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"IT in the New War: Collaboration of Communications"

Thank you for that introduction. And thanks too, to the Networked Economy Summit for inviting me to speak today.

In many ways this summit embodies my topic, collaboration of communications. We have here many voices, communicating a common message, that we can, and must meet security challenges with technology.

If anyone still doubted the existence of a networked economy, I'm sure they thought differently after September 11. After all, it was a tragedy that affected, and continues to affect, every part of our economy, from travel and hospitality to insurance, to finance and real estate, to all the businesses represented in this room, I'm sure.

But I think even stronger evidence of our networked economy can be found in how quickly we've recovered from September 11, and what's more, in how quickly we've moved, both in the United States and abroad, against future terrorist threats. And that's what I want to talk about today. How the networked economy - or really, the networked world - is enabling an entirely new way of waging war, and securing peace. It starts with the revision of a fundamental premise. For centuries, the maxim was, "divide and conquer." In the new, networked world, however, the watchwords are, "communicate and conquer."

The newness of this world, and the role of technology in it, was underscored by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld when he spoke last month at Andrews Air Force Base. "This is a global war," he said. "It's unlike any other that America has ever fought. In Afghanistan and elsewhere around the world, U.S. fighting forces, together with our coalition partners, are breaking new ground. They're using new technologies in entirely new ways and proving once again that the United States can and will adapt to meet any challenge to peace and to freedom."

I'd like to build on the Secretary's comments, and talk about this new world, and its new ways, and the new technologies found in it.

Now, it's far too soon to write the history books. As Rumsfeld told graduates of the Air Force Academy at the end of May, "The global war against terrorism is far from over." Nevertheless, there are already things we already know about this new world. We know that this is a world where asymmetric warfare is prevalent, where collaboration is critical, and where information is dominant. Let me explain, starting with asymmetric warfare. It's not just increasingly prevalent - it's also frighteningly effective.

But what is asymmetric warfare? Unfortunately, examples which answer that question appear in the newspaper almost daily. But what may always remain as the classic example is the attack on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on September 11. An adversary of inferior strength found a way to exploit vulnerabilities and achieve a horrifically disproportionate impact.

Those engaging in asymmetric warfare against us are, for the most part, unlike any foes we've faced before. They are pan-national - they come from many countries. Or they are stateless - they appear to come from no one country at all. They embrace barbarism. And their ultimate goal is not victory, but absolute devastation.

Now, what else do we know about this new world? Well, that collaboration - fueled by communication - is critical. By collaboration, I mean people cooperating, and working together, on many different levels - in short, I mean the kind of collaboration we've seen in the last few months. Collaboration between fighting forces, including those separated by distance and those separated by nationalities. I also mean collaboration between different nations, working together not just militarily, but diplomatically to advance the cause of peace. And most relevant to this summit, I mean collaboration between government and the private sector, which I'll discuss further in a moment.

The last defining characteristic of this new world is information. Information dominance is all important. We've seen this proven repeatedly over the past few months: good information, from good sources, communicated through good channels to good people, trumps all other weapons in war.

That's because great weapons and great soldiers can't get the job done without the right information: we've had technology-enhanced weaponry for some time, but it was only in Afghanistan that we were able to demonstrate what a networked fighting force could do. And what they could do was remarkable - cutting edge technology in the air, networked with old-fashioned boots on the ground, were able to achieve an unprecedented 80% accurate delivery of weapons to assigned targets.

We also got to see Joint Direct Attack Munitions, or JDAM, in action: older bombs, fitted with new technology, that allows them to guide themselves to their targets. Or the AEGIS system, a Navy project CACI is directly involved with: the radar systems of dozens of cruisers and destroyers are networked together, greatly increasing defensive and offensive capabilities.

In each of these examples, what we're really talking about is IT doing what it does best: improving communication, accuracy, reliability - and efficiency.

