Swan Island Networks' SWARM Technology Rated As Top Performer In U.S. Military Simulation.

PORTLAND, Ore. -- Joint Warrior Interoperability Demonstration (JWID) 2004 Final Report: "SWARM was a complete success"; "This is the best technology that I have seen in years." -- a warfighter

Swan Island Networks, a software and services company at the forefront of designing advanced information sharing systems, today announced that the final report from the 2004 Joint Warrior Interoperability Demonstration (JWID) highlighted the company's SWARM(R) product as a "Top Performer" and a "complete success" among 28 selected technologies. SWARM helped evaluators meet one of their primary objectives: identifying solutions to facilitate information sharing across multiple information domains, including defense and other government agencies.

(For the full report, see https://www.cwid.js.mil/public/cwid05fr/htmlfiles/u113intr.html)

"This is an important and objective endorsement for our SWARM technology," commented Charles Jennings, founder and CEO of Swan Island Networks. "SWARM was specifically created to improve information sharing following the 9/11 terrorist attacks, so having it clearly recognized as a successful contributor to this rigorous anti-terrorism simulation is extremely gratifying. And, it points to the efficacy of this type of technology at all levels of government."

JWID 2004 involved military services and government agencies from 25 countries, with U.S. Northern Command (NORTHCOM) as the host combatant commander, all participating in a scripted scenario over a global network. SWARM was tested by warfighters in three locations: NORTHCOM (Colorado Springs, CO), Naval Surface Warfare Center (Dahlgren, VA) and DISA (Alexandria, VA).

As noted in the final report: "SWARM provided numerous capabilities that allowed them to complete their mission and tasking more efficiently and in a timelier manner ... SWARM was easy to use and displayed a protected messaging capability via Internet with file attachments ... SWARM provided capabilities that were a tremendous improvement over the current capabilities and methods. Warfighters unanimously agreed that SWARM is needed within the HLS/HLD community and its current capabilities would greatly benefit those in the field ... SWARM provided a solution to facilitate tightly controlled information sharing across multiple information domains."

Additional comments included:

--"This technology could easily be introduced into other DoD agencies."

--"Relatively easy to learn and use. I especially like the ability to pull up maps of different style and scales from ESRI."

--"A very useful tool at the 'sensitive but unclassified level'."

--"This is the best technology that I have seen in years."

Final Analysis -- "a complete success" ... "well executed"

The report concludes: "SWARM was a complete success in JWID 2004. SWARM provided the warfighter the means to share sensitive but unclassified information at multiple echelons, including down to state National Guard, state emergency operations centers, critical infrastructure, local emergency operations centers, 9-1-1 centers, and first responders, while providing assurances that the content will not be compromised, even after it has left the '.mil' domain. This connectivity greatly enhanced the operator's ability to provide military assistance to civilian authorities. SWARM fully met the JWID objective to provide solutions to facilitate information sharing across multiple domains that include defense and other government agencies."

The report also commented on SWARM's ability to contribute to a common operational picture: "SWARM provided the same capabilities to civilian HLS/HLD organizations with a trusted means to share their own sensitive information back for rapid aggregation, fusion and filtered roll-up to higher echelons, including NORTHCOM, in a controlled, structured and orderly manner, overall improving the common operational picture."

SWARM's capabilities were "well executed and resulted in successful completion of all events," which included:

--Pre-positioning content; no client viewing allowed (embargoed content): content was published to SWARM warfighters through encrypted web services, then stored in each warfighter's local encrypted SmartCache(TM) but hidden from other SWARM warfighter's access.

--Pre-positioning content, client viewing allowed: content was published to SWARM warfighters through encrypted web services, and then stored in each warfighter's local encrypted SmartCache, available for immediate access by all SWARM warfighters.

--Centralized deletion of pre-positioned client content: SWARM Keepers were able to remotely delete content from each SWARM warfighter's SmartCache.

--End point control (No "Cut", "Paste", "Print", "Save As", etc.): The SWARM warfighter, with built-in content protection technology, allowed SWARM Keepers to prevent the unintended use of content once distributed to their respective PC.

--Content use reports (ORCON): SWARM Keepers demonstrated the ability to run reports showing how content was used after it was published to SWARM warfighters, supporting the notion of "Originator Control" of content (ORCON).

--Targeted alerting notification with associated, relevant pre-positioned content: SWARM Keepers demonstrated the ability to send alerts targeted to either a sub-set of SWARM users, or all SWARM users. Content that is contextually relevant to the current alert (procedures, guidelines, etc.) that had been pre-positioned into warfighter SmartCaches was associated with the alerts, which allowed the warfighter rapid access if needed.

--Poison pill: SWARM Keepers also demonstrated the ability to remotely delete the contents of a SWARM warfighter's encrypted SmartCache, delete the SmartCache, and then disable the SWARM warfighter application from being operational.

--GIS integration: Through SWARM's ESRI integration, SWARM Keepers demonstrated the ability to dynamically generate a number of map types and then associate those maps with alerts.

--Client SitReps, content submission: SWARM warfighters submitted structured Situation Reports (SitReps), with audio message recordings and content attachments to the SWARM Hive for SWARM Keeper review. If the warfighter was offline, the forms were still able to be filled out and submitted, and then the SWARM warfighter delivered the forms once it went online.

--Encrypted, hidden local PC content cache: Each SWARM warfighter demonstrated the capability to protect content from unintended access or use because content was stored in an encrypted, hidden cache container, integrated into the SWARM warfighter's PC.

Swarm demonstrated the capabilities and functionality that it was designed to achieve and required no unique hardware, operating under a standard Microsoft(R) Windows(R) environment.

About JWID

The Joint Warrior Interoperability Demonstration (JWID) is the U.S. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff annual event that enables combatant commanders, national civil authorities and the international community to investigate command and control, communications, computers, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (C4ISR) solutions that focus on relevant and timely objectives for enhancing coalition interoperability and exploring new partnerships. The event provides opportunity for federal and local government, private industry and coalition partners to demonstrate new and emerging information technologies in a simulated warfighting environment. In 2005 JWID will transition to CWID (Coalition Warrior Interoperability Demonstration). For the full 2004 report, see https://www.cwid.js.mil/public/cwid05fr/htmlfiles/u113intr.html

About Swan Island Networks

Swan Island Networks, Inc., is a three-year-old company led by a seasoned management team whose previous experience includes founding and managing a number of highly successful Internet security companies. The company's business is trusted information sharing; connecting organizations to each other when confidential, sensitive or highly targeted information needs to be exchanged. Swan Island's flagship product, SWARM(R), leads the market for sensitive information sharing software. More information is available at www.swanisland.net.