News: New Datamining System to Detect 'Deviations' on the High Seas

From the Register: The US Navy is to use new computer monitoring software to detect 'deviations' in normal behaviour at sea. Dubbed 'PANDA' (Predictive Analysis for Naval Deployment Activities), the system will examine data on worldwide shipping movements for evidence of unusual and threatening behaviour:

The idea is that the Office of Naval Intelligence will deploy PANDA at its National Maritime Intelligence Centre in Maryland, where the new tech will be able to monitor tracking information covering much of the watery globe.

As well as information fed in by US warships, monitoring stations, patrol aircraft and so on, the US intelligence community is also known to make extensive use of radar spy satellites able to scan vast swathes of ocean from orbit and pick out any ships.