A Review of the FBI’s Trilogy Information Technology Modernization Program
James C. McGroddy and Herbert S. Lin, Editors
THE NATIONAL ACADEMIES PRESS
Washington, D.C.
www.nap.edu
THE NATIONAL ACADEMIES PRESS
500 Fifth Street, N.W. Washington, DC 20001
NOTICE: The project that is the subject of this report was approved by the Governing Board of the National Research Council, whose members are drawn from the councils of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, and the Institute of Medicine. The members of the committee responsible for the report were chosen for their special competences and with regard for appropriate balance.
This study was supported by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) at its request under Award Number A3D0316801. However, in accordance with NRC policy, the FBI did not review this report before publication, and the opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the FBI.
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Suggested citation: National Research Council, A Review of the FBI’s Trilogy Information Technology Modernization Program, Computer Science and Telecommunications Board, National Academies Press, Washington, D.C., 2004.
THE NATIONAL ACADEMIES
Advisers to the Nation on Science, Engineering, and Medicine
The National Academy of Sciences is a private, nonprofit, self-perpetuating society of distinguished scholars engaged in scientific and engineering research, dedicated to the furtherance of science and technology and to their use for the general welfare. Upon the authority of the charter granted to it by the Congress in 1863, the Academy has a mandate that requires it to advise the federal government on scientific and technical matters. Dr. Bruce M. Alberts is president of the National Academy of Sciences.
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The National Research Council was organized by the National Academy of Sciences in 1916 to associate the broad community of science and technology with the Academy’s purposes of furthering knowledge and advising the federal government. Functioning in accordance with general policies determined by the Academy, the Council has become the principal operating agency of both the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Engineering in providing services to the government, the public, and the scientific and engineering communities. The Council is administered jointly by both Academies and the Institute of Medicine. Dr. Bruce M. Alberts and Dr. Wm. A. Wulf are chair and vice chair, respectively, of the National Research Council.
COMMITTEE ON THE FBI’S TRILOGY INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY MODERNIZATION PROGRAM
JAMES C. McGRODDY,
IBM (retired),
Chair
EDWARD BALKOVICH,
RAND
RICHARD BASEIL,
Holmdel, New Jersey
MATT BLAZE,
University of Pennsylvania
W. EARL BOEBERT,
Sandia National Laboratories
MARC DONNER,
Morgan Stanley
MICHAEL McGILL,
Columbus, Ohio
JAMES NOGA,
Massachusetts General Hospital
CARL O’BERRY,
The Boeing Company
KEN ORR,
The Ken Orr Institute
JAMES PATTON,
The MITRE Corporation
MARK SEIDEN,
MSB Associates
GEORGE SPIX,
Microsoft Corporation
CHARLES E. STUART,
Competitive Enterprise Solutions, LLC
GIO WIEDERHOLD,
Stanford University
HERBERT S. LIN, Senior Scientist and Study Director
KRISTEN BATCH, Research Associate
DAVID DRAKE, Senior Project Assistant (until November 2003)
COMPUTER SCIENCE AND TELECOMMUNICATIONS BOARD
DAVID D. CLARK,
Massachusetts Institute of Technology,
Chair
ERIC BENHAMOU,
3Com Corporation
ELAINE COHEN,
University of Utah
THOMAS E. DARCIE,
University of Victoria
MARK E. DEAN,
IBM Research
JOSEPH FARRELL,
University of California, Berkeley
JOAN FEIGENBAUM,
Yale University
HECTOR GARCIA-MOLINA,
Stanford University
RANDY H. KATZ,
University of California, Berkeley
WENDY A. KELLOGG,
IBM T.J. Watson Research Center
SARA KIESLER,
Carnegie Mellon University
BUTLER W. LAMPSON,
Microsoft Corporation, CSTB member emeritus
DAVID LIDDLE,
U.S. Venture Partners
TERESA H. MENG,
Stanford University
TOM M. MITCHELL,
Carnegie Mellon University
DANIEL PIKE,
GCI Cable and Entertainment
ERIC SCHMIDT,
Google, Inc.
FRED B. SCHNEIDER,
Cornell University
BURTON SMITH,
Cray, Inc.
