Government Computer News
Data mining sifts the gems from digital ore
Digg
De.licio.us
Slashdot
Technorati
Image:
“If you don’t do data mining, you’re not as efficient and effective as you could be,” the FBI’s Mark Tanner says.
Resources
Data-mining products in use by the government
IRS and Agriculture efforts strike pay dirt
The Royal Caribbean cruise ship MV Legend of the Seas was steaming from Ensenada, Mexico, toward Hilo, Hawaii, in April of last year when its captain radioed an alarm to federal authorities. Someone had placed a note in one of the ship’s bathrooms threatening to kill all the Americans on board if the vessel docked in the United States.
The Coast Guard, FBI and Homeland Security Department’s Customs and Border Protection agency acted quickly to analyze the threat. Data mining helped the feds figure out that the culprit was a disenchanted 20-year-old passenger and not a terrorist.
Customs intelligence analysts checked the threat scores the agency’s Automated Targeting System (ATS) had assigned to the ship’s passengers and crew—almost 2,400 people in all.
The targeting system used data-mining technology to sift through information about the crew and passengers as investigators gleaned clues from the first note and, soon after, a second one.
The data-mining program indicated that the incident likely was not a genuine terrorist threat, said Charles Bartoldus, CBP’s director of border targeting and analysis. The system pinpointed attributes of the note’s author that federal investigators on board used during passenger and crew interviews.
Under questioning, passenger Kelley Marie Ferguson of Laguna Hills, Calif., confessed to planting the notes in an effort to cut the cruise short so she could see her boyfriend, Bartoldus said.
Ferguson, now 21, pleaded guilty to a felony charge of conveying false information and received a two-year sentence. Her case illustrates how federal agencies increasingly are using data-mining techniques for investigative work.
Data mining can be defined as applying advanced analytical techniques to large databases to extract hidden information, said Lee Holcomb, DHS’ chief technology officer.
Customs uses ATS to assign risk scores to passengers and cargo. More than 130 analysts from various agencies work in the agency’s targeting center, Bartoldus said.
![1105 Government Information Group [valor]](/images/1105logo_website.gif "Government Computer News [valor]")
© 1996-2008 1105 Media, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
