The FBI's N-DEX Program

[CrackSmokeRepublican]

This looks like a problem if the J-Tribers  have control of this... -- CSR

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N-DEx Welcome to the Future

04/21/08
N-DEx is a national information sharing system that helps solve crimes and connect the dots between people, places, and events.    
N-DEx is a national information sharing
system that helps solve crimes and connect the
dots between people, places, and events.
   

Scattered across the country are more than 18,000 law enforcement agencies—local, state, tribal, and federal—each going about their business of gathering clues, conducting interviews, solving crimes, and generating reports and information.

So the question is: in an age where many crimes cross one or more jurisdictions, how can agencies share their information with each other...not only to catch criminals and terrorists but also to spot crime trends and patterns and help prevent attacks?

After all, beyond a few national criminal justice systems like the National Crime Information Center and the Integrated Automated Fingerprint Identification System, most information-sharing between police agencies today is on a case-by-case basis or through local and regional information systems.

That's now changing, thanks to the Law Enforcement National Data Exchange, or N-DEx.

N-DEx is what you might expect: a national information-sharing system available through a secure Internet site for law enforcement and criminal justice agencies. N-DEx allows agencies to search and analyze data using some powerful automated capabilities, helping to connect the dots between people, places, and events.

Given its experience with such systems, our Criminal Justice Information Services Division in West Virginia was asked by the Department of Justice to develop and maintain N-DEx in close consultation with our law enforcement partners.

Following a successful prototype, we launched the first phase of N-DEx last month to a controlled number of agencies. Right now, the system includes several basic but vital capabilities, including searching and correlating incident/case report information and arrest data to help resolve entities (determining a person's true identity despite different aliases, addresses, etc.). N-DEx will also create link analysis charts to assist in criminal investigations and identify potential terrorist activity.

Once fully operational and fully deployed in 2010, N-DEx will include a full range of capabilities, including:

    * Nationwide searches from a single access point;
    * Searches by "modus operandi" and for clothing, tattoos, associates, cars, etc.—linking individuals, places, and things;
    * Notifications of similar investigations and suspects;
    * Identification of criminal activity hotspots and crime trends;
    * Threat level assessments of individuals and addresses; and
    * Visualization and mapping features.


All this includes appropriate safeguards to protect privacy and civil liberties. Access to information in N-DEx will be strictly controlled by the law enforcement agency who "owns" the info—each agency decides what data to share, with whom, and under what circumstances. Each time the system is accessed, a log is generated so administrators can determine who accessed it, for what purpose, and what information was obtained. And note: N-DEx is not a new records system—the only "new" records created will be the links made between information that already exists in law enforcement databases.

"N-DEx is a remarkable tool for investigators to add to their toolbox and represents a real step forward for law enforcement," says Tom Bush, Assistant Director of our Criminal Justice Information Services Division. "I believe it has unlimited potential for the future and will strengthen the relationships forged between the FBI and state and local law enforcement agencies across the country."

For more information, including a series of fictitious but realistic scenarios that show the capabilities of this tool, see the N-DEx website.

http://www.fbi.gov/news/stories/2008/april/ndex_042108


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January 28, 2011, 5:22PM
DHS: $40m To Research Next Big Thing in Cyber Security


by Paul Roberts

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security issued a call for proposals this week in a $40m program to encourage research and development in a wide range of topics related to cyber security: from designing more resilient software, to alternatives to passwords and CAPTCHA technology to prevent automated attacks. DHS laid out its areas of interest in a Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) dated January 26. In it, the domestic security agency said it was soliciting papers and proposals centered on 14 different topic areas. At stake is $40m in federal funding for research and development, with individual grants ranging up to $3 million. DHS's areas of interest include software assurance, enterprise security metrics, usable security, as well as the challenges posed by insider threats.