Now let's move off the battlefield and back closer to home. To Wall Street, in fact. One of the signature accomplishments of post-9/11 recovery was getting the financial markets up and running once again. Here, too, information is paramount. And here, too, the success in getting that information to where it needs to be has been impressive. But the job of safeguarding our financial networks is not done. We hear talk of geographic dispersion, but that just shifts the burden from physical protection and redundancy to the even greater task of providing protection and cyber-assurance for the network's communication facilities. By so doing, yesterday's failsafe system can become tomorrow's loophole.

This, then, is what the networked world looks like. It is a world of unprecedented opportunity... and unparalleled danger. What I'd like to do now is discuss ways information technology can help - and is helping - address that danger. But first, I want to outline a few specific initiatives that I believe this country must undertake as part of the president's proposed new department of homeland security - or even before.

The first step is one the president has already taken, as he announced on June 6. It is the creation of a Cabinet level Department of Homeland Security, to increase, as the president stated, the "focus and effectiveness" of our government.

Included in the four focus areas of this department is a clear information technology component. According to the president, "This new department will review intelligence and law enforcement information from all agencies of government, and produce a single daily picture of threats against our homeland." With this new department, we will To start, we need to revamp how we control our country's borders and immigration, immediately. The lapses that occurred before September 11, and have continued to occur after September 11, are not just embarrassing, but terrifying.

Solving this problem will require attention in many areas, but a place that should command early focus is the interoperability of positive ID/control systems. This would allow Homeland Security agencies and organizations like the INS, Border Patrol, Customs and the Coast Guard, to work with the FBI and CIA to share time-critical, relevant information, such as rental car transactions, airline ticket purchases, credit card use and passport control activity. All of this, when correlated, would allow the government to track terrorists and possibly anticipate their movements.

Moreover, we need to establish a First Responder Network. This network would offer highly reliable links for information sharing and inter-organizational communication, especially in times of crisis. As President Bush stated the other night, "In protecting our country, we depend on the skill of our people - the troops we send to battle, intelligence operatives who risk their lives for bits of information, law enforcement officers who sift for clues and search for suspects." However, a real value this would give us is as an early indication and warning system for disaster coordination, as well as threat anticipation and prediction.

And while we are doing an increasingly good job as a nation of responding to threats - as the president informed the nation last week, he now has a daily threat assessment report delivered to him - we need to move forward to head off future threats. We can accomplish this through force projection. That means having highly trained, rapidly deployable Special Forces with high tech, "smart" weaponry that we can "project" into distant locales on a moment's notice.

Finally, we need to set up a specialized, secure Internet and a priority cellular wireless system that would interconnect key government agencies. Since this network would function outside the government's normal communications channels and require high levels of user-to-user authentication, it would be less susceptible to congestion and overloading, compromise and security breaches. As that brief list makes clear, IT is, and will be a critical factor in our nation's defense and security in the years ahead.

But just how critical? I'll defer to the words of Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz, who recently testified before the Senate Armed Services committee that, quote, "Our ability to leverage the power of information and networks will be key to our success in the 21^st century." And the truth is, information technology is at work, right now, today, fighting the war on terrorism... in back offices and on the front lines. Why? Because IT is giving military leaders something they never had before, at least not to this extent - and that's real time feedback. Real time information about how the enemy is reacting and redeploying allows commanders to change tactical game plans as necessary - and immediately.

Of course, there's a flip side to having all this information at one's fingertips. For example, many commentators have bemoaned that the events of September 11 surprised us because we didn't have the information we needed when we needed it.

But the truth is - we didn't know what we knew. This isn't to say that 9/11 was preventable, just that, all too often in recent history, we've had critical information, but we've lacked the capability to analyze and share it effectively. That's because, every day, millions of pieces of information flow into offices charged with defending the United States. And every day, a substantial amount of information flows the other way as well, from headquarters out to people on the front lines. This all leaves us with several key challenges.

