DHS bomb prevention program sees uptick in users.

• Author: Magnuson, Stew
• Position: Homeland Security News

* After seeing a stagnant number of users for the first four years, a Department of Homeland Security webportal designed to share information on improvised explosive devices is finally beginning to grow, a representative of the TRIPwire program said.

Part of DHS' office of bombing prevention, the clearinghouse for information on homemade bombs and explosive materials intended for first responders has seen an increase in users due in part to more aggressive outreach efforts, said Dennis Malloy, who represents the program.

TRIPwire began in 2006 and had between 7,000 and 10,000 users during its first four years, Malloy said at the GovSec conference in Washington, D.C. Awareness campaigns were mostly restricted to booths set up at law enforcement conferences, and those numbers rarely changed. Representatives are now traveling to police academies, bomb squad units and other first responder agencies to give three-hour presentations on what the portal has to offer. The program signs up users on the spot, and their numbers have now grown to more than 14,000.

It once enrolled one or two new members per week. That has grown to about 100 new participants per week, he said.

TRIPwire has a staff of about 40 to 50 analysts in the Washington area who are either former military bomb disposal specialists or linguists. They scour the Internet for information on the latest IED incidents domestically and throughout the world.

The "TRIP" in TRIPwire stands for "Technical Resource for Incident Prevention." Along with intelligence reports, it offers online tutorials to help first responders recognize bomb-making materials, or...