DECEMBER 2012

NATIONA L STR ATEGY FOR 

INFOR M ATION SH AR ING 

AND SAFEGUARDING

THE WHITE HOUSE

WASHINGTON

As President, I have no greater responsibility than ensuring the safety and security of the 

United States and the American people. Meeting this responsibility requires the closest possible 

cooperation among our intelligence, military, diplomatic, homeland security, law enforcement, 

and public health communities, as well as with our partners at the State and local level and 

in the private sector. This cooperation, in turn, demands the timely and effective sharing of 

intelligence and information about threats to our Nation with those who need it, from the 

President to the police officer on the street.

Since the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, we have seen great improvement in information 

sharing. Today, our analysts, investigators, and public safety professionals are sharing more 

information and cooperating more effectively than ever before. Unfortunately, we also have 

had instances when critical information was not shared quickly or widely enough, or when 

unauthorized disclosures of classified and sensitive information damaged our national security.

This National Strategy for Information Sharing and Safeguarding (Strategy) aims to strike the 

proper balance between sharing information with those who need it to keep our country safe 

and safeguarding it from those who would do us harm. While these two priorities—sharing and 

safeguarding—are often seen as mutually exclusive, in reality they are mutually reinforcing. 

This Strategy, therefore, emphasizes how strengthening the protection of classified and sensitive 

information can help to build confidence and trust so that such information can be shared with 

authorized users. 

This Strategy recognizes this vital information for what it is—a national asset that must be 

both protected and shared, as appropriate. The threats to our national security are constantly 

evolving, so our policies to ensure this information is used and protected as intended must evolve 

as well. This includes protecting private and personal information about United States persons 

and upholding our commitment to transparency. This Strategy makes it clear that the individual 

privacy, civil rights, and civil liberties of United States persons must be—and will be—protected.

Our national security depends on sharing the right information with the right people at the right 

time. We will therefore keep working to maintain an environment in which information is shared 

in a manner that is responsible, seamless, and secure. Guided by this Strategy, we will continue 

to leverage critical information to keep our Nation secure and our fellow citizens safe.

Table of Contents

Executive Summary 1

I. Introduction 3

Scope . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3

Vision . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3

Building on Success 4

II. The Operating Environment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5

III. Principles 6

1. Information as a National Asset . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6

2. Information Sharing and Safeguarding Requires Shared Risk Management 7

3. Information Informs Decisionmaking 7

IV. Goals 8

1. Drive Collective Action through Collaboration and Accountability 8

2. Improve Information Discovery and Access through Common Standards 9

3. Optimize Mission Effectiveness through Shared Services and Interoperability 11

4. Strengthen Information Safeguarding through Structural Reform, Policy, and 

Technical Solutions 12

5. Protect Privacy, Civil Rights, and Civil Liberties through Consistency and Compliance 13

V. Way Forward 14

Priority Objectives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

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Executive Summary

Our national security depends on our ability to share the right information, with the right people, at 

the right time. This information sharing mandate requires sustained and responsible collaboration 

between Federal, state, local, tribal, territorial, private sector, and foreign partners. Over the last few 

years, we have successfully streamlined policies and processes, overcome cultural barriers, and better 

integrated information systems to enable information sharing. Today’s dynamic operating environment, however, challenges us to continue improving information sharing and safeguarding processes 

and capabilities. While innovation has enhanced our ability to share, increased sharing has created the 

potential for vulnerabilities requiring strengthened safeguarding practices. The 2012 National Strategy 

for Information Sharing and Safeguarding provides guidance for effective development, integration, and 

implementation of policies, processes, standards, and technologies to promote secure and responsible 

information sharing.

Our responses to these challenges must be strategic and grounded in three core principles. First, in 

treating Information as a National Asset, we recognize departments and agencies have achieved an 

unprecedented ability to gather, store, and use information consistent with their missions and applicable 

legal authorities; correspondingly they have an obligation to make that information available to support national security missions. Second, our approach recognizes Information Sharing and Safeguarding 

Requires Shared Risk Management. In order to build and sustain the trust required to share with one 

another, we must work together to identify and collectively reduce risk, rather than avoiding information 

loss by not sharing at all. Third, the core premise Information Informs Decisionmaking underlies all our 

actions and reminds us better decisionmaking is the purpose of sharing information in the first place.

The Strategy focuses on achieving five goals:

1. Drive Collective Action through Collaboration and Accountability. We can best reach our 

shared vision when working together, using governance models that enable mission achievement, adopting common processes where possible to build trust, simplifying the information 

sharing agreement development process, and supporting efforts through performance management, training, and incentives.

