DHS plans major data fusion project

[Marie26]

The Homeland Security Department is building a major intelligence program that will use data mining and state-of-the-art analysis tools to discover and track terrorism threats against the United States. The new initiative is laid out in a report from DHS Inspector General Richard Skinner.

The purpose of DHS’ new Intelligence and Information Fusion (I2F) system, which the report said is in early development, is to provide the agency with an integrated intelligence and information capability, the report said. The system will use advanced computer processes for collecting, tagging, classifying and organizing data to gather and analyze information about potential terrorists.

I2F will “enable intelligence analysts to understand relationships that would otherwise not be readily apparent,” the report said. It will use commercial software and integrate government programs, the inspector general stated.

The report, which is a survey of datamining activity at DHS, describes nine programs already in operation and three more in development within the agency, including the intelligence fusion system.

http://www.washingtontechnology.com/news/1_1/daily_news/29280-1.html

[Monkeyman]

1. Yep thats why all the data breach have happen

[kerstin]

2. Yup.

[Wretched Refuse]

9. SO 9 programs already running and

They couldn't figure out who was going to what on 9/11 even with the FBI living with the supposed "terrorists." Oh please stop, you embarrass yourselves.

[Marie26]

18. Could be. nt

[teryang]

3. I saw a list of about a dozen or so FBI counter terror experts who

...were either completely ignored or censored out of the 911 commission report. Sibel Edmonds was one of the authors.

When you ignore human intelligence and actively block and gag your experts from telling you what they know, you expect some software program to save the day? Sounds like more defense/ security contractor bureaucratic bs to me.

It's better to throw the fourth and first amendments out the window and place the entire country under surveillance.

[Wretched Refuse]

10. Uhhh

Never mind, they did that already.

[PSPS]

4. Say hello to the supposedly stopped Total Information Awareness program

[me b zola]

5. That's exactly what this is

:grr:

[drm604]

6. You're correct.

When one of their schemes meets resistance they drop it until it falls out of public awareness, then they quietly bring it back under a different name and a different spin. They have nothing but contempt for public opinion.

[Wretched Refuse]

11. Nothing but contempt

for the Constitution

[Marie26]

15. That's what I thought.

The article itself mentions the similarity:

"The report does not mention political controversies about data mining. Several previous counter-terrorism data mining programs initiated by the government, including Total Information Awareness sponsored by the Pentagon and the Computer-Assisted Passenger Prescreening System II sponsored by DHS, were discontinued over privacy concerns."

This particular "data fusion" project seems to be part of an even wider planned data-mining system called "ADVISE". Here's another interesting article from the Feb. 9, 2006 Christian Science Monitor:

"US Plans Massive Data Sweep."

"The US government is developing a massive computer system that can collect huge amounts of data and, by linking far-flung information from blogs and e-mail to government records and intelligence reports, search for patterns of terrorist activity.

The system - parts of which are operational, parts of which are still under development - is already credited with helping to foil some plots. It is the federal government's latest attempt to use broad data-collection and powerful analysis in the fight against terrorism. But by delving deeply into the digital minutiae of American life, the program is also raising concerns that the government is intruding too deeply into citizens' privacy. ...

The core of this effort is a little-known system called Analysis, Dissemination, Visualization, Insight, and Semantic Enhancement (ADVISE). Only a few public documents mention it. ADVISE is a research and development program within the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), part of its three-year-old "Threat and Vulnerability, Testing and Assessment" portfolio. The TVTA received nearly $50 million in federal funding this year. DHS officials are circumspect when talking about ADVISE. ...

"Data-mining is a key technology"

A major part of ADVISE involves data-mining - or "dataveillance," as some call it. It means sifting through data to look for patterns... What sets ADVISE apart is its scope. It would collect a vast array of corporate and public online information - from financial records to CNN news stories - and cross-reference it against US intelligence and law-enforcement records. The system would then store it as "entities" - linked data about people, places, things, organizations, and events, according to a report summarizing a 2004 DHS conference in Alexandria, Va. The storage requirements alone are huge - enough to retain information about 1 quadrillion entities, the report estimated. If each entity were a penny, they would collectively form a cube a half-mile high - roughly double the height of the Empire State Building.

