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Terrorists have lots of options in gathering mission-critical information, so they’re not likely to turn to geospatial information as their first source, according to a report from Rand Corp. Publicly available geospatial data often lacks the detail and timeliness that terrorists require for planning, researchers said. As a result, Rand officials found that less than one percent of the 629 federal data sets they studied appeared to have notable value to would-be attackers. These sites, which have since been removed, combined useful and unique information, according to the Rand report, entitled “Mapping the Risks.” The study looked at what federal geospatial data is available to the public and how critical that information is to the attackers’ missions. The report drew distinctions among what is necessary to complete an attack; what is useful, but not necessary; and what is nonessential. Full Story