One of the biggest challenges in contemporary intelligence gathering and exploitation is not lack of information, it is information overload. Agencies seeking to protect their nations and allies are faced with the task of assessing, managing and disseminating intelligence rapidly so that the appropriate action can be taken.

But with so much data available, how do we know what we have? How can we tell if it is reliable? How can we get the right information to the right people while keeping it secure from those who should not have access?

Introducing VAULTIS...

What is VAULTIS?

In the context of these challenges, the US Department of Defence published their Data Strategy outlining principles that should be applied to data to maximize usability while protecting against misuse. These principles are described in the acronym VAULTIS, which is being adopted within the intelligence and defense communities for managing their data estates.

Visible – Information should be organized, catalogued and discoverable by those with a need to access it.

Accessible – Data must be retrievable in a usable format and in an appropriate environment.

Understandable – Data must be recognizable for what it is, put in context and rules applied around use to ensure that interpretation, aggregation and comparison is done based on the right understanding.

Linked – Each data point may be related to other pieces of information. Suitable tagging and cataloguing of data points supports analytics (including the use of AI tools).

Trustworthy – Readers must be confident that the information has not been tampered with, or altered if they are to act decisively based on the content.

Interoperable – Users across missions, organizations and nations share information, so a common representation and comprehension of how this information was collected and how it should be handled is key.

Secure – Data should be protected from unauthorized use or manipulation.

Data without some processing presents risk that critical pieces of information are lost in a sea of noise, or that too much faith is placed in unreliable information, particularly where this passes through many hands and the context is lost. By applying rigorous data principles the value that can be extracted from the vast amounts of data available to intelligence handling organizations is multiplied and the risks of not acting on vital information or acting wrongly on unreliable information can be decreased.

Vaultis and Mindlink

MindLink supports these data handling principles through data labelling, strong access control mechanisms and discoverability tools to deliver the best value for our customers in their critical mission for a safer tomorrow.

The principles of VAULTIS have been directly embedded into our platform's architecture and user experience but how have we achieved this for each principle and what does this mean?

Visible – MindLink organizes collaboration in secure chatrooms which can only be accessed by those with a need to know through attribute-based access controls and data classification labelling.

Accessible – The data in chatrooms is only accessible to those with a need to know. Users are automatically read-on to chatrooms they are eligible to access through a user's attributes and MindLink's attribute-based access controls.

Understandable – As a collaborative app, data is structured into discoverable chatrooms and labelled with classification markings. The content of the chatroom is intrinsically linked to the topic of the chatroom and the classification markings signal how the data can be disseminated.

Linked – All data entering MindLink is labelled following the Intelligence Communities best practices in secure data handling ensuring only those with a need to know are able to access that data.

Trustworthy – Data is encrypted end to end in an organizationally compliant manner to avoid tampering at any stage, including the database column level.

Interoperable – Through native interoperability with Skype for Business and XMPP, MindLink enables collaboration across disparate systems.

Secure – Leveraging attribute-based access control, PKI and IDAM integration the data flowing through MindLink is only accessible to authorized users.

To learn more about the MindLink platform, its functionality and security feature set, please visit our page: www.mindlinksoft.com/mindlink-platform

Further resources such as whitepapers and case studies can be found here: www.mindlinksoft.com/resources