2. Improve Information Discovery and Access through Common Standards. Improving 

discovery and access involves developing clear policies for making information available to 

approved individuals. Secure discovery and access relies on identity, authentication, and authorization controls, data tagging, enterprise-wide data correlation, common information sharing 

standards, and a rigorous process to certify and validate their use.

3. Optimize Mission Effectiveness through Shared Services and Interoperability. Efforts to 

optimize mission effectiveness include shared services, data and network interoperability, and 

increased efficiency in acquisition.

4. Strengthen Information Safeguarding through Structural Reform, Policy, and Technical 

Solutions. To foster trust and safeguard our information, policies and coordinating bodies must 

focus on identifying, preventing, and mitigating insider threats and external intrusions, while 
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departments and agencies work to enhance capabilities for data-level controls, automated 

monitoring, and cross-classification solutions.

5. Protect Privacy, Civil Rights, and Civil Liberties through Consistency and Compliance. 

Integral to maintaining the public trust is increasing the consistency by which we apply privacy, 

civil rights, and civil liberties protections across the government, building corresponding safeguards into the development of information sharing operations, and promoting accountability 

and compliance mechanisms.

As we execute the Strategy together, we will harness our collective resolve to treat information as a 

national asset, make it discoverable and retrievable by all authorized users, and arm those charged 

with preserving the security of our Nation. Only as we work together, hold ourselves accountable, and 

take concerted ownership of advancing our goals, will we achieve the safety and success our country 

rightfully demands and fully deserves.
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I. Introduction

To prevent acts of terrorism on American soil, we must enlist all of our intelligence, law 

enforcement, and homeland security capabilities. We will continue to integrate and leverage 

state and major urban area fusion centers that have the capability to share classified 

information; establish a nationwide framework for reporting suspicious activity; and 

implement an integrated approach to our counterterrorism information systems to ensure 

that the analysts, agents, and officers who protect us have access to all relevant intelligence 

throughout the government. We are improving information sharing and cooperation by 

linking networks to facilitate Federal, state, and local capabilities to seamlessly exchange 

messages and information, conduct searches, and collaborate. 

– National Security Strategy, May 2010

Our national security relies on our ability to share the right information, with the right people, at the 

right time. As the world becomes an increasingly networked place, addressing the challenges to national 

security—foreign and domestic—requires sustained collaboration and responsible information sharing.

The imperative to secure and protect the American public is a partnership shared at all levels including 

Federal, state, local, tribal, and territorial. Partnerships and collaboration must occur within and among 

intelligence, defense, diplomatic, homeland security, law enforcement, and private sector communities.

Scope

Anchored on the 2010 National Security Strategy, the 2012 National Strategy for Information Sharing and 

Safeguarding (hereafter referred to as the Strategy) provides guidance for more effective integration and 

implementation of policies, processes, standards, and technologies to promote secure and responsible 

national security information sharing.

The Strategy does not define particular categories or types of information that must be shared. Rather, 

it shifts the focus of information sharing and safeguarding policy to defining information requirements 

that support effective decisionmaking. The Strategy outlines a vision with a national policy roadmap 

to guide information sharing and safeguarding within existing law and policy. This Strategy does not 

replace the National Strategy for Information Sharing (2007 NSIS), as the 2007 NSIS continues to provide 

a policy framework and directs many core initiatives intended to improve information sharing. This 

Strategy will continue to highlight appropriate protection of individual rights—privacy and civil liberties 

are most relevant in this context. Nonetheless, departments and agencies must never lose sight of their 

responsibility to protect the civil rights of all Americans in accordance with their respective authorities.

Vision

It is a national priority to efficiently, effectively, and appropriately share and safeguard information so 

any authorized individual (Federal, state, local, tribal, territorial, private sector or foreign partner) can 

prevent harm to the American people and protect national security. The Strategy points toward a future 
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in which information supports national security decisionmaking by providing the right information, at 

any time, to any authorized user, restricted only by law or policy, not technology; and where safeguarding 

measures, to include a comprehensive regimen of accountability, prevent the misuse of the information.

Building on Success

While the 2012 Strategy establishes goals for the future, the 2007 NSIS continues to provide the policy 

framework for institutionalizing requirements of the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act 

of 2004, specifically to improve integration and responsible information sharing related to terrorism, 

homeland security, and weapons of mass destruction. The 2007 NSIS also highlights the importance of 

gathering and reporting locally generated information while emphasizing two-way flows of timely and 

actionable information among government, public, and private entities. To date, the concerted efforts 

of these partners have resulted in significant progress.

