Sharing and Terror Attacks: According to the

¶ … Sharing and Terror Attacks: According to the findings of the 9/11 commission or the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States and several media reports, breakdowns in information sharing and failure to combine relevant intelligence are some key factors in the failure to stop the 9/11 terror attacks. Consequently, intelligence gathering and information sharing have become vital components of the U.S. government efforts to fight terrorism. Actually, the first major step for preventing terror attacks is to gather information regarding the operations of the terrorist group.

This is followed by sharing the information across the relevant governmental agencies to use the information in preventing the attacks. Information Sharing and the 9/11 Terror Attacks: As part of showing the failure of information sharing in the failure to prevent the 9/11 terror attacks, the commission cited several reasons or factors including Limits on Federal Law: Many provisions in the federal law had been largely interpreted to restrict the capability of intelligence investigators to communicate with law enforcement officials before the 9/11 attacks.

These initiatives also limited the ability of intelligence investigators and federal law enforcement officers to share information that is pertinent to terrorism with the intelligence community. As a result, the limits created a metaphorical wall or obstacle between the intelligence community and law enforcement officials. The figurative obstacle in turn inhibited significant information sharing and coordination to help in preventing the attacks (Thompson, 2003).

Lack of Coordinated Efforts: The second aspect demonstrating the failure of information sharing in preventing the 9/11 terror attacks is the lack of coordinated efforts across relevant governmental agencies. While these agencies had pieces of information that could help prevent the attacks, the Central Intelligence Agency, Federal Bureau of Investigation, and other law enforcement agencies lacked coordination ("Agencies Failed," n.d.). The agencies had pieces of information that could help unravel the terror plots if shared through the development of coordinated efforts.

Information Sharing Models: One of the major recommendations by the commission was mandating the U.S. Congress to develop an information-sharing environment that would offer and promote sharing terrorism-related information across all the relevant governmental agencies through the use of technologies and policy regulations. The two major information sharing models recommended by the 9/11 Commission to help in the war against terror include & #8230; Policy Regulations: Under policy regulations initiatives, the commission suggested that the U.S.

president should lead nationwide efforts that bring the main national security agencies into the information revolution. In this case, the president should promote and organize the resolution and transformation of the legal, technical and policy issues across these agencies in order to support the creation and development of a trusted information network ("How To Do It?" 2004). This recommendation emanates from the fact that restrictions on the federal law were one of the key factors that inhibited information sharing before the attacks.

The elimination of these policy hindrances would enable the national security and law enforcement agencies to share terrorism-related information to help fight against terrorism. Use of Technologies: Following the establishment of necessary policy regulations, the second information sharing model is the use of technologies in creating the information sharing environment. As a major concept of the information revolution, the use of technologies should primarily involve the creation of a decentralized network model.

Unlike the existing information sharing model structured on an old mainframe, the decentralized network model could help in preventing terror attacks because it supports sharing data horizontally. The decentralized network model in part of the trusted network model that enable national security and law enforcement agencies and officials to share vital information. Available Technology for Information Sharing Models: As previously noted, the creation of a trusted network model through a decentralized network system is a fundamental component to boost the use of technologies in information sharing.

There are various technologies available to support the trusted and decentralized network information sharing models such as & #8230; ISE Shared Spaces Architecture: The ISE shared spaces architecture is used by the National Strategy for Information Sharing to enable state and local fusion centers to access each other's information and the suitable federal databases (Bjelopera, 2011). Through this concept, these federal and local fusion centers duplicate data from their systems to an external server that they manage to permit them to decide the information to share.

As a result, a secure portal is then developed to enable simultaneous search of databases for the fusion centers to aggregate any pertinent information within the entire national fusion center network. FBI's eGuardian System: The second available technology is the eGuardian system for the Federal Bureau Investigation, which is a node in the ISE Shared Spaces environment. While the system seems to duplicate the NSI shared spaces concept, it's a specific technology for sharing terrorism-related information.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation uses this system to supply data and promote access to data that help in collecting terrorism-related intelligence. The eGuardian system can be used as a gateway to and from the shared spaces of the National Strategy for Information Sharing. Most Effective Information Sharing Model: The adoption and development of fusion center model seems to be the most effective approach towards information sharing. The fusion centers have enabled the law enforcement agencies in large urban settings to organize virtually and share information.

The centers were initially designed to act as physical centers or space in which representatives from several agencies gathered to share information. As several agencies have become reluctant to commit full-time personnel to operate the centers, the centers have adopted technological systems that promote virtual information sharing. Currently, the fusion centers have developed various systems such as Shared Point websites to share information with others (Davis et. al., 2010). The development of fusion center model.