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(U) S31 Hosts Processing and Exploitation Conference
FROM:
Executive Assistant to Chief, Cryptanalysis and Exploitation Services (S31)
Run Date: 11/01/2004
(U//FOUO) Cryptologic and Exploitation Services (CES) hosted the very first Worldwide
Processing and Exploitation (P&E) conference from October 5-8, 2004. In attendance were
managers, technical directors, stakeholders and decision-makers from the Five-eyes
government community, to include NRO*, CIA, SCEs** and field site elements, access providers
and industry partners. The purpose of the conference was to provide a foundation for community
collaboration based on a shared understanding of architectures, strategies and processes.
(U//FOUO) Almost 300 people attended all or parts of the conference. Subject matter experts
briefed and led discussions on the current state of P&E, strategies and plans for current and
future endeavors, and collaboration among the partners. Panel discussions during the general
conference conveyed the vision and strategy for the future of SIGINT processing and exploitation
and outlined a roadmap for implementing that strategy. An executive session on the fourth day
of the conference established a governance structure and a process for collaboration and
decision-making.
(U//FOUO) Specific objectives for the conference were to establish an agreed-upon baseline,
develop strategic goals, establish governance and oversight, and to establish a collaborative
environment using a web-based tool for strategies, governance and capabilities development.
These objectives were met not only from NSA's perspective, but those of the 5-eyes and NRO
partners. Specifically, the conference:
1. Provided an open forum for discussion of partner's P&E strategies including architectures
and plans for the P&E zone, major interfaces, and data formats.
2. Illustrated major P&E dependencies and integration strategies with access providers:
TRAILBLAZER
TDP (Technology Demonstration Platform)
EITC (Enterprise Information Technology Center).
3. Communicated the current state of technology for the provisioning of P&E services and
the existence of specialized P&E solutions.
4. Outlined the current state and needs for P&E status reporting and monitoring for
command, control and situational awareness.
5. Introduced the environment that will be used for P&E collaboration, notably the
Processing and Exploitation Portal for supporting the Exploitation Community Process
(ECP), "go ecp".
6. Communicated primary research priorities for P&E along with existing research and
potential for solutions coming from ongoing R&D activities.
7. Provided an impetus for the immediate collaborative pursuit of challenges associated with
the convergence of plaintext and encryption processing into the enterprise P&E
architecture.
8. Established that P&E solutions in the tactical environment are nodes on our SIGINT
Extended Enterprise network, and how the P&E community plans to merge the traditional
lines dividing national and tactical environments.
(U//FOUO)) Preliminary feedback from conference attendees has been extremely positive. The
true measure of its success, and the commitment to collaboration in capabilities development,
will be monitored by the P&E Steering Group established by senior representatives during the
Executive Session.
(U//FOUO) For more information about the conference, for briefing summaries and slides and for
the minutes of the executive session, please type "go peconf" on your browser .
(U) Notes:
*NRO = National Reconnaissance Office
**SCE = Service Cryptologic Element
"(U//FOUO) SIDtoday articles may not be republished or reposted outside NSANet
without the consent of S0121 (DL sid_comms)."
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DERIVED FROM: NSA/CSSM 1-52, DATED 08 JAN 2007 DECLASSIFY ON: 20320108