The Bottleneck in Big Data Use for Homeland Security

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By Meidata

Big data has been at the forefront of intelligence, police, and even border control for a while. It is changing the way organizations monitor and analyze sources, increasing efficiency and enhancing the pinpointing of resources.

Leading intelligence organizations have been dealing with data collection and analysis long before “Big Data” became the buzzword it is today. Data analysis is at the core of intelligence and these organizations are the leaders of data collection and analysis, both in terms of development and in use. Their employees are trained to exploit data with the most advanced technology, backed by top notch experts – data scientists, developers, analysts, and more.

Big Data technology is becoming ubiquitous and data currently flows in from dozens of sources like sand in a desert. However, organizations of homeland security, public safety, as well as defense are battling to stay up-to-date and one step ahead of perpetrators in terms of leveraging this sea of opportunities. Budget and vendor offers are abundant, yet the only component lacking is people. Organizations are helpless in finding and training enough experts to deal with this ever-growing opportunity.

According to a recent research by Unisys, 40% of the federal agencies that have no current Big Data aspirations primarily attribute this to a lack of staff resources. The employment as well as retention of the right staff is a significant issue, as the Big Data hype has contributed to high wages in the private sector.

According to Shaul Zohar, Chairman of Meidata, “we’re past the data growth period and technology is catching up with great solutions, so the main bottleneck at this point are people – experts that deal with data and managers that understand the strategic shift.”

According to Meidata’s latest research, while personnel experienced in Big Data can be found in SIGINT, Cyber, and financial intelligence agencies, other types of agencies struggle to recruit the right people. Organizations such as first responders, border control, OSINT, critical infrastructure, municipalities, aviation, and maritime control find it hard to employ the right personnel that can leverage advanced Big Data capabilities to improve security and safety.

All this and more will be discussed at the Big Data Fusion conference on February 25th in Rishon Letzion.