A Silicon Valley software firm — complete with bean bag chairs and other Google-inspired décor — is emerging as an unlikely ally of counterterrorist officials in Washington and worldwide.

Palantir Technologies, located in the cozy downtown of Palo Alto, CA, is a company composed of a group of twenty-something Halo thrashing software engineers, founded by a handful of PayPal alumni and Stanford computer scientists and funded in part by the CIA, designing what many intelligence analysts say is the most effective tool to date to investigate terrorist networks.

“We are inspired by serving such impressive and passionate people in the [intelligence] community,” Palantir’s Shyam Sankar told OhMyGov. The firm seeks to provide “complete out-of-the-box solutions” to clients, which span not only the U.S. spy agencies but other government departments here and abroad, as well as the financial sector.

Palantir’s software delivers “capabilities 3-4 generations beyond” what’s been available until now in intelligence circles, Sankar said. A user-friendly search tool can scan multiple data sources at once, an improvement over prior search tools, the company claims.

According to current and former U.S. officials in an article for The Wall Street Journal, Palantir’s software has been helpful in uncovering suicide bombing and terrorist financing networks, as well as trends in roadside bomb attacks. Another investigation discovered a spy infiltration of an allied government. Not bad for a couple of computer geeks whose founders knew close to nothing about intelligence gathering when they started out.

In an age of information explosion where terrorists can hide communications in vast data streams on the Internet, spy agencies like the CIA and military intelligence organizations have been running in circles like a dog with multiple tails. To conduct an investigation analysts would have to query individual databases separately, usually with pen and paper, then try to make sense of all the data.

“Palantir is a complete solution to a government agency’s information/intelligence management needs,” Sankar said. “Other products often only solve one tiny part of the much larger problem, are designed in proprietary ways that aren’t flexible or open, and require you to replace your legacy infrastructure.”

Another problem with existing tools is the fact that some data is classified and thus inaccessible to most analysts. Who would have thought that making connections among new clues and existing data is a key to foiling terrorist plots? It is here that Palantir (which takes its name from the “seeing stones” in the Lord of the Rings series) takes the lead in information innovation.

By connecting different databases by using “tagging” techniques similar to those used by search functions on the web, Palantir categorizes every bit of data separately like first names, last names or phone numbers. Here analysts can start making new links; for example, one terror suspect’s name could be connected to an address of another flagged suspect, which in turn allows analysts to quickly tag information themselves and see who else from other agencies is doing similar research and compare notes.

Also, if one piece of data in a file is classified top-secret, an analyst with a lower level clearance can still see the rest of the data associated.

“Palantir is completely open and integrates with all existing infrastructure,” Sankar said, “which is a radical move for a software company since it is exactly the opposite of what they teach you in business school.”

By hiring young government analysts frustrated by working with slow-footed technology, and rejecting advice to hire retired generals, Palantir has made a huge impression with ideas and results of its actions. The company raised $2 million from the CIA’s little-known venture capital arm, In-Q-Tel, which also opened many tightly sealed doors in buttoned-up Washington, D.C. Palantir now counts the Australian government as a client, and the British government and National Security Agency here at home as prospective clients, according to the Wall Street Journal. 

In the past two years, Palantir’s work in Washington has expanded from eight pilot programs to more than 50 projects. They have also examined cyber attacks in central Asia, and Canada, and are currently working with a nonprofit investigative group in Washington on the continuing investigation into the 2002 murder of journalist Daniel Pearl.

Government agencies are also employing Palantir to fight mortgage fraud, healthcare fraud, track diseases and regulate markets in hopes of transforming the way government organizations deal with massive amounts of data to further their missions and mandates, according to Sankar.

Palantir currently offers two products: Palantir Government and Palantir Finance. Both are platforms for integrating, visualizing, and analyzing the world’s information. By supporting many kinds of data including structured, unstructured, relational, temporal, and geospatial, Palantir says that its products are built for real analysis with a focus on security, scalability, ease of use, and collaboration.

The most recent idea from Palantir that has been drawing attention is their AnalyzeThe.US which allows anyone to use Palantir to explore vast amounts of data only recently released into the public domain. This includes information about key individuals, organizations, and activities to conduct meaningful analysis and integrate data seamlessly and completely. AnalyzeThe.US brings critical knowledge together on a single stage, while providing strong analytical applications that enable anyone to develop an intuitive picture of the complex flow of resources, money, and influence that affect how our government functions.

Whatever comes in future endeavors, Palantir’s founders are confident that their software and engineering will make a difference in providing easy access to information that can help millions trying to make sense of all the raw data in the world.

“Bring us your hardest technical challenges,” Sankar said. “Let us solve them for you at our expense with our effort. Then take our solution for a test drive.”