[IP] Markle Report -- Creating A Trusted Information Network for Homeland Security

[Dave Farber]

[ For the record, I am a member of the Markle Taskforce djf]''


TASK FORCE SAYS GOVERNMENT HAS NOT YET TAKEN ADVANTAGE OF AMERICA'S
TECHNOLOGY EXPERTISE TO COMBAT TERRORISM

Markle Task Force Addresses Actions Needed to Create Information Network to
Enhance Security while Preserving Civil Liberties

To download a copy of Creating A Trusted Information Network for Homeland
Security or for more information on the Task Force, please visit
www.markletaskforce.org <http://www.markletaskforce.org>

Washington, D.C. (December 2, 2003) - The Markle Foundation Task Force on
National Security in the Information Age today released its second report,
concluding that the U.S. government has not yet taken advantage of
America's technology expertise to fight the war on terrorism. In its
report, Creating A Trusted Information Network for Homeland Security, the
Task Force catalogs current gaps in the nation's system for analyzing and
sharing intelligence. It details the elements of a proposed System-wide
Homeland Analysis and Resource Exchange (SHARE) Network that would more
effectively combat terrorism while protecting privacy and other civil
liberties.

In its first report in October 2002, the Markle Task Force identified the
ability to share information as the most urgent task facing government in
protecting the homeland. It laid out a plan for a distributed information
technology network to share terrorism-related information among federal,
state and local government agencies and the private sector so that threats
could be identified and prevented. In it second report, the Task Force
finds that the government's progress since September 11, 2001, toward
building an adequate network has been slow and is not guided by an overall
vision of how information should be shared and analyzed in keeping with
adequate guidelines to protect privacy and other civil liberties. Good work
is being done in some agencies, but isolated projects cannot reach scale or
break through cultural barriers fast enough to prevent another attack.

"Using currently available technology, the government can set up a network
that substantially improves our ability to prevent terrorism and protect
civil liberties," said Zoe Baird, president of the Markle Foundation and
co-chair with James Barksdale of the Markle Task Force on National Security
in the Information Age. "Public trust in a network that uses information
about people in the U.S. can only be achieved if government-wide guidelines
for information sharing and privacy protection are established after open
public debate."

The Task Force -- whose members include some of the nation's leading
experts on national security who served in the Carter, Reagan, Bush and
Clinton Administrations, as well as leading experts on information
technology and civil liberties -- calls on the President to:

*	Set the goal of creating the network;
*	issue clear government-wide policy guidelines for the government's
collection and use of domestic information, including private sector
information about U.S. persons;
*	clarify the respective roles of DHS, the Terrorist Threat
Integration Center (TTIC), the FBI and other federal agencies involved with
collection and analysis of domestic terrorism information.

The Task Force concluded that until the government gives priority to
breaking down its institutional barriers to cooperation and presents the
public with a cohesive plan for the network, the public will not understand
how private sector information is a critical part of the network. Further,
government-wide guidelines are needed that clearly define the security
interests in research into data mining of private sector information and
that provide controls to address the privacy implications of such programs
in order to establish public trust in these programs.

In its report, the Task Force notes that it is essential that the
government shed its Cold War culture in order to properly address the
threat the nation faces from terrorism. During the Cold War, the use of
information was dominated by a culture of classification and tight
limitations on access, in which information was shared only on a "need to
know" basis. However, the events of September 11 have starkly demonstrated
the dangers associated with the failure to share information, not only
within the federal government, but also between the federal government, on
the one hand, and state and local governments and the private sector on the
other. The threat today requires unprecedented speed in the way the
government collects, shares, and acts on information. To deal with this
threat, information needs to be tailored to facilitate decision-making and
action at all levels-not only by the President, but also the police
officers on the street.

"Our Task Force's fundamental objective was to identify the technological
tools and infrastructure, the policies, and the processes necessary to link
different levels of government and the private sector, so that important
information can be shared among the people who need it as rapidly as
possible, within a system of guidelines and technologies designed to
protect civil liberties," said Michael Vatis, executive director of the
Task Force. "The government has caused confusion by creating multiple new
agencies without clearly defining their respective roles and
responsibilities."

The SHARE network that the Task Force has proposed - which it recommends be
overseen by DHS -- in the first stage could be built using existing
technology. Technology products that are currently available would allow
information to be both protected and shared through the use of published
directories, listing who has relevant information, and permissioning rules
to determine whom can access the information. Currently available
technology would also allow for the authentication for subscribers to the
directories and the anonymization of personally identifiable information
where appropriate in order to share the necessary information while
protecting privacy.

As the recent controversies surrounding DARPA's Terrorist Information
Awareness program and an Army contractor's use of Jet Blue passenger data
demonstrate, government access to, and use of, privately held data remains
a vexing problem. In its report, the Task Force notes that the government
should effectively utilize the valuable information that is held in private
hands, but only within a system of rules and guidelines designed to protect
civil liberties. Since it is not possible for the nation to harden all
potential targets against terrorist attack, the Task Force concludes that
the government must rely on information to detect, prevent, and effectively
respond to attacks. The travel, hotel, financial, immigration, health, or
educational records of a person suspected by the government to be a
terrorist may hold information that is vital to unveiling both his
intentions and those of other terrorists.

However, the Task Force also concludes that the government should not have
routine access to personally identifying information even if it is widely
available to the public. If government is to sustain public support for its
efforts, it must demonstrate that the information it seeks to acquire is
genuinely important to the security mission and is obtained and used in a
way that minimizes its impact on privacy and civil liberties. Until
government-wide guidelines that achieve this are developed, public concern
over potential privacy infringements will continue to hamper the necessary
development of new technologies and new operational programs necessary to
use that information. Policy guidelines like these are meant to empower
government officials as well as limit them, and Congress and the Executive
Branch should share a common commitment to both objectives.

The Task Force also calls on the President to issue guidelines governing
the authority of intelligence and security agencies to receive, retain and
disseminate government information gathered in the U.S. about U.S. persons
and guidelines governing their ability to task the domestic collection of
information. New guidelines in this area are particularly important since
the creation of TTIC as an all-source intelligence and analysis center
raises the question of what will replace the previous "line at the border"
that largely defined the distinctive rules for foreign and domestic
intelligence.

It is critically important that the President issue this guidance before
another major terrorist incident occurs. If public debate were to take
place in the shadow of another major national tragedy, it could lead to
rushed and poorly conceived initiatives that not only fail to solve the
underlying problems, but also have a detrimental impact on civil liberties.

Finally, the Task Force recommends that in one year, the Executive Branch
and Congress evaluate the progress of federal, state, local, and private
sector entities in improving information sharing and analysis and in
utilizing private sector data while protecting civil liberties. To help
with this evaluation, the Task Force issued detailed sets of questions than
can be asked to determine whether adequate progress has been made.

To download a copy of Creating A Trusted Information Network for Homeland
Security or for more information on the Task Force, please visit
www.markletaskforce.org

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