Pentagon Gave Control of 175M Dormant IP Addresses to Florida Company Right Before Trump’s Departure

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Pentagon Gave Control of 175M Dormant IP Addresses to Florida Company Right Before Trump’s Departure

By CircleID Reporter
April 25, 2021, 11:06 pm PDT Views: 17,572 Add Comment

The US Department of Defense gave a small unknown Florida company control to millions of its dormant IP addresses, minutes before President Trump left office. According to reports, the unknown Florida company, Global Resource Systems LLC, initially obtained control of 56 million Pentagon-owned IP addresses on January 20 and later increased to near 175 million IP addresses.

The Pentagon says company is being used in a pilot effort to evaluate the Department of Defense’s IP address space and ensure there are no “potential vulnerabilities,” reports The Hill. “Defense Digital Service (DDS) authorized a pilot effort advertising DoD Internet Protocol (IP) space using Border Gateway Protocol (BGP). This pilot will assess, evaluate and prevent unauthorized use of DoD IP address space,” DDS Director Brett Goldstein told The Hill.

The mystery: Industry insider remain baffled by this sudden move. Internet Analyst Doug Madory writes: “While today’s statement from the DoD answers some questions, much remains a mystery. Why did the DoD not just announce this address space themselves instead of directing an outside entity to use the AS of a long dormant email marketing firm? Why did it come to life in the final moments of the previous administration?”

By CircleID Reporter — CircleID’s internal staff reporting on news tips and developing stories. Do you have information the professional Internet community should be aware of? Contact us.
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