Washington ( CNN ) -- The U.S. government has lowered the threshold for information deemed important enough to put suspicious individuals on a watch list or no-fly list , or have their visa revoked , senior State Department officials tell CNN . The government overhauled criteria it uses for putting possible terrorists on such lists as a result of the failed Christmas Day attack , officials said . They spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the material . Umar Farouk AbdulMutallab , the 23-year-old Nigerian who allegedly launched the failed attack , was not put on a no-fly list . That 's because the information his father provided a U.S. embassy about his son becoming radicalized and possibly going to Yemen did not meet then-applicable standards to put him on such a list or to cancel his visa . `` Based on the criteria , he fell below the line and went into our database , but not a watch list or no-fly list , and his visa was n't revoked based on the analysis of the threat , '' one senior official said . `` We have a new standard now , which will allow us to capture more people . '' Under the new standard , officials said , AbdulMutallab would have been put on a no-fly list and his visa likely would have been revoked . Another official said that if all relevant agencies had the entire intelligence picture , including National Security Agency ( NSA ) intercepts about a `` Nigerian '' possibly planning an attack against the U.S. , AbdulMutallab `` would have absolutely been no-fly listed and his visa would have been revoked . '' Since the attempted attack , the intelligence community has scrubbed the entire Terrorist Identities Datamart Environment ( TIDE ) database of more than 500,000 suspects with the new criteria , adding additional individuals to the U.S. watch lists and no-fly lists as a result . Several visas have also been revoked . `` Rest assured that in light of what happened on December 25 , we 've gone back over these databases and there have been additional actions taken , '' Assistant Secretary Philip J. Crowley told reporters . He declined to provide statistics , saying the numbers were constantly changing . When discussing the new threshold , officials suggested it is more an art than science . `` The threshold might be how much information do you have ? What kid of confidence do you have in the information that is available , '' the first senior official said . `` It will involve an assessment of risk , the perception of risk and our tolerance of risk . '' But the officials suggested the new standard is much lower than before December 25 . For example , decisions could be taken to put someone on a no-fly list or a watch list based on one credible source , instead of the previous standard of using multiple sources . `` We had a new threat , and we are going to , for a period of time , tilt back to a more conservative approach , '' the official said . Officials recognize the costs for grounding more people and providing extra screening for passengers from specific countries , pointing to blowback from several countries who are protesting their inclusion on the list . Cuba called in the head of the U.S. Interest Section , and Nigeria called in the U.S. ambassador to formally protest the move .
CIA changed procedures it has because of failed Christmas Day attack . Sheikh Umar Farouk , was not put on a no - fly list . Sources say intelligence community has reviewed entire terrorist database since attack . They say names have been put to watch , no - fly lists and visas revoked .