Database sharingOfficials say unified government-wide databases with shared access is the future
Federal agencies are looking to reduce the “stove piping” of information by using a “person-centric view” to open proprietary databases that store information within a particular agencies to allow state, local, and federal agencies to access it and share information; these databases depend on developing common identification and access systems where employees would use a single credential to access information; the Department of Justice and the FBI have rolled out programs that embrace this philosophy; N-DEx is a database that collects criminal case files, past histories, and other pertinent information and makes it available to investigators at all levels
Government agencies are seeking to develop unified information sharing systems across the federal government with common access credentials. Officials believe that these types of systems can reduce the “stove piping” of data by allowing for greater access to shared information which will in turn result in greater ease of access, efficiency, and accuracy.
Before an audience of defense contractors and security professionals at the AFCEA Homeland Security Conference held last week in Washington, D.C., several senior government technology officials from DHS, the FBI, and the Department of Defense outlined their vision for more flexible and efficient government-wide databases.
Using what senior government officials call a “person-centric view,” federal agencies are looking to open proprietary databases that currently store information within a particular program, function, or agency so that other departments as well as state, local, and tribal entities can access it and share information.
This new unified database hinges on developing common identification and access systems where employees would use a single credential to access information across the government. Depending on the individual and their role, the information would be screened and their access limited to what they need to know. Person-centric screening shifts the focus to the individual accessing the data and what they need, rather than focusing on storing data within a singular department.
Chris Chilbert, deputy chief architect at DHS, called for expanded information sharing and unity of effort across the government citing the fact that “the challenges that we face are not confined to any one organization. They are universal across multiple organizations.”
“The problems don’t come at as neatly the way that [the government is] organized, so the ability to share information and be able to understand who is who and who should have access to that information based on a particular role or attributes becomes widely important,” he said.
According to the panel’s moderator, Paul Druckman, vice president of DHS Business Development at Accenture, when data is segregated along programmatic, agency, or function specific lines that’s when you hear about “all those examples where one part of an organization doesn’t know the information of an individual” and important opportunities are lost or threats are missed.
To illustrate how this new approach to managing data was being implemented and its practical applications, Justin Murphy, the senior adviser to the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) chief information officer, pointed to N-DEx and federated identity management, two new systems the FBI and DOJ are
