FBI Data Management A Tough Case
from the not-looking-good dept
As the US government gets ready to build a super spy computer system connecting all sorts of information, comes this other news about just how backwards the FBI's computer system currently is. Last month, when the DC sniper was all the rage, the FBI's special call center equipped with their "Rapid Start Information Management System", wasn't really that high tech (and it makes you wonder about the FBI's definition of "Rapid Start"). Operators would take down notes from incoming calls onto paper forms, which they would put into a box. Every hour, the forms would be collected and sent somewhere else to be digitized and entered into the "Rapid Start" system. That just gives you one example of how screwed up the FBI is at managing their data. Maybe they should be taking the money that's going to John Poindexter and his super spy computer, and put it towards doing something that's actually useful.
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
Special case
The field offices use a 1950s tele-terminal wire system to send messages to each others. It's never been hacked, as far as anyone knows.
Law enforcement is one field where IT tools are still not too useful. 99% of investigative work is still about interviewing people, and computers are almost entirely useless there. Theoretically, fingerprints, DNA, license plates, can be instantly matched through computers; in reality, the partial fingerprints, fingerprints of an unrelated by-passer, contaminated DNA, and fake license plates make computers often useless.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
No Subject Given
The FBI's idea of a modern super crime busting computer system would probably be to print out all the emails that interested them so that they could be typed into the secure system.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: No Subject Given
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Budget
[ link to this | view in chronology ]