GSN January 2016 Digital Edition
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stagram from their location. That<br />
information, including the images<br />
they share can sometimes be valuable<br />
to law enforcement in trying to<br />
track down suspects and possible<br />
threats.<br />
“We actually aggregate eight platforms,”<br />
Geofeedia co-founder Mike<br />
Mulroy said. “People are not only<br />
sharing their location, they’re also<br />
sharing what they’re seeing, what<br />
they’re doing. This is a time in history<br />
that is unlike any other.”<br />
Another company aiding in the<br />
pope’s visit to Philadelphia was<br />
Mutualink, which helped bring together<br />
50 agencies across the Mid-<br />
Atlantic and Northeast regions so<br />
they could communicate and share<br />
data securely. For example, when a<br />
Pennsylvania State Police helicopter<br />
would take video of the crowd at an<br />
event, Mutualink’s system allowed<br />
officials in New Jersey.<br />
“That whole ecosystem everybody<br />
talks about, we’re out there doing<br />
that,” Mutualink President Colin<br />
McWay said.<br />
Besides the Philadelphia area,<br />
dozens of agencies around the New<br />
York area also used Mutualink to<br />
help them coordinate security during<br />
the pope’s visit to the nation’s<br />
largest city.<br />
Mutualink creates interoperable<br />
platforms that can bring together<br />
agencies that may not use the same<br />
equipment or communicate on the<br />
same frequency. It offers a plug-andplay<br />
secured solution that allows<br />
agencies to decide when to bring in<br />
other agencies.<br />
“What we’re able to do is take<br />
whatever media any agency has –<br />
radio, video, data – secure it and put<br />
it on whatever pipe they have available,”<br />
McWay said. “So whether it’s<br />
terrestrial IP or commercial 4G or<br />
the new FirstNet, which were running<br />
on where it exists, and allow<br />
that to be shared with any other organization<br />
anywhere in the country.<br />
Having these types of resources<br />
for local and state agencies is important,<br />
especially for major events,<br />
because of the number of officers<br />
and troopers they can provide, Yacone<br />
said.<br />
“Neither the FBI nor the Secret<br />
Service could do our jobs effectively<br />
without them because they are<br />
bringing the capacity.”<br />
21<br />
Cloud-based Mass Notification<br />
comes with serious risks –<br />
Desktop Alert’s Ryan<br />
Continued from page 13<br />
view of all mass notification capabilities<br />
across the department.<br />
“I direct the Services to implement<br />
additional physical security<br />
enhancements at off-installation facilities<br />
and to put in place improved<br />
mass warning and alert notification<br />
capabilities to help safeguard<br />
DoD personnel,” Defense Secretary<br />
Ash Carter said in an October 2015<br />
memo.<br />
The capabilities Carter seeks includes<br />
alerting sites like recruiting<br />
centers that are not located on military<br />
installations. These sites need<br />
to have the ability to notify local first<br />
responders and other nearby military<br />
facilities. Carter wants those<br />
sites to start using the new systems<br />
by this spring.<br />
Ryan believes his system can provide<br />
what Carter wants for all facets<br />
of the Defense Department.<br />
“I’ve always taken a very direct<br />
path toward creating the best software,<br />
the fastest software, the most<br />
reliable software, the most redundant<br />
software (and) the more competitively<br />
priced software,” he said.<br />
Desktop Alert offers more detail on its<br />
website at: https://www.desktopalert.<br />
net/Solutions/the-cloud-and-emns/.
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