| Homeland security greenlights Linux in emergency response network |
Aug. 20, 2004
The Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Department of Public Safety, and the Department of Homeland Security are using open-source software in their operations. In fact, they all are using technology from tiny YHD Software.
Ft. Worth, TX-based YHD Software was tapped by the Dallas FBI to provide a better, faster tool to connect resources. YHD CEO Jo Balderas says her company currently uses an enterprise open-source software stack known as "LAMP" (Linux, Apache, MySQL, and PHP) and redeployed an existing technology to FBI specifications. For three years this software has powered the emergency response network (ERN). As a result of her efforts, Balderas was recently honored by Homeland Security chief Tom Ridge.
In June, DHS and the FBI launched the first Homeland Security Information Network-Critical Infrastructure Program in Dallas using ERN. Launching a pilot program that includes satellite sites in Seattle, Indianapolis, and Atlanta, DHS is currently evaluating the software for a broad rollout.
Dallas' ERN uses the LAMP open source software stack and connects a database of strategic contacts globally across the public and private sector. The software was used as a critical communications tool in the wake of both 9/11 and the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster. In fact, ERN was able to connect FEMA to the cell phone of the Johnson Space Center's Director of Security within minutes, at a time when the published number at JSC was unreachable.
ERN is described by Homeland Security chief Tom Ridge as "a cross-agency, cross-sector, cross-discipline, public and private information-sharing and alert notification system. And it is locally governed and administered by knowledgeable, respected domain experts and decision makers from the private and public sectors . . . HSIN-CI will provide unobstructed information sharing to the right people -- those who need to know and those who need to act."
In his government column at Linux Journal, Tom Adelstein fills in some more details, noting that ERN provides the immediate dispatch of the country's assets to disaster areas. According to Adelstein's interview, the system can simultaneously support 10,000 voice calls per minute, 30,000 inbound calls, 3,000 faxes, and 5,000 each of email and text messages. The open source software runs on Red Hat's Enterprise Linux in Dallas.
The software, its origin, and the pilot program are discussed in more detail in Adelstein's column.
(Click here for further information)
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