• Established a National Network of Fusion Centers owned and managed by state and local 

entities, which use the Nationwide Suspicious Activity Reporting (SAR) Initiative (NSI) to share 

terrorism information among all levels of government; and with consistent policies to protect 

individual privacy, civil rights, and civil liberties. There have been increasing levels of collaboration among the fusion centers, the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI) Joint Terrorism 

Task Forces, Field and Regional Intelligence Groups, Federal, state, and local law enforcement 

agencies, High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area programs, Regional Information Sharing System 

centers, intelligence and crime analysis units, and via initiatives like the Fusion Liaison Officer 

Program, which includes tribal and non-law enforcement partners.

• Adopted the National Information Exchange Model (NIEM), a successful example of a common 

way to structure data exchanges to better enable information sharing. NIEM is now used by 

many Federal agencies, State governments, private sector organizations, and foreign partners.

As a side benefit, NIEM promotes information technology (IT) industry adoption as a result of 

partnering with standards development organizations (SDOs).

• Established a plan to unify and align user identification and authentication on systems, through 

the Federal Identity Credential and Access Management (FICAM) framework under the National 

Strategy for Trusted Identities in Cyberspace. This represents a critical step toward establishing 

individual accountability and facilitating the appropriate level of information access.

• Provided access to multiple data repositories across departments and agencies, consistent with 

mission authorities and legal protections. For example, analysts at the National Counterterrorism 

Center (NCTC) now have access to over 30 Federal networks containing terrorism information.

This profoundly contrasts the pre-9/11 environment characterized by agency-centric data 

repositories.

• Developed a single authoritative database of known or suspected international terrorist identities at NCTC. Pertinent information from NCTC’s database now can be exported to the FBI’s 

Terrorist Screening Center database, which also includes domestic known or reasonably suspected terrorist identities, a marked improvement to the previous multiple, non-integrated lists.
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• Enhanced communications to facilitate dialogue between departments and agencies and with 

other partners. For example, the FBI and Department of Homeland Security (DHS), augmented 

by the Interagency Threat Assessment and Coordination Group, hold classified video teleconferences three times a day, 365 days a year, with over a dozen Federal counterterrorism entities.

Products of these efforts are available, as appropriate, to non-Federal partners.  

Through these foundational efforts, we have successfully begun to streamline policies and processes, 

overcome cultural barriers, improve IT system interoperability, and enable pertinent information sharing.

II. The Operating Environment

Ongoing advances in information technology challenge stakeholders to identify and implement 

information management best practices. While innovation allows information to move unimpeded 

across jurisdictional, functional, and organizational boundaries, increased information sharing may 

create vulnerabilities that expose us to compromise, exploitation, manipulation, and unauthorized use 

of that information. These issues often point to challenges in governance, information management, 

and resourcing.

• Threats to national security remain diverse. Terrorist attacks on the homeland and U.S. interests abroad; insider threats to information systems; nuclear proliferation; cyber attacks; global 

economic pressures; and regional instabilities are a few examples of the diverse threats we 

face. Future threats will only continue to evolve as our adversaries learn to counter our security 

measures. This wide-ranging and dynamic array of challenges illustrates the range of need for 

timely and effective information sharing and safeguarding.

• Unaligned management practices and policies present obstacles. Departments and agencies need to recognize their statutory responsibilities for sharing and safeguarding information, 

overcome historically insular practices and policies, embrace a government-wide perspective, 

and agree to participate in structured collaboration. Better coordinated management frameworks will provide a mechanism for creating policies and processes that enable responsible 

information sharing and safeguarding in an efficient and cost-effective manner.

• Quality control of shared information is a challenge. Information to support national security 

may be incomplete, vague, or inaccurate. Building tools and techniques that help stakeholders 

to assess the provenance of information when acquired, accessed, retained, reproduced, used, 

managed, shared, and safeguarded is essential for ensuring quality control.

• Valid constraints on sharing information exist. There will always be some restrictions on 

sharing sensitive operational, law enforcement, or personally identifiable information.  In addition, foreign partners, State governments, and the private sector may impose limits on use or 

dissemination of their information. Efforts that respect these realities and provide a responsible 

means to share information, such as “tagging” data, identifying and authenticating users, and 

securing networks, are critical to appropriately protecting this information.
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• A lack of network interoperability creates barriers across departments and agencies and 

missions. Differences in policies and technologies prevent authorized users from gaining access 

to critical resources and information on disparate networks. Efforts are underway to enable 

interoperability for users accessing information within “sensitive but unclassified” and classified 

networks, while maintaining high levels of protection for that information.

• Increased information sharing demands advanced correlation and analytic capabilities. 

Turning an abundance of data into actionable information or intelligence remains an enduring problem. Many initiatives are underway, however, to enable information correlation with 

advanced analytics, including new tools, techniques, and training.

