Expansion
After acquiring JRIES, DHS recognized that the system's utility could be expanded beyond its existing counter-terrorism intelligence and threat awareness mission because JRIES met DHS' requirements for senior executive communications, crisis planning and management, and coordination and communications with first responder, emergency management, and military organizations. As such, in February 2004, DHS announced the expansion of JRIES as its primary communication, collaboration, situational awareness, and information-sharing system. The DHS Secretary renamed JRIES as the Homeland Security Information Network (HSIN) in order to reflect the system's broader scope. By December 2004, DHS had deployed HSIN to all 50 states, 53 major urban areas, five U.S. territories, the District of Columbia, and several international partners. DHS extended HSIN access beyond the law enforcement community to include state homeland security advisors, governors' offices, emergency managers, first responders, the National Guard, and an international component. DHS equipped each location with two laptops installed with the commercial, off-the-shelf software collaboration tool application.
Web-based portals
In February 2004, because of the lack of scalability to accommodate a large increase in users, DHS decided to move HSIN away from the current software collaboration tool and to develop a series of web-based portals as replacements. Nonetheless, DHS continues to operate both the commercial software collaboration tool application and a portal to support the law enforcement community.
State and local initiatives
DHS has expanded the role of HSIN through a state and local initiative. The goals of this initiative are to identify and address requirements of state and local communities of interest, as well as to provide robust training to promote effective use of the network. As of January 2006, eight states had deployed HSIN throughout their respective departments and agencies. Declaring HSIN the primary system for operational information sharing and collaboration, the DHS Secretary asked that the department's senior managers as well as headquarters and field personnel support the ongoing growth and utilization of HSIN.
The United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is a cabinet department of the U.S. federal government with responsibilities in public security, roughly comparable to the interior or home ministries of other countries. Its stated missions involve anti-terrorism, border security, immigration and customs, cyber security, and disaster prevention and management. It was created in response to the September 11 attacks and is the youngest U.S. cabinet department.
The Federal Protective Service (FPS) is the uniformed security police division of the National Protection and Programs Directorate of the United States Department of Homeland Security. FPS is "the federal agency charged with protecting and delivering integrated law enforcement and security services to facilities owned or leased by the General Services Administration (GSA)"—over 9,000 buildings—and their occupants.
The United States Computer Emergency Readiness Team (US-CERT) is an organization within the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) National Protection and Programs Directorate (NPPD). Specifically, US-CERT is a branch of the Office of Cybersecurity and Communications' (CS&C) National Cybersecurity and Communications Integration Center (NCCIC).
The National Cyber Security Division (NCSD) is a division of the Office of Cyber Security & Communications, within the United States Department of Homeland Security's Directorate for National Protection and Programs. Formed from the Critical Infrastructure Assurance Office, the National Infrastructure Protection Center, the Federal Computer Incident Response Center, and the National Communications System, NCSD opened on June 6, 2003. The NCSD mission is to collaborate with the private sector, government, military, and intelligence stakeholders to conduct risk assessments and mitigate vulnerabilities and threats to information technology assets and activities affecting the operation of the civilian government and private sector critical cyber infrastructures. NCSD also provides cyber threat and vulnerability analysis, early warning, and incident response assistance for public and private sector constituents. NCSD carries out the majority of DHS’ responsibilities under the Comprehensive National Cybersecurity Initiative. The FY 2011 budget request for NCSD is $378.744 million and includes 342 federal positions. The current director of the NCSD is John Streufert, former chief information security officer (CISO) for the United States Department of State, who assumed the position in January 2012.
The Homeland Security Act (HSA) of 2002, was introduced in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks and subsequent mailings of anthrax spores. The HSA was cosponsored by 118 members of Congress. The act passed the U.S. Senate by one vote, with the pivotal vote in a tied Senate being cast by Independent Dean Barkley. It was signed into law by President George W. Bush in November 2002.
A cyber fusion is an intelligence gathering, analysis and dissemination state or major urban area center, which is owned by state, local, and territorial law enforcement and Department of Homeland Security entities, many of which were jointly created between 2003 and 2007 under the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Office of Justice Programs in the U.S. Department of Justice. The DHS Office of Intelligence and Analysis (I&A) and Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) provide Fusion Centers with resources, training, and other coordinated services. The goal of such centers are to strengthen National anti-terrorism networks within the U.S. Federal government.
Child Exploitation Tracking System (CETS) is a Microsoft software based solution that assists in managing and linking worldwide cases related to child protection. CETS was developed in collaboration with law enforcement in Canada. Administered by the loose partnership of Microsoft and law enforcement agencies, CETS offers tools to gather and share evidence and information so they can identify, prevent and punish those who commit crimes against children.
The Office of Operations Coordination (OPS) is a component of the headquarters of the United States Department of Homeland Security. OPS' mission is to provide decision support and enable the Secretary’s execution of responsibilities across the homeland security enterprise by promoting situational awareness and information sharing, integrating and synchronizing strategic operations and planning, and administering the DHS continuity program.
According to the DHS S&T website, the Command, Control, and Interoperability Division was a unit of the DHS Science and Technology Directorate which "develops interoperable communication standards and protocols for emergency responders, cyber security tools for protecting the integrity of the Internet, and automated capabilities to recognize and analyze potential threats."
