p2pnet - rss feed: FBI’s p2p problem
p2pnet.net News:- The FBI’s inability to share information with other law enforcers is the stuff of legend. And of books and movies. Now, however, it seems it’s having the same difficulty within the agency itself.
“A new FBI computer program designed to help agents share information to ward off terrorist attacks may have to be scrapped, the agency has concluded, forcing a further delay in a four-year, half-billion-dollar overhaul of its antiquated computer system,” says the Los Angeles Times.
“The bureau is so convinced that the software, known as Virtual Case File, will not work as planned that it has taken steps to begin soliciting proposals from outside contractors for new software,” the story has an official commenting.
The Net system, based system on the Trilogy network, is supposed to allow agents to search, analyze and compile case information and, “is the first real change in workflow processes the bureau has seen in 50 years,” said Federal Computer Week last year, going on:
“In March, the Trilogy network was deployed to 591 sites, linking 22,000 new desktop workstations, 2,612 switches and routers, 622 Ethernet local-area networks, and 291 servers. The project also includes an enterprise operations center where the network is managed. It will soon include increased security so FBI officials can monitor usage and ensure that people with proper clearances are accessing files.”
However, “The overhaul of the decrepit computer system was identified as a priority both by the independent commission that investigated the Sept. 11 attacks and by members of Congress, who found that the FBI’s old system prevented agents from sharing information that could have headed off the attacks,” says the Times, pointing out that since September 11, congress has given the FBI a blank check and so far, the overhaul has cost $581 million.
“A prototype of the Virtual Case File was delivered to the FBI last month by Science Applications International Corp. of San Diego,” says the report. “But bureau officials consider it inadequate and already outdated, and are using it mainly on a trial basis to glean information from users that will be incorporated in a new design.
Science Applications has received some $170 million from the FBI and, “Sources said about $100 million of that would be essentially lost if the FBI were to scrap the software,” says the LA Times, continuing:
“The stripped-down prototype will be running for three months. The bureau plans to then ‘shut it down, take all the lessons learned and incorporate them in a future case management system,’ a person familiar with the bureau’s plans said.”
It also points out that a Government Accountability Office report last year noted that the FBI had gone through five chief information officers in the preceding 24 months and the chief manager of the Trilogy upgrade quit last year “for personal reasons” after being lured from private industry two years ago.”
The FBI has retained Aerospace, a nonprofit, federally funded research firm in El Segundo, to conduct an independent evaluation of Virtual Case File, and also hired British defense contractor BAE Systems to, “identify and evaluate the specific needs and requirements for any permanent system,” adds the LA Times.
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See:-
Virtual Case File - New FBI Software May Be Unusable, Los Angles Times, January 13, 2005
Trilogy network - FBI boosting virtual case database, Federal Computer Week, April 14, 2003
