Command, Control and Interoperability Division

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Command, Control and Interoperability

Virtual USA

Dr. John Hoyt

Branch Head – Information Sharing / Knowledge Management

Command Control and Interoperability Division

Command, Control and Interoperability Division

Science and Technology Directorate

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CCI Thrust Areas and the Information Cycle

• CCI provides what it

calls a toolkit - the

tools technologies

tools, technologies,

and resources to

enable Homeland

Security Practitioners

to gather, analyze,

manage, share, and

secure information.

• Each of CCI’s thrust

areas plays an

p y

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Problem Statement

• The need for real-time, actionable information is critical

during day-to-day and emergency response operations.

• Critical information is often trapped in silos and

inaccessible to those who need it the most

inaccessible to those who need it the most.

• Components, systems, and architectures have limited

Components, systems, and architectures have limited

ability to provide robust information sharing without the

benefit of a national strategy and applicable standards.

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The Information Sharing Problem

• The need for relevant,

l i

d

i

bl

real-time, and actionable

information is critical,

however existing

information is often siloed

and inaccessible when it is

needed the most.

• A plethora of information

sharing options exist –

h t i

d

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Broad Information Sharing

Capability Gaps

• Data and Sensor Fusion – The information sharing infrastructure and

threat identification and decision analysis tools for local, state and

Federal practitioners

• Threat-Specific Information Sharing – Real-time identification,

correlation, assessment and dissemination of threat information

• Cross-Entity Sharing – Distribution of intelligence products to state,

local, tribal, and industrial homeland security mission partners

• Data Management – On-demand management, analysis, and

visualization of information in multiple forms and from diverse,

distributed structured and unstructured sources

• Identity, Classification and Privacy Management – Scalable

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Virtual USA Strategic Initiative

Virtual USA is: A robust infrastructure where relevant homeland

security information can be shared with those who need it, when

they need it.

– “Infrastructure” is broadly defied to include technologies, standards,

y

g

,

governance models, etc.

– “Relevant homeland security information” includes all-hazards voice,

y

data, and imagery appropriate to the situation.

– “Those who need it” implies that individuals have access to information

appropriate to their role and personally identifiable information is

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Virtual USA

• Supports tactical, strategic and planning decisions for

homeland security practitioners by enabling the exchange

of information in whatever form is needed, delivered to

whatever device is available.

• Seeks to unify activities related to the gathering, analyzing,

managing, sharing and protecting of information.

• A way of organizing efforts at the National level.

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Virtual USA Core Principles

• Integrates existing frameworks to

establish seamless information exchange

among participants, as needed and as

th i

d

Highest Highest

authorized.

• Builds on existing investments by

leveraging a system of systems model to

Local Agency-Specific

permit both new and existing

technologies and concepts to exchange

information.

U sage P riority Regional Inter-Agency & Inter-Disciplinary

• Draws on practitioner input at every step

of the CCI project lifecycle.

• Employs a comprehensive approach by

U _P

State and Federal

• Employs a comprehensive approach by

fostering dynamic information sharing

between all practitioners, not specific,

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Virtual USA Lead Efforts

• Virtual City: A pilot demonstration as part of a national program that

integrates multiple data sources and makes them more accessible for

g

p

responders with and other city officials.

• Virtual State: Builds on existing investments in Virtual Alabama with

Virtual State: Builds on existing investments in Virtual Alabama with

advanced visualization, video streaming and other technologies.

• Regional Operations Platform Project (ROPP): Expands the Virtual

Regional Operations Platform Project (ROPP): Expands the Virtual

Alabama concept to a multi-state regional level and integrates existing

platforms, enhanced visualization tools, and other data sets such as

hurricane data to allow state systems to interoperable and exchange

data with each other regardless of the particular platform or

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Importance of Pilots

• Pilots prove that new technologies and concepts really work before

introducing them as solutions.

A i

l

il t d

t ti

l

t

ffi i

t i f

ti

t

• A single pilot demonstration rarely generates sufficient information to

serve as a national model.

• Every jurisdiction and geographic region has different needs and

issues.

• CCI’s goal is to conduct pilots in

CCI s goal is to conduct pilots in

as many places as possible.

