Harnessing DARPA's leadership to tackle the "War on Terrorism" has generated new strategies for identifying potentially dangerous information though the use of IT. The results of the September 11th attacks by Al Qaida terrorist network have amplified the importance of information awareness. There were many reports saying that there was sufficient information present from foreign intelligence that the terrorist attacks could have been identified and neutralized.
There is a gigantic amount of data that generated each and every day. One of DARPA's goals is have an information system that can effectively monitor this data and alert proper authorities to defuse violence when detected. The ability to associate embedded information in one report to another piece of embedded information and realize their relevance is the significant road block in this awareness objective. The tools developed by DARPA focused on the three main areas of IT:
- Peer-to-Peer tools that sync multiple databases.
- Structured tools for pattern analysis.
- Language translations
The peer-to-peer tools work in a partnership with a wide variety of departments to enable quick searches of multiple databases for information. As an example, the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) keep separate databases for their information thereby inhibiting an analyst from jointly searching both at the same times. These databases need to be coordinated so that data is shared and to also verify that the thinking processes that were used to create that data is identical across the board. The standardization of thinking processes requires that a model perspective is chosen. This is a huge assignment since there are a variety of perspectives for any given subject. The same goes for creating standard policies across various organizations. One perspective and one policy must be chosen and proven in order for this tool to operate correctly. Once these principles have been established, communications will flow faster and more smoothly as too much time is currently wasted on researching when immediate information is demanded. However, the requirement of using a synchronized set of tools the methods must be consistently challenged to ensure that the tools are always valid. Always questioning the set methods will allow the users to find out if any fixes are needed due to outlining problems or outdated practices.
The use of tools in pattern analysis is important to assist in the flagging of potentially illegal activities. The theory behind this is that terrorists must participate in certain activities to carry out their plans, i.e. destructive methods, financing. These activities leave sparse pieces of embedded information that can be detectable and when assembled with already recognized suspected movements it will send a warning to an analyst. A great assistant to a pattern analyst is the use of graphical illustrations. These help analyst's discover and visualize the networks created by the flagged information. This is more practical in larger information pools as data can easily be lost in the text and the connecting lines can make things be more noticeable.
Foreign languages are the third area that DARPA has focused it's IT on. This is a huge barrier in the need of accurate information. The language translation technologies allow foreign speech and text to be translated quickly. Automated translation equipment is hindered by the common use of slang and accents as most of the population of one culture have many discrepancies in voice and script. In the recent article from DARPA's, the managers state that the current achievements of this technology is a "word error rates of 26.3% and 19.1% at processing speeds seven and eight times slower than real-time." They later state a goal of a 10% error rate in real-time. This goal is highly unacceptable as that 10% could pursue an official to perform an action that is unwarranted. Doing the math, a 0% error rate is the only way an official can make a decision with 100% confidence.
Focusing on being accurate and productive, the value of the information obtained is increased. This is a giant step forward in the correct direction in the "War on Terrorism." DARPA has set the guidelines for the standardization of government's IT tools. These tools need to be constantly sharpened and examined to achieve the goal of snuffing out the violence against the innocent citizens of our country.
Personal Reflection
Productivity is a word thrown around repeatedly these days. Every organization is trying to get more with fewer resources. DARPA's ambition is no different, they are able to generate great results with fewer and fewer resources as the government continues to cut funding. They have taken on this task and established the guidelines for managing IT.
When discussing the methods to extract the tiny bits of data from the millions and millions of databases, the technology still is not available for what is needed to make this mission efficient. In a recent government project to statistically identify individuals who had a high probably of being a terrorist (MATRIX – Multistate Anti-Terrorism Information Exchange) flagged the top 120,000 suspects. That's a huge number of profiles to examine and not what I would call efficient.
Also, the goal of 10% error in translation programs in real-time would be a fantastic feat. But it leaves a lot of inaccuracies in the data reporting. These kinds of errors are shown during the current war with Iraq when the U.S. was bombing a small town in Iraq that supposedly was hiding one of the former military leaders. The bombs were sent, buildings destroyed, and people were killed; but not the right ones. The leader was later shown on TV alive. So the U.S. had made a decision with the information that was given to them and they made a mistake. Not only does this waste our time and resources and it makes the U.S. look extremely poor in the eyes of our allied nations. The failed search for WMD's (weapons of mass destruction) in Iraq also didn't help as our country is perceived now as a "evil power" to more people.
The government is trying to make the analyst's work totally computerized, thereby trying to regulate everything from a small lab in a secure area. A part of the reason terrorists such as Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein have so successful in eluding capture is that there is no element in the guidelines to verify the information is correct. In the past these elements were spies that penetrated the groups to validate the information. Granted that having a analyst doing this work eliminates the risk involved but there needs to be human factors contributing to the research continuously.
Overall, the article from DARPA's group was very interesting as I am a great admirer of their agency. The ideas and technologies generated by there group are truly incredible, beneficial to the U.S. and I'm sure that these IT tools are no different.
