Dun and Bradstreet has been supplying business intelligence to the federal government for the past two and a half decades, but in the past five years, the government has dramatically increased its use of the company’s data. The Homeland Security Department and the intelligence community in particular rely on D&B information for risk mitigation.

Federal officials sometimes use the data simply to validate a company’s address, for example, said Chris Corrie, an assistant vice president of D&B’s federal sector business development group. But the database offers additional information, such as whether the business is active and operational, pays taxes, has a high credit risk, or is registered with the secretary of state.

Lauren Jones, director of consulting at the market research firm Input, said local, state and federal government agencies need accurate third-party business intelligence such as that supplied by D&B, LexisNexis and Hoover’s. Some federal agencies ask Input, which collects information about government contracts and the information technology market, for information about vendors and IT spending.

Michael Caskin, an assistant vice president of D&B’s federal sector business development group, said the company provides corroborating evidence about a particular business from trusted third-party documentary sources, such as the secretary of state or payment histories from other organizations.

“So if there’s an entity that’s a trusted part of your supply chain, and then D&B tells you that company has just filed bankruptcy and ceased operations, and yet they’re still actively engaged in your system, that might be a red flag,” Caskin said. “It’s those fundamental uses of the information that has high interest in DHS.”

Corrie said agencies use the data to identify bad or questionable companies and locate good ones. “If you’re looking for a needle in a haystack, we’re reducing that haystack immediately by eliminating the businesses that have a solid track record and are well-known to us,” he said.

D&B, which was founded in 1841 as the Mercantile Agency in New York City, has about 4,700 employees worldwide and generates $1.5 billion in revenue annually. It paid little attention to the government sector until the 2001 terrorist attacks. After that event, federal agencies wanted better business intelligence.