Autonomy enlisted in war on terror

Far-reaching contract

Autonomy has won a deal from the Office of Homeland Security for its software to appear on 200,000 desktop computers in the US, across 21 agencies. The agencies - which include the FBI and departments of Defense, Commerce, Energy and Justice - have been attracted to the technology from the UK company because it allows natural language links to be identified and analysed between various text, audio and video sources. The contract, the value of which has not been disclosed, makes sense in light of evidence suggesting information relating to the 11 September attacks was available in advance but very difficult to be meaningfully pieced together.