MANY REFER TO “THE CLOUD” AS A CRITICAL SOLUTION, EVEN A PANACEA, FOR WHATEVER MAY BE AILING THE INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY (IT) NETWORKS OF ANY COMPANY IN ANY PROFESSION.
The average police agency has essentially the same IT needs and capabilities as any enterprise of comparable size. And while technology, in all its forms, is constantly opening new avenues for law enforcement professionals, it is not always clear how a technology as nebulous as “the cloud” can actually help law enforcement agencies accomplish the tasks that are specific to their mission. However, the cloud can add considerable power to almost any technological endeavor—and can open up previously inaccessible possibilities.
To this end, several companies are taking advantage of the cloud to help law enforcement professionals in their everyday, real-world work.
WHAT IS THE CLOUD?
At its core, cloud computing is a fairly straightforward concept. IBM defines it as “the delivery of on-demand computing resources—everything from applications to data centers—over the Internet on a pay-for-use basis.”1 Fees for cloud computing vary based on the specific services offered, the company offering them, number of users, and various other factors. In a nutshell, using the cloud is akin to outsourcing certain jobs to an external firm, such as an agency might outsource transcription. In the case of cloud computing, any number of different IT functions are “outsourced” to very large, powerful computer networks—the cloud—that are owned and operated off-site by a third party and can simultaneously serve many different customers and functions. Customers are connected to the cloud through the Internet.
Although the fees for cloud services can be considerable, proponents note that the cloud can be a serious money saver overall, as using the cloud prevents users from having to purchase, operate, or maintain their own service or solution.
A large field of vendors, including IBM, offer cloud-based services. Another major player is Amazon Web Services (AWS), which touts the benefits of cloud computing specifically for law enforcement and others in the public safety sector.2
According to AWS, those benefits include capabilities such as
■ uploading, storing, and securing large amounts of data;
■ accessing multiple databases at once;
■ deploying and tracking emergency response units;
■ enhancing situational awareness;
■ dictating and submitting incident reports from the field; and
■ automating and accelerating transcription and data collection.
Many police agencies and professionals are already making use of cloud computing for computer-aided dispatch (CAD), data analytics, and various other purposes. With the explosion of digital data produced during modern day-to-day police work—from body-worn camera video files to CAD data to license plate images—the cloud can help agencies manage the proverbial firehose of information by storing, organizing, and disseminating data. In fact, many familiar applications and solutions in law enforcement already use the cloud for data storage.
CLOUD APPLICATIONS FOR LAW ENFORCEMENT
Perhaps the most well-known cloud-based application for police is the file storage for body-worn cameras. Video files, from body-worn cameras or other sources, are ubiquitous in modern law enforcement and factor into numerous cases. They also tend to be large files, making storage a challenge as they continue to grow in number.
WatchGuard Video, an Allen, Texas-based industry leader for body-worn cameras and in-car video systems recently acquired by Motorola, is one of several vendors offering a cloud-based solution to this issue. Through its Evidence Library service, WatchGuard gives users unlimited storage of HD and SD video recordings.3
File storage may be the most intuitive use for the cloud in a law enforcement context. But it is far from the only one. Security is always a major consideration
for police when using the cloud. As it happens, the cloud can help investigators bolster their own security profiles.
The law enforcement sector has established high security standards for any cloud service. Guidelines from the IACP recommend agencies develop clear security policies before engaging with a cloud-based service provider. In its 2015 Guiding Principles on Cloud Computing in Law Enforcement, the IACP recommends, among other things, that all cloud services comply with requirements set forth by the Criminal Justice Information Services (CJIS) Security Policy and that “law enforcement agencies should generally store all collected data at the highest level of security.”4
The Internet can be a dangerous place, whether one is using the cloud or not. Police officers face security challenges when using the Internet to investigate crimes or suspects. Here, one cloud-based service provider can help an agency work safer, as well as smarter.
Authentic8, a Redwood, California, company, created Silo, a cloud-based tool with direct relevance to law enforcement. The tool is described by company officials as a cloud-based web browser that “creates a perfect isolation layer between users and the web, delivering a remote browser session that keeps web code from reaching the environment or end device.”5
“Everybody pretty much acknowledges that the Internet is a dangerous place. There is malicious code and your movement can be tracked,” said Scott Petry, CEO and co-founder of Authentic8. “If you stumble into a bad corner of the web, or you drop cookies on your machine, they’re not looking at you, they’re looking at our system.”
As investigators know, “bad corners of the web” are typically a more likely destination during police work than in other situations, which, in turn, raises the risk that a bad actor could infiltrate a computer or network.
“Sometimes you go into areas for investigation that you wouldn’t normally want to go into,” Petry said. “That could be a certain kind of forum or message board. Silo gives personnel safety and security because they’re using a browser that’s not them. It’s a pretty simple premise.”
Silo is easy to use. A simple desktop icon allows users to access the cloud browser, at which point cloud computers—and not the physical machine in front of the user—take over the search session.
|
SOURCE LIST |
“It’s just a browser. If you can use a browser, you can use our product,” Petry said. “All you have to do is click on a link, and you have a virtual environment. You have a greater ability to capture the information. You can store information in an encrypted cloud storage. They can reach it any time without having it on their system. It’s safety with a capital S.”
Notes:
1 IBM, “Cloud Computing: A Complete Guide.”
2 Amazon Web Services, “3 Considerations for Police Departments Exploring the Cloud,” AWS Government, Education, & Nonprofits Blog, September 17, 2018.
3 WatchGuard Video, “Evidence Library: Manage Evidence Your Way.”
4 International Association of Chiefs of Police, Guiding Principles on Cloud Computing in Law Enforcement (2015).
5 Scott Petry (CEO, co-founder, Authentic8), telephone interview, August 27, 2019.
