Australia’s Department of Immigration and Border Protection has announced it is deploying IBM's cognitive computing platform, Watson in a new initiative to boost capabilities. As part of the program, analysts within the Portfolio will use Watson to draw further insights from unstructured data sources such as news feeds and government reports.

Acting Deputy Secretary Intelligence and Capability, Randall Brugeaud, said the Portfolio is looking at how cognitive computing can complement its existing set of risk management capabilities.

"The internet, coupled with modern information and communication technologies has the potential to serve up huge amounts of useful data to our analysts; but this creates the risk of information overload," Mr Brugeaud said.

"We are hoping that Watson will allow us to more effectively manage the information overload problem by detecting signals in the very noisy world of unstructured, open source data. Being able to rapidly expose connections between otherwise isolated threads will allow us to become more effective in our mission."

Mr Brugeaud said that "The Portfolio is taking a leading role in cognitive computing for the Australian Government and is working closely with a number of partner agencies to understand its potential".

The use of Watson is part of a broader program to enhance capabilities in the integrated Department of Immigration and Border Protection and from 1 July 2015, its operational arm: the Australian Border Force.