WILLIAM STEAD,
Vanderbilt University
ANDREW J. VITERBI,
Viterbi Group, LLC
JEANNETTE M. WING,
Carnegie Mellon University
CHARLES BROWNSTEIN, Director
KRISTEN BATCH, Research Associate
JENNIFER M. BISHOP, Program Associate
JANET BRISCOE, Administrative Officer
JON EISENBERG, Senior Program Officer
RENEE HAWKINS, Financial Associate
PHIL HILLIARD, Research Associate
MARGARET MARSH HUYNH, Senior Project Assistant
ALAN S. INOUYE, Senior Program Officer
HERBERT S. LIN, Senior Scientist
LYNETTE I. MILLETT, Program Officer
DAVID PADGHAM, Research Associate
CYNTHIA A. PATTERSON, Program Officer
JANICE SABUDA, Senior Project Assistant
BRANDYE WILLIAMS, Staff Assistant
STEVEN WOO, Dissemination Officer
For more information on CSTB, see its Web site at <http://www.cstb.org>, write to CSTB, National Research Council, 500 Fifth Street, N.W., Washington, DC 20001, call at (202) 334-2605, or e-mail at cstb@nas.edu.
Preface
In September 2002, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) requested the assistance of the National Research Council (NRC) in providing expertise to assist it in its review of the Trilogy information technology (IT) modernization program. In response, the NRC convened a number of experts who met with the FBI. The FBI briefed these experts on various aspects of the program, and these experts responded to the FBI as individuals to those briefings. (In hindsight, many of these individually provided comments presaged the more formal findings and conclusions presented in this report.)
In July 2003, the FBI again requested the assistance of the NRC on the same topic, after having made progress in its IT modernization efforts. The committee’s charge was to provide a more thorough review and set of recommendations on the FBI’s information technology modernization efforts, focusing primarily on the Trilogy program but addressing related issues as necessary.
In this second request, the FBI asked for a written report, thus invoking the regular NRC report process. To minimize the time needed to respond to the FBI, the Computer Science and Telecommunications Board (CSTB) of the NRC selected a committee composed largely but not exclusively of the experts convened for the September 2002 meeting.
The committee’s charge was to review the FBI’s efforts on the Trilogy IT modernization program, based on input provided to the committee by the FBI. The FBI also requested a review that could be done quickly and relatively inexpensively. Accordingly, the committee did not systematically develop information from non-FBI sources, nor did it undertake a comprehensive review of all FBI IT systems or plans for such systems. Furthermore, the committee was only able to sample the programs of interest, and thus it did not achieve a comprehensive picture even of those programs. Except as explicitly noted otherwise, the briefings to the committee on October 27-28, 2003, and December 15-16, 2003, constitute the factual base for this effort. The committee’s conclusions and recommendations reflect its collective experience with large-scale IT system deployments.
The committee wishes to thank Herbert Lin, the CSTB study director, for his efforts in developing coherent drafts from assorted e-mails and brief notes from committee meetings, and for being the prime driver of the early completion of this report. We also thank the CSTB staff, particularly Kristen Batch for research support, and D.C. Drake for administrative support.
James C. McGroddy, Chair
Committee on the FBI’s Trilogy Information Technology Modernization Program
Acknowledgment of Reviewers
This report was reviewed in draft form by individuals chosen for their diverse perspectives and technical expertise, in accordance with procedures approved by the National Research Council’s (NRC’s) Report Review Committee. The purpose of this independent review is to provide candid and critical comments that will assist the institution in making its published report as sound as possible and to ensure that the report meets institutional standards for objectivity, evidence, and responsiveness to the study charge. The review comments and draft manuscript remain confidential to protect the integrity of the deliberative process. We wish to thank the following individuals for their participation in the review of this report:
Steven Bellovin, AT&T Research
Ed Feigenbaum, Stanford University
Stuart Feldman, IBM
Robert Grossman, Open Data Partners, LLC
Beryl Howell, Stroz Friedberg, LLC
Sidney Karin, University of California, San Diego
Kenneth Laudon, New York University
Michael Miravalle, Dolphin Technology, Inc.
Joseph Smialowski, Fleet Bank
Robert Spinrad, Palo Alto, California
Howard Wactlar, Carnegie Mellon University
Patrick Webb, Consultant
Todd White, Emerio, Inc.
Although the reviewers listed above have provided many constructive comments and suggestions, they were not asked to endorse the conclusions or recommendations nor did they see the final draft of the report before its release. The review of this report was overseen by
Gerry Dinneen (Lexington, Massachusetts). Appointed by the NRC, he was responsible for making certain that an independent examination of this report was carried out in accordance with institutional procedures and that all review comments were carefully considered. Responsibility for the final content of this report rests entirely with the authoring committee and the institution.