DHS to expedite data scans for foreign fighters
The need to quickly identify foreign fighters has outpaced DHS's ability to protect its big data operations.
What: A privacy impact assessment by the Department of Homeland Security explaining why DHS is looking to forego some automated protections in its data framework to quickly tag what it says is a fast-moving threat from growing ranks of sympathizers looking to help foreign terror groups.
Why: DHS said in the PIA issued April 15 that it has a critical need to execute classified queries on its unclassified big data pool to identify potentially thousands of individuals that might be looking to support terrorist activities of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), al-Nusrah Front, affiliated offshoots of those groups, or individuals seeking to join the Syria-Iraq conflict.
The need to quickly identify those labeled as "foreign fighters" by the media, said the PIA, has outpaced the processes DHS has set up to protect its big data operations.
DHS said it has been diligently establishing an interactive development process for its big data framework since 2013 using an iterative development process.
But the department said it needs a quicker, more nimble short-term ability to perform classified searches of unclassified data. The speedier capabilities would allow it to better identify and track foreign fighters from or transiting the United States.
DHS called the type of comparison a longstanding mission need, but the specific threat from foreign fighters moving into or through the U.S. has forced its hand in pursuing it. Initially, DHS said the searches would be done manually, and later would be automated.
The PIA said the data transfer process will tap datasets owned by Customs and Border Protection and the DHS Office of Intelligence and Analysis.
Searches of the data will be done based on intelligence or law enforcement information for counterterrorism functions, including I&A and CBP intelligence analysis and identification of individuals for additional scrutiny by CBP.
Once on the classified network, DHS said the data will be accessed only by I&A intelligence analysts and support staff, as well as CBP personnel conducting targeting and intelligence analysis and others on a limited bases, such as attorneys providing legal advice.
Verbatim: "Expediting the ability to perform classified searches of DHS’s unclassified data sets supports DHS’s efforts to counter the threat posed by foreign fighters by allowing DHS to use the information it receives from U.S. Government or foreign government partners -- much of which may be classified -- to identify high risk individuals traveling to, through or from the United States."