Imagine: Coded messages skitter like insects along the shadowy edges of the Internet. Blueprints of oil tankers and harbor security systems are swapped, sailing manifests are pored over, recipes for nitrate explosives and parts lists for detonators are shared. But then, a frantic warning interrupts the exchange: "The harbor master has doubled the security detail and altered the port schedule. Attack is to be aborted immediately. Repeat: Abort attack!"

What if the United States could respond to a terrorist attack so quickly that the attack never occurs? A concept that at first appears a paradox is actually the driving vision behind MITRE's Homeland Security Command and Control (HLS C2) project. By improving the flow of information among local, state, and national crisis and security agencies, the HLS C2 project aspires to enable these agencies to evolve their efforts from terrorism response into terrorism prevention and even terrorism deterrence.

MITRE helped initiate the HLS C2 project in February 2001 to explore the best ways to respond to terrorism, both at home and abroad. The 9/11 attacks, however, sharpened the focus of the project to deterring future attacks on American soil. As the HLS C2 project was being conducted under the auspices of the Department of Defense's Advanced Concept Technology Demonstration (ACTD) program, the project never lost a step. The flexibility of the ACTD program—an initiative to acquire and integrate emerging information technology while it is still cutting-edge—allows such projects as HLS C2 to respond nimbly to evolving events.

"The changes in how this project has been perceived in the last three years have been incredible," says project manager Matthew Bielefeld. "What we realized in light of 9/11 is that effective emergency response is as much a socialization issue as it is a technological issue."

Community agencies are the first and, as they are most familiar with the resources and difficulties on hand, best-equipped to respond to an emergency in their area. After the 9/11 attacks, the New York police and fire departments directed rescue efforts at the World Trade Centers. In Washington, it was not the Department of Defense that led the response at the Pentagon, but the Arlington, Virginia, Fire Department. Only when it is determined that the situation is beyond the scope of local capabilities does the incident commander typically request first state and then federal assistance.

It is at this point, when local agencies reach out to other agencies, that effective communication becomes a problem. All parties at the scene of an emergency must be able to communicate and coordinate their efforts and resources. However, most agencies have their own unique communications system. Relaying information accurately and quickly along this chain of disparate networks is difficult.

After studying how emergency communications have worked in the past, MITRE employed its expertise in distributed worldwide information sharing to design the HLS C2 network to adapt to local communication networks, instead of the other way around. "We had to build a network out of the communications systems already in place," says Bielefeld. "It was like the scene in Apollo 13 in which Mission Control scientists have to design a filter out of the random parts the astronauts had on hand."

To adapt the HLS C2 network to the various emergency communication networks, MITRE called upon its expertise in design scalability and in interconnecting disparate systems. This dual proficiency enabled MITRE to knit together a multiplatform network from commercial and government resources with minimal additional investment from the participants and without making obsolete their previous investments.

HLS C2 focuses on three core tasks. The first is to alert. The system ensures that every party—local, state, and federal—that needs to respond to an emergency is informed and prepared. The second task is to foster collaboration. By rapidly linking key decision-making authorities across the community with online collaboration, HLS C2 allows distributed responders to seamlessly and quickly coordinate their resources and actions. The third task is to provide a common picture. By using state-of-the-art visualization techniques, responders can access all the available information in an easy-to-digest, easy-to-share format. These online services use a combination of Web, non-Web, commercial, and government technologies.

"In short," says Bielefeld, "HLS C2 lets people know what is going on, lets them interact, and then lets them rapidly visualize that set of information so that they have a clear picture of what has happened and what needs to happen."

It is in this way that "terrorist response" evolves into "terrorist prevention" and then "terrorist deterrence." The more prepared agencies are to respond to an attack, the more chance they have to mitigate the effects of that attack. The less effect an attack on a target has, the less valuable that target is. The fewer the choices of potential targets there are, the greater the chances of security forces to intercept terrorist attacks.

Through these capabilities—and the interaction they spark—"it's a small step to a larger end," says Bielefeld. "The goal is to make terrorists respond to us instead of us responding to them."

As a Department of Defense program, HLS C2 is helping knit the seam between Homeland Defense and the Federal Response Plan. HLS C2 proved its abilities in an initial homeland security demonstration that modeled two simultaneous terrorist attacks. Then at the end of 2002, HLS C2 participated in a nationwide demonstration of terrorism response and prevention efforts that involved more than 20 venues and 50 organizations.

Now that HLS C2 is being used in the field, the philosophy of collaborative communication that underlies it is proving just as influential as its components. "When Hurricane Isabel hit the Virginia Tidewater with record floods," Bielefeld offers as an example, "Chesapeake authorities used their HLS C2 systems to contact emergency authorities in Louisiana. Well accustomed to flood response, the Louisiana authorities were able to share information from their flood modeling to guide the Chesapeake emergency efforts."

Currently aspects of the HLS C2 technology are being employed by NORTHCOM, the New York City Police Department, and the State of Louisiana. The States of Washington and Oregon are beginning to integrate their systems into the program. In addition, MITRE has partnered with regional tactical response networks in Washington, D.C., Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania, and in the Pacific Northwest to tie their capabilities into the HLS C2 network.

And as agencies learn to use the HLS C2 network for day-to-day information sharing instead of only for crisis response, Bielefeld expects a "web of vigilance" will spread over the nation, catching terrorists before they strike and perhaps persuading them to abandon their schemes to launch attacks on American soil altogether.

—by Christopher Lockheardt

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