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| The sorry state of FBI’s IT capability pre-9/11 |
| 2004-04-20 |
| EFL- looks like the Timothy McVeigh file loss was the impetus for FBI Information Systems finally getting some attention prior to 9/11. Although the problem was identified in the early 90’s, Congress slowed down the funding because the FBI kept having significant cost overruns in various IT prpjects so there was hesitancy to give the FBI a blank check for an integrated system. Testimony of Bob E. Dies, Assistant Director, Information Resources Division, FBI Before the Senate Judiciary Committee July 18, 2001 "Information Technology and the FBI" Current Situation The FBI’s job is investigating. Technology and computers are supposed to be tools the FBI uses to accomplish its job. The Bureau’s future ability to deter and prevent crimes requires the use of modern information technology. For a variety of reasons, the FBI information technology has had no meaningful improvements in over six years. Some parts of our system are much older: More than 13,000 of our desktops are four to eight years old. They cannot run today’s basic software. This means that many Agents accessing basic FBI data cannot use basic "ease of use" features that your teenagers have enjoy for years, such as using a mouse to move around the screen. The productivity loss and frustration that result are enormous. The majority of our smaller offices are connected to our internal network at speeds equivalent to a 56KB modem -- a speed less than many individual Internet users have at their homes. Agents are unable to electronically store much of investigative information into our primary investigative databases, including photographs, graphical and tabular data. Fundamentally, at the dawn of the 21st century, the FBI is asking its Agents and support personnel to do their jobs without the tools other companies use or that you may use at home on your system. Overview Let me provide you a quick overview of what I will be testifying to this morning: 1. The FBI knew that its Information Technology (IT) needed repair. 2. This past year we have initiated some changes in programs and management to begin correcting the basic IT problems and to position the FBI for the future. Our effort has as its foundation a program we have named Trilogy. 3.The Congress has supported us in this Trilogy effort, both with funding and with the active, thoughtful attention by this committee as well as others, for which, as someone new to government service, I am personally grateful. 4. We are on schedule and within costs to implement the Trilogy program improvements you authorized. 5. In light of recent events, we need to improve the FBI security operations and other areas, such as document management. 6. For security, we have created a single point of accountability, reporting to the Deputy Director and recruited a career security executive, Ken Senser, to run it. He has identified specific security enhancement initiatives needed to improve our security. He will speak more fully about security after my statement. 7. While we have taken steps to begin repairing our IT systems, these systems are in need of further modernization beyond that of Trilogy. And so again, we are in need of your good counsel and your support. Things moved too little too late. |
| Posted by:Super Hose |
| #3 I ran into one of my college buddies a year before 9/11. He was in the FBI. I wanted to stay in touch and asked him for his email. His answer: I don't have any. I assumed that he meant a home account, so I asked him for his work email. I almost fell over when he told me that the FBI didn't have email. |
| Posted by: 11A5S 2004-04-20 9:17:02 AM |
| #2 OS, Plus, and this is a big plus, Linux is open source - everything in it is visible and thus can be verified, checked, and audited for secuity. You dont know what is in Microsoft products. Also it is not the hacking target of every script-kiddie out there. Security by obscurity is no security at all. |
| Posted by: CrazyFool 2004-04-20 9:15:47 AM |
| #1 Cost constraints. They should just go to Linux now. One of the strengths of Linux is that it runs well on older lower capacity machines like the ones the FBI likely has. Another advantage is that most of the intelligence areas run a ton of stuff on Unix, and are using Linux now as well, giving them great interoperability. A third advantage is that NSA makes a Secure version of linux. And the big one is that cost-wise, its cheap enough to get each and every desktop they have up an running on this without busting the budget -- and they will not be forced to relicense everything every 2 years at a cost of millions to Microsoft and millions in manpower costs to do the upgrades. |
| Posted by: OldSpook 2004-04-20 9:05:46 AM |