Attacking the Network represents the next stage in our fight against the threat of Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) and terrorism in general. In this mode, we move away from trying to mitigate the effects of the attack, instead eliminating them altogether by defeating the core components of the terrorism operation: the key actors and their networks. By moving away from the attack itself and"up the kill chain" we can effectively neutralize the entire operation of a terrorist cell. This has many obvious advantages in the Global War on Terror.

From an intelligence perspective,"Attacking the Network" really means being able to identify the key actors in the terror network, their relationships, and understanding their intent. In a technical sense, it requires the ability to:

• extract and correlate seemingly unrelated pieces of data,
• distinguish that data from the white noise of harmless civilian activity, and
• find the hidden relationships that characterize the true threat.

The situation becomes very complicated when we consider the sheer amount of data that must be analyzed: intercepted telephone conversations, sensor readings, and human intelligence. Each of these sources needs to be analyzed in its own unique way and then fused into a cohesive picture to enable rapid and effective decision-making.

• Identify - identify candidate terror networks. Parse incoming intelligence data to identify possible entities (people, places, locations, events) and their relationships.
• Test - test the observed activities to determine if they are suspicious. Uncertainty must be a incorporated to maximize the chance of identifying terrorist behaviors.
• Evaluate - evaluate the quality of the formed networks. Terror networks are highly dynamic and fluid, and key actors may bridge across several groups.