Microsoft launches public safety software
Connecting state and local government leaders
Microsoft Corp. has launched a suite of Citizen Safety Architecture software-as-a-service (SaaS) applications aimed at helping government organizations involved with public safety and security as well as a vision for additional applications.
Microsoft Corp. has launched a suite of Citizen Safety Architecture software-as-a-service (SaaS) applications aimed at helping government organizations involved with public safety and security as well as a vision for additional applications.
According to Andrew Hawkins, director of public safety solutions at Microsoft, the program "is a result of five years of work with governments, partners and academia worldwide." So far, the program has resulted in six applications that support four primary public-safety missions: safety management, emergency and event management, intelligence and investigation, and mission operations.
Among the applications highlighted at the symposium were:
- Eagle, a program developed by Netherlands Microsoft, Geodan and ESRI for disaster management
- Microsoft Intelligence Framework, an application that helps local, national and international law enforcement organizations share information
- Microsoft Incident Response Platform, a set of applications from a variety of partners that employs geospatial information viewers to deliver data and role guidance to incident responders.
The architecture in Citizen Safety Architecture refers to underlying Microsoft technologies -- namely, Sharepoint, FusionX and Single View Platform -- that are also used in other vertical, industry-specific offerings, such as the recently announced Public Sector On-Demand Solutions program.
Microsoft also announced its support for INTERPOL's Global Security Initiative. Specifically, Microsoft agreed to provide its Computer Online Forensic Evidence Extractor (COFEE) tool free of charge to INTERPOL for international distribution. COFEE is a Microsoft-developed application that uses common digital forensics tools to help officers at the scene of a crime gather evidence of live computer activity that would otherwise be lost in a traditional offline forensic analysis.
COFEE, said Thomas Fuentes, a member of INTERPOL's executive committee, "will enable investigators to track the connections made, the cache memory in the system, before the machines are shut off and taken into custody. It's an extremely valuable tool to enable us to determine the entire structure and scope of a criminal network or a terrorist network."
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