• Pilot demonstrations influence

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Lack of Interoperability Impacts Communities

“Interoperability: Connecting diverse stakeholders across

multiple levels of government.”

Federal

State

Tribal

e

vels of

v

ernment

S

c

ement

ic

ice

ba

Local

L

e

Go

v

Missions

Fire*

EM

S

Law

Enfor

c

Publ

i

Serv

i

• Interoperability directly impacts the emergency response community, which

* The Federal fire mission is very small – generally limited to military and other installations and wildland fire

suppression coordination. Other than regulatory actions, states rarely have fire missions.

consists of more than 60,000 emergency response agencies.

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Virtual USA: Advancing Interoperability

at all Levels

• The need for relevant, real-time, and actionable information is critical during

emergency response operations. This information is often stove-piped and

inaccessible when it is needed the most

inaccessible when it is needed the most.

Virtual USA will provide local tribal state and

Virtual USA will provide local, tribal, state, and

Federal homeland security practitioners with the

capability to access

and share

relevant voice, data,

imagery, or other information

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Virtual USA: Strategy in Action

• Supports tactical strategic and

• Supports tactical, strategic and

planning decisions for homeland

security practitioners by enabling the

exchange of information in whatever

DATA COLLECTION

STATIC DATA SOURCES DATA DEVELOPMENT DYNAMIC DATA SOURCES DATA FEEDS DATA COLLECTION STATIC DATA SOURCES DATA DEVELOPMENT DYNAMIC DATA SOURCES DATA FEEDS

exchange of information in whatever

form is needed, delivered to whatever

device is available.

VIZUALIZATION PLATFORM ANALYSIS GEOCODING DATA COLLECTION VIZUALIZATION PLATFORM ANALYSIS GEOCODING DATA COLLECTION

• Seeks to unify activities related to the

gathering, analyzing, managing,

sharing and protecting of information.

VIRTUAL OPERATIONS

CENTER

• A way of organizing efforts at the

National level.

VIZUALIZATION PLATFORM ANALYSIS GEOCODING VIZUALIZATION PLATFORM ANALYSIS GEOCODING

• Advances application and platform

agnostic technologies, standards,

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Strategic Advisory Group

CCI will be creating a Virtual USA Strategic

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Information Sharing Activities of Interest

Identity Management Testbed

The project will develop technologies for managing identities, rights, and authorities used within and external to an

organization’s networks. The testbed will help establish how interoperability can be achieved between multiple external id tit dj di ti t t th ll i th identity adjudication support systems; thus, allowing those system to be configured to enable timely and complete evaluation of an individual’s status and eligibility for access.

CUI Framework Implementation Test and Evaluation

p

The project will evaluate the Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI) framework and specified dissemination instructions for applicability and clarity across multiple types of CUI information, communication channels, and end-user communities. It will enable secure, accurate, timely, and thorough distribution of DHS

i f ti t t l h l d it t t i

Critical Infrastructure Inspection Management System (CIIMS)

information to external homeland security partners to improve coordinated threat assessment and mitigation activities

Critical Infrastructure Inspection Management System (CIIMS)

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Information Sharing Activities of Interest

Data Fusion Technologies

These efforts will develop a sensor integration technology to fuse massive volumes of potentially hostile surveillance activity information from government and private sector sensor systems. It will also rapidly analyze the nature, sensor systems. It will also rapidly analyze the nature, composition, and pattern of the threat to support a common operating/ intelligence picture.

Integrated Data Processing and Analysis

g

y

These projects will develop scalable technologies for the integrated analysis of free text, database records, audio, video, imagery,

transactional data, geographical data, and sensor information. Ultimately, the effort will establish and validate reliable performance metrics for integrated data processing and analysis.

Real-Time Data Processing and Visualization

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Information Sharing Activities of Interest

Regional Information Sharing and Collaboration (RISC)

RISC addresses the need to share information regionally within the domain of law enforcement One current RISC pilot is the electronic domain of law enforcement. One current RISC pilot is the electronic sharing of driver’s license photos across state boundaries. Additional RISC pilots are exploring the use of wireless smart-phones, including iPhones, to allow law enforcement officers in the field to retrieve

information from their existing systems and perform simple analysis on the data.

the data.

Data Privacy Enabling Technology

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