It is with utmost graciousness that on behalf of the employees at i2, I extend our gratitude to the men and women across the Intelligence and Counterterrorism communities in the U.S., and abroad who have worked tirelessly to make the capture of bin Laden a reality. And let’s remember the many who gave the ultimate sacrifice.　

I also want to commend the employees of i2 for their ongoing commitment to ensuring our customers have the best analytical and intelligence tools available. While we cannot confirm for certain that our tools were used in this manhunt, we do know that all the military and intelligence agencies involved in the mission rely on i2 daily to capture and share actionable intelligence that saves lives and enhances our security.　　　

Today is a day when we can all be proud of supporting the mission.

In 2003, Saddam Hussein was on the run. With his chain of command eliminated, traditional intelligence efforts to track him down were failing. Col. James Hickey, U.S. Army, heading the intelligence operation to find Saddam, determined that the reclusive Iraqi dictator only trusted and communicated with family members of his own tribal group. As Hickey said, “We built a fairly elaborate estimate of who Saddam’s supporters were in the area; though it did provide security, it also worked against them. Once we learnt who did what, it allowed us to work against them.”¹

Hickey and his team were using a nascent form of Social Network Analysis (SNA). In its purest form, SNA relies on examining the linkages between people and places within a defined group or locality in order to deduce the key decision makers or vulnerable links and where they are located. In this case, it was the pinpointing of Saddam’s chauffeurs that led to his historic capture.

Figure 1

Social Network Analysis

Social Network, or Link, Analysis distinguishes between the friendly, hostile and neutral players who populate the ‘human terrain’ where modern counter-insurgency operations take place. Formerly a paper-driven exercise involving considerable resources, it was largely confined to headquarters’ intelligence staffs rather than front line units. By automating the process it is now possible to map linkages between thousands of intelligence sources simultaneously from routine patrol contacts, electronic warfare intercepts, aerial surveillance and other sources.

Analysts can then identify key nodal points in the decision-making or communications network (Figure 1) in near real time. A recent trial of SNA² demonstrated that it can now be used by front line units to cope with a complex human terrain consisting of multiple actors with differing agendas. “Counter-insurgency operations are complex to say the least; gone is the conventional red and blue intelligence picture. [With SNA] we can operate in a complex human terrain comprising multiple actors and a constant stream of intelligence.”³

Using only a standalone SNA solution, the unit concerned was able quickly to build up a comprehensive ‘Who’s Who’ of people populating their tactical area of responsibility, establish linkages between people and places, pinpoint key decision makers and predict potential firing points – all in near real time.

Linking this capability with compatible databases and geospatial systems makes it even more effective. And the increasing reach and bandwidth of the Afghan Mission Network (AMN) now offers the prospect of networking this capability to operational headquarters, achieving a common intelligence platform operating from tactical to strategic levels with SNA as a key element. Information superiority is at last becoming a realistic and achievable goal in the war against terrorism.

Network Defence

As military systems and civilian society become more networked, they become more vulnerable to exploitation and attack. In World War II Hitler sought to undermine the UK’s Critical National Infrastructure (CNI) by kinetic aerial attacks on its cities and industrial bases. The modern equivalent would be a cyber attack on our computer networks or exploitation of the Internet. We don’t have far to look for a military example. In July 2008 Ossetian rebels provoked a conflict with Georgia; and Georgia countered with its own air strikes and a ground invasion.

The Russian army responded in force, ejecting the Georgian army from South Ossetia. An integral part of this response was cyber warriors striking on the virtual battlefield, using denial-of-service attacks to shut down Georgian government websites, disrupt Georgian financial institutions and block Georgian access to the outside world.

Recognising that Cyber is becoming the fifth dimension of warfare (after Land, Sea, Air and Space) the UK Government has committed more than £600M to Cyber Security. While it was one of the few growth areas in the Strategic Defence and Security Review (SDSR), details have yet to emerge about precisely where those funds will be invested. Identifying specific cyber threats is not as clear-cut as kinetic warfare because of anonymity. Identifying who is initiating the attack, and where it is coming from, will be the key challenge. This is where SNA and link analysis techniques can come to the forefront, identifying key linkages and the source of the attack.

Sources:

¹ “I am Saddam Hussein the President of Iraq and I am willing to negotiate,” The Guardian, 16 December 2003.

² Ist Battalion Royal Gurkha Rifles (1 RGR) used off-the-shelf stand-alone Analyst’s Notebooks from i2 on their recent deployment in Helmand Province, Afghanistan.

³ Major Shaun W Chandler, 1 RGR.

Since that day, the world’s military, national security and law enforcement infrastructures have fundamentally changed the way that they operate and interoperate so that the chance of an attack like this ever happening again is reduced or eliminated. Concepts like cross-border information sharing and cross-organizational collaboration are driving innovation and creative thinking. We’ve seen the emergence of breaking down silos within organizations by integrating geospatial data, statistical data, associative, temporal data and human sensor data into a single working environment. We’ve also seen that, no matter how good all of our digital sensor data capture is, the Human Sensor is still an extremely powerful weapon in our arsenal. The integration of human sensor data and digital sensor data gained through collaboration with you and your teams has helped us, collectively, to take consistent steps forward.

This is all still a work in progress and every organization is tackling this at a different pace, but we are tackling it and we are making progress. At i2, we see this progress every day with our customers worldwide and it makes waking up in the morning and going to work not only easy, but extremely energizing and fulfilling.

I want to ask you to take a moment to give your thoughts to the personnel in military, public safety, national security and ordinary citizens across the globe who have risked their lives, given their lives or just worked their asses off to make a difference in this effort to improve global security. If you are one of those people, I want to thank you personally and on behalf of i2’s global team.

Bob Griffin

CEO

i2

A new solution announced today at the Department of Defense Intelligence Information Systems (DoDIIS) Worldwide Conference will give defense and intelligence personnel unprecedented analysis capabilities for human terrain mapping, better arming them for current and future counterinsurgency (COIN) and anti-terrorism operations.  Read the press release.

Indeed the U.S. Air Force recently inaugurated its first cyberspace-dedicated wing, the 24th Air Force. To earn their wings, these cyber security warriors will complete a challenging “X-Course” and be awarded Basic, Senior and Master Cyberspace Officer status.

In 2009, the intelligence center at Cheltenham in the UK formed a cyber security team similarly aimed at recruiting former “naughty boys”. “You need youngsters who are deep into this stuff…if they have been slightly naughty boys, very often they really enjoy stopping other naughty boys,” said Lord West, UK Minister for Cyber Security.