Interestingly, according to an Internet fraud researcher, Ron Guilmette, the company was registered under the same name as GRS. Even the addresses of both firms are identical. They both come out of Plantation, Florida. When contacted about the issue, he said, “It’s deeply suspicious.” 

An old contract of the company was found by the media. It says that it will make a safe and autonomous software agency that will provide protection from the malware on the Internet. It will do so by implanting some counter robots to attack in case of any breach. According to the website of GRS, it still sells the device to track the history of Internet users. However, it says that it is using technology to make safe cyberspace.

The Pentagon could not specify the scope of the project. It did not say anything regarding the foreigners involved in the project. The space of the Internet given to the company is just too large. It is almost four percent of the whole Internet space. Thus, there mustn't be any questions that remain unanswered.

To clear the air around the issue, the Defense Department spokesman Russel Goemaere told the AP reporters that the idle space given to GRS LLC has not been ‘sold’. It has no intention of ‘selling’ space to any company. The company has only been given permission to use the idle space available on the Internet for some time.