Features

"Development Continues on Pentagon's Massive Data-Mining System" Associated Press (02/13/03); Crenson, Sharon L.

The Defense Department has awarded over $20 million in contracts to develop the Total Information Awareness (TIA) system, a program that aims to integrate private and public databases so they can be mined for signs of potential terrorist activity. Jan Walker of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) reports that 26 bids were submitted, while four companies received contracts; DARPA has outlined five years for TIA development, three of which would be spent on developing ideas and demonstrations, and two to focus on the most promising concepts.

TIA contractors include Raytheon, Telcordia, and Cycorp, which is working on a prototype database; Cycorp President Doug Lenat notes that company researchers have already created a system designed to recognize phone-calling patterns that could be typical of potential overseas terrorists. The contractors note that they are using bogus data in their TIA work.

Here is the full story from Siliconvalley.