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(S//SI) New Tool Identifies Non-Productive Phone Numbers (repost)
FROM: Norman Curet
Collection Strategies and Requirements Center (S3C)
Run Date: 02/04/2005
(S//SI) A new reporting tool is now available that will help both the analyst and mission
manager make more informed decisions on target development and tasking. The tool, which
identifies non-productive phone numbers for detasking, was developed by the RAINMAN project
(under Technology Services, S212) in collaboration with the Collection Strategies and
Requirements Center (CSRC, S3C). It expands the capabilities of RAINMAN, an automated
system that prioritizes the traffic which language analysts must scan, thereby helping them find
the items of intelligence value and reducing the time spent processing useless data.
(S//SI) In a nutshell, the reporting tool will compare the DNR* selectors (phone numbers) that
each target office has tasked for collection with the traffic that's actually been collected and
returned to that office for processing. These reports also provide feedback statistics on what the
target office has done with the collected traffic, including how much of each phone number's
traffic has been reviewed, deemed relevant, and reported on for each target office zip code.
(S//SI) This basic information enables the target offices and tasking managers to identify nonproductive selectors for de-tasking, and to prioritize and assign value to the collected voice
traffic. What once took the Counterterrorism product line days to generate can now be obtained
in just a few mouse clicks from a web browser. The heavy lifting is done by the RAINMAN datamining project, correlating OCTAVE DNR tasking data with HYBRID signal-related information
and PLUS SIGINT product reporting statistics.
(S//SI) This new tool is already paying dividends for both the CSRC and Analysis & Production
(S2) product line organizations. The Regional Targets group was able to identify and de-task
thousands of phone numbers that were consuming precious SIGINT resources, but providing
nothing of value. The European Security Center has identified productive phone numbers to seed
their call-chaining target development efforts. Counterterrorism used the tool to identify the
collection sources of unwanted traffic, which the CSRC then shut off. In short, the tool has
usages that aid both the analytic community and mission managers alike.
(S//SI) Under the CSRC's guidance, RAINMAN has started up a sub-project called VCAP (Voice
Collection and Analytic Processing), which will expand the reporting service into all product lines
and provide trending capabilities for metrics. For more information on the VCAP project, type "
go RAINMAN " in your web browser, and click on the VCAP reports button from the RAINMAN
home page.
Notes:
*(U) DNR = Dialed Number Recognition
"(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