Numerical Integrated Processing System

Overview
The Numerical Integrated Processing System (NIPS) is a web-based strategic analytical tool used by U.S. Department of Homeland Security agents and analysts to manipulate, compare, and analyze large data sets of commercial, passenger, financial, and enforcement data. Stakeholders in this project include the ICE Intelligence Division, ICE Field Intelligence Units, ICE Office of Investigations, CBP Intelligence Division, CBP Office of Field Operations, CBP National Targeting Center, Container Security Initiative, and Customs Trade Partnership against Terrorism.

NIPS enables users to identify anomalies that are indicative of possible criminal activity, including illicit actions in support of terrorism, money laundering, tax evasion, weapons proliferation, immigration violations, and drug smuggling. Using an On-Line Analytical Processing (OLAP) tool, NIPS leverages a manual approach to quickly respond to ad hoc queries across multiple databases.

Functional capabilities include link analysis, rule-based intelligence, power search, summary reports, and geospatial integration. According to a senior ICE official, NIPS greatly enhances the overall capability of DHS to identify, target, and disrupt potential acts of terrorism.

Source

 * Survey of DHS Data Mining Activities, at 15.