Air Cargo Security Requirements – Impact on the Supply Chain | American Airlines Cargo Business Insights A hot topic at the Air Cargo Europe Conference in Munich, Germany last month was discussed by industry leaders, representing various aspects of the Supply Chain, in a panel session titled “Security Requirements – Their Impact on the Supply […]
RealClearWorld – Reuters – World – Aug 11, 2011 – UK may disrupt social networks during unrest Britain is considering disrupting online social networking such as Blackberry Messenger and Twitter during civil unrest, Prime Minister David Cameron said Thursday, a move widely condemned as repressive when used by other countries.
I have been saying for a while that cyber terrorism is a real threat, and one with which we will need to grapple TODAY. Others, some frankly with far more eminence than I have, disagree. Yet, at the recent BlackHat conference, Cofer Black, the counter terrorism expert who lead the CIA’s efforts against Al Qaeda for President George W. Bush