Department of Homeland Security Selects NC4 to Deliver Secure 360 Degree Intelligence Exchange.

Web-Based Extranet Portal Allows for Secure Communication and Collaboration

EL SEGUNDO, Calif. -- The National Center for Crisis and Continuity Coordination (NC4), a leader in situational awareness, incident monitoring, crisis management, and secure collaboration, today announced it was awarded a contract from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to enhance the Office of Intelligence & Analysis (I&A) information sharing capabilities. NC4 will provide the Extranet Secure Portal (ESP) service as the platform for the DHS Homeland Security Information Network (HSIN) Intelligence Portal via its secure application service provider model. The migration to the ESP platform will enable DHS I&A to rapidly deploy a proven operational capability to meet mission-critical objectives. NC4 was selected because the extranet secure portal service delivers existing functionality and security that meets DHS I&A priority requirements for handling the dissemination and collaboration of intelligence information at the Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI) level. The NC4 solution enables DHS to deploy this capability within days rather than months or years.

The NC4 portal will provide DHS I&A with a trusted secure platform for the rapid dissemination of intelligence data at the CUI level to 10,000 users including representatives from the DHS Intelligence Enterprise as well as a nationwide community of State, Local, Tribal, and Private Sector (SLTP) customers, and Federal and International partners. The portal will also be utilized to support State Fusion Centers by providing a secure environment as well as a suite of core tools for collaboration at the CUI level amongst intelligence analysts nationwide.

"Due to the nature of its operations, DHS I&A interacts with State, Local, and Tribal resources as well as other Federal Agencies and the Private sector," said Bill Donaldson, Director of Government Programs, NC4. "As all of these organizations operate on disparate networks, DHS I&A required an extranet portal that could be configured to support a 'responsibility to provide' information model as well as provide for secure compartmented collaboration. The NC4 secure portal service will provide the situational readiness platform that will enable DHS I&A to enhance the secure rapid dissemination of CUI data as well as provide a secure environment for collaboration with Federal, State, Local, and Tribal intelligence resources."

Under the terms of the one-year contract with two option years, NC4 will deliver, host, and manage the infrastructure and security for the I&A secure portal. NC4 will establish the information sharing portal structure to support and maintain bi-directional communication among intelligence professional entities. The contract is valued at a potential $6.1 million over the three-year period.

About NC4

NC4, through its incident monitoring centers, improves the Situational Awareness to both business and government clients by providing real-time, global, 24/7 proactive incident information and alerts. NC4 issues timely, relevant, and personalized alerts covering incidents near an organization's key locations that may impact life and safety, physical assets, and continuity of operations. This includes incidents such as transportation, severe weather, hazmat, law enforcement, fire, terrorism, and other incidents that have the potential to cause disruption.

Additionally, NC4 provides Situational Response through its E Team offering, which provides sophisticated software and planning tools to enable emergency managers to effectively process the massive amounts of information generated during a major event, crisis, or disaster. E Team's Windows-based, browser-accessible software has been used for project management during events ranging from 9/11, multiple Olympics, and political conventions to hurricanes and other natural disasters.

NC4 also provides Secure Communications and Collaboration through its ESP offerings. ESP is an application service provider that provides government agencies and corporations with a common platform for secure communication and collaboration. ESP provides a thorough security solution for diverse organizations to share Sensitive but Unclassified (SBU) information through highly secure, compartmented, web-accessible portals.

For more information, see www.nc4.us