DARPA boosts info awareness

[InfoSec News <isn () c4i org>]

http://www.fcw.com/fcw/articles/2002/0218/web-darpa-02-18-02.asp

By Dan Caterinicchia 
Feb. 18, 2002

The events of Sept. 11, combined with the constantly evolving world of
information technology, inspired the Defense Advanced Research
Projects Agency to open a new office focused on providing
informational awareness for national security.

The new Information Awareness Office was formally established in
mid-January. Its mission is to develop and demonstrate information
technologies designed to counter "asymmetric threats," such as
terrorist attacks.

The IAO will attempt to achieve that goal by providing "total
information awareness" that can be used for national security warning
and decision-making, as well as preempting nefarious acts, according
to the office's evolving Web site (www.darpa.mil/iao).

John Poindexter, national security adviser to former President Reagan,
is the director of the new agency, said Jan Walker, DARPA spokeswoman,
confirming reports by the New York Times. Before joining DARPA to lead
the IAO, Poindexter served as senior vice president of information
systems at Syntek Technologies Inc., an Arlington, Va.-based technical
services firm.

Walker said the new office is exploring how myriad technologies can
help it achieve its mission including:

* Biometrics, speech recognition and machine translation.

* Collaboration technologies that would help decision makers share the 
  same data to make quick decisions.

* Knowledge discovery.

* DARPA's ongoing asymmetric threats program, which includes things 
  such as last year's terrorists attacks.

"DARPA changes office structure every two to three years, based on
technologies," Walker said. "As technology becomes more up and coming
or more mature, we put together an office focused on that technology."

DARPA had been developing and using the IAO technologies under
different offices before Sept. 11 and recognized the challenges that
they, along with other things such as biological warfare, pose to the
defense community.

The terrorist attacks "validated those as challenges and refocused our
energy and attention on them," Walker said.

The Bush administration's fiscal 2003 budget proposal for the Defense
Department calls for significant research and development funding
increases, but specific numbers for the new office are not yet
available, Walker said.

Another new DARPA office created in the aftermath of Sept. 11 is the
Information Exploitation Office (IXO), Walker said. The office's
mission is to develop sensors and systems with "application to battle
space awareness, targeting, command and control, and the supporting
infrastructure required to address land-based threats in a dynamic,
closed-loop process."



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