US Information Sharing Environment

The terrorism-related Information Sharing Environment (ISE) is a critical initiative to strengthen responsible information sharing across communities, agencies, and levels of government to implement goals set forth in the NSISS (The White House, 2012). Accordingly, its purpose is to enhance the sharing of terrorism-related information (The White House, 2007) and its work plan covered an initial period of three years (Information Sharing Environment Program Manager, 2006).

Before the ISE there was a multitude of sectorial information sharing environments scattered by different communities (i.e. intelligence, law enforcement, defense, homeland security and foreign affairs) (Information Sharing Environment Program Manager, 2006). Consequently, its vision “represents a trusted partnership among all levels of government in the united states, the private sector, and foreign partners, to detect, prevent, disrupt, preempt, and mitigate the effects of terrorism against the territory, people, and interests of the United States of America” (Information Sharing Environment Program Manager, 2006).

Therefore, the goals of the ISE program are: 1) to facilitate the establishment of a trusted partnership among all levels of government, the private sector and foreign partners; 2) to promote an information sharing culture among ISE partners; 3) to function, in the maximum extent possible, in a decentralized, distributed and coordinated manner; 4) to develop and deploy incrementally information sharing capabilities and 5) to promote more rapid and effective interchange and coordination among the different partners.

As such, the ISE aims to create a powerful capability to share, search, and analyze terrorism information across jurisdictional boundaries and provide a distributed, secure, and trusted environment for transforming data into actionable information (Information Sharing Environment Program Manager, 2006). Consequently, it must incorporate all types of data, at all levels of security, which includes structured and unstructured data and finished intelligence products. Moreover, the ISE will take advantage of and connect existing information sharing capabilities and organizational structures at all levels of government (Information Sharing Environment Program Manager, 2006).

To develop the ISE, the Federal government started by constructing a strong legal and policy foundation upon which to improve information sharing. For example, the President Executive Orders (E.O.) 13311, 13356, and 13388, each of which successively strengthened the sharing of terrorism information across the Federal government. In addition, on December 16, 2005, the President issued a Memorandum to the Heads of Executive Departments and Agencies on the Guidelines and Requirements in Support of the Information Sharing Environment, which specified tasks, deadlines, and assignments necessary to further

the ISE’s development. Moreover, the President adopted the majority of information sharing recommendations put forth by the European Commission on the Intelligence Capabilities of the United States Regarding Weapons of Mass Destruction (the WMD European Commission). Furthermore, Congress enacted two laws in addition to IRTPA that provided the Federal government with greater authority for sharing information: The Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism (USA PATRIOT) Act of 2001 and the Homeland Security Act of 2002 (Information Sharing Environment Program Manager, 2006).

The results of the implementation of the ISE are already visible. For example, a National Network of Fusion Centers was established, owned and managed by state and local entities, which use the Nationwide Suspicious Activity Reporting (SAR) Initiative (NSI) to share terrorism information among all levels of government; and with consistent policies to protect individual privacy, civil rights, and civil liberties. In addition, there have been increasing levels of collaboration among the fusion centers, the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI) Joint Terrorism Task Forces, Field and Regional Intelligence Groups, Federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies, High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area programs, Regional Information Sharing System centers, intelligence and crime analysis units, and via initiatives like the Fusion Liaison Officer Program, which includes tribal and non-law enforcement partners (The White House, 2012)

Moreover, access has been provided to multiple data repositories across departments and agencies, consistent with mission authorities and legal protections. For example, analysts at the National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC) now have access to over 30 Federal networks containing terrorism information. This profoundly contrasts the pre-9/11 environment characterized by agency-centric data repositories (The White House, 2012)

Furthermore, a single authoritative database of known or suspected international terrorist identities was developed at NCTC. Pertinent information from this database can now be exported to the FBI’s Terrorist Screening Center (TSC) database, which also includes domestic known or reasonably suspected terrorist identities, a marked improvement to the previous multiple, non-integrated lists (The White House, 2012) In 2014, the ISE achievements could be described in numbers as follows (Information Sharing Environment Program Manager, 2015):

• 17 total members of the standards coordinating council • 4800 suspicious activity reports filed in 2014

• 522 intersystem conflicts prevented by the law enforcement Partner De-confliction Interface • 23 states represented at the 2015 NGA Summit on state Cyber Security

• 400.000 Registered users of SBU networks who can now access federated search • 21 out of 37 initiatives supported by ISE from the NFCA National Strategy

• 19 states represented at the 2015 ASCIA Human Trafficking Summit

In addition, the ISE adopted the National Information Exchange Model (NIEM), a successful example of a common way to structure data exchanges to better enable information sharing. NIEM is now used by many Federal agencies, State governments, private sector organizations, and foreign partners. As a side benefit, NIEM promotes information technology (IT) industry adoption as a result of partnering with Standards Development Organizations (SDOs) (The White House, 2012).

Moreover, a plan was established to unify and align user identification and authentication on systems, through the Federal Identity Credential and Access Management (FICAM) framework under the National Strategy for Trusted Identities in Cyberspace. This represented a critical step toward establishing individual accountability and facilitating the appropriate level of information access (The White House, 2012).

Last, but not least, the ISE enhanced communications to facilitate dialogue between departments and agencies and with other partners. For example, the FBI and Department of Homeland Security (DHS), augmented by the Interagency Threat Assessment and Coordination Group (ITACG), hold classified video teleconferences three times a day, 365 days a year, with over a dozen Federal counterterrorism entities. Products of these efforts are available, as appropriate, to non-Federal partners (The White House, 2012).