Mission impossible? [FBI computer network]

With a new computer network automated investigative tools, and more channels for sharing information, the FBI hopes to finally know what it knows. The fall of 2001 saw the start of an ambitious program of modernization, which seems to recognize that the barriers that prevent the FBI from analyzing and sharing data are as much cultural as technological. These include accelerating a bureau-wide overhaul of basic computer hardware, software, and network infrastructure and replacing the FBI's ancient DOS-based Automated Case Support (ACS) database with a more user-friendly Windows-based system that can search on not just text but also photos, video and audio records, known as the Virtual Case File system.