Events like the Olympics make me truly appreciate those actively involved in security, intelligence and law enforcement.
Imagine all the dots that must be connected in order to make an event like the Olympics a “non-event” from a security perspective. Imagine how much information must be accessed, correlated, matched and securely exchanged for everything to run smoothly.
The technology behind the Vancouver Olympic Games
Imagine the different number and types of organizations that must be involved in this information exchange — from local, national and international law enforcement and security agencies to regional businesses, Olympic venues, worldwide media outlets and many more.
Imagine the technology that must exist to get the appropriate recipients the information they need at the right time, in the right format. Imagine the geographic scale across which this all must take place — worldwide — for an event like the Olympics. And all this information must be highly accurate, or else it all falls apart. It boggles the mind.
But despite the magnitude of the task, history has shown the dots can successfully be connected and an event like the Olympics can successfully be secured. Having worked for more than 20 years in helping companies and the government identify persons of interest in one capacity or another, I can tell you that a successful strategy involves approaching the challenge from three critical perspectives: pre-event information analysis to help uncover potential security threats, personnel vetting, and a coordinated real-time reaction to any threat that may emerge unexpectedly.
Preventive analytics
Pre-event preventive analytics is the first critical piece in securing an event such as the Olympics.
And the first step in preventive analytics is to “secure the area”. In other words, security agencies must get a picture of activities happening in and around the event — focusing specifically on the people who are coming and going. Is there unusual movement among persons-of-interest within the area, or to and from the area? Are there travel or immigration patterns that might indicate suspicious group activity? There are many different angles and perspectives to consider when “securing the area”.
This is the first place where secure information sharing among a vast number of law-enforcement and intelligence agency databases, watch lists and other information stores plays a critical role. This is the place where intelligence analysis must compare and contrast records, with the goal of connecting the dots between the known and the unknown to prevent threats before they happen.
For example, while a person of interest may be in contact with someone unknown to national authorities, local law enforcement may have extensive records on him. It is also important to note that intelligence analysts do not look for only “persons of interest” or their connections. For the type of security required for the Olympics, agents are looking for “entities of interest” — whether that’s a vehicle, a weapon or even a coinciding event.
The key to success in this phase of preparation is to ensure the different law enforcement and intelligence agencies are sharing and exchanging information, thus providing the analysts with the data they need integrated with the accuracy they require.
Vetting event personnel
Another critical pre-event task is ensuring that the personnel with the greatest access to the event — staff, contractors and volunteers — are trustworthy. Performing background checks is standard procedure. And, while background checks can be highly effective, for an event that is orders of magnitude greater than most other events, performing background checks can bump up against several challenges.
First is the classic “entity resolution” challenge. Information about any individual is likely going to be scattered across a range of databases. While one database may contain a red-flag item — a pending drug charge or a secondary connection to a known terrorist — another database may not. The challenge is bringing this information together to create a single record — a “single version of the truth” — about an individual or entity.
The second challenge is time. Performing background checks on thousands of individuals in a very short period of time can be daunting — so much so, that the people involved in the process may look for shortcuts.
Taking these factors into account, the key to success in vetting personnel is the ability to gather information from many organizations in a way that is comfortable for each of them, and to deliver it quickly and accurately.
Several countries are already working with U.S. federal and local law enforcement agencies to provide exactly this type of capability. The key to having this type of information exchange be successful is to go beyond basic questions. Individuals who have a criminal record or are having financial difficulties will raise red flags. The key is to uncover and understand relationships they may have to other known individuals or groups — to establish connections that are not otherwise obvious.
It is always important to note that with enough degrees of separation, everyone is related to everyone else. Therefore, accuracy in resolving entities and relationships is key to providing actionable results.
Reacting in real time
Security and intelligence analysts know to expect the unexpected. To prepare for this, law enforcement and security personnel on the ground must have ready access to knowledge about individuals they may encounter in the course of their work during the event.
Just as important, must have that information in a way that is most useful for them. The officer on the street does not have time to search through databases and make his own connections and analysis. That officer needs a “single version of the truth”, on the spot, on site, on his wireless device so he can make a quick decision about how to approach a situation or an individual.
As with vetting, this requires data integration and entity resolution technology on the back end, such that a quick search of an individual, vehicle or location brings up all relevant, related information in seconds. That may be a tall order. Even if the information store is restricted to law enforcement data, it can still cross city, county and federal jurisdictions, as well as departmental jurisdictions within each of these.
The best way to ensure the security of an event like the Olympics is to connect the dots. The most effective way to connect the dots is secure, accurate and “comfortable” information sharing early on in the process.
By building an information infrastructure that puts essential data in the hands of security analysts, planners and officers in the field, security agencies can significantly lessen the need to be reactive. With the information they need in advance, security, intelligence and law-enforcement professionals can proactively prevent potential threats before they develop into life-threatening situations.
Schumacher is a government security and technology expert. For more than 20 years, he has been heavily involved in research, development, testing and implementation of complex data analysis solutions, including work commissioned by the Department of Defense. He currently serves as chief scientist at Initiate Systems. Schumacher can be reached at sschumacher@initiate.com.
