Software will sniff out moles

A team of companies led by a Lockheed Martin Corp. subsidiary is building a tool to help the intelligence community keep tabs on spooks behind its firewalls.

The Voltaire system will integrate existing technology to identify suspicious activity by insiders with legitimate access to sensitive information.

Funded by the National Security Agency's Advanced Research and Development Activity, Voltaire will detect and stop the kind of activity that FBI turncoat Robert Hanssen got away with for years. Hanssen gathered and sold information about FBI counterintelligence activities by browsing through computer files to which he had access.

Prime contractor for the project is Lockheed Martin's Orincon unit of San Diego. Subcontractors include Authentica Inc. of Waltham, Mass., and Autonomy Corp. of San Francisco.

Total funding for the first phase of the program is $11 million. An additional $5 million is available to fund 12 months of second-phase R&D in 2005. Funding for individual projects is expected to be from $750,000 to more than $1 million.