Group aims to set data-sharing standard

A nonprofit homeland security organization on Monday unveiled an "open format" system designed to facilitate information sharing among private vendors, state officials and federal agencies.

The goal of the Regional Alliance for Infrastructure and Network Security (RAINS) is to "build a multi-vendor, interoperable solution for sensitive information sharing" across security jurisdictions, group Chairman Charles Jennings said during a teleconference.

The system was built with the idea that enabling communication across jurisdictions is fairly easy with a single vendor but far harder with multiple participants, Jennings said. The new open-specification program operates "with the support of over 30 high-tech vendors and public agencies around the country" including Hewlett-Packard, Intel and PeopleSoft.

"This is a process that's going to be driven by a working community," Jennings said. "We're going to make transparent the requirements for this RAINS Net solution, so it becomes an open specification that other vendors can look at and make decisions about joining us."

The group also will publish specifications for desirable technology it does not currently have in its network in an effort to attract companies to produce it for them.

The main goal of the project is to ensure that information is "open and published" so RAINS can "provide a better foundation for vendors to make a decision about whether they want to join the effort," Jennings said.

Intel was one of the earliest collaborators with RAINS, Jennings said. The company worked on interoperability issues after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, and "we uncovered at that point that we had an infrastructure [that was] basically silos of antiquated technology," said Gary Haycox, director of strategic initiatives at Intel.

"I met with Charles [Jennings] ... and we basically linked in mission [the need to] start putting together technologies that exist in the marketplace for information sharing across these various organizations."

The effort has received support from the Homeland Security Department, particularly the Transportation Security Administration, but much of the group's work has been done through the Defense Department, Jennings said. RAINS has had a couple of programs in the advanced concept demonstration and will participate in a demonstration in June involving more than 25 companies and organizations in more than 70 countries and the military, he said.

RAINS has allowed private vendors to have "some very strong local participation," said SJ Camarata, president of ESRI, an information services vendor. "We have a pretty strong voice in how the information is shared [and] also get to work with the state and local organizations in a very flexible approach. It allows for a free-market approach [and] allows for different types of technology to be added as long as they adhere to the framework that we've been working with."