Headquartered in Virginia,[1] the company blends proprietary analytic tools and Artificial Intelligence to produce a homonymous software system to help its users find patterns indicative of terrorist attacks and other criminal events.

The system provides a common operating platform for analysis and information sharing between various government and private sector entities.

The assumption is that terrorists and criminals are vulnerable due to their need to conduct pre-attack surveillance, "such as photographing, measuring and signaling".

Such suspicious activities, as detected in imagery or human reports, are entered into a database using a "10-characteristic description of individuals" or vehicle information.

In one leaked email, Stratfor vice president Fred Burton stated TrapWire is in place at every high-value target in New York City, Washington, D.C., and Los Angeles, as well as London and Ottawa.