The media has documented some recent struggles by Palantir in retaining customers and staff. Included in this coverage is an assertion in a BuzzFeed article that:

“Toward the end of last year, Palantir killed its effort to create an elite cybersecurity group, after executives decided it wasn’t gaining enough traction… In April 2015, employees were informed that American Express had dumped Palantir after 18 months of cybersecurity work… At its peak last year, two of the sources said, the cybersecurity team included more than 10 forward deployed engineers; the majority are now gone.”

It’s not just BuzzFeed reporting on this story. Fortune, TechCrunch and others have uncovered unflattering information about the company’s status beyond the cybersecurity realm. However, as someone that works with big data analytics applied to information security, I have more than a passing interest in this topic. Palantir was among the first to suggest analytics could make a difference for cyber defense and its success helping to uncover Ghostnet in 2009 was an early proof point.