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Oracle started as a CIA project (2014)

gizmodo.com

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Re: Oracle started as a CIA project (2014)

#61

Post by chasil »

ab_testing wrote: post #35
chasil wrote: post #17

"What books you bought on Amazon is stored in an Oracle database." This has not been true for some time. https://www.theregister.com/2019/10/16/amazon_ditches_oracle...

Amazon still runs on Oracle ERP. Even though they removed Oracle databases from AWS and other internal orgs, their own financials are still run in Oracle EBS. Thus the data for all the books bought by a person might still be in Oracle

Any Oracle implementation at Amazon certainly could not scale to do this real-time.

Black Friday, and Oracle's inability to scale up to meet it without explosive licensing costs, is a major factor in Amazon's decision to remove Oracle from their sales systems.

Re: Oracle started as a CIA project (2014)

#63

Post by TMWNN »

strictnein wrote: post #15

Weird to see an old [2014] snarky Gizmodo post show up here, but I digress. Slightly more interesting than this is the "Project Oracle" project description from the CIA, thanks to a FOIA request: https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/docs/CIA-RDP80-01794R0001002...

>Weird to see an old [2014] snarky Gizmodo post show up here

mfw you imply that some Gizmodo posts aren't snarky

Re: Oracle started as a CIA project (2014)

#64

Post by mintplant »

spullara wrote: post #51
createdapril24 wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Note the "problems they had" aren't necessarily "they needed a better database technology". Oracle's mission is to have all bits of data in the world processed or stored on an Oracle system (source: I worked for Oracle, this was the internal mission statement). Oracle collects: 1. Who is staying in which hotels and in which rooms 2. Who is eating at which restaurants and going to which entertainment facilities 3. Who…

That is a pretty far cry from Oracle having the data, especially pre-cloud. I think you are conflating "an Oracle system" with a system that Oracle actually controls rather than and end user that using the software. This is like saying a hard drive manufacturer has all the data that are on their hard drives.

I think 'createdapril24 is referring to Oracle's broader data brokerage/marketplace business rather than strictly their on-premise database system business.

https://techcrunch.com/2022/08/22/oracle-us-privacy-class-ac...

Re: Oracle started as a CIA project (2014)

#65

Post by tyingq »

spullara wrote: post #58
akira2501 wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your data is in a piece of software controlled by Oracle. They can easily create a backdoor designed for NSA use. Whether they "have" your data on their hardware or not doesn't make much of a difference in this case.

Maybe don't connect your database to the internet? Which is the normal way to install it locally?

There was a time when Oracle sort of worked that way. On-prem Oracle has mostly migrated to an appliance type model where phone-home is standard and almost mandatory. "Exadata".

Re: Oracle started as a CIA project (2014)

#66

Post by UIUC_06 »

trasz wrote: post #46
mikece wrote: post #2

Through In-Q-Tel, the CIA invested in a LOT of companies who were aiming to solve the problems they had. Google was another very early investment by In-Q-Tel on behalf of the NSA because Google's stated goal -- to collect, organize, and make sense of all of the world's data -- overlaps with what the NSA's goal is (and it's possible that Google might come up with better ideas and tech for doing it than the NSA's brain…

Same for investments by Chinese intelligence agencies. Right?

We tend to treat our rivals differently from ourselves. So no.

Re: Oracle started as a CIA project (2014)

#67

Post by astrange »

LargoLasskhyfv wrote: post #54
idiotsecant wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you suggesting the CIA has ways to exfiltrate data from Oracle databases assisted by Oracle but without knowledge or consent of the user? That would be a pretty big deal. If not, what are you saying?

Not OP. Just saying: [X] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_security_letter

Why would you need data to be in a specific brand of database before you can send legal process for it?

Re: Oracle started as a CIA project (2014)

#68

Post by treebeard901 »

It probably would not be all that surprising to learn just how many companies are like this. Especially tech companies. It goes a lot deeper due to regulatory capture. Then companies that exist for long periods of time, like the many ones started during and after WW2 have largely merged with the Government just naturally over time. Then consider all the companies that are either too big to fail or exist just because of quanitative easing free money. Many companies are just wholly controlled front companies by the FBI, CIA and other agencies.

Then all of the rest are at the mercy of all these other agencies to even operate independently.

Capitalism indeed.

Re: Oracle started as a CIA project (2014)

#69

Post by astrange »

jongjong wrote: post #11

US startups seem to have it so easy compared to companies in other parts of the world. It seems they may have been getting a little extra help from government agencies. I'm starting to realize how difficult it is to compete in the tech sector without government assistance. I thought it was a free market, but it's looking increasingly like a giant clusterfuck of government intervention. It looks nothing like a free ma…

> US startups seem to have it so easy compared to companies in other parts of the world. It seems they may have been getting a little extra help from government agencies.

That's called industrial policy, and the US does less of it than other countries. A model example for industrial policy is South Korea.

Re: Oracle started as a CIA project (2014)

#70

Post by LargoLasskhyfv »

astrange wrote: post #67
LargoLasskhyfv wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not OP. Just saying: [X] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_security_letter

Why would you need data to be in a specific brand of database before you can send legal process for it?

You wouldn't. It just simplifies 'things', from a technical and operational POV.
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