The Data Loading and Analysis System (DaLAS) is an electronic

database In computing, a database is an organized collection of data stored and accessed electronically. Small databases can be stored on a file system, while large databases are hosted on computer clusters or cloud storage. The design of databases spa ...

used by the

Federal Bureau of Investigation The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic intelligence and security service of the United States and its principal federal law enforcement agency. Operating under the jurisdiction of the United States Department of Justice, ...

and

United States Intelligence Community United may refer to: Places * United, Pennsylvania, an unincorporated community * United, West Virginia, an unincorporated community Arts and entertainment Films * United (2003 film), ''United'' (2003 film), a Norwegian film * United (2011 film) ...

for counterintelligence and counterterrorism investigations. It is used to store copies of seized digital media, including

disk image A disk image, in computing, is a computer file containing the contents and structure of a disk volume or of an entire data storage device, such as a hard disk drive, tape drive, floppy disk, optical disc, or USB flash drive. A disk image is usu ...

s of CD-ROMs,

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kin ...

hard drive A hard disk drive (HDD), hard disk, hard drive, or fixed disk is an electro-mechanical data storage device that stores and retrieves digital data using magnetic storage with one or more rigid rapidly rotating platters coated with magne ...

mobile phone A mobile phone, cellular phone, cell phone, cellphone, handphone, hand phone or pocket phone, sometimes shortened to simply mobile, cell, or just phone, is a portable telephone that can make and receive telephone call, calls over a radio freq ...

s, and raw network feeds, as well as scans of physical documents. DaLAS supports the upload, processing, and classification of media, and provides a central, remotely accessed, searchable repository of data. The full details of DaLAS, including the number of files and total amount of stored data, are classified. During a 2011 investigation in the aftermath of the

2009 Fort Hood shooting On November 5, 2009, a mass shooting took place at Fort Hood, near Killeen, Texas. Nidal Hasan, a U.S. Army major and psychiatrist, fatally shot 13 people and injured more than 30 others. It was the deadliest mass shooting on an American m ...

, a query of

Nidal Malik Hasan Nidal (in Arabic نضال meaning warrior in Arabic) is a given name in Arabic. It may refer to: *Mohammad Nidal al-Shaar (born 1956), Syrian politician and government minister *Abou Nidal, Côte d'Ivoirian singer *Umm Nidal (1948–2013), Palesti ...

's personal email account returned a result on a hard drive image stored on DaLAS. The drive had been seized in 2007 in an unrelated New Jersey tax case. The match was a message posted to a web forum by Hasan on February 10, 2005, asking whether doctors should prescribe intoxicating medications under

Sharia law Sharia (; ar, شريعة, sharīʿa ) is a body of religious law that forms a part of the Islamic tradition. It is derived from the religious precepts of Islam and is based on the sacred scriptures of Islam, particularly the Quran and the ...

References

{{reflist Federal Bureau of Investigation

See also

References