New England HIDTA: Federal-Grade Intelligence Portal & Mission-Critical Infrastructure
A high-security dual-architecture ecosystem engineered for the ONDCP to facilitate inter-agency coordination and secure document distribution following a critical system compromise.
Project type
Federal Infrastructure & Intelligence Portal
Custom Engineering
Rapid-Deployment Secure Document Engine
Core Capability
Tiered Document Classification & Inter-Agency Coordination
Software Architecture
Serverless & Monolith Custom Architecture
Challenge
New England HIDTA coordinates over 20 federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies to combat drug trafficking across six states. Following a severe cyber-attack on their legacy platform, the organization required an immediate, professional, and ultra-secure digital replacement. The challenge was twofold: they needed a public-facing platform to manage regional initiatives, hiring, and event subscriptions, and a private, "Zero-Trust" Task Force Admin Portal for sensitive document distribution. As a 2-person elite team, we were brought in as second-tier contractors to provide a "clean-room" engineering environment where sensitive data could be protected through absolute accountability and a minimized human attack surface.
Areas of Expertise
Solution
We architected a bespoke dual-layer solution designed for rapid recovery and long-term structural integrity.
The Task Force Admin Portal (The "Secure Vault"): Engineered with a high-performance Django/React frontend and a PostgreSQL backend, we built a proprietary document management system. Functioning as a bespoke, federal-grade alternative to Google Drive, this portal allows administrators to classify intelligence documents into specific access tiers. We implemented a secure URL-sharing protocol and tiered permissions, ensuring that sensitive information reached only vetted personnel. To maintain the highest security standards, our team worked exclusively with dummy data, ensuring that the development pipeline remained entirely air-gapped from real-world intelligence.
The Public Infrastructure: For the public-facing CMS, we utilized Wix/Velo integrated with a MongoDB cluster to handle high-volume search queries for public regional data. We engineered a behavioral-first UI, including a custom events engine that allows users to securely subscribe to training sessions and coordination dates.
By delivering this infrastructure in a high-pressure, post-attack environment, we restored New England HIDTA’s operational capacity and provided a secure, scalable framework that facilitates the combine and leverage of resources across the entire New England law enforcement network.
