SS8 scoops up $13M for phone and internet tapping

SS8 Networks, which formerly made software for voicemail and mobile messaging, has now fully transformed itself into a surveillance and security firm, offering telecommunications companies tools to provide phone and internet tapping options for law enforcement agencies. Now it has raised $13 million in a mezzanine round from inside investors and is prepping to go public next year, reports VentureWire.

Whenever the police or government agencies want to bug someone’s phone or email, they have to appeal directly to the telecom carrier, which then executes the process. For this reason, it’s necessary for carriers to have these abilities on hand — and most of the big ones use SS8. Essentially, the war on terror has kept business booming since the startup shifted focus in 2002.

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Based in San Jose, Calif., SS8 has raised $120 million to date from Goldman Sachs, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, ONSET Ventures, Protostar Partners, W Capital Partners and Woodside Fund.