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(U//FOUO) Collaboration on Target Templating? It Just Got Easier
FROM:
SIGDEV Strategy & Governance (SSG) Target Templating Lead
Run Date: 11/08/2005
(C//REL) SIGINT Development analysts at NSA and our sister Second Party agencies can learn
much from each other by collaborating on SIGDEV Target Templating projects. Unfortunately,
the lack of a common methodology to date has made it difficult for analysts to collaborate as
effectively as they might. Solving this problem is the job of new focal group, which aims to
eliminate any obstacles to collaboration in this important field.
(C//REL) With representations from all the Five-Eyes (Second Party) agencies, the group elected
to be referred to as the Five-Eyes Target Templating Focal Group. Its goal is to share and
leverage information and techniques on the templating methodology. The group met in late
September to set milestones and to make near- and long-term plans. What was accomplished?
(C//SI) The group achieved two key goals. First, they established a common set of
definitions for the top six layers of the Target Templating 9-Layer Model (see the
SIGDEV Target Templating webpage ). Those layers, which are the focal point for templating,
are:
Target Domain,
Supporting Infrastructure,
Technology,
Vulnerabilities,
Capabilities and
Access.
Second, they unanimously agreed upon a standardized approach to validating analytic
hypotheses. These two steps will make it much easier to exchange information and expertise
across organizations.
(U//FOUO) Looking ahead, the Focal Group planned new ways for SIGDEV analysts in all five
countries to communicate and exchange information with each other. It also set goals for three
years out, including:
making the Templating Methodology a standard practice among analysts,
establishing a common course on templating, and
finding tools to assist analysts in their templating efforts.
(C) The Focal Group is already looking forward to the 2006 SIGDEV Conference where each
member of the group will participate in a briefing/discussion on the group's courses of action. In
the meantime, the Group will speak as one voice at appropriate Five-Eyes (i.e. the five Second
Party countries) events, such as the Analytic Applications & Information Management
Conference at the NSA in late October 2005.
(C) For further details on the group's goals and plans, go to the Focal Group Target Templating
page . For any questions about the Focal Group or Target Templating, please contact
, NSA/SSG Target Templating Lead,
@nsa,
.
"(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