Threat Assessment and Prediction System (TAPS)

The intelligence community as a whole has suffered from information overload due to a glut of information and a dearth of analysis. With the restructuring of the intelligence community, and the redirection of information flow to widen dissemination, the amount of information that must be analyzed is increasing rapidly. Analysts in support of Homeland Security must mine not just the usual information sources such as the FBI, CIA, NSA, and State Department, but the ever increasing number of new and important sources like the Immigration and Naturalization Service, all levels of law enforcement agencies, and various transportation and communications sources. Even with better training in detecting patterns and indicators across the expanding universe of information and a greater depth of information management experience, analyst will still require new and innovative, user friendly, data mining, and pattern recognition analytic tools to effectively and efficiently sort through and analyze this enormous volume of data. CHI Systems has developed a software infrastructure from current project efforts for a system that uses intelligent agents to assist in processing intelligence data and predicting threats for Homeland Defense. This infrastructure will serve as the basis of the proposed Threat Assessment and Prediction System (TAPS).