• How do we manage information?
• How do we move information?
• And who should get this information?

The problems with managing information are all too familiar - when asked to explain, for example, how dead terrorists got visas from the INS, or how they got into the U.S. in the first place, the excuses range from, "there's too much information to sift through" or "the systems don't talk to each other." Problems with moving information aren't as publicized, but they are still serious. New applications, and new technology like the Predator, are devouring increasing amounts of bandwidth.

No question, the challenges posed by information overload are tremendous. But the good news is that work is already underway to improve the flow of information and the use of technology. In Afghanistan, for example, front line NCOs are using the equivalent of chat rooms to collect and disseminate critical information. And back home, solutions to many more problems may already be available by adapting current technologies. And what I find most encouraging - the Pentagon, and certainly this administration, are committed to calling on the private sector to help.

As Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge explained recently, "In the 1940s American businesses built an 'arsenal of democracy' to win the war." "Today," Ridge said, "they're building an 'arsenal of security' - exciting, nimble, cutting edge products that can cut our response time and save lives. Homeland security needs this innovation and imagination. And businesses need the opportunity - the opportunity to do well by doing good. It can give us not just a safer, more secure America, but a more competitive and prosperous America."

I can't agree more. At CACI, we are helping America's military, intelligence, law enforcement and civil agencies

• collect information,
• communicate effectively and efficiently,
• collaborate, or share, the information they receive,
• put that information to use,
• protect the information they have,
• as well as predict, and train for, what might happen next.

Here are just a few examples of how we're helping America win the war on terrorism through better communication and collaboration. In the area of information collection, we participate in scheduled field operations efforts in support of intelligence community and military collection requirements.

We also help protect the information that's being transmitted or that the government already has, such as the enterprise-wide security support we provide to the U.S. Customs Service. And to make sure the information keeps flowing, we analyze how systems would perform when faced with various disruptions of service. We provide information assurance, for example, for the FAA's Agency Data Telecommunications Network and the Coast Guard's Data Network.

We're also working with law enforcement agencies outside of the military, including for the Justice, Treasury and Transportation Departments. We help them collect information related to infrastructure performance and network vulnerability, including service denial, compromise and disruption. And we help government agencies predict and train for future threats.

Throughout government - throughout the world - the enduring requirement is information dominance. In order to protect our freedoms in this new world, we must be ever vigilant: we must capture all the information we can, and we must put that information to use. And just as important, we need to ensure "information integrity." Moreover, we need a collaborative master plan to combat terrorism. During the cold war, we had a single, integrated operating plan to deal with nuclear attack. We need something of the same caliber to deal with the altogether different - though no less frightening - threats we now face.

The Department of Homeland Security the president proposed on June 6 is an excellent start. As he stated that evening, "Information must be shared, so we can follow every lead to find the one that may prevent tragedy." I couldn't agree more. As I have argued, success will require collaboration and communication. Nations must work together. And this is happening, as President Bush noted on June 6, with more than 90 countries having arrested terrorists and their supporters, and more than 180 having offered or provided assistance in the war on terror. Within nations, government agencies must work together, and private industry must work with government.

The need is not just for government to look to private industry to supply goods and services. We need to forge energetic coalition partnerships. Private industry not only has the counterterrorism solutions the government needs, it can also function as an early indication and warning system, alerting the government to danger before its own facilities are aware of a threat. In short, the technology industry is ready, willing and able to apply the solutions that can help ensure America - and the world - is safe once again.

But this isn't the task of any one company or individual. After all, while industry can muster technological might to solve problems, our nation's leaders must have the political will to work together to meet the challenges we face.

But without question, wherever you stand or sit, on the battlefield or behind a desk or in this audience, securing freedom that will endure is a cause worth working for, worth fighting for - indeed, in this 21^st century networked world, worth living for. And with technology helping our collaboration of communications, it is a fight that we will surely win.

Thank you.

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