[infowar.de] Update zu Intelink - US-Geheimdienstenetzwerk

[Ralf Bendrath <bendrath -! - zedat - fu-berlin - de>]

Infowar.de, http://userpage.fu-berlin.de/~bendrath/liste.html
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Federal Computer Week
http://www.fcw.com/fcw/articles/2002/0107/web-intelink-01-09-02.asp

Intelink sees renewed interest

BY Diane Frank 
Jan. 9, 2002

An existing secure collaboration network used by the intelligence
community to share data has experienced a resurgence since the Sept. 11
terrorist attacks, officials said Jan. 8 at the Federal Convention on
Emerging Technologies in Las Vegas.

Intelink has been in place since 1997, but was previously used by only a
few advocates. When officials realized Sept. 11 that there was no single
technology tool to allow real-time collaboration, they turned to
Intelink, which was developed for and by the intelligence community. 

Until Sept. 11, even 10 users participating in one of the network's
"communities of interest" was considered a big deal, said William
Spalding, chief of the applications group under the Intelligence
Community Chief Information Office Executive Board. The board serves as
the top policy organization for all of the intelligence agencies'
technology issues.

Now, hundreds of analysts are using the network after the
counterterrorism and intelligence communities realized the immediate
need for information sharing and collaboration and viewed Intelink as
the obvious tool to fill that need,
 Spalding said. Most agree that sharing information and experience
enhances intelligence analysis, but before Sept. 11 there was really no
business case that motivated agency analysts to use Intelink, he said.

There are now other issues to be worked out, including the need to
enforce the technical standards set up for Intelink and the need for
around-the-clock support for the network problems that were not as
important when there were only a few users, Spalding said. 

Meanwhile, the Community Counterterrorism Board is struggling to
establish the policies needed to give state and local agencies involved
in homeland security access to the board's intelligence information,
said Kenneth Duncan, chief of the board.

The Community Counterterrorism Board, which manages the Interagency
Intelligence Committee on Terrorism under the director for central
intelligence (DCI), is the organization that links all 60-plus federal
intelligence, defense and civilian agencies involved in
counterterrorism. 

The technical issues behind supporting that growing number of users are
not going to be easy to address. But work now under way might provide
the tradition of collaboration needed to facilitate progress in homeland
security efforts, Spalding said.

"The way things came together for combating terrorism can, and should
be, a good indication for homeland security collaboration," he said.


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