Homeland Security Department sets early priorities

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<FONT SIZE=2>Technology projects to be completed at the Department of Homeland Security in the short term include a consolidation of watch lists and departmentwide e-mail and information portals, said Lee Holcomb, director of infostructure for the White House Office of Homeland Security. Holcomb spoke at a homeland security conference in Washington Dec. 10. </FONT>

Lee Holcomb

Technology projects to be completed at the Department of Homeland Security in the short term include a consolidation of watch lists and departmentwide e-mail and information portals, said Lee Holcomb, director of infostructure for the White House Office of Homeland Security. Holcomb spoke at a homeland security conference in Washington Dec. 10.

The e-mail and portals should be running by Jan. 25, 2003, "day one" of the new department, Holcomb said.

"We really want people to view themselves as one," he said. The 170,000 employees of the new department will all have e-mail addresses ending in .dhs, and Web portals will be live to answer questions about the new department from employees and the public, Holcomb said.

The department wants to consolidate the government's terrorist watch lists while enabling sharing of information among all relevant agencies, Holcomb said. The federal government has 14 terrorist databases fed by 55 information streams, he said. *

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