Homeland Security Startup To Bring Together Providers, Clients And Funding

In the year-and-a-half since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the people behind Homeland Security Development Corp. (HSDC) have envisioned just that: an online clearinghouse where IT and other solution providers could locate,and be located by,municipal government customers that want help devising a cybersecurity strategy, a more secure computer network, or other efforts.

"There is a major disconnect between the solutions being generated and the [federal, state and local governments] that so need these things," said Ann Kayman, CEO of New York Grant, which teamed with ASP Group Intelligence to create HSDC, slated to launch in a few weeks. "If I were a [government] official and I knew that I needed desperately to shore up my infrastructure or secure my employees, how do I even begin?"

Kayman, who served in former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani's administration before founding New York Grant, said that at the outset, HSDC will focus primarily on tackling problems faced by businesses still struggling to respond to the need for enhanced network security in the aftermath of the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

Neither solution providers nor customers have to be based in New York to participate in HSDC.

Ed Chatlos, president of Group Intelligence, said vendors that become part of the pool of companies in HSDC will post a description of their skills and experience for prospective customers to peruse. The vendors also will indicate which types of grants they are looking for, whether funding for the creation of a VPN or a biometrics solution or a secure wireless LAN.

"We will let them seek grants that may be available in state or federal programs," said Peter Watts, chairman of Group Intelligence. The New York-based company's technology will make it possible for IT services vendors to find customers and learn about federal monies that they may be eligible for to apply toward projects, he said.

Norman Jacknis, CIO of Westchester County in New York, said he is advising HSDC now, and Westchester County might become a customer in the future. The county tackled homeland security-related projects long before the term became commonplace, he said.

Jacknis pointed to the 1993 attack on the World Trade Center as being one of the catalysts for that effort, which has intensified not only because of the events of Sept. 11, but also because of the fact that the Indian Point Energy Center,a nuclear complex cited by some as a terrorist target,is within the county's borders.

For example, "on the bioterrorism front, we had a pre-[Sept. 11] project to get nightly feeds from the local hospitals to see if we can identify any unusual patterns" of patient symptoms, Jacknis said. "We collect the data and then pull it together in one common database and pass it through some statistical analysis overnight." If 50 people were to suddenly experience breathing or other respiratory problems, hospital officials would be advised to look more closely at the affected group to rule out that their sickness did not stem from the deliberate release of a toxic substance, he said.

Such projects are typically not very costly, Jacknis said, but they can have "dramatic results. Some of this [preparation relies primarily on] the sheer will to do it."