HSSEDI

Applying technology and data expertise to secure the nation

The devastating events of 9/11 two decades ago triggered a new national defense focus: homeland security. Today, that mission involves much more than thwarting terrorist attacks.

From striving to prevent threats, to responding decisively to disasters, to advancing U.S. economic security, the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) highest priority is safeguarding the American people. 

MITRE supports that priority, aiming to protect the United States in ways that benefit the public every day. We work to strengthen transportation security, combat human trafficking, safeguard against cyber attacks—and more.

From the department’s inception, we’ve provided deep systems thinking and interdisciplinary expertise to pioneer new innovations to help keep the nation safe.

Since 2009, in our role managing DHS’s Homeland Security Systems Engineering and Development Institute™ (HSSEDI), we have served as a national resource and objective adviser for accelerating homeland security impact. This includes:

• Developing software to provide a common operating picture for the U.S. Border Patrol, to improve detection and tracking of border crossings and deter illegal activities.
• Fortifying the Transportation Security Administration’s flight identity matching and vetting capabilities, to improve passenger safety and better mitigate threats to aviation security.
• Protecting cyberspace through data-driven analysis of a suspected cyber hijacking campaign against federal systems, including those protecting critical infrastructure.
• Partnering across the DHS, Federal Aviation Administration, Department of Energy, and other agencies to counter non-traditional aviation threats like drones.
• Leveraging MITRE’s ATT&CK® framework to improve the government’s mobile device security.
• Applying our simulation experiments (a.k.a. SIMEX™) capabilities to inform best practices for 21st century law enforcement.
• Driving collaboration across stakeholders like the Homeland Security Experts Group.
• Fighting mis/disinformation on social media that can negatively impact our elections and COVID-19 response.

We help enable DHS’s mission by collaborating across government agencies and on multiple fronts: land, sea, air, and cyber.