After 9/11, Bonner put in a funding request for around US$500 million to set up a variety of projects and expand technologies in order to simultaneously boost security and prevent interruptions to a smooth-running economy.

"We could not have succeeded in achieving those twin goals without technology in integrated systems," he said at a Strategic Policy Institute seminar in Canberra on Wednesday.

CBP started building its automated targeting system in 2001 with help from Unisys which provided support for requirement analysis, systems and software design and artificial intelligence technologies for the system, which collects, collates and analyses data on cargo and people.

"Our automated targeting system could be improved even more, with more visibility into the supply chain, for instance. More visibility and more data translates into greater security and more efficiency," he said.

Bonner said that through using the technology in its automated targeting systems, the CBP processed a lot more cargo shipments (around 30,000 of which arrive in US ports each day) than it would have been able to otherwise.