ACIC to deploy archTIS platform for secure inter-agency sharing

The Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission is set to begin using archTIS’ secure information sharing platform for work relating to the development of the national criminal intelligence system (NCIS).

The cloud-based Kojensi Gov platform from the Canberra-based vendor will be used by the agency’s NCIS team to “facilitate secure collaboration” with other law enforcement agencies.

The NCIS is intended to replace the ageing Australian criminal intelligence database (ACID), which has been used since 1984 and still relies on green screen architecture to share and analyse criminal information and intelligence.

ACIC has been developing the long-awaited system to “provide a national, unified picture of criminal activity” since securing $59.1 million for tranche one of the build in the 2018 federal budget.

The funding followed a two-year program that saw the trial of a pilot system used by 800 users in 20 law enforcement, law compliance and regulatory agencies.

The government’s has since provided an additional $59 million for the first phase of the build, though the investment is nowhere near the $400 million that the project is expected to need to be completed.

The Kojensi Gov platform, which is hosted on Vault Cloud's ASD-certified cloud platform, is expected to be used by all Commonwealth, state and territory law enforcement agencies involved in the project.

The deal with ACIC, which is initially worth $235,250, will support 150 NCIS members over a 15-month term, though archTIS expects the number of users to grow over time.

The agreement, which can be extended for a further two years, also covers up to 200 hours of additional services.

archTIS said ACIC had chosen Kojensi Gov due to its “strict security protocols required as part of the NCIS program”, as well as its need to collaborate with “geographically dispersed” users.

The ACIC is the second federal government agency to begin using the platform, following take up by the Attorney-General’s Department.

The department, which was the first beta tester for the platform last year, began using Kojensi Gov in September for secure collaboration with external government and non-government agencies.