Subject: [NEXTEL-1] Kentucky center tests disaster response network

From: [email-masked]
Date: Tue, 05 Aug 2003 04:12:05 -0400

Kentucky center tests disaster response network
07/22/03
By Trudy Walsh,
GCN Staff

The Information Technology Resource Center in Louisville, Ky., is working with
local, state and federal agencies to build a network for sharing data in the wake
of a disaster such as a terrorist attack using weapons of mass destruction.
The iTRC is a unit of the University of Louisville’s College of Business and
Public Administration. The school is working with Kentucky’s Office of the New
Economy and Office for Security Coordination to develop the $250,000 homeland
security collaboration network.

Usually six to 12 hours after a major disaster, local, state and federal officials
set up a joint operations center, iTRC director Jim Graham said.

If the event involved nuclear materials, the Energy Department would send
officials to the site. If biological weapons were used, the Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention would send representatives.
The most important element in any such scenario is communication, Graham said. The
first responders at each level need to communicate quickly and securely, he said.

In the past, the communications tool of choice was radio, Graham said. But it has
problems: Information can be intercepted or tapped, and often the police
departments and fire departments are on different radio frequencies. Plus, radios
don’t let officials send video or other images.

The Kentucky iTRC is looking at a way to overcome the interoperability problem.
The center is evaluating several applications that translate analog voice signals
from radio communications into an IP data stream, using either IP or a
software-defined radio.  Software-defined radio is a wireless communication, in
which the transmitter modulation is generated by a computer and a receiver uses a
computer to recover the signal content.

The iTRC network uses Sidewinder firewalls from Secure Computing Corp. of San
Jose, Calif., to secure data traffic. For the homeland security project, the
network also links to a laboratory in Roseville, Minn., run by Secure Computing.
The network verifies user identities with Secure Computing’s SafeWord Premier
Access authentication tools. “In a normal environment, you would use a password,”
Graham said. “Well, passwords can fall into the wrong hands, people write them on
sticky notes attached to their monitors, or people use their kids’ names. This is
how systems are vulnerable.”

The authentication tool generates random passwords. For example, a user could be
assigned a password over a cellular phone equipped with text messaging features,
and then use the password to authenticate himself over a Web site, Graham said.
The network uses streaming video tools from Next-Cast Inc. of Louisville to send
live video back from the scene.
“Maybe a terrorist has derailed a train, or the wind was blowing in a certain
direction,” Graham said. The center could use Next-Cast to transmit those images
to FBI headquarters in Washington.

Graham and his team have demonstrated the collaborative network to the FBI, the
Secret Service, the Environmental Protection Agency and state emergency management
agencies. At each demonstration, the Louisville center received feedback about
ways to improve collaboration.

Although the iTRC collaborative project is a demonstration, “it’s not a science
project,” Graham said. “If an emergency occurred, we could actually deploy this.”

http://www.gcn.com/vol1_no1/daily-updates/22841-1.html

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