As Cold War threats have diminished, a new set of threat types has emerged into the forefront. These threats present unique difficulties and pose a greater homeland defense challenge than previously encountered. They include weapons of mass destruction in the hands of terrorists; Internet hackers attacking the nation’s critical infrastructure; global environmental changes that cause an increase in natural catastrophes; the worldwide spread of infectious diseases; the widespread contamination of food, water, and the environment; global organized crime; and narcotics. These are basically worldwide threats that can impact any country at the national, regional, and local levels. In the United States, most of these threats are the responsibility of many segmented organizations across federal, state, and local governments. The result is that no unified information capability exists to support the mission for overall protection management for homeland defense.

But many of these potentially catastrophic threats present a critical need for rapid indications and warnings (I&W) similar to the Strategic Air Command’s I&W function during the Cold War. Thus, the challenge for homeland defense is immense. The solution is long overdue.

A concept was initiated at MITRE in June 2000 to develop an internal MITRE prototype information service for homeland defense. Several teams were established to develop an internal Homeland Defense Information Service (HDIS) Web site, the HDIS information domain watches, and the HDIS information technology applications.

The HDIS owes a lot to the well established Intelink, a secure, Web-based repository of information that provides uniform access to intelligence information. In 1993, the Intelligence Community called upon MITRE to help standardize the way intelligence information was disseminated to its customers. Our sponsors approved our concept of using emerging Web technology to tie together all of the United States intelligence capability, and asked us to prototype the concept—with real intelligence information. Based on MITRE’s long association with the Intelligence Community, and with MITRE people working at U.S. government sites around the world, we were able to quickly set up servers and content that could be shared over the classified intelligence network. The prototype was a phenomenal success.

Using now-familiar Web techniques, Intelink provides an Intelligence Community “information space” where analysts and operations users can browse for needed information, thus eliminating the need for unique systems. Intelink became operational in December 1994, when then Deputy Secretary of Defense John Deutch and Director of Central Intelligence James Woolsey jointly declared Intelink as the strategic direction for all Intelligence Community “finished intelligence” dissemination systems.

Web technology presents the best opportunity to rapidly develop and deploy an integrated information infrastructure for homeland defense that can provide synergy along with the necessary all-source information, collaboration, and multicultural perspective on the diverse set of threats.

Homeland Defense Information Service (HDIS)
A strawman HDIS structure was formulated and applied to information management functions. Within several weeks, a beginning HDIS capability evolved. The intent is to build the prototype to such a level of robustness that it can be made available to a set of external users for test and evaluation. The vision is to build a show-the-way exemplar HDIS that could support all appropriate government users at local, state, regional, and national levels. The exemplar would provide all applicable threat information domains, with all-source information in a secure infrastructure.

The HDIS Cyber Analyst
As envisioned, a key capability in HDIS is support for analysts responsible for threat management and consequence management using all-source information. The goal is to build into HDIS analytical tools that help analysts discover and visualize information and collaborate with other analysts for optimum decision making. The support tools provide a “sixth sense” for rapidly finding information and analyzing the information space.

HDIS Web Site
The HDIS Web site is the entry point into a collection of web resources and tools for managing threats and consequences and exploring I&W. The HDIS structure is populated with links to a variety of open source materials (e.g., news reports, historical documents, and online communities of interest) organized by “watch” category. These are valuable resources for fulfilling the homeland defense mission and are mostly static, with some news feeds for automatically collected information providing more up-to-date information. The tools facilitate accessing information and sharing it among analysts.

HDIS Analyst Support Tools
Keeping track of what is happening in the world is no easy task. Many military and civilian command centers rely on CNN and other news agencies to stay informed and even put television monitors in prominent places to watch late breaking news. The HDIS analyst tools also help with discovering information, but they don’t stop there; they provide capabilities for managing and analyzing the information through custom software and software integration.