• Efficiency is a necessity. The economic downturn of the past several years has affected everyone, including households, businesses, and governments. Mission objectives must be met with 

innovation and agility in an extremely austere budget environment.

• Improperly safeguarded information is a liability. Our ability to properly protect information as it is shared is directly related to the maturity of governance processes, access controls, 

identity management, enterprise audit capabilities, and network interoperability efforts. This 

takes us from controlling quality and access within individual networks and systems to sharing 

information management across stakeholders.

III. Principles

The ideas, values, energy, creativity, and resilience of our citizens are America’s greatest 

resource. We will support the development of prepared, vigilant, and engaged communities 

and underscore that our citizens are the heart of a resilient country. And we must tap 

the ingenuity outside government through strategic partnerships with the private sector, 

nongovernmental organizations, foundations, and community-based organizations. 

Such partnerships are critical to U.S. success at home and abroad, and we will support 

them through enhanced opportunities for engagement, coordination, transparency, and 

information sharing.

– National Security Strategy, May 2010

To accomplish the Strategy’s vision, efforts are grounded in three core principles.

1. Information as a National Asset

Departments and agencies have achieved an unprecedented ability to gather, store, and use information 

consistent with their missions and applicable legal authorities. They have corresponding obligations 

to make information available to any agency, department, or partner with a relevant national security 

mission and to manage that information in a manner that is lawful and protects individual rights. This 

requires a continued maturation of information security, access, and safeguarding policies and processes.
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For example, building an enterprise-wide approach moves stakeholders away from agency-specific 

networks and applications and provides secure and authorized access to information in ways that allow 

information sharing across departments and agencies.

Managing information as a national asset simultaneously demands stakeholders make it available to 

those who need it, while also keeping it secure from unauthorized or unintended use. While originators 

are accountable for the accuracy, characterization, and availability of shared information, consumers 

who use it for reporting or decision making equally share responsibility and accountability for its manner of use. In short, information collected, analyzed, and disseminated by every stakeholder must be 

discoverable and retrievable, consistent with necessary legal restrictions, and guided by governmentwide policies, standards, and management frameworks.

2. Information Sharing and Safeguarding Requires Shared Risk 

Management 

Building trust in sharing and safeguarding requires the ability to manage rather than avoid risk. Risk to 

national security increases when the approach to sharing is inconsistent, fragmented, or managed from a 

single-agency perspective. Risk decreases, however, with sound policies and standards, increased awareness and comprehensive training, effective governance, and enhanced accountability. Performance 

management and compliance monitoring at the enterprise level will aid governance, inform decisions, 

and help foster a culture that emphasizes the importance of responsible sharing.

Sharing and safeguarding are not mutually exclusive. Policies, practices, and methods for information 

sharing and safeguarding can enable appropriate confidentiality while increasing transparency. To 

realize the benefits of sharing information, stakeholders mitigate and manage risk by taking appropriate measures to build trust in the processes that safeguard information from compromise. As the 

mission imperative for sharing increases, so too does the need to improve interoperable safeguarding 

techniques.

3. Information Informs Decisionmaking

Informed decisionmaking requires the ability to discover, retrieve, and use accurate, relevant, timely, and 

actionable information. Likewise, our national security depends upon an ability to make information 

easily accessible to Federal, state, local, tribal, territorial, private sector, and foreign partners in a trusted 

manner, given the appropriate mission context. The objective is to increase the usefulness of information in operations through the consistent application of policies, guidelines, exchange standards, and 

common frameworks, while always respecting privacy and individual rights.

Ultimately, the value of responsible information sharing is measured by its contribution to proactive 

decision making. The above principles and below goals will help us achieve an environment wherein 

decisions are driven by information that reflects our best assessments at every level—from frontline 

personnel to agency heads.
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IV. Goals

1. Drive Collective Action through Collaboration and Accountability 

1.1 Improve Governance to Promote Collaboration

Governance plays a critical role in setting priorities and driving decisions. The bodies charged with these 

responsibilities, along with performance and compliance monitoring, exist at all echelons of government. Enabling their work demands clear, harmonized, and complementary charters that support collaboration and policy enforcement at the lowest possible level, yet still allow elevation of issues through 

the White House policy process. An effective governance structure accounts for the complexities of a 

diverse range of missions, acknowledges resource realities, reduces gaps, minimizes redundancies, and 

aligns stakeholder policy development and implementation.

