[FBIgov] Section 1: Description of the Information System
The Guardian Program, managed by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Counterterrorism Division (CTD), Guardian Management Unit (GMU), provides a proven methodology for reporting, sharing, tracking, and mitigating a large volume of counterterrorism-based incidents. The Guardian Program encompasses two systems, the classified Guardian Threat Tracking System (Guardian), which resides on FBINET, and an unclassified companion, the eGuardian system, which is available and utilized in the daily operations of state, local, tribal, territorial, and federal law enforcement partners as well as the national fusion center network. The Guardian and eGuardian systems, even though they reside on different classification networks, have a bi-directional communication ability that facilitates sharing, reporting, collaboration, and deconfliction among all law enforcement agencies.
The FBI has expanded the best practice of addressing counterterrorism threats, utilizing the Guardian system, to other national threat program areas. The FBI will leverage existing technology and existing law enforcement partnerships to address not only counterterrorism threats, but also cyber and criminal threats and suspicious activities, with minimal cost, minimal expenditure of resources, and minimal time needed to place the technology and business process into operation.
By providing a common platform to law enforcement for the reporting and sharing of the threats delineated above, the FBI will be able to provide a universal reporting system for all law enforcement, while concurrently eliminating the jurisdictional and bureaucratic impediments to sharing information which results in degradation of our national security posture.
This Privacy Impact Assessment (PIA) amends the previous eGuardian PIA, dated November 25, 2008, and specifically examines the eGuardian system as it accounts for privacy concerns while creating an environment that will continue to address the need to share suspicious activity and threat information as mandated by the National Security Presidential Directives.
The eGuardian system’s primary purpose is to facilitate the reporting, tracking, and management of threats to determine whether a particular matter should be closed or opened as a predicated investigation. The eGuardian system also facilitates pattern and trend analysis of Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs) information. The original eGuardian system was designed in consultation with legal, privacy, and security personnel in the Department of Justice (DOJ) and elsewhere to ensure that privacy protections and security controls were integrated into system development and to the eGuardian system’s functionality.
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