In court filings Colin claimed that he used the pa...

2006-07-16T08:38:00.000-05:00

In court filings Colin claimed that he used the passwords and other information to bypass bureaucratic obstacles and better help the FBI install its then-new but now failed Trilogy computer system. Colon was frustrated over "bureaucratic" obstacles, such as obtaining a written authorization from the FBI's Washington headquarters for "routine" matters such as adding a printer or moving a new computer onto the system. Colon used the hacked user names and passwords to bypass the authorization process and speed up the work. Because FBI employees are required to change their passwords every 90 days, Colon hacked into the system on three later occasions to update his password list.

Colon's lawyers said FBI officials in the Springfield office approved of what he was doing, and that one agent even gave Colon his own password, enabling him to get to the encrypted database in March 2004.

The Trilogy system Colon was workng on is a celebrated failure in the annals of information technology. Before being abandoned in 2005 after $535 million in Federal expenditures, Trilogy achieved some successful hardware upgrades, bringing thousands of new PCs to bureau workers and agents. But the project's goal, the creation of a software system called the Virtual Case File — was abandoned last year.

The FBI announced in March that it would spend an additional $425 million in an attempt to finish the job. The new system would be called "Sentinel." Will we pass the 1-billion dollar mark? Stay tuned.

Reviewing the failure of the originall Virtual Case File (VCF) system in a devastating 81-page audit last year, Glenn A. Fine, the U.S. Department of Justice's inspector general, described eight factors that contributed to the VCF's failure. Among them: poorly defined and slowly evolving design requirements; overly ambitious schedules; and the lack of a plan to guide hardware purchases, network deployments, and software development for the bureau. Now we can add to the inspector general Fine's list: maddening bureaucratic obstacles thrown in the path of anyone hired to add even a new printer.

Fine concluded that four years after terrorists crashed jetliners into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, the FBI, which had been criticized for not "connecting the dots" in time to prevent the attacks, still did not have the software necessary to connect any new dots that might come along. And won't for years to come.

"The archaic Automated Case Support system which some agents have avoided using is cumbersome, inefficient, and limited in its capabilities, and does not manage, link, research, analyze, and share information as effectively or timely as needed," Fine wrote. "[T]he continued delays in developing the VCF affect the FBI's ability to carry out its critical missions."

The incident is the latest in a long string of foul-ups, delays and embarrassments that have plagued the FBI as it tries to update its computer systems. Better computer technology might have enabled agents to more closely link men who later turned out to be involved in the Sept. 11 attacks, according to government reviews.

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In court filings Colin claimed that he used the pa...