1.2 Increase the Use of Common Processes

Many communities use common processes for acquiring, accessing, retaining, producing, using, 

managing, sharing, and safeguarding information. The SAR process used by the National Network of 

Fusion Centers and local law enforcement entities, for example, includes stakeholder outreach, privacy 

protections, training, and enabling technology to identify and report suspicious activity in jurisdictions across the country, and serves as the unified focal point for sharing SAR information. Common 

processes, like SAR, provide organizations a template for repeatable, interoperable, and trusted protocols. Standardization, with built-in flexibility for evolving mission requirements, also improves timely 

information discovery, access, and exchange and makes it easier to integrate new partners into existing 

information flows. Not only does increasing the use of common processes provide opportunities to 

strengthen privacy, civil rights, and civil liberties, it enables the implementation of vetted measures to 

safeguard information.

1.3 Streamline the Development of Information Sharing Agreements 

Information sharing to protect national security relies on availability of information from many government agencies, the private sector, and foreign partners, all of which have diverse missions and information collection and dissemination policies. As a result, developing interagency information sharing 

agreements is often a critical step in the success of cross-agency collaboration. Unfortunately, this step 

is often protracted as agencies attempt to determine mutually agreeable requirements and restrictions 

related to information access, handling, and use based on differing missions, requirements, restrictions, 

and authorities. Creating a template, based on common legal and policy compliance requirements 

would streamline the process, facilitate issue resolution, and enhance partnerships with private sector 

and foreign partners.

1.4 Encourage Progress through Performance Management, Training, and Incentives

Achieving the goals of this Strategy requires a management approach that includes incentives for 

performance at both the organizational and individual levels. Departments and agencies benefit from 
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integrating their performance management approaches to support a holistic view of progress towards 

achieving information sharing and safeguarding goals. Stakeholders should not only measure improvements in information sharing and safeguarding processes (e.g., discoverability, timeliness, accuracy, 

compliance, and oversight), but also measure their overall effectiveness (e.g., how shared information 

helps to achieve the mission). Performance management and metrics, when paired with effective leadership, reinforces progress and motivates personnel to meet high expectations and professional standards.

Investing in staff through training and incentives also helps foster a culture that values information 

sharing and safeguarding, extending to organizations beyond our immediate communities.

2. Improve Information Discovery and Access through Common Standards 

2.1 Develop Clear Policies for Discovery and Access

A central intent of information sharing is to make certain information is both discoverable and accessible by those with a legitimate need, in a timely manner. Discovery and access are distinct concepts: 

the first addresses a user’s ability to identify the existence of information, and the second relates to a 

user’s ability to retrieve it. Our national security demands relevant information is made discoverable, 

in accordance with existing laws and policies, to appropriate personnel. Discovery and access require 

clear and consistent policy and standards, as well as technical guidance for implementing interoperable 

processes and technology.

2.2 Improve Identity, Authentication, and Authorization Controls

Information discovery requires a standardized approach to authentication so participating entities 

can validate and trust the identities of users attempting to log into their systems. Information holders 

have often created their own authentication services resulting in users requiring unique credentials 

for accessing different systems or networks. Using trusted, interoperable authentication services will 

minimize the number of required credentials, drive out unnecessary anonymity, and achieve efficiencies 

by eliminating stand-alone authentication services.

Once user identities are authenticated, their unique attributes assist in determining if access to information is authorized. Both information originators and consumers share responsibility for using standard 

processes, attributes, and “rules of use” to support authentication and authorization decisions. Further, 

user attributes require dynamic management to inform these decisions, including provisions for agile 

updates and removal of user access. Greater policy and technical alignment across departments and 

agencies will enable implementation of interoperable capabilities that engender confidence and trust in 

the process of confirming appropriate users while also providing access to mission-relevant information.

2.3 Promote Data-Level Tagging

Most information authorization models are limited to access controls defined and enforced at the 

network or application-level, rather than at the data-level using inherent characteristics of specific 

information resources. As networks are consolidated and shared services are adopted, access controls 

must be applied on the data itself, using “tags.” Information tagging is an approach where standard attributes—tags—are attached to a piece of information to describe it. While manual discovery and access 
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capabilities benefit from information tagging by guiding users directly to specific information based on 

their profile, it also can enable automated enforcement of access decisions based on mission-relevance.

By matching the user attributes with corresponding information attributes, the automated delivery of 

mission-specific information is improved along with the security and protection of that information from 

inappropriate recipients. Information tagging further assists in meeting records management requirements, responding to disclosure inquiries, integrating privacy protections, and remediating erroneous 

data disclosures and modifications.

