Communications of the ACM
Mint Program Helps Pinpoint Threats Contained in Intelligence Data
Researchers at the Georgia Tech Research Institute are working to improve the capabilities of a system that monitors incoming intelligence data for the U.S. government.
Credit: nosint.blogspot.com
Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology's Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI) are working to improve the capabilities of the U.S. Multi-Disciplinary Intelligence system (Multi-INT, or MINT), which monitors incoming intelligence data.
The key to improving the system involves bringing actionable intelligence to the attention of human analysts as quickly as possible, says Chris Kennedy, a research program analyst who leads the MINT effort in GTRI. However, finding actionable intelligence can be challenging because it must be identified from a wide range of raw data gathered by intelligence sources. "Out of a huge set of information--which could involve millions of data points--you need to find the most valuable pieces to prioritize for investigation and possible action," Kennedy says.
The work addresses network bandwidth and workstation processing power, and the fact that human analysts need to be aware of incoming data by concentrating on the most significant information. "Obviously under this data-reduction approach there are information losses that could affect how our program makes decisions, which is why our system is only a tool for--and not a replacement for--the human analyst," Kennedy says.
The researchers also address a method to improve the system's ability to identify, compare, and prioritize different types of information. They found that one set of significant signals could be quickly compared to others in the same general area to form an in-depth picture.
From Georgia Tech News Center
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