PM-ISE Releases the 2011 ISE Annual Report to the Congress

The PM-ISE has officially released its 2011 ISE Annual Report to the Congress and we are proud of the information sharing success stories featured in the Report – stories that describe the outstanding accomplishments of our mission partners across the federal, state, local, and tribal governments, the private sector, and foreign allies.

The Annual Report is required by law to provide the Congress “a progress report on the extent to which the ISE has been implemented.”[1] The Report highlights major ISE activities since July 2010 and is organized around five themes:

• Strengthening Management and Oversight - The Annual Report describes the work of the Information Sharing and Access Interagency Policy Committee (ISA IPC) and its sub-committees and working groups; of particular note, the Report highlights how these bodies expanded to include representatives of non-federal organizations and are reaching out to engage the private sector in developing the ISE, as well.
• Improving Information Sharing Activities - Among the many activities presented, the Report describes how the Nationwide Suspicious Activity Reporting Initiative has made substantial progress toward streamlining reporting and analysis within fusion centers by implementing new standards, policies, and processes. Another notable interagency effort involved the Baseline Capabilities Assessment, during which federal, state, and local officials completed the first nationwide, in-depth assessment of fusion centers to baseline their capabilities.
• Establishing Standards for Responsible Information Sharing and Protection - Standards are critical to powering the ISE, and so the Report describes the efforts by the PM-ISE, its mission partners, and standards organizations to identify the best existing standards for reuse and implementation across the ISE.
• Enabling Assured Interoperability across Networks - The Report details the tremendous progress made toward implementing a Simplified Sign On that will enable federal, state, local, and tribal law enforcement officers and analysts to more easily access a rich variety of data services provided by Assured Sensitive but Unclassified (SBU) networks. The Report also describes similar efforts for classified information sharing.
• Enhancing Privacy, Civil Rights, and Civil Liberties Protections - Balancing the need for national security with the need to protect privacy and civil liberties, the Report provides information on policies and training activities designed to enhance these protections.

These are only a few of the activities that are helping the nation build a robust information sharing environment. And, while the Annual Report is primarily focused on terrorism-related initiatives, it also describes mission partner accomplishments that may not have been developed explicitly to support CT, but which may ultimately become best practices for information sharing and collaboration government-wide.

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