2.4 Enhance Enterprise-Wide Data Correlation

Connecting related information from disparate department and agency databases can mean the difference between identifying a threat during the planning stage or analyzing what could have been done 

to thwart the attack after it occurs. Data correlation and advanced analytics, coupled with integrated 

sharing and safeguarding protections, will enable users to reference authoritative, up-to-date information across multiple agency holdings. This capability can support analysts’ efforts to identify relationships among people, places, things, and characteristics that are otherwise not apparent. To advance 

this capability while taking into account increasing volumes of information, stakeholders need to make 

their information accessible so an analyst can create a single query to search across many information 

sources. Analysts also need automated capabilities to establish linkages across holdings and generate 

alerts when mission-relevant information becomes available. While current technologies require centralized information repositories, which may yet remain appropriate in some limited cases, a decentralized 

approach allows the originator to maintain and update information as needed. This promises increased 

speed in sharing and higher levels of information fidelity. Successful data correlation also requires a 

validation component to determine the veracity and applicability of information before action.

2.5 Drive the Use of Information Sharing Standards

Meeting the mission need for enterprise-wide discovery and access warrants the use of standards. By 

reusing existing standards, stakeholders can benefit from the time, resources, and experience invested 

by others to fully vet and implement a new standard. As a result, capabilities to meet mission needs 

can be more rapidly, efficiently, and effectively applied without developing ad-hoc custom solutions 

or unique standards for single use. Prudent information sharing leverages the use of voluntary consensus standards, as described in existing Federal policy, wherein government uses standards created 

by established SDOs, which often incorporate government, industry, and international membership.

With this approach, we first aim to adopt existing standards to meet mission needs, and when none are 

available, use SDOs to address the gap.

2.6 Support Enterprise-Wide Certification and Conformance

Given the abundance of standards available throughout the government, the private sector, and the 

international community, decisionmakers and users are faced with the challenge of determining which 

standard is most appropriate to satisfy their requirements while also supporting interoperability with 

other partners. Consequently, there is a need for a process to validate, certify, and require the interoperability of technology solutions used to share and safeguard information. This, in turn, will help inform 
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decisionmakers of the most appropriate standards to employ while also sending a clear signal to industry 

which standards to use in developing tools and products that advance interoperability and support a 

broader set of mission needs.

3. Optimize Mission Effectiveness through Shared Services and 

Interoperability 

3.1 Share Services that Benefit All Partners

Across the government, departments and agencies have begun to embrace a shared computing model, 

sometimes referred to as “cloud computing.” In this model, data centers are consolidated and computer 

infrastructures are employed as a shared service. Hosting systems and applications on common infrastructures distributes workload, reduces requirements for computing capacity, and lowers total cost. The 

future promises to bring additional enhancements by offering capabilities beyond shared computing, 

such as shared application and shared information services. As a result, departments and agencies can 

adopt existing capabilities and focus on developing the services and technologies that best align with 

their mission and expertise. In particular, shared capabilities will allow departments and agencies to 

better deliver targeted services to specific end-users, as opposed to trying to serve all classes of users 

with all required capabilities. The projected advantages of this approach include streamlined cost and 

efficiency, as well as the opportunity to reduce the number of unique interfaces and required standards.

3.2 Improve Assured Data, Services, and Network Interoperability 

While the shared service model offers significant enhancements, it does not guarantee interoperability 

or improved information sharing. Departments and agencies continue to wrestle with the challenge of 

using legacy data, services and systems that have varying degrees of connectivity across and among 

various classified and unclassified networks. IT development often fails to accord sufficient priority 

to interoperability. By planning and prioritizing during the design phase of IT solutions, departments 

and agencies can enjoy community-wide benefits of interoperability while meeting individual mission 

mandates. Increasing interoperability and access to shared services and information improves mission 

success, minimizes complexity, and reduces duplication as well as ongoing sustainment requirements.

3.3 Leverage Collective Demand through Acquisition

An acquisition approach that integrates standards is essential for deploying interoperable technology 

solutions and shared services. Our ability to integrate systems and share information is stronger and 

more adaptable when government departments and agencies partner with one another and industry 

to identify and reuse the best solutions already at the government’s disposal and to develop standardsbased technologies that support multiple missions and communities. Stakeholders are encouraged 

to work with industry to develop and acquire tools and technologies leveraging information sharing 

and safeguarding standards. Federal acquisition policies, including grant policies, should facilitate and 

reward collaboration between departments and agencies resulting in reuse of existing services and 

encouraging development of enterprise-wide acquisition priorities. Aligning acquisition requirements 
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should not only support interoperable technology acquisition, but also should lower incremental costs 

to departments and agencies with fewer acquisitions and reduced processing costs.

4. Strengthen Information Safeguarding through Structural Reform, 

Policy, and Technical Solutions 

4.1 Reform Structures and Policy

Recent information breaches and disclosures highlight vulnerabilities in the protection of sensitive 

and classified information. Continued implementation of structural reform and standardized policies, 

however, will strengthen oversight as well as align security best practices.

