News

Virtual Gold, Inc., National Security Initiative Briefing.

Citing critical need for proactive analysis of federal data, data mining
pioneer announces initiative to address national security issues.
Leading data mining expert and founder of Virtual Gold, Inc., Inderpal
Bhandari sees an urgent need for proactive analysis of federal data.

Dr.  Bhandari said, "I first noticed this when the New York Times did
an analysis after the fact showing that early indications of the
Ford-Explorer-Firestone-tire problem went undetected in a federal
database.  Recently, a similar analysis by CNN showed that early
indications of security problems at Logan, Dulles, and Newark
airports, went undetected in a federal database well before the
September 11 tragedy. It is clear that the cost of missing these
patterns is too high to be ignored".

Dr. Bhandari launched Virtual Gold's new initiative on MacInt, short for
machine intelligence, a term well suited to denote the use of computers to
provide cueing or early-warnings from data pertaining to national security.
He sees a critical need for intelligence agencies to develop a sophisticated
MacInt capability to go along with other intelligence capabilities such as
SigInt (signal intelligence), ElInt (electronic intelligence) and HumInt
(human intelligence). "Homeland security and intelligence agencies must
build on the strength of technical data collection through the use of
coordinated, proactive analysis of that data", he said. "Strategically, it
is the only way forward".

Dr. Bhandari sees three major hurdles for homeland security and intelligence
agencies as they try to become proficient at proactive analysis. First, they
do not have an understanding of what it entails. Second, there are no
off-the-shelf software packages available to help implement solutions to
their unique set of problems. Third, unlike traditional intelligence
capabilities, the MacInt infrastructure must extend to local, front-line
response units. Virtual Gold's initiative will remove these obstacles by
anticipating security needs and making suitable early-warning applications
available to relevant organizations (including front-line organizations)
before those needs arise.

Dr. Bhandari described how Virtual Gold's new initiative leads to proactive
action. "We have a proprietary intelligent computer program currently under
development that extrapolates future attack scenarios from patterns of past
terrorist activities. We also have a proprietary software development
platform that automatically introduces MacInt capability in off-the-shelf
database and Internet software. We will use our extrapolative analysis to
understand worst-case scenarios and use our development platform to rapidly
develop intelligent computer programs to provide early warning of those
scenarios. Then we will contact the relevant organizations to customize and
deploy those programs".

For example, in applying its extrapolative logic to the recent wave of
Anthrax-laced letters, Virtual Gold learned that instead of the targeted
letters we see at present, a future scenario could be a mass mailing of
Anthrax-laced cards, particularly during Christmas or other holiday. The law
enforcement and public health response systems should not be overwhelmed by
such a scenario, raising the issue of how the required infrastructure could
be put in place before Christmas and holiday season.

In response, Virtual Gold is developing two MacInt software applications,
the first tracks questionable mail nationwide and provides early-warning of
contamination, while the second tracks initial symptoms nationwide and
provides early-warning of exposure. Both applications are largely automated
hence efficient. This will reduce the load on the public health and
enforcement infrastructures.

Virtual Gold will have these applications functional by the end of this
week - less than two weeks after the scenario was extrapolated, indicated
Thomas J. Martin, Executive Vice President. "These applications were created
using our software development platform that automatically introduces MacInt
capability in off-the-shelf database and internet software. We will confer
with local law enforcement and health departments, the heads of corporate
security in large enterprises, the Postal Service, Centers of Disease
Control, to customize the solution to reflect their deeper understanding of
the issue. Working proactively in this fashion, the applications can be
fully deployed well before the start of the holiday season".

Interested parties (decision makers in national security) should read Dr.
Bhandari's white paper, which describes a conceptual framework for MacInt.
It is available at www.virtualgold.com/national-security. Then they should
use the web site to register for demonstrations of Virtual Gold's MacInt
line of products to address scenarios in enforcement, surveillance, aviation
safety, financial securities trading, bio-warfare and corporate security.

About Virtual Gold, Inc
Virtual Gold, Inc. is a leading next generation business intelligence and
data mining software company. Former IBM scientist Dr. Inderpal Bhandari,
one of the world's leading authorities on data mining and its timely
application to real world problems, founded it in 1997. In addition to its
MacInt line of products, Virtual Gold provides an integrated family of
web-based data mining software and solutions in the following fields:
contact center, customer relationship management, enterprise resource
planning, decision support systems, e-business, and sports and
entertainment. The company is headquartered in Hartsdale, New York.