Intell agencies to link databases
Program aims to allow cross-domain searches, merge e-mail systems
The Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) has launched a program to link the databases of the federal government’s 16 intelligence agencies to put all of those agencies on one e-mail system and allow cross-domain searches, the Wall Street Journal reported.
Under the Information Integration Program, the e-mail systems of the six largest intell agencies--including the CIA, the FBI and the National Security Agency--would be merged by the end of the month, and all intell agencies and the Pentagon would be on one e-mail system by 2010.
Linking the databases would allow for Google-like searches of most of the agencies’ databases by the end of the year. Program leaders also plan to create social networking sites for sharing information.
Defense and intelligence agencies have been working on a variety of information-sharing projects since Sept. 11, 2001. ODNI and other agencies have made headway in exploring Web 2.0 technologies on such projects as Intellipedia, while trying to balance information sharing with security.