The risk of unauthorized disclosure and misuse of information originates from insider threats and external intrusions; structural reforms must address both. The ability to safeguard information depends on 

implementing and strengthening policies and procedures that enable network monitoring and detection of anomalous behavior to identify insider threats and intrusions. Existing coordination bodies sustain 

the focus on information safeguarding and jointly own responsibility for developing effective technical 

policies and standards for coordinating government-wide implementation, conducting independent 

compliance assessments, and holding senior-level officials accountable. Aggregating appropriate 

information from counterintelligence, security, information assurance, and human resource elements, 

across multiple networks and domains, in near-real time, enables the appropriate authorities to proactively reduce and address security breaches. Likewise, developing a coordinated enterprise capability 

to monitor the health of our networks and detect malicious access attempts requires a comprehensive 

understanding of how applications and services are used across networks and security domains. Policies 

and procedures should also address unintended release of information. Prevention, detection, and 

mitigation policies, paired with appropriate supporting technologies, help create the assurance and 

trust among partners to confidently share information.

4.2 Enhance Data-Level Controls, Automated Monitoring, and Cross-Classification 

Solutions

Technology also plays an important role in developing our safeguarding capabilities. Progress requires 

we move from network to data-level controls with application interoperability. Increasingly granular security controls will improve access to information regardless of where information flows and 

strengthen protection against unauthorized disclosure, dissemination, access, and modification of 

information. Automated continuous monitoring, paired with appropriate privacy protections, supports 

shared risk management and enables a near real-time picture of existing or emerging risks.

The focus of information safeguarding efforts in the past was primarily bound to systems and networks 

at specific classification levels. Departments and agencies, however, often identify the need to securely 

share information across systems regardless of classification. Technologies, capabilities, and services 

such as shared computing further accelerate the need for cross-classification sharing. Consequently, we 

need technologies, standards, and common processes to support this critical emerging requirement.
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5. Protect Privacy, Civil Rights, and Civil Liberties through Consistency and 

Compliance

5.1 Increase Consistent Government-Wide Application of Protections

Privacy, civil rights, and civil liberties protections are integral to maintaining the public trust; this is a 

cornerstone of our information sharing and safeguarding efforts. Departments and agencies will need 

to adopt a consistent approach to the foundational privacy, civil rights, and civil liberties protections for 

information they hold, with appropriate provisions for mission-based flexibility in accordance with existing law and policy. This leverages governance bodies and existing procedures, to continually refine and 

establish necessary guidelines for appropriate protections of shared information, such as the Information 

Sharing Environment Privacy Guidelines. Cultivating a comprehensive and efficient approach to defining 

and implementing privacy, civil rights, and civil liberties protections in information sharing between 

both Federal and non-Federal partners sustains applicable legal, regulatory, and policy requirements, 

an imperative for protecting both national security and individual rights.

5.2 Build Protections into the Development of Information Sharing Operations

Protecting privacy, civil rights, and civil liberties is not the exclusive domain of legal counsel and subject 

matter experts. Legal and policy controls on the use and protection of information may be implemented 

through the policy process and integrated in technology. This warrants participation by and coordination 

with program managers, system architects and developers, information assurance personnel, and others 

in program and system design. Addressing privacy, civil rights, and civil liberties early in the planning 

of any new initiative (or in the redesign of existing systems and processes) allows these information 

protections to be considered, built-in, managed, and monitored enterprise-wide.

5.3 Promote Accountability and Compliance Mechanisms

Ensuring compliance through oversight, performance management, and accountability with proper 

enforcement mechanisms is as critical as identifying the protections themselves. Each department and 

agency currently monitors and reports on the rigor of its privacy, civil rights, and civil liberties protections 

using appropriate compliance documentation and performance management techniques. Monitoring 

and measuring compliance verification mechanisms for accountability assists mission partners in 

identifying and addressing vulnerabilities, and in validating they are actively and systematically refining 

protections for individual rights. As we transition to an enterprise-wide approach, protections must be 

continuously reinforced and assessed, including monitoring of access and use controls, analysis of audit 

and usage information, and regular and systematic compliance reviews.

Privacy, civil rights, and civil liberties performance and compliance must evolve along with information 

sharing needs and methods. Going forward, this enterprise-wide model should include implementing 

technological means of reviewing and enforcing privacy, civil rights, and civil liberties protections, 

requirements, and policies.
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V. Way Forward

As stated in the National Security Strategy, “collaboration across the government—and with our partners 

at the state, local, and tribal levels of government, in industry, and abroad—must guide our actions.”