The Office of Intelligence and Analysis (I&A) is an agency of the United States Department of Homeland Security. Under the direction of the Under Secretary of Homeland Security for Intelligence and Analysis, I&A is responsible for developing DHS-wide intelligence through managing the collection, analysis and fusion of intelligence throughout the entire Department. I&A disseminates intelligence throughout DHS, to the other members of the United States Intelligence Community, and to first responders at the state, local, and tribal level.
Einstein was originally an intrusion detection system that monitors the network gateways of government departments and agencies in the United States for unauthorized traffic. The software was developed by the United States Computer Emergency Readiness Team (US-CERT), which is the operational arm of the National Cyber Security Division (NCSD) of the United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS). The program was originally developed to provide "situational awareness" for the civilian agencies. While the first version examined network traffic and subsequent versions examined content, the current version of Einstein is significantly more advanced.
The National Protection and Programs Directorate (NPPD) was a component of the United States Department of Homeland Security. NPPD's goal was to advance the Department's national security mission by reducing and eliminating threats to U.S. critical physical and cyber infrastructure.
The Global Trade Exchange (GTX) is, or was, a controversial Homeland Security intelligence project, related to maritime-ports data-mining, being one of three pillars of the Safe Ports Act-related Secure Freight Initiatives. The Global Trade Exchange has a mysterious history dating from conception in 2004, a 2007-2008 year of hype, and sudden placement on "hold" status. Described as a ready-to-buy, commercially available database, the GTX was rush-funded by Congress as part of and championed relentlessly by then-United States Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff in evident disregard of objections of confused and frustrated U.S. private sector trade groups. After a year-long spate of official support, media hype, and after award of Congressional funding of $13 million, the GTX was put "on hold for further study by the [U.S.] Navy" in April 2008, for reasons still yet to-be explained. Touted by senior U.S. officials and Congress in 2007 as an anti-terrorism database for tracking long-haul shipping containers, the Global Trade Exchange's principal focus appears to have a different focus, notably advance trade-finance information for market-making purposes.
The Under Secretary of Homeland Security for Intelligence and Analysis is a high level civilian official in the United States Department of Homeland Security. The Under Secretary, as head of the Office of Intelligence and Analysis at DHS, is the principal staff assistant and adviser to the Secretary of Homeland Security and the Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security for fusing law enforcement and intelligence information relating to terrorist threats.
The Homeland Security Information Network (HSIN) is a web-based platform, run by the Department of Homeland Security, which is designed to allow local, state, tribal, and federal government agencies to share "Sensitive But Unclassified (SBU)" information with each other over a secure channel.
Virtual USA (vUSA), is a joint federal and state collaboration on a project that would allow state and local on-line tools and technologies, such as caches of geospatial data, to be interoperable and more useful with the goal of creating a "Virtual USA" for emergency response purposes. The initiative was developed by the DHS Directorate for Science and Technology (S&T), and currently operates as a pilot in eight states — Alabama, Georgia, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, Texas, Virginia and Tennessee — with plans to incorporate additional states.
The Nationwide Suspicious Activity Reporting (SAR) Initiative (NSI) is a program of the United States Government used to collect and share reports of suspicious activity by people in the United States.
The Nationwide SAR Initiative (NSI) builds on what law enforcement and other agencies have been doing for years — gathering information regarding behaviors and incidents associated with criminal activity — but without the customary restrictions on collecting data on individuals in the absence of reasonable suspicion or probable cause. The program has established a standardized process whereby SARs can be shared among agencies to help detect and prevent terrorism-related criminal activity. This process is in direct response to the mandate to establish a "unified process for reporting, tracking, and accessing [SARs]" in a manner that rigorously protects the privacy and civil liberties of Americans, as called for in the 2007 National Strategy for Information Sharing (NSIS), which in turn was authorized by the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004. Reports of suspicious behavior noticed by local law enforcement or by private citizens are forwarded to state and major urban area fusion centers as well as DHS and the FBI for analysis. Sometimes this information is combined with other information to evaluate the suspicious activity in greater context. The program is primarily under the direction of the US Department of Justice.
The Information Sharing Environment (ISE) was established by the United States Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004. Under Section 1016 of IRTPA, the Program Manager for the Information Sharing Environment (PM-ISE) was granted government wide authority to plan for, oversee the implementation of, and manage the ISE.
A Visible Intermodal Prevention and Response team, sometimes Visible Intermodal Protection and Response is a Transportation Security Administration program. Various government sources have differing descriptions of VIPR's exact mission. It is specifically authorized by 6 U.S.C. § 1112 which says that the program is to "augment the security of any mode of transportation at any location within the United States". Authority for the program is under the Secretary of Homeland Security. The program falls under TSA's Office of Law Enforcement/Federal Air Marshal Service. TSA OLE/FAMS shares responsibility for the program with the Office of Security Operations and Transportation Sector Network Management.
Intelligence sharing is "the ability to exchange intelligence, information, data, or knowledge among Federal, state, local or private-sector entities as appropriate." Intelligence sharing also involves intergovernmental bilateral or multilateral agreements and through international organizations. Intelligence sharing is meant to facilitate the use of actionable intelligence to a broader range of decision-makers.