But ADVISE and related DHS technologies aim to do much more, according to Joseph Kielman, manager of the TVTA portfolio. The key is not merely to identify terrorists, or sift for key words, but to identify critical patterns in data that illumine their motives and intentions, he wrote in a presentation at a November conference in Richland, Wash.

http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0209/p01s02-uspo.html

How is this any different from Total Information Awareness? And why was that program ordered shut down, while this new revamped version is allowed to continue?

[Tigress DEM]

7. new and improved...

................. I2F will “enable intelligence analysts to understand relationships that would otherwise not be readily apparent,”


IE:

A law abiding citizen is a terrorist when he/she is:


1) Aiding and abetting terrorist activities
2) Planning such activities with known suspected terrorists

******* new and improved addition!!!! ************************

3) A living, breathing registered Democrat
4) Someone whose opinion differs from the daily talking points

[Wretched Refuse]

12. YES, YES, YES

Click YES NOWWWW!!!

[Buns_of_Fire]

8. "...use commercial software and integrate government programs..."

Ooooooooooooooooooooo, I'm REALLY skeered now! :scared: I envision one bigass Excel spreadsheet running on Windows 3.1!

Really. :eyes: Since WHEN has Washington ever been even remotely competent in managing the computer resources it already HAS?

Garbage In, Garbage Out.

[Marie26]

16. Well, it's more like

the government using commercial companies & databases to collect information that it could not do on it's own w/o a subpoena. So, data collection companies like Choicepoint amass huge databases of info on Americans, then enter a contract w/DHS to sell that info to them. DHS combines the "commercial software" w/the "government program" to create powerful surveillance systems that are still technically legal. I'm not sure any of us can really conceive of the power of these supercomputers. They've done this in a number of areas - Total Information Awareness, the "No-fly lists" (CAAPS II), the NSA eavesdropping, etc.

Here's another example of the same tactic:

TSA's Privacy Law Violations May Lead to More Abuses

By Martin H. Bosworth
ConsumerAffairs.Com

July 28, 2005

The news that the Transportation Security Administration violated the Privacy Act by collecting data on 250,000 Americans as part of a "study" for its new "Secure Flight" program is the latest in a string of incidents detailing how government agencies are using commercial data brokers to sidestep privacy laws, setting the stage for more problems in the future.

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) issued a report to Congress stating that "a TSA contractor, acting on behalf of the agency, collected more than 100 million commercial data records containing personal information such as name, date of birth, and telephone number without informing the public."

http://www.consumeraffairs.com/news04/2005/tsa_privacy.html

"Secure Flight" is a new name for the old "CAAPS II" no-fly list program. That program was supposedly scrapped because of privacy concerns, but it was really just given a new name. Just like TIA was just renamed. The "unnamed contractor" who collected 100 million records was Choicepoint. http://www.consumeraffairs.com/news04/2006/02/tsa_secure_flight.html

Choicepoint has also recently signed a lucrative contract w/the FBI - "ChoicePoint-FBI Deal Raises New Privacy Questions" -http://www.consumeraffairs.com/news04/2006/05/fbi_choicepoint.html, and FEMA - "FEMA outsources identity verification for disaster assistance," - http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/0706/072406j1.htm. With the sharing of info between DHS agencies, law enforcement agencies will now have access to vital records w/o even needing a warrant or a subpoena. It completely circumvents the Fourth Amendment.

[GeorgeGist]

13. With so many dots to connect...

what can you see?

[davekriss]

14. Total Information Awareness

Explicitly legislated out by Congress when John Poindextor was ;eading the effort at DARPA. It never went away. The Bush Regime just does what it wants anyway. Our Fuhrur. Welcome to the Reich, and a Reich building all the tools it needs for its iron heel to come down on any and all expressions of dissent.

It's real, it can happen here -- it already has.

[hootinholler]

17. Anyone else notice the IG's name?

Dick Skinner? Who would name thier child that?

Oh, K&R for the content.

-Hoot

[NVMojo]

19. Means: more of YOUR tax $$$ spent to monitor YOU!!

[NVMojo]

20. Means: more of YOUR tax $$$ spent to monitor YOU!!

[NoodleyAppendage]

21. I2F = Initiation to Fascism.

Those fuckers can information vector my boot in their ass.

J