This Strategy serves as a guide for balancing collective efforts to promote responsible sharing and safeguarding in support of national security and to enhance the safety of the American people. Together, 

we can reach beyond legacy information sharing protocols and embed in our missions and cultures the 

assurance decisions are better informed when supported by all relevant information. This also requires, 

however, a balanced commitment to appropriately safeguard information, its sources, and collection 

methods, while also respecting legal and policy restrictions on use. Success depends upon the collective 

ability to achieve equilibrium between sharing and safeguarding, build on past successes, and continue 

the maturation of the Information Sharing Environment.

An integrated implementation plan will be developed to provide a coordinated and sustainable 

approach to accomplish the goals and realize the vision of this Strategy. This plan will focus on achieving priority objectives, sequence stakeholder actions across a five-year horizon, include performance 

measures and milestones, and designate lead departments and agencies. The implementation plan will 

integrate annual programmatic and implementation guidance and synchronize with the Federal budget 

cycle to allow adjustments to actions and deliverables based on annual performance assessments, 

changing priorities, and resource allocations. Implementation planning will involve all departments 

and agencies that support national security and safety, led by the White House, leveraging the strategic 

resourcing processes of the Office of Management and Budget, and managed by departments, agencies, 

and executive agents, as appropriate, based on mission relevance and existing authorities.

Priority Objectives

Top Five 

The following objectives capture the highest five priorities of the Administration in achieving the information sharing and safeguarding goals of this Strategy.

1. Align information sharing and safeguarding governance to foster better decisionmaking, 

performance, accountability, and implementation of the Strategy’s goals.

2. Develop guidelines for information sharing and safeguarding agreements to address common 

requirements, including privacy, civil rights, and civil liberties, while still allowing flexibility to 

meet mission needs.

3. Adopt metadata standards to facilitate federated discovery, access, correlation, and monitoring 

across Federal networks and security domains.

4. Extend and implement the FICAM Roadmap across all security domains.

5. Implement removable media policies, processes and controls; provide timely audit capabilities 

of assets, vulnerabilities, and threats; establish programs, processes and techniques to deter, 
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detect and disrupt insider threats; and share the management of risks, to enhance unclassified 

and classified information safeguarding efforts.

Additional Priority Objectives

The remaining objectives represent additional priority activities for departments, agencies, and other 

stakeholders to advance the goals of this Strategy.

6. Define and adopt baseline capabilities and common requirements to enable data, service, and 

network interoperability.

7. Provide information sharing, safeguarding, and handling training to appropriate stakeholders 

using a common curriculum tailored to promote consistent, yet flexible, and trusted processes.

8. Define and implement common processes and standards to support automated policy-based 

discovery and access decisions.

9. Establish information sharing processes and sector specific protocols, with private sector 

partners, to improve information quality and timeliness and secure the nation’s infrastructure.

10. Develop a reference architecture to support a consistent approach to data discovery and correlation across disparate datasets.

11. Implement the recommendations and activities of the Federal IT Shared Services Strategy 

among appropriate stakeholders to facilitate adoption of shared services.

12. Refine standards certification and conformance processes enabling standards-based acquisition 

among departments and agencies, standards bodies, and vendors to promote interoperable 

products and services.

13. Promote adherence to existing interagency processes to coordinate information sharing 

initiatives with foreign partners, as well as adopt and apply necessary guidelines, consistent 

with statutory authorities and Presidential policy to ensure consistency when sharing and 

safeguarding information.

14. Create a common process across all levels of government for Requests for Information, Alerts, 

Warnings, and Notifications to enable timely receipt and dissemination of information and 

appropriate response.

15. Complete the implementation of the NSI programs in the National Network of Fusion Centers 

and Federal entities while expanding training and outreach beyond law enforcement to the 

rest of the public safety community.

16. Achieve the four Critical Operational Capabilities, four Enabling Capabilities, and other prioritized objectives, across the National Network of Fusion Centers to enable effective and lawful 

execution of their role as a focal point within the state and local environment for the receipt, 

analysis, gathering and sharing of threat-related information.

National security stakeholders across the government, guided by our shared Principles, can now act 

in concert to accomplish these priority objectives and build implementation plans to realize the goals 
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of this Strategy. As we execute the Strategy together, we will harness our collective resolve to treat 

information as a national asset, make it discoverable and retrievable by all authorized users, and arm 

those charged with preserving the security of our nation with all information available to drive decisions 

that protect our country and its people. Only as we work together, hold ourselves accountable, and 

take concerted ownership of advancing our goals, will we achieve the success our country rightfully 

demands and fully deserves.