New messaging network exchanges/tracks DNA data worldwide

The international police force Interpol this week said it had successfully tested an electronic messaging network that will let national forensic laboratories across the globe exchange DNA information. Such data could help the FBI in the US and other G8 (Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States) security organizations worldwide solve crimes and investigate terrorism.The successful live test was conducted during the last meeting of the G8 Lyon-Roma DNA Search Request Network Technical Working Group, held in June at the Laboratory Division of the FBI in Quantico, Virginia. During the test, Dr. Thomas F. Callaghan, director of the FBI’s Combined DNA Index System (CODIS), sent DNA information directly to his counterparts at the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in Ottawa, Canada, and the UK’s Forensic Science Service, which replied with the search results within minutes over Interpol’s I-24/7 network.The I-24/7 network, which connects authorized law enforcement communities in the organization’s 186 member countries, uses 3DES encryption over a virtual private network . According to Interpol all information exchanged via the I-24/7 system is encrypted and transmitted over the Internet through multiple security barriers to local National Central Bureaus (NCBs). Worldwide, 42 Interpol member countries operate national DNA databases, and 11 more are developing them, Interpol said in a release. Interpol maintains a database of DNA profiles accessible online to all member countries upon adoption of the charter governing its secure use. The database contains more than 69,000 DNA profiles submitted by 45 member countries and has recorded 143 transnational hits involving 13 different countries. The FBI's Combined DNA Index System includes more than 4.7 million DNA profiles.Using I-24/7, National Central Bureaus (NCBs) can search and cross-check data in a matter of seconds, with direct access to databases containing information on suspected terrorists, wanted persons, fingerprints, DNA profiles, lost or stolen travel documents, stolen motor vehicles, stolen works of art, etc. These resources provide police with instant access to potentially important information, thereby facilitating criminal investigations, Interpol says. The I-24/7 system also lets member countries access each others’ national databases using a business-to-business (B2B) connection. Member countries manage and maintain their own national criminal data. They also have the option to make it accessible to the international law enforcement community through I-24/7. While I-24/7 is installed in NCBs, Interpol wants member countries to extend connections to national law enforcement entities such as border police, customs and immigration. The US NCB is this year pursing an ambitious plan to make Interpol criminal information available to all U.S. law enforcement entities by expanding its secure communications network. According to its report to congress, this access will be accomplished through a multi-faceted technical strategy: • Using Internet Based Virtual Private Networks for large Metropolitan police departments• Delivering secure web portals for smaller state and local liaison offices for individualaccess to Interpol systems and secure email to the USNCB.• Building interfaces to legacy mainframe systems, such as FBI’s National CrimeInformation Center (NCIC) and the Department of Homeland Security’s Advance Passenger Information System (APIS).