eGuardian

Introduction

When planning an attack terrorists frequently engage in surveillance and otherwise suspicious activities. The detection and dissemination of these suspicious activities is vital to preventing and disrupting potential terrorist acts. In 2006, two men were arrested and charged after they were caught videotaping the U.S. Capitol building, the World Bank, a Masonic temple, and a fuel depot in Washington, D.C. and then sending the video tapes overseas to terrorist groups. In 2007, authorities disrupted a terrorist plot in Germany when they apprehended multiple suspects conducting surveillance at U.S. military facilities near the town of Hanau.

eGuardian was developed to help meet the challenges of collecting and sharing terrorism-related activities amongst law enforcement agencies across various jurisdictions. The eGuardian system is a sensitive but unclassified (SBU) information sharing platform hosted through Law Enforcement Online (LEO).

The eGuardian system allows law enforcement agencies to combine new suspicious activity reports (SARs) along with existing (legacy) SAR reporting systems to form a single information repository accessible to thousands of law enforcement personnel. The information captured in eGuardian is also migrated to the FBI’s internal Guardian system, where it is assigned to the appropriate Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF) for any further investigative action.

History

On January 1, 2009, the FBI initiated a limited release of the eGuardian system. eGuardian was conceived in 2007 in response to the President’s National Strategy for Information Sharing, which created a national initiative to share terrorism-related information across federal, state, local, and tribal jurisdictions.

Since its inception, eGuardian has experienced significant growth in both the number of users and agencies contributing SARs to the system. eGuardian has also become a part of the Nationwide SAR Initiative (NSI).

eGuardian User Base

eGuardian is designed to be used by federal, state, local, and tribal law enforcement agencies and the Department of Defense. Participating agencies are able to provide, view, and analyze SAR and other terrorism-related information.

Currently, eGuardian is used by agencies in 50 states and the District of Columbia. This includes 114 state and federal fusion centers. The Joint Terrorism Task Forces also share SARs and provide assessment updates from the FBI’s internal threat tracking system (Guardian).

Need Access?

For eGuardian access, please follow these steps:

1. The eGuardian system can be accessed through www.leo.gov by sworn law enforcement officials and by those working in a direct law enforcement capacity (i.e. analysts, TLOs, etc.). If you do not have access to LEO, an application is available on its website.

2. On the LEO homepage, click on the eGuardian link under “Partnered Sites” to access the eGuardian Special Interest Group (SIG) page.

3. Click “Request AGENCY Access to eGuardian” if your agency is not currently using eGuardian. Once your agency has an account, individual users may join.

4. Click “Request INDIVIDUAL Access to eGuardian” to request access to the system. All potential users within an agency need to submit their own individual requests to access eGuardian.

5. Our eGuardian Outreach Team will contact your agency once access is requested. It will verify your agency and new user information as well as assist with logging on to the system for the first time.

For further information or assistance, please call our Help Desk at (866) 672-9763 or e-mail eguard-mod@leo.gov.