February 19, 2016
JJ Green’s article (excerpted below) accurately reflects some of the challenges faced by intelligence and law enforcement agencies in the west. Balancing privacy concerns with improved security measures has always been a challenge for open societies, as evidenced by the current dilemma facing Apple and the encrypted cell phone used by one of the San Bernardino suspects. Privacy rights was something we focused on when we first began developing the TRAPWIRE tool – thus our decision to design the system without the need to collect personally identifiable information (PII).
Growing pool of terrorists overwhelming tracking capabilities
by J.J. Green
WTOPWASHINGTON — Intelligence and security officials around the world are scrambling to head off the next big terror attack. “This is the most significant threat we’ve seen in at least a decade,” said Rob Wainwright, director of Europol, in an interview with WTOP.
Intelligence collectors, counterterrorism analysts and security officials are poring over names, locations, phone numbers — even pocket litter gathered by various surveillance and screening methods. Their quest is to link them all together before something happens.
Part of the problem, Wainwright says, is the growing pool of people involved in terrorist activities.
“The large community of foreign fighters willing to put their lives on the line to carry out the atrocities we saw in Paris suggests they have enough numbers to plan and carry out these attacks,” he says. Europol recently launched a new counterterrorism center to combat the problem.