The proposal comes amid increasing concern that Uncle Sam has been unable to adequately defend government, military and defense-related networks from intruders. Recent headlines have revealed that administrator credentials to U.S. Government Web sites -including the U.S. military's Communications-Electronics Command (CECOM) -- are being fenced online, while other government sites are serving up malicious links and redirects. The so-called Aurora attacks -believed to be backed by the Chinese government - targeted both public sector and defense related firms, while the recent test flight of a Chinese stealth jet suggest that secrets stolen from the U.S. may have already been put into development by foreign governments.

The DHS announcement, made by the DHS Cyber Security Division, is aimed at a wide range of technologies - from early stage development, to prototyped technologies to mature technologies. Grants for early stage development are larger - capping out at $3m, compared with just $750,000 for mature technologies and are intended to encourage R&D related to cyber security or help in the transition of technologies for use in national infrastructure, according to a copy of the announcement posted online.
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In addition to providing funding for R&D, the announcement also provides for the use of the DHS's Cyber Defense Technology Experimental Research (DETER) Network for testing and evaluation of different technologies. Proposals and white papers will be evaluated based on the potential of the technology to meet the goals of individual topic areas, soundness of the technology and proposed development, a qualitative assessment of the ability of the organization or individual proposing the idea to bring it to fruition and the proposer's track record of success.

The Technical Topic Areas laid out by DHS read like a symptom list for the U.S. Government's cyber insecurity complex. DHS is looking for ideas on software assurance - building less buggy, more reliable and secure software for use in critical infrastructure, on the threat posed by malicious insiders, for ideas about how to map networks and Internet based attacks, measure security accurately within enterprise environments and for so-called "Usable Security" - building security features that don't hinder productivity or encourage users to become complacent or even hostile to the operation of security software.

The Federal government has moved in recent ears to attract top security talent, while organization's like In-Q-Tel, the CIA's venture firm, have funded new, innovative ideas. But, as in the private sector, an overabundance of security products hasn't improved the security posture of government networks. At the same time, spending on IT security continues to come under fire for wasting resources and for a poor track record on learning from security incidents. The leak of hundreds of thousands of pages of confidential diplomatic cables to the whistle blower site Wikileaks highlighted a shocking lack of security around sensitive data. Threatpost noted that the Government Accountability Office had frequently warned that Department of Defense wasn't providing adequate oversight of classified information, and was failing to adequately investigate even the known breaches that its contractors reported. The new DHS proposal moves to address those issues as well, listing "incident response" as one of fourteen topic areas open to proposals from the private sector.

https://threatpost.com/en_us/blogs/dhs- ... ity-012811


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FBI set to turn up advanced security search engine


FBI system supports 200 million searchable records with an eye towards growing to 2 billion
By Layer 8 on Tue, 02/01/11 - 1:11pm.


The FBI says it is set to roll out is N-DEx search engine and information sharing program to a wider swath of the federal, state and local law enforcement community.

The FBI has been developing N-DEx since 2008 and says that once this latest round of development is complete, law enforcement agencies will be able to search, link, analyze, and share information such as case reports on a national basis to a degree never before possible, the agency stated.

FBI fires back at report critical of complex computer project

According to the FBI: "This month's third and final phase will add probation and parole information to the database, as well as enhancements to some of its existing capabilities. And best of all, the N-DEx interface has been completely redone, giving it the look and feel of a commercial search engine, complete with filters and more streamlined result sets.  Now, N-DEx will now be able to support 200 million searchable records, and with future modification, that number can readily increase to two billion records."

With the system, law enforcement officers will be able to search databases for information on everything from tattoos to cars, allowing them to link cases that previously seemed isolated. They will be able to see crime trends and hotspots, access threat level assessments of individuals or locations, and use mapping technology. N-DEx will help law enforcement connect dots and connect law enforcement agencies from coast to coast, the FBI stated.

Raytheon is the prime contractor for N-DEx and is helping the FBI develop and deploy the system nationwide.

http://www.networkworld.com/community/b ... rch-engine