NSAM 368 (INTELLIGENCE INFORMATION HANDLING SYSTEM)

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP82M00097R002600090002-3
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 60
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: September 23, 2009
• Sequence Number: 2
• Publication Date: October 9, 1968
• Content Type: MF

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IHC-D-124/1
9 October 1968
SUBJECT: NSAM 368 (Intelligence Information Handling System)
REFERENCES: (a) USIB-D-71.1/1
(b) USIB-D-71.1/2
(c) USIB-D-71.2/1
1. Forwarded for the Board's consideration and concurrence
is a proposed response to Mr. Walter W. Rostow's memorandum of
8 May 1968, subject as above. Mr. Rostow requested further
information on DCI actions pertaining to NSAM 368 by 22 October 1968.
2. In response to this requirement, a preliminary plan for
improving the Community Information Handling System (CIHS) has been
developed by the IHC (Attachment A). Information on the current
status of component information handling activities is also
provided (Attachment B).
3. A proposed Memorandum for the President which forwards
Attachments A and B is also provided. It notes that the problems
involved in changing established intelligence information data
handling operations are complex and must receive additional study
before time phasing and cost estimates can be provided as requested
by NSAM 368 and reiterated by Mr. Rostow.
Attachments:
As stated
DIA review(s) completed.
NAVY review completed. S-E-C-R-E-T
NSA review completed
State Dept. review completed
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SUBJECT: NSAM 368 (Intelligence Information Handling System)
1. This report is submitted in response to a memorandum
from Mr. Rostow, dated 8 May 1968, which requested (1) a more
definitive picture of the projected intelligence community-wide
information handling system; (2) a report on progress made by
individual departments and agencies in the development of
information handling systems which meet their respective needs
and fulfill the requirements of the projected overall system;
(3) the estimated costs, allocated to successive phases of the
development of the community-wide system; (4) a more precise
estimate as to the time phasing; and (5) information responsive
to requests set forth in NSAM 368 which were enumerated in the
first paragraph of the memorandum.
2. Attachment A hereto is a preliminary effort toward
developing a plan for improving information handling in the
intelligence community, prepared in consultation with the
United States Intelligence Board. My previous memorandum on
this subject, of 22 April 1968, indicated that the requisite
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community-wide system would follow from the continuous improvement and
integration of component agency systems. Attachment A translates
this concept into a number of actions or subplans involving
community management; community requirements; component system
inventory; selection, development, and integration of component systems;
standardization of common data elements and codes; education,
training, and documentation; and development of community
experimental/trial information handling services.
3. The steps called for in Attachment A set up an orderly
process for combining existing and presently proposed systems,
together with such additions as may be required, into a system to
serve community needs better. They identify the need for, and
nature of, adjustments to existing sub-systems which would improve
overall community information handling performance and efficiency
without jeopardizing on-going intelligence support operations.
Because we are dealing with operating information handling systems
which currently are providing support to the members of the intel-
ligence community, care must be exercised in proposing and in
effecting necessary adjustments.
4. Your attention is invited to Attachment B which summarizes
projects at the several intelligence agencies and describes a number
of proposals for improvement of information handling that may be
applicable to the community problem. These efforts and others noted
2
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in the Intelligence Information Handling Committee (IHC) Annual
Report (previously submitted to PFIAB, 9 September 1968) indicate
the progress which has been made in meeting individual agency needs
and in satisfying community-wide requirements.
S. The problems involved in improving established intelligence
information data handling operations are complex, and solutions may
be costly. Additional study is necessary before I can respond to
your request to time phase the development of the improved community
information handling system or to provide cost estimates. I shall be
pleased to keep you informed as progress is made on costing and
scheduling. In addition, I propose that the IHC Annual Report (which
will be updated by a summary progress report at the end of the
calendar year) be accepted in the future as a normal means of
reporting on community information handling activity.
Attachments:
As stated
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INFORMATION HANDLING SYSTEM (CIHS)
REFERENCES:
(a)
(b)
(c)
(d)
NSAM 368
USIB-D-71.1/1
USIB-D-71.1/2
USIB-D-71.2/1
A. Introduction
This paper has two main parts, the Introduction and the Subplans.
The Introduction provides preliminary remarks on the events which
gave rise to the planning effort, the objectives of the plan, and an
overview of the six facets of the plan.
1. Background
A history of the events that led to the preparation of this
paper could go into extensive detail and several volumes if one
wished to start ten years ago and trace the growth of the intelligence
community and the efforts to develop systems to handle the spiraling
quantities of data, information, and raw intelligence. It will be
sufficient, however, to point to the exchange contained in the first
three referenced documents, i.e., the PFIAB's request of the DCI,
the DCI's response, and the PFIAB's reply.
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The important point in noting this background is that (a)
there were criticisms of some aspects of the way in which information
was being handled in the community, and (b) the DCI took a position
in the 22 April 1968 Memorandum for the President which is character-
ized by the establishment of:
(1) the Intelligence Information Handling Committee
with a Support Staff, and
(2) the USIB Objectives for Intelligence Information
Handling (Reference d).
The IHC has acknowledged and reaffirmed this position in
preparing this paper.
2. Guidance
This plan has its genesis in the first sentence of the
second paragraph of reference (b),
"A community-wide information handling system will
follow from the continuous improvement and integra-
tion of the component agency systems..."
and the fourth USIB objective:
"To develop, in response to NSAM 368, a proposal for
the phased implementation of a community-wide
information handling system."
The USIB objective is a proposal and the excerpt from the DCI
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Memorandum establishes a basic premise regarding implementation
methodology, i.e.,
A CIHS is a product of continuous improvement and
integration of component agency systems.
The IHC recognized that the referenced documents had
other guidance to contribute in the field of management (Reference L):
The DCI expects to achieve effective management
control, with the advice of USIB and using the
Chairman, IHC as his direct representative.
- In the field of training (Reference d) :
To develop training programs in information handling.
- In the field of research and development (Reference d):
To develop a coordinated research and development
program for the application of information science to
intelligence information handling problems.
3. Concept
The foregoing has led to a concept of a plan which has six
facets or subplans:
I. Role of management in the CIHS.
II. Requirements for change in the Community Information
Handling System (CIHS).
III. Inventory, selection, development, and integration.
IV. Standardization in the CIHS.
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V. Orientation, training and documentation for
operators and users.
VI. Development of experimental/trial information
handling services.
The philosophy employed in addressing these six elements is
quite different from the usual system development planning exercise.
The standard approach in system planning is to isolate the first
event, the last event, and interpolate all the other events so that
one can get from the first to the last in the requisite time with the
approved resources. Our approach is to initiate effort on all six
facets at the same time. It recognizes that an operational system
exists at the present time. It is concerned with the acceleration of
change in existing arrangements rather than the initial design of an
information system. Thus,work on determining requirements and
inventorying systems data can start at the same time.
The next point is that the plan is preliminary. This means
that the steps of each subplan are stated in very general terms. No
scheduling or costing considerations are provided. The plan is
preliminary because it takes time to develop a detailed plan, and
the time is not available. Also, it seems reasonable to obtain
approval and/or guidance before proceeding along paths which may be
judged unrewarding.
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4. Overview
The second part of this paper contains the six facets or
subplans. Supporting discussion precedes the preliminary steps
called for in each subplan. Therefore, the following paragraphs only
provide an overview and do not substitute for the more thorough
discussion contained in Section II.
Of the six, the management subplan is different in that it
is not a plan -- it discusses the role of management. In effect, it
interprets policy. The other subplans reflect the emphasis stated in
the management subplan. On occasion, the steps of another subplan
indicate that a function must be performed without indicating who is
tasked. The guiding emphasis can be found in the management subplan.
In any case, the steps in the various subplans should be considered
on their own merit without concern about details which will be
provided following the approval of this preliminary plan.
The experimental services subplan is also different from the
others in that it comes closest to being independent. Also, it has
its own management emphasis because the goal of an experimental
service is consideration of the service for implementation, whereas the
goal of the CIHS is an operational system. Thus, the experimental
services subplan has a strong R&D emphasis not found in the inventory,
selection, development and integration activity.
The goal of the inventory, selection, development, and
integration subplan is to provide better service and conserve resources.
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In this activity, data is first acquired on systems in operation,
development, or planning within the community. Next with CIHS require-
ments as a touchstone, certain systems could be chosen which appear to
have the best chance of becoming more productively integrated into the
community system, i.e., will, with some modification, better satisfy
requirements for a community system. Finally, the systems selected
are developed and integrated into the CIHS.
This approach will result in the identification of systems,
which, when they reach community status, will replace duplicative
systems. The objective of this exercise is not to create more
systems, but to improve the productivity and response of
existing intelligence information handling systems. Not all
community requirements can be satisfied by this approach. New
systems may be needed to round out the total capability of the CIHS.
Alternatively, experimental services may have to be instituted to
determine what form of service best satisfies the requirement or to
help formulate or clarify a requirement. Some community require-
ments which are obviously high priority or readily satisfied should
be given immediate consideration. Thus, the overall plan should
be sufficiently flexible to accommodate the implementation of
quick solutions within the context of total community requirements.
Unsatisfied valid requirements are important to the
development of the CIHS. Moreover, the determination of such
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requirements is potentially the most difficult activity in the entire
plan. Specific requirements can only result from dialogues with
those intelligence components and committees who have requirements to
levy and/or have an interest in the successful development of the
CIHS.
The standards activity is clearly necessary and in fact
unavoidable in this concept. COINS experience and other efforts to
exchange data between agencies or computer systems indicate that
without standards the expense of data transfer becomes excessive.
In recognition of the need for standards existing throughout the
Federal Government, BoB Circular No. A-86 was promulgated and has
been followed by a steady succession of attempts to select/develop
and promulgate standards for government-wide use in information and
data handling.
Education, training, and documentation are just as necessary
because a system cannot be developed and utilized without timely and
careful attention to these activities. The emphasis lies in two areas.
First, there is the education, training, and documentation (ETD) neces-
sary in developing a candidate system to community status and putting
it into production status. Second, there is a need for ETD for the
CIHS as a total system. ETD on the total system is rather more
difficult to acquire than ETD for component sub-systems.
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5. Objectives of the Plan
The principal objective of this plan'is to provide a
Community Information Handling System which satisfies community
requirements and is consonant with USIB objectives for intelligence
information handling. In order to ensure that community users are
satisfied with the CIHS and evidence this by using it, the CIHS must
be a community project. Experience in community projects outside
the confines of the federal government indicates that certain key
words are usually associated with a successful venture. Some of
these are: identification, involvement, contribution, cooperation,
compromise, and community-spirit.
In his letter of 22 April 1968 the DCI does not provide a
concept for a community information handling system as a goal
toward which the community should strive. Rather, he proposes a
process of continuous improvement and integration. Therefore, we
are providing in this paper a preliminary plan for implementing the
process proposed by the DCI.
The emphasis on processing tends to overshadow collection
of intelligence data and its utilization -- primarily the latter. The
individual user of information in the community is the human being.
There has not been a great deal of concern about him, since man is
the most flexible, adaptable, forgiving component in the entire
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network. This is not a very good excuse, however, to continue ignoring
his requirements -- an attitude exemplified by staffing system design
and development activities with technicians and analysts. The ratio
of programmers to human engineers engaged on large data processing
systems within the community is very lopsided. In contrast, industry,
notably software houses, applies programmers and human-engineers in
ratios which range from 10 to 1 down to 2 to 1, depending on the size
and nature of the job. A corollary objective for CIHS therefore would
To provide a system which is tailored to reflect
the fact that the individual user of intelligence
information is a human being.
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B. Subplans
1. Subplan I - Role of Management in the CIHS
(a) Preface
This part of the preliminary plan does not follow the
pattern set by the other subplans. Rather, this section presents the
role of management in the CIHS. The reason for this departure is that
we do not feel it necessary to discuss a plan for acquiring, developing,
or instituting management. Management responsibility for community
affairs is explicit in the mission and functions statements describing
the role of the DCI.
Also the DCI stated his intention to manage the CIHS.
This section, therefore, is an interpretation of the role of the DCI
as CIHS manager in the various activities embodied in the preliminary
plan.
(b) Introduction
The 22 April 1968 response to NSAM 368 indicated that
the CIHS will evolve from the integration of existing intelligence
component systems in information handling. The CIHS must evolve from
these existing efforts in an orderly, timely fashion, and in manageable
segments considering budgetary and organization constraints of the
intelligence community. In order to achieve this end, the growth of
the CIHS will be in two phases. The first phase will be a period in
which CIHS management is concerned with reviewing existing component
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subsequently referenced in this paper, are not unilateral in nature.
Such actions will be taken after consultation with the component(s)
affected, and as appropriate, with the USIB and NIRB. (Note that in
references to actions or decisions on the development of CIHS by the
IHC, it is understood that the Subcommittee on System Design and
Development will serve as the action arm for the parent body).
Special attention must be given to the management of
the activities associated with the experimental services. In
particular, management constraints during the development of an
experimental/trial information handling service should be minimized
to provide the latitude necessary in R&D activities. When the
service reaches the point that users are trying it out with an
evaluation to follow, then the same kind of detailed planning, which
characterizes component system modifications, should be employed in
order that the difficult task of service evaluation has meaningful
results. (Note that in references to actions or decisions on
experimental services by the IHC, it is understood that the Subcommittee
on R&D will serve as the action arm for the parent body).
(c) Management of the Development Phase of CIHS
An inventory of data on existing systems and selection
of candidates for the CIHS will be conducted by the IHC with its
Chairman serving as the representative of the DCI. The Committee will
formulate its recommendations resulting from this process for approval
by the DCI.
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The system developer/operator (executive agent) will be
appointed by the DCI with the consent of the intelligence component
concerned. The developer/operator will report to the DCI through his
CIHS management representative.
Specifications for the development and integration of the
selected system into the CIIIS will be prepared by a development panel
of the System Design and Development Subcommittee selected by the IHC.
The development panel will monitor the initial phase
and report to the IHC on matters affecting changes in the role of a
selected system, the role of the CIHS and the developer/operator's
capabilities to satisfy the system's specifications. Monitoring will
involve a review of the system's budgetary program as it relates to
CIIIS specifications as well as feedback on the development, viz.,
design, specification, engineering, and testing.
Resources will be identified in a separate program sub-
element figure to be established for those systems selected to be inte-
grated into the CIHS. These resources will be those required to operate
the system as part of the CIHS. The DCI will identify resource requests
for the CIHS to the BoB in consultation with the system developer/operator.
A number of financial problems will arise in concerned intelligence
components. These must be solved before CIHS can be implemented effectively.
(d) Management of the Development of Experimental/Trial
Information Handling Service
The DCI will decide what experimental service is to be
initiated and what component will act as executive agent. The informa-
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tion necessary to make such decisions will be supplied by the IHC.
The Executive Agent's development plan will be approved
by the DCI on recommendation of the IHC.
Monitoring of the developmental, experimental, and
evaluation phase will be the responsibility of an evaluation panel of
the R&D Subcommittee selected by the IHC.
An evaluation plan, based on criteria supplied by the
evaluation panel to the executive agent, will be developed and
administered by the panel.
The evaluation report and recommendations prepared by
the evaluation panel and approved by the IHC will be forwarded to
the DCI for action.
(e) Management of the Operational Phase of CIHS
Individual information handling systems of intelligence
components do not constitute a single integrated CIHS without direction
and control. The analogy of the jigsaw puzzle is apt. Some authority
must have an overview of the CIHS so that as individual pieces are
selected and developed to community status, the pieces fit together.
Operation of the CIHS will demand management control so that overall
system reliability, responsiveness, and flexibility can be maintained.
Though the management of the CIHS will be the responsibility of the DCI,
the day-to-day operation of its subsystems will be the responsibility
of the intelligence components.
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2. Subplan II - Requirements for Change in the Community
Information Handling System
(a) Introduction
The CIHS must have practical requirements levied on it
so that the CIHS can function profitably for its users. These require-
ments should be arranged in priority order to serve as guideposts for
the CIHS management. The requirements should include reduction in
specific undesired information handling efforts as well as an increase
in efforts to improve the handling of information in the community. In
addition, some requirements may be established for achieving a healthy
environment in which a community system can prosper. Aids to communica-
tion and data exchange such as secure telephone systems, content control
code, and the item register may enhance the information handling process.
Requirements should originate from intelligence producers
and users. Inasmuch as the members of the community are users as well
as the developers of the CIHS, this situation suggests conflicting
interests. It simply means that requirements for the CIHS should be
defined and approved before development tasks are assigned.
(b) Steps in the Preliminary Plan
Step 1. The information handling requirements will be
categorized and listed in order of priority. These categories should
be expressed in broad terms such as data exchange, dissemination,
standards, security principles, training and management techniques.
The IHC will be charged with this task.
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Step 2. Detailed requests for information on other
requirements will be issued. Arrangements for such data calls will
be established by the IHC. All CIHS requirements will be submitted to
the IHC for acceptance or further discussion with the submitter.
Step 3. The Chairman, IHC will consult with
intelligence producers and users to assist in detailing the requirements
for the CIHS. The dialogue must result in a definition of the require-
ment in precise terms. For example, if a CIHS requirement is to save
money, the amount should be specified; similarly, if timeliness is a
requirement, it should be defined in concrete terms.
Step 4. Following definition of the requirements the
IHC will prepare a detailed list of CIHS requirements for approval by
the DCI. If cost becomes a factor, the DCI will assign the requirement
to the National Intelligence Resources Board for recommendations.
Step S. The set of requirements for CIHS will be
approved by the DCI. These requirements provide a basis for
monitoring CIHS during its developmental and operational phases', and
the possible initiation of developmental activities to provide a
community capability not achievable through the modification of
existing systems.
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3. Subplan III - Inventory, Selection, Development, and Integration
(a) Introduction
The major present effort toward a CIHS is covered by
this subplan. As a result, more detail is included in the various
steps. The rationale for this approach to upgrading intelligence
information handling in the community is embodied in the continuous
improvement and integration of component systems.
The following paragraphs contain the steps of the
subplan and supporting discussion. There are fo+ir major subdivisions:
(1) the inventorying of information on the
individual or collective intelligence information
handling systems which appear to hold some promise
of satisfying requirements levied on the CIHS;
(2) the selection, from this inventory, of
those systems which, through modification, may
improve community information handling;
(3) the development of CIHS subsystems; and
(4) the integration of those subsystems into
the CIHS.
(b) Steps in the Preliminary Plan
(1) Inventory
Step 1. A form or questionnaire will be
designed to acquire the essential elements of information on each of
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the intelligence information handling systems currently operating or
planned by the intelligence components as well as those which have
proved unsatisfactory or have been cancelled for other reasons.
Discussion. The design of the form will be
difficult since the systems under consideration are a heterogeneous
collection. Department and agency replies to NSAM 368, their annexes
to the IHC Annual Report, and budget submissions should serve to
identify those systems that are currently operating or planned through-
out the intelligence community. However, these documents were prepared
for the purpose of providing a catalog of intelligence information
handling activities and accomplishments. In order to evaluate the
potential of a component's system for community application, greater
detail will be required.
Step 2. A project contact officer (PCO) will be
selected for each system of each intelligence component.
Discussion. A PCO should be selected for each of
the systems rather than one to represent all since there is probably
no one person in each component who has the necessary familiarity with
all of his component's intelligence information handling systems. The
PCO's should be selected and nominated by his IHC member. The preferred
manner of gathering information would be to have a team of two inter-
viewers of the IHC take the forms to the PCO, fill them in with informa-
tion he provides, and then have him (PCO) sign them -- thereby assuring
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that the component which supplies the data supports its legality and
completeness. If this is not satisfactory, the PCO should complete
the forms himself, after he has been furnished with some written guidance.
This guidance should have at least a list of the definitions of the more
essential parts of the information needed on each system. In this case
it might be prudent to have the data gathering team of the IHC visit
each PCO at the time the forms are being issued to answer any questions
that the PCO may have on how he should complete the forms. The inter-
view approach is more convenient for the PCO and his component since it
takes very little of their time. It is also likely to produce greater
uniformity in system descriptions. The form dissemination approach saves
time for the interviewers but probably lengthens the data gathering
process considerably and reduces the element of comparability.
Step 3. All of the data obtained in the previous
steps should be listed and organized.
Discussion. After the interviewers have either
obtained signed information forms from the PCOs or the PCOs have
returned their completed information forms to the interviewers via
his IHC member, it will be possible to organize the data by information
elements other than system ownership. Some of the ways this information
could be listed are (1) by the purpose of the system, (2) by the
uniqueness of the information in the files of the system, or (3) by
the uniqueness of the techniques in handling the information. The
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sorting and listing of data by other categories might bring to light
some very interesting facts. Hopefully, some overlapping areas will
become apparent. There may be some intelligence information handling
systems which will show such identity of subject matter and data as to
suggest that they should be handled by only one organization. While
the elimination of unnecessary duplication would not be feasible for
some time, these lists could help identify long-range goals. Moreover,
these lists should certainly give some guidance toward the eventual
CIHS design.
(2) Selection
Step 4. Candidate intelligence information handling
systems will be selected for the CIHS.
Discussion. Before selection it will be necessary to
review the requirements for CIHS candidates and for CIHS in toto.
Part of the overall plan involves the obtaining of system requirements.
When these requirements become known, the selection process can be
completed for systems which show promise in satisfying these require-
ments. There are a number of ways in which a candidate system might
be nominated for community status, e.g., a member of the IHC may
nominate a system owned and operated by another member.
Step S. Approval of the selected systems will be
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Discussion. In addition to approval it is to be expected
that management will provide guidance on priorities, schedules, available
resources, CIHS requirements, and other factors necessary to the prepara-
tion of specifications and an overall plan for CIHS development.
(3) System Development
Step 6. A system developer/operator will be selected
and provided with specifications for the modification of the candidate
system.
Discussion. These specifications will be prepared by
the development panel. This panel will continue its activities
during subsequent stages of development of the candidate systems for
the CIHS.
Step 7. The system developer/operator will prepare a
plan for the requisite modification with guidance from the development
panel.
Step 8. The development (modification) plan will be
approved.
Discussion. This step involves little that is
substantive, but the process of approval is liable to many influences
and thus deserves separate consideration.
Step 9. The developer/operator modifies the candidate
system according to the approved plan.
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Discussion. While the development is underway, IHC and
the DCI will utilize a rudimentary management information system directed
by the development panel to maintain awareness of problems and successes.
Integral to the successful accomplishment of a system development are
such things as system testing, operator and user training, and the
various levels of documentation to support these activities, as well as
that necessary for the operator in day-to-day maintenance and operation
of the system.
Step 10. The modified system is approved for operation
as a subsystem of CIHS.
(4) System Integration
Step 11.. Integrate the CIHS subsystem just acquired
into the overall CIHS.
Discussion. It seems apparent that if the subsystem
was modified without careful consideration of total CIHS requirements,
then it cannot be integrated. If the CIHS requirements were recognized
in the specification, planning, development, and testing stages of the
subsystem, then the final act of integration should be a formality
except for whatever testing is deemed necessary. The usual approach
to proving a system which has just had a significant change in its
total capability is to conduct a series of system tests. These tests
prove, not only that the new subsystem can operate in the larger system
environment, i.e., CIHS, but also that previous system capabilities
have not been degraded by the change. The nature of such tests is
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New v
clearly a function of the degree of dependence between subsystems.
Each integration would require a separate system test design effort.
4. Subplan IV - Standardization in the CIHS
(a) Introduction
Standardization has been defined as an action which
causes some thing or some process to occur repetitively without varia-
tion or irregularity. Standards have been classified in various ways
(1) Technical - if they deal with products,
materials, methods, and equipment.
(2) Procedural - if they deal with the manner
in which some action is to be accomplished.
To date, primary concern in the intelligence community
has been with technical standards and standardization as they apply
to computer data bases, data exchange, and data transmission. There
is increasing concern for the impact of standardization of computer
operating instruction codes and character sets. Requirements for
standardization in connection with program languages and optical
character readers are also of interest to the intelligence community.
It is our purpose in the CIHS to develop a rational
approach to standardization in the intelligence community. Standardiza-
tion will be considered only in terms of demonstrable responsiveness to
definable community needs. Certainly, standardization is not, and should
not be an end in itself.
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REVISED
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(b) System Standards
The introduction of automatic data processing equipment
into the intelligence environment highlighted the need for and gave
impetus to the rapid development and utilization of many data element
and code standards. The benefits of automated data processing could
be made available only through uniform understanding (definition) of
common information (data elements) and expression of them (codes) in
data systems.
An overview of information processing in the intelligence
community reveals not a lack of standard data elements and codes, but a
multitude of them. Each individual data system employs standards and
does so quite efficiently. However, from the viewpoint of data inter-
change, data transmission, and data correlation among existing data
systems, individual system standards become a CIHS standardization
problem.
At this time, there are few, if any, instances where
an intelligence agency has developed and adopted any agency-wide
data element and code standards. Perhaps the broadest application of
standards has occurred in connection with the DoD Intelligence Data
Handling System (IDHS) which, though a discrete system within DoD
intelligence, does encompass many intelligence components of the
Army, Navy, and Air Force worldwide, as well as DIA.
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To date, the need for department- or agency-wide
standardization of individual system-oriented data element and code
standards has not been demonstrated. These systems and the standards
they employ perform as they are designed to do and to good effect. The
problems incident to data interchange and data transmission between
component systems have not yet become sufficiently critical to force a
re-examination of overall "system" performance at the department or
agency level. Further, the extent to which conversion, translation,
and equivalency of non-standard data elements and codes by machine is
feasible as a substitute for complete department- or agency-wide data
element and code standardization in the intelligence community remains
to be determined.
(c) Federal Standards
Since 1964 the Bureau of the Budget has been
increasingly active in the development and establishment of data element
and code standards for use throughout Government at the behest of the
President and Congress. The stated objectives of BoB in achieving the
greatest practicable degree of uniformity in data elements and codes
are:
(1) to facilitate the summation of information
and thereby enhance the exchange of information among
data systems.
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(2) to facilitate the review and analysis of
the budget processes and programs of the executive
branch concerning more than one department or agency.
(3) to encourage the extension of the principle
of systems integration under which information can
directly be communicated among data systems without
interrupting the process for translations or conversions,
(4) to contribute to improving the products and
effectiveness of data systems.
Federal standards (data elements and codes) as defined
by BoB are of two types:
(1) Federal general standards -- for use by most
agencies or departments in connection with an extensive
number and variety of related or unrelated data systems
and programs;
(2) Federal program standards -- for use in
particular related programs concerning more than one
department or agency. In this case, the same source
data often are used by several departments or agencies,
and exchange of information on a program basis is the
rule.
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It is noteworthy that though intelligence clearly falls
into the Federal program area, there are no intelligence program data
element and code standards extant or under development. It is also
clear that in the absence of intelligence program data element and code
standards, intelligence may be forced to live within the framework of
Federal general standards developed or selected from departmental
candidates. Neither of the foregoing choices may provide the intelligence
community with the tools it needs to effectively improve and integrate
the intelligence information handling systems of its components.
(d) Community Standards and COINS
In planning and implementing the Community On-Line
Intelligence System (COINS) Experiment, many of the problems incident
to data base element and code standardization on an intelligence
program basis have been surfaced. Generally, solutions to these
problems have been confined to standardizing in the context of the
data bases which have been made available in the COINS Experiment,
though a conscientious effort at broader problem definition has been
made.
Since COINS is the first real manifestation at community-
wide systemization, it appears to be the logical place to initiate the
determination of community standardization requirements. Actions by the
COINS managers to date indicate that they are aware of the desirability
of broad based standards which may exceed current data base commitments
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by the participating agencies. It seems quite appropriate that initial
efforts be dedicated to determining the essential characteristics of
data elements and codes in all community data bases which are
considered to be logical candidates for COINS. This is a reasonable
first step in developing a methodology for analyzing CIHS requirements
to determine standards which are explicitly or implicitly required.
Having learned from the COINS experience what standards
were required and what procedures were employed to institute a standard
or bypass it in some way, then we should be in a better position to
examine CIHS requirements, CIHS candidate systems, recommendations
for modification of the candidate systems, and make some suggestions.
These suggestions may take several forms. The simplest
would be to recommend the institution of a system standard which does
not conflict with, or replace, any federal, department, agency, or
program standard. The occurrence of this case is rather improbable.
A more likely suggestion would be to the effect that, if a candidate
system is to reach community status, steps must be taken to redesign
the structure of its data base to match an existing federal or program
(community) standard.
It is conceivable that a CIHS requirement may be
submitted which calls for the implementation of a specific standard
throughout the community. This should be viewed warily, since it
would appear that the intelligence component submitting such a
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ATTACHMENT A
requirement considers standards to be the goal -- not a means of
obtaining a CIHS. The emphasis should always be on providing a com-
munity capability through a CIHS whose subsystems must adopt certain
standards in order to be useful and usable to the community.
(e) Steps in the Preliminary Plan
Step 1. Identify and define data elements and code
standardization problems encountered in the existing COINS data base.
Step 2. Examine COINS solutions to the data element
and code standardization problems encountered.
Step 3. Extend COINS data elements and code standardiza-
tion problem definitions to subsystem files and data bases selected
for CIHS.
Step 4. Identify data elements and code standardization
requirements as a subset, or interpretation, of the CIHS requirements.
Step S. Analyze each candidate system and its modifica-
tion plans in light of requirements for standardization of data elements
and codes.
Step 6. Develop a plan for standardization of data base
elements, which is synchronized to the development and implementation
schedule of the CIHS subsystem.
Step 7. Monitor the development of the plan to ensure ad-
herence to the schedule and compliance with the standard being adopted.
Step 8. Analyze all standardization activities in terms
of the total requirements for a CIHS.
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5. Subplan V - Orientation, Training and Documentation for
Operators and Users of CIHS
(a) Introduction
It is a truism, and therefore apt to be ignored, that
users of intelligence information (managers, planners, and analysts)
must be oriented and trained regarding an information handling system
and constantly kept abreast of changes and developments; to do less is
to invite inefficiency, confusion and failure. With this statement as
background, training and orientation must be considered of paramount
importance in the development and integration of the CIHS.
The history of systems development during the past
twenty years indicates that the causative factor for the demise of so
many systems was a failure to address training and orientation in a
responsible and timely fashion. Most will agree that a system, regard-
less of its praiseworthy potential, is useless if no one is trained to
use or operate it. A more difficult point on which to achieve consensus
is when in the life span of a system the training people should be
represented and provide an input. In general, the answer is: the
sooner, the better. This answer also depends to a limited degree on
who is assigned. Those responsible for implementing the directives of
the DCI should reflect the importance of training in the caliber of
individuals tasked to represent training at requirements, design, and
policy meetings. If the individual charged to represent training's
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interest is an already overburdened career officer with no capability,
interest, or experience in the field of establishing systems training
requirements, then his attendance at requirements meetings is of little
benefit. At the other extreme, if a professional systems training
officer is available, then he can have a beneficial effect even if
assigned late in the development phase.
The emphasis to this point has been on training and
orientation. Documentation is no less important. Another truism is
that the aspects of a system which go undocumented are those for which
no one was given documentation responsibility. Those aspects of system
documentation which are oriented to the user are not supported by
strong parochial interests and therefore are often not specifically
assigned. (The same statement holds for training delinquencies).
This results in the development of a system which begins operations with
adequate manuals on how to operate and maintain it, but inadequate or
non-existent documentation on how analysts and others are to use it.
Obviously the same lack of system utility that comes from lack of
training can occur from lack of documentation.
It should be noted that the Orientation, Training, and
Documentation (OTD) necessary for CIHS is only part of the totality
of OTD which must be provided in the community. The responsibility
for determining general requirements for education and training in
information sciences and intelligence information handling has been
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NOW
given to the Subcommittee on Education and Training of the IHC.
Clearly, all CIHS education and training requirements are subsumed
by that charter. Consequently the Subcommittee on Education and Training
of the IHC must be aware of the accomplishments of certain of its
objectives through the development of the CIHS. Moreover, the Education
and Training Subcommittee will, at the request of the IHC, be the action
arm in accomplishing the following steps of the plan to provide OTD for
operators and users of the CIHS.
(b) Steps in the Preliminary Plan
Step 1. Identify those CIHS requirements which relate
specifically to the OTD area.
Step 2. Isolate those requirements having generic
qualities, e.g., training for EDP familiarization, training in the
general capabilities of automated information, storage, and retrieval
systems. This kind of training is not CIHS subsystem dependent and
thus can be addressed separately by the IHC Subcommittee on Education
and Training.
Step 3. Identify, either from requirements or systems
knowledge, the various categories of OTD that generally accompany or
are used to support a new system. This constitutes a checklist for
subsystem developers to use during subsystem specification and
development. Note that some types of training and documentation are
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clearly the responsibility of the subsystem developer, e.g., documentation
of test results.
Step 4. Similarly, identify the requirements for OTD
which are not explicitly covered by the subsystem developers. The OTD
which falls in this category must be supplied by resources other than
the subsystem developer unless he is tasked to do it. The IHC will
recommend a course of action and the DCI will assure the proper direction
and funding to obtain the required service.
Step S. Review, as part of the management responsibility,
the progress in supplying the OTD requested of both subsystem developer
and other sources.
Step 6. Identify, as an ongoing task, those areas of
OTD requirements peculiar to the total CIHS and not encompassed in any
of the subsystem development plans or activities.
Step 7. The IHC will develop a plan to provide total
system OTD as identified in the previous step. On approving the plan,
the DCI will assure the necessary direction and funding to acquire the
service.
6. Subplan VI - Development of Experimental/Trial Information
Handling Services
(a) Introduction
Since the intelligence community must continue to update
its information handling processes and procedures through application of
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ATTACHMENT A
modern technology, the CIHS is a meaningful and deliberate means of
effecting such a revolution. However, the "continuous improvement" and
"integration" approach is time-consuming and conservative. If
significant advances in community information handling capability are
desirable, then it is necessary to initiate a program to stimulate their
achievement. The traditional approach is through research and develop-
ment. This part of the plan addresses the application of R&D in order
to provide giant strides in community information handling capability.
The rationale for suggesting experimental/trial services
is simply that users of intelligence community services, like users of
services elsewhere in our society, are not always aware of the fact
that they need a service until it is provided to them. The calculated
risk, which is exemplified in developing better mousetraps that no one
has requested, pervades our society. Those developers of experimental/
trial services who correctly interpret the unstated but real requirements
of their target population are very successful; the trial service has
popular appeal and the risk becomes profit.
This argument for suggesting the development of high-
risk, expensive, experimental/trial community services might sound too
revolutionary if COINS did not exist. COINS is quite definitely in the
in the category mentioned above, i.e., an experimental/trial informa-
tion handling service, As noted in the report of the Test and Analysis
Panel, it is not an experiment in the scientific sense; rather the
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service provided by COINS is being given a trial period to determine if
it has user appeal. If the appeal is sufficiently great and the cost
is not prohibitive, COINS may become an operational system. Even if
COINS never becomes operational, it has already had a number of
beneficial side effects, not the least of which is the emphasizing of
the need to standardize data elements. COINS has also demonstrated
that there are significant engineering hurdles in establishing a network
of computers. The problem of multi-file, multi-user security has been
removed from the ivory tower and has become a here-and-now operational
headache. The list of benefits associated with the COINS activity is
too lengthy for this discussion but the preceding examples indicate
the values to be derived from developing an experimental/trial service.
In determining what experimental/trial service should be
developed, management must recognize that this is the mechanism whereby
R&D is employed to fill gaps in the requirements of the CIHS as well as
adding to the dynamism of a process of gradual improvement. The steps
necessary to develop an experimental/trial service are listed below.
(b) Steps in the Preliminary Plan
Step 1. Recommendations for any type of community
experimental/trial information handling service will be presented to
the DCI for his approval. All of the available details of the proposed
experimental service will be provided by the IHC supported by the
component that proposed the service. These details will include
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purpose, duration of service, method of evaluating the service, cost,
and any other factors needed to make a decision.
Step 2. The experimental information handling service
will be approved by the DCI.
Step 3. The DCI will appoint an executive agent and
inform him of his responsibilities in developing and operating the
experimental information handling service in association with those
intelligence components who are contributors or users of the service.
These responsibilities will form the basis for a development plan which
the executive agent will provide. This plan will include the schedule,
manpower level, funds, description of the service to be provided, and
criteria to be used in evaluating the success of the experiment/trial.
The evaluation panel will develop an evaluation plan based on the
test criteria given to the executive agent.
Step 4. The executive agent will staff the development
of the experimental service and provide a progress report on a periodic
basis to the evaluation panel. Management reports will be defined so
that the evaluation panel can assess progress during the development
and succeeding phases.
Step S. The experimental phase begins when an
experimental information handling service is made available to the
intelligence community on a limited controlled basis. During the
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experimental phase, the executive agent of the experimental information
handling service will be permitted to make minor changes to the system
to insure optimum performance of the experimental/trial service during
the evaluation and test phase.
Step 6. The evaluation and test phase will begin after
the experimental phase and will continue for the length of time specified
by the executive agent and approved by the DCI. During the evaluation
and test phase, the executive agent for experimental information handling
service will provide the experimental service, and support the activities
of the evaluation panel. There will not be any modifications to the
experimental information handling service during this phase without
prior approval of the evaluation panel. At the end of the evaluation
and test phase, a completion report will be submitted to the DCI by the
executive agent.
Step 7. The evaluation panel will prepare a report
containing an evaluation of the experimental/trial service and its
recommendations regarding CIHS candidacy, limited operation, further
tests, discontinuance, etc. On approval by the IHC of the recommendations
they will be forwarded to the DCI for action.
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ATTACHMENT B
Annex A - COINS Summary
Annex B - NSA Summary
Annex C - DIA Summary
Annex D - CIA Summary
Annex E - State Summary
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Community On-Line Intelligence System (COINS)
This is a brief progress report on the COINS experiment which is
being conducted jointly by members of the Intelligence Community in
the Washington Metropolitan Area in order to implement the President's
Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board Recommendation No. 2 of 15 June
1965. The concept calls for DIA, NSA, CIA and NPIC (CIA) to maintain
selected intelligence data files in their remote information retrieval
computer systems which will be connected by secure data links through
a central switch at DIA. Users at each participating agency can access
the information maintained at any other agency. The Department of State
and the National Indications Center (NIC) will have remote query consoles
connected to the DIA computer through which they can interrogate COINS
files.
SIGNIFICANT NETWORK MILESTONES AND CURRENT STATUS
The following represents additional significant items since the last
status report which highlighted the activation of the DIA/NSA circuit.
a. The circuit from the central switch to the Department
of State remote query console was activated on 30 July 1968, and has
undergone successful interrogation testing of DIA files.
b. The CIA National Photographic Interpretation Center joined
the network on 20 September 1968 and successfully interrogated DIA files
and received answers thereto.
c. The circuit to the National Indications Center has not
been activated due to delays encountered in the procurement of necessary
hardware.
d. The communication circuit between CIA and DIA was
connected on approximately 1 September 1968. CIA has been able to
receive and interpret data streams transmitted by DIA. Due to software
problems, DIA has been unable to correctly interpret all messages
transmitted by CIA. All of the CIA control software required to
receive and respond to queries from the DIA network switch is scheduled to
be completed and initially tested during the week of 7 October 1968.
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COINS MANAGEMENT
a. On 11 April 1968 the Director of Central Intelligence
designated the Director National Security Agency as Executive Agent
for the COINS Experiment (USIB-D-39.1/9, 11 April 1968). USIB-D-71.4/1,
3 June 1968 issued by the DCI contained the terms of reference for the
experiment, and specified the Executive Agent's appointment of a COINS
Project Manager to work with Sub-system Managers appointed by the
participating agencies. Subsequently DIRNSA appointed
of NSA as Project Manager.
b. Five interagency panels have been appointed by the
Project Manager to accomplish actions relative to discrete parts of
COINS.
The Soviet Biographic and Airfield Panels are
concerned with data base requirements on these subjects.
The Computer and Communications Interface Panel
is responsible for all aspects of systems interface.
The Test and Analysis Panel will develop the
criteria and gather information to provide a base for analysis of
system performance and utilization.
The COINS Training Panel was recently established
to design a common user training course and coordinate training of
system users in the participating agencies.
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Nat:ional Secur. i.Ly_A encya
The past six months have been used by NSA to make progress on
two fronts.- (1) initiate and continue the development of potentially
new IH services and systems and (2) intensify efforts to define our
IH problems and to discover new concepts of operation which show promise
of solving all or part of the problems.
PROGRESS AND NEW ITEMS
A management study was conducted to assess the value of open
source and collateral intelligence information being processed in NSA's
Central Information Center. The study revealed that a large percentage
of the support provided by the Center was from these sources.
To further evaluate and refine the study, the Central Intelligence
Agency and NSA cooperated in an experiment to determine if a series of
sample requests already researched by NSA's Central Information Center
could be answered as effectively and with the same sources at CIA. As
a result of this experiment:, an intensive test is now underway to
determine the feasibility o:f
relying on NSA personnel at CIA CRS
making direct use of CRS files to meet NSA information needs. Three
NSA analysts have been collocated at CIA/CRS to conduct this test and 25X3
a CIA/CRS analyst has been collocated to the NSA Central Information
Center to review its reference facilities. The scope of the study will
include a review processing, selection criteria and support 25X3
capabilities. We believe this cooperative approach to operating central
reference services shows promise of broader application in the community.
The Director, NSA, is sponsoring a Workshop on Networks of
Computers, 14-18 October 1968, with the objective of advancing the
state-of-the-art with respect to operation of these networks. The
COINS network is an, example of such a network. Broad participation
by the Intelligence Community, other government agencies, and invited
outside consultants is planned.
A VIEW OF THE IH PROBLEMS
-A study of the IH problems at NSA and in the Intelligence Community
indicates that there are several aspects of the problem needing solution.
These are summarized briefly, as follows-
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a. Interagency Analyst to Analyst Communication
The analyst to analyst communication is presently handled
by a variety of classical means, i.e., secure and unsecure telephones,
messages, report exchange, direct contact, etc. What needs to be done
now is to experiment with expanded and newer means such as facsimile,
wider availability of secure telephone, converstaion through COINS-like
networks, use of PICTUREPHONE, in order to clarify the problem and the
needs. Many of these electrical means, however, are dependent on expanded
electrical communications, particularly in the Washington area.
The communication improvement in the local area can
possibly benefit by the use of the new Bell System T1 carrier system.
This service permits the transmission of 1.5 megabits/second and has
the data in VI-Le form (digital) for easy encipherment and automatic
routing.
b. Analyst Retrieval of Information
An important service to the analyst is the classical
library or central reference service which provides him with back-up
to his private desk file. Community efforts under COINS and local
agency efforts, like TIPS at NSA, represent an approach to provide
timely files in electrical format which the analyst can consult for
useful,essential facts. Looking ahead there is a need to improve the
analysts' browsing ability; to evaluate and provide, if useful, other
means of storing and retrieving data such as Videofile; use of voice
response units to provide aural answers to questions; and most important,
improved indexing and tagging based on current analyst's needs.
Service to analysts entails indexing by specifics, i.e.,
names of people, places and things. This type of indexing has its own
set of problems which are not easily mechanized. A special study is
needed of the requirements of analysts for specific information and how
they may be most effectively satisfied. The results of such a study
would enhance the usability of material filed in Videofile, on-line
systems, magnetic tape files, etc.
c. Availability of Key Intelligence to Decision Makers
This critical service has been highlighted as needing
improvement by a number of high-level studies. New software and
hardware state-of-the-art shows promise of permitting significant
improvements. The classic problem is how to achieve selectivity and
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still maintain timeliness. We now see concepts that should provide
this dual requirement and resolve the conflict between the two.
A PROPOSAL TO PROVIDE A NEW SERVICE
Each of the above needs is presently being or can potentially be
met by a number of different services based on a variety of concepts
of operation. The possible forms of service improvement include
increased capacity and improved quality of present services and/or
provision of new and improved types of service. We have identified
one approach as having particular merit.
NSA has initiated a project for the development of a SIGINT On-
Line Information System. The purpose of the first phase of the project
will be to prove the feasibility of providing SIGINT users, within NSA
and customer agencies, with access to the National SIGINT Establishment
published data base through a computer system. This project will
implement the concept that the information handling problems in the
intelligence community can best be met by making the producing agency
responsible for the storage and retrieval of the information in its
product, as well as for its distribution.
The creation of an integrated information handling system that makes
full use of the tools of automation requires that the information be
converted into a machineable form. The producing agency is the logical
place for this to be done. NSA has developed methods for generating a
computerized by-product to its signal intelligence production and at
the present time has over 700,000 items in its computerized data base.
This file is used for retrospective research in an off-line mode. NSA
will use the expertise gained in the off-line project to develop an
on-line system. The objectives of the system are:
a. Provide the cryptologic analyst with a direct access to
the product of the national SIGINT establishment.
b. Provide the customer agencies with access to pertinent
data from the product of the national SIGINT establishment.
e. Eliminate the need for duplicative file maintenance
that now exists in the community.
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d. Provide certain cryptologic management information data.
e. Minimize the requirement for distribution of hard copy
end-product.
A technical, development plan is being prepared which will show
the necessary actions to be taken for carrying out the program.
POSSIBLE EXPERIMENTS
The next steps planned, as resources permit, are:
a. Following the completion of the proposal for an improved
communications net in the Washington area, the concepts will be tried
out on one or two of the possible links.
b. Following the study of analyst indexing needs, a proposal
will be developed for a community-wide indexing and retrieval system
to cover the recovery of information for the analyst from files in any
format including digital, photo, video, microform, and hard copy.
c. Following the design of an indexing and retrieval system
tuned for surfacing the key elements needed for crisis management by
high-level decision makers, a pilot system will be tried using SIGINT
product.
PRACTICAL CONSTRAINTS
All of the above ideas will come to naught if resources cannot be
found to carry out at least some of the experiments and trial services.
At NSA, the people resource is the most critical. The availability of
personnel to install, operate, and maintain the sophisticated computer
and communication systems needed to provide most of the proposed
services will be the limiting factor.
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The DIA is making a concerted effort to approach improvement of DoD
.intelligence from a comprehensive system point of view. This involves
addressing the information substance of user requirements, defining the
system or network, identifying inadequacies in the system in this
context, and then proceeding with improvements or remedial measures.
The Director, DIA recently approved a major organizational change
designed to focus and intensify system improvement efforts within DoD
intelligence and to serve as the Agency's interface with the USIB
community for action responsive to NSAM-368. The new Directorate for
Intelligence System Development will incorporate resources of the
existing Automatic Data Processing Systems Center and link this capability
to an enlarged system analysis and system development planning capability.
A subordinate Intelligence Experimentation Center will be dedicated to
the application, test, and evaluation of improved methods and techniques
for intelligence analytical processes.
DIA's recent design of a long-range threat assessment program is an
example of related improvement efforts in the DIA functional Directorates.
It represents a major effort at improvement of estimative techniques and
capabilities. This typifies the problem-oriented approach to system
improvement in which performance of a critical function is enhanced first
by improving functional system design, then by embracing the techniques
and technology which are optimum for the function. The experimental
Executive Management Planning and Control System (EMPAC) views DoD
intelligence as a system of interacting processes and operations on
data streams and seeks to optimize the performance of the entire
system by addressing its parts in the context of the whole. DIA
participation in analyses initiated by the Bureau of the Budget, Director
of Central Intelligence, and Secretary of Defense further contributes
to this objective.
B. DoD INTELLIGENCE DATA HANDLING SYSTEM
The worldwide DoD Intelligence Data Handling System (IDHS) consists
of the facilities, equipment, special data communications, procedures,
and personnel which provide tehcnical and operational intelligence data
handling capabilities in support of general intelligence production in
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U.S. Military Commands and organizations. It currently includes 53
intelligence computers installed in 22 locations. In addition, there
are 23 computers installed in mapping and charting organizations.
This system has been developed on an evolutionary basis. The
guiding principle has been that the system must be expanded in small
enough segments so that they can be implemented before the external
environment makes them obsolete, and so that their impact and
effectiveness can be assessed before additional developments are
implemented. To that end, the system is under frequent evaluation,
both from a technical and from a user point of view.
Since its inception in 1963, the objective of the worldwide DoD IDH
System has been to constantly improve intelligence data handling through
the development of a system of mutually supporting facilities. Important
steps which have been taken toward this end include:
(1) The development of families of computer programming
systems (e.g., the Formatted File System and follow-
on data management systems).
(2) The standardization of data elements and codes.
(3) The widespread exchange of data bases.
(4) Providing technical assistance to commands in their
early stages of automation.
(5) The generation of management plans which delineate the
respective responsibilities of DIA, the Military
Departments, the Unified and Specified Commands, and
various user commands
Periodic evaluations of the results of the IDHS efforts to date
indicate that ADP is making its most significant contribution to
military intelligence in the following broad functional areas:
(1) Exploitation of photography.
(2) Exploitation of ELINT.
(3) Targeting.
(4) Missile Trajectory Computations.
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(5) Foreign Ship Activity.
(6) Various activity files pertaining to Viet Nam.
(7) Orders of Battle.
(8) Dissemination of Intelligence Reports.
(9) Storage and Retrieval of intelligence reports and
foreign scientific and technical publications.
IDHS is beginning to make a significant contribution in the areas
of direct support to intelligence analysts, and management of intelligence
operations. To date, it has not made a significant contribution in
the areas of estimates and warning. It is these areas to which increased
attention must be focused in the immediate future.
Looking toward the future, major improvement efforts are underway
in a number of areas. Basically, these efforts center on the develop-
ment of: (1) remote access, time-sharing systems to enhance support
to intelligence analysts; (2) a network of secure digital data links
to permit rapid exchange of information among the various commands,
DIA, and other USIB agencies; (3) automatic input devices and techniques
such as the optical character reader; and (4) advanced training programs
in information science for personnel at all levels. Some of the major
projects currently underway are listed and described briefly below:
(1) Project ANSRS (Analyst Support and Research System):
The project is being pursued at the direction of the
Secretary of Defense to develop, test, and evaluate, in an operational
environment, the applicability of on-line, remote access, time-sharing
computer technology to intelligence functions. It utilizes a GE 635
computer and 21 remote-query terminals in A and B buildings at Arlington
Hall, the Pentagon, Pomponio Plaza, and Building 213 at the Naval
Weapons Plant. The system is now undergoing operational testing and
evaluation on live data bases.
(2) COINS (Community On-Line Intelligence System):
This system now interconnects computers at DIA, CIA,
NSA, and NPIC and the remote-query console at State through a central
network switch at DIA. Remote consoles permit analysts at any of these
agencies to'have on-line access to data bases in the other agencies.
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DIA is in the process of converting the computer used as the central
switch from an IBM 7740 to an IBM 360/30; and its on-line computer is
being upgraded to an IBM 360/50 from an IBM 1410.
(3) DoD IDHS Communications Network Plan:
This plan calls for internetting of computers in the DoD
IDHS community by secure digital data links from DIA to the Unified and
Specified Commands and from them to their component commands. Through the
DIA central network switch, this DoD IDHS net will be connected to the
COINS net and thus make possible the querying of data bases in any of the
participating elements from any other element. It will also provide for
tape-to-tape transfer of bulk data between agencies and make it feasible
to allocate responsibilities for data base generation and maintenance.
Installation will be on a phased basis during the period FY 69-71,
starting with extension to DIA at Arlington Hall of the present data
link between the Pentagon and CINCLANT now used exclusively for
transmission of ocean surveillance data.
(4) Data Management System:
In order to take fuller advantage of third-generation
computers, DIA has developed plans for replacement of the Formatted
File System (FFS) with interim and long-range data management systems.
In addition to providing greater data handling capabilities, the new
systems will be operable on a variety of computers, permitting greater
flexibility in the selection of computers for IDHS installations.
(5) Optical Character Reader (OCR) Automatic Indexing and
Text Processing:
This is a project to develop applications of OCR
equipment and ADP techniques in support of indexing, dissemination, and
publication of intelligence documents. The initial phase demonstrated
the applicability for conversion of typewritten text, by selected fonts,
to machine-readable form which can then be processed by computer to
prepare automatic indexes. The next phase will test the usefulness of
the equipment and techniques for processing field-prepared reports in
an operational environment, determine the technical feasibility and
economic desirability of developing interfaces with current indexing
and dissemination and provide cost effectiveness data as a basis for
decision on operational implementation.
(6) Naval Ocean Surveillance Information System:
This is a project to develop an integrated, automated,
all-source, worldwide ocean surveillance system which will monitor ship
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activities on and under the world's oceans. Much of the system is
already automated and operational and is being extended and improved to
include field formatting of all major input sources, installation of
additional secure digital data links to field commands, expansion of the
data base, development of multi-level security protection for the all-
source data base, and development of methodology for correlating all-
source data on naval activity.
On-Line) :
(7) Project CIRCOL (Central Information Reference and Control
This is the operational version of COLEX (CIRC On-Line
Experiment) which was successfully completed in FY 68. The experimental
system provided access from remote terminals in twelve participating
agencies to unclassified bibliographic references and documents on
foreign Science and Technology (S&T) loaded into a Q-32 time-sharing
computer at SDC at Santa Monica. An IBM 360/65 computer has been
approved and will be installed at FTD, WPAFB, Ohio, in December 1968.
The data base will be expanded to include classified materials and will
serve as the central data base of foreign S&T information for the
participating intelligence and R&D agencies.
(8) Project VASS (Visual Analysis Subsystem):
This system became operational at Headquarters, SAC in
1.966. It has 6 BR-90 visual display consoles interfaced through a
Univac 1219 computer to the SAC IBM 1410 system. The VASS consoles
can display graphic materials from a self-contained slide magazine,
and a variety of target, weapons, and mission planning data can be
superimposed or displayed from files maintained on the IBM 1410. It
is utilized primarily in functions associated with development of the
Single Integrated Operations Plan (SIOP). Some 16 new applications
are programmed for implementation through FY 73.
Review) :
(9) Project PACER (Program Assisted Console Evaluation and
This is an experimental man-machine interactive system
which will provide photo interpreters and intelligence analysts the
ability to develop and maintain, through exploitation and correlation
of all-source intelligence, a common data base to support war planning,
targeting, reconnaissance mission planning and to produce summaries of
pertinent intelligence on significant installations. It utilizes BR-90
visual display consoles tied to a GE 635 time-sharing computer.
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System tests :began in June 1968 and will continue for 12 months. In
the latter part of FY 69, it will be interfaced with VASS and additional
I/O displays will be added.
Funding and personnel data relative to the operation and maintenance
of the DoD Intelligence Data Handling System for FY 1969 through FY 1974
are included as an attachment to this summary.
Co THE INFORMATION SCIENCE CENTER
DIA has established the Information Science Center at the Defense
Intelligence School to serve the intelligence community. Specialized
courses of instruction in the application of information science to
specific intelligence problems will be developed and conducted. It is
planned that initial courses (scheduled for implementation in FY 69)
will deal with the intelligence planning, estimates, and warning areas.
Subsequent courses will address other specific categories of intelligence
problems.
D. INTELLIGENCE EXPERIMENTATION CENTER
The Intelligence Experimentation Center is a developmental effort
aimed at accelerating the application of modern methods, techniques, and
equipments to the improvement of intelligence processes. The Center will
use an intensive and direct experimental approach. It will design and
conduct both laboratory and operational tests of innovative methods and
technologies, and it will prepare implementation plans for the systematic
introduction of demonstrated improvements into the operating intelligence
system in DIA and in the intelligence elements of the military commands.
The Intelligence Experimentation Center will be activated in FY 1969 and
will respond to guidance and recommendations of the Director of Defense
Research and Engineering.
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TOA ($ in millions)
FY 69
FY 70
FY 69 thru 74
DIA
$14.4
$15.6
$ 85.1
ARMY
7.8
8.1
44.3
NAVY
13.3
11.6
67.3
AIR FORCE
28.4
25.8
140.4
Total TOA
$63.9
$61.1
$337.1
WORLDWIDE DoD IDHS - Manpower
FY 69
FY 70
FY 71
FY 72
FY 73
FY 74
DIA
508
511
511
511
511
511
ARMY
327
340
327
330
330
330
NAVY
548
550
550
550
550
550
AIR FORCE
1,272
1,322
1,267
1,267
1,267
1,267
Total
2,655
2,723
2,655
2,658
2,658
2,658
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Central Intelligence Agency
A. Information Processing Program
1. The CIA Information Processing and Exploitation Program for
FY 1969-73, which is now being processed as part of our annual PPB
cycle is as follows:
2. The fundamental objective of the Central Intelligence Agency's
information processing and exploitation program is to support the analyst
who produces finished intelligence and the operational personnel who
collect information and carry out operational assignments. Guided by
the intelligence requirements and operational decisions of policy officials,
analysts and operators need information to make informed judgments and
estimates. To make such judgments and estimates themselves and to
evaluate the work of others, producers of finished intelligence must have
access not only to the raw data but also to the methodology by which
the data may have been processed. Although such access is within the
computer state-of-the-art and is provided in specialized automated and
manual files, its incorporation into a community computer network demands
a sophistication of software design and a computer security environment
which are clearly not within the current state-of-the-art. Both because
of previous limitations in the state-of-the-art and the absence of
persuasive evidence of gain to the analyst, the Agency has proceeded
cautiously with the creation of large automated central files. In an
effort to control the input of information to his files and the way the
information is manipulated, including the proper application of security
compartmentation, the analyst has preferred limited access files whether
or not the files are automated.
3. The large
other intelligence
central storage and retrieval files of the CIA (and
agencies) have been used mainly to meet general
reference requirements.
data to documents or to
per se; a major goal of
more rapid and accurate
They have tended to contain index or pointer
other files rather than to contain information
more recent system design has been provision of
information retrieval. Several attempts in the
USIB Community to create such files have died a horning and others have
been characterized by low use rates, unsatisfactory response (in terms
of analyst requirements), and, high maintenance costs.
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We have renewed this effort in the light of the latest advances in
the technology of information handling but we intend to proceed
cautiously in view of the serious problems remaining, particularly in
the high costs for input to such files.
4. Although we have sought to keep abreast of advanced technology
and to apply it as it proved feasible and desirable, we have not
installed automated methods for their own sake. In many instances, we
have found that manual methods provide the only economical and workable
solution to our data handling problems. We have constantly improved
these methods, and replaced them as appropriate, with automated methods.
Typically, however, automated systems have involved more than the mere
mechanization of existing processes. Rather, they have involved the
redesign of files and procedures and the generation and manipulation of
data which could not have been handled by manual systems. Finally,
automated systems have themselves been constantly reviewed and improved
where such action was needed. We have kept in mind that automated
systems must be familiar to the user and acceptable to him, and that
they are an improvement only if they better serve the intelligence
operator and the producer of intelligence.
S. We consider as an important requirement the continuous develop-
ment of compatible data elements, computer programs and processing
equipment not only for large integrated systems but also for the
optimal operation of manual or specialized automated systems. At the
same time, standardization can become a fetish which overlooks the
unique requirements of individual agencies and which limits creativity
and the analytical power of automated systems. When this occurs
productivity is reduced rather than increased. Our objective in
standardization has been productivity rather than unanimity.
6. Although the design and maintenance costs of automated data
handling are high, the processing costs are low. The effort to control
the level of expenditure of the Agency in the face of rising cost of
men and materials and the increasing use of expensive technical methods
of collection has given us a strong incentive to adopt new techniques
whenever they offered economies. In recent years, four large automated
systems, two in advanced stages and two in the early operational stages,
have been undertaken by the Agency. Withal, the cost of information
handling continues to rise. Processing economies per unit have been
more than offset by increases in the volume of information we process.
Our present planning contemplates that total expenditures will level
off after 1970, but this planning is based upon the evolution of
present systems rather than on a jump into large automated community
systems. We can spend more for automated systems than we have. But we
can do so only at the expense of severely declining returns (cost-
benefit ratios).
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B. Summary of Major Information Processing Projects
7. The intelligence information processing activities of the CIA
have been undertaken to support and extend analytical effort rather
than as ends in themselves. They have been limited by the conventions
of the intelligence environment (such as compartmentation and need-to-
know), but they have consistently sought to provide analysts with as
complete and relevant a body of information as was available within
these limitations.
8. Agency ADP activity can be divided into several major
categories: (a) general information storage and retrieval projects --
the library-like systems which are repositories of a spectrum of
information broadly relevant to the needs of analysts and operators;
(b) special information storage and retrieval projects -- the personal,
organizational, or specialty files which serve a single analyst or
a group of analysts working in a common field; (c) data reduction
systems -- applications characterized by a large body of data which
must be perused in its entirety to select a small parcel of relevant
information; (d) data transformation systems -- a process to change
data from the form in which it is originally received to an acceptable
form for another analytical operation. Although a particular Agency
project may fall in more than one of the above categories this
categorization is useful for discussion of processing activities.
C. General Information Storage and Retrieval Projects
9. The CIA has been engaged over the past six years in a major
effort to redesign its central information storage and retrieval
activities. This effort has focused on the application of modern
automated techniques of information handling and on replacing a
multiplicity of central information systems, compartmented by collection
source and security classification, with a more generalized and flexible
system. The design objective of this effort was to simplify the
accession and classification of intelligence information and to improve
significantly the value to the anslyst of newly structured all-source
files.
10. The design effort is essentially complete and the Agency has
begun to implement several major elements of the new system, including
the development of all-source files, the organization of central reference
analysts by region, document indices produced in machine readable form,
and automated computer search and retrieval designed to operate in
either a batch or on-line mode. The major remaining element, a complete
set of computer programs (CAPRI) to support general information systems
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will be completed this summer. Thus, we expect that it will be at
least eighteen months before a preliminary operational evaluation of
our general information system can be achieved.
D. Special Information Storage and Retrieval Projects
11. Special purpose information storage and retrieval is a product
of the increasing division of labor in intellectual and analytical
activity. It is also responsive to the explosion of knowledge and
information which has made it increasingly difficult to date for
central systems to meet particular needs. The result has been a
growing requirement to classify and organize data to meet these special
needs. Specialization tends to limit the general utility of the files,
however, so that frequently the only consumers are the individuals who
process and generate the information. Even where there is a wider
potential audience, the data and the research methodologies used tend
to be meaningful only to the specialist and to reside with him or under
his control. Wherever possible, therefore, the intelligence product
derived from special systems is incorporated into general information
systems; in any case, their existence is made known to others who might
find them useful. In the past, we have sought to incorporate specialized
projects into general systems. Usually, however, the volume of data
and the complexity of their manipulation have frustrated the attempts
of general system builders to record more than the fact that special
data systems exist, their relevant product, and where or with whom the
systems reside.
12. Although, or even because, they are narrowly focused, we
believe that specialized information systems can be highly productive,
and justified both from the point of view of utility and of cost.
Appropriate steps have been taken within the community to provide
access to these systems in order to minimize duplication. These
efforts are stimulated by common professional interests and interaction
and by the maintenance and publication of the USIB File and Program
Catalog. The latter provides a list of files and computer programs
for the special purpose systems which have been automated.
E. Data Reduction Systems
13. Data reduction systems are characterized by the manipulation
of large bodies of collected data (in analog form, or converted to
digital form), the analysis and extraction of significant elements in
the original data and the incorporation of these data into appropriate
analytical files. Data reduction systems are usually co-resident with
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special information storage and retrieval systems.
14. Most data reduction in the intelligence community results
from the manipulation of data produced by technical collection devices.
The product is often not usable intelligence in and of itself; but raw
material for further analysis. Frequently, both raw material and
analyzed intermediate information are maintained in machine files,
which are copied and used by other intelligence agencies. The data
sets and computer programs are less well advertized in the community
than are those for special purpose information processing programs, but
they seem to be as widely known and exchanged nevertheless.
F. Data Transformation Systems
15. Data transformation is difficult to define with precision,
because it may range from simple input functions such as key punch,
to optical character reading (OCR) systems, to elaborate analog-to-
digital converters and automated printing systems. CIA. activity in
these systems has ranged from modest in the OCR field to substantial
in analog-to-digital conversion, high precision plotting and graphics,
and automated printing. The Agency has participated in government wide
efforts to coordinate activity in the OCR and printing fields. It has
made known to others both within and outside the government its
procedures in precision plotting and automated cartographic applications
despite the sensitivity of certain applications in this area. The
extreme sensitivity and essentially developmental nature of much of the
Agency's activity in high-speed, analog-to-digital conversion has barred
widespread sharing of the results. Nonetheless, the agencies with
processing responsibilities in this field have been kept informed.
G. Research and Development
16. Three years ago the CIA drew together into its Office of
Research and Development a wide range of activities previously pursued
in separate components. This office was charged with exploring informa-
tion handling techniques at or near the edge of the state-of-the-art,
and with developing techniques within the state-of-the-art which cannot
be tested in a production environment. At present, a modest effort
is being made to identify equipment and techniques which may augment
intelligence information processing in the future and to explore in a
laboratory environment the feasibility of incorporating them into the
Agency and the community as soon as they are cost-effective. Of special
significance in this connection is project QUIKTRAK, the development of
an information system based on automatic data processing to maintain,
retrieve and manipulate current data on Soviet Bloc ground forces and
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Department of State
Substantive Information Systems Program
The Department of State has approved the Substantive Information
Systems Program as described in the report "A Modern Information System
for the Department of State" (ANNEX E to DCI memorandum for the President
dated 22 April 1968). The Substantive Information Systems Staff (0/SNS)
has been authorized to proceed with its implementation.
For FY-69 the Department (of State) allocated to the Substantive
Information Systems Staff a budget of $210,000 in contract funds and
authorized an increase of 15 positions, raising the total Staff complement
from 6 to 21 clerical and professional employees. These resources Will
be used to complete the detailed design of a selective dissemination
system and a document storage and retrieval system. The design will
include the building of a dictionary for machine processing, creation of
indexing procedures, design of user profiles, and experimentation with
text processing of telegraphic traffic. In FY-70 funds will be requested
to prepare (1) computer programming of the dissemination system; (2) flow
charting and testing of the storage and retrieval system; (3) detailed
design of a document disposition system and the collection guidance
system, and design of a complimentary system for selected foreign
service posts.
In response to NSAM 368 the Department of State established a
position of Special Assistant for information handling in the Office
of Under-Secretary Nicholas deB. Katzenbach. The Special Assistant
is responsible for coordinating the Department's development of an
ii-iiproved system for handling substantive information so that require-
ments are identified and all interested bureaus are related.closely
in the design, establishment and utilization of the system., He will
also assure through the Senior Interdepartmental Group (SIG) appropriate
inter-agency coordination in the development of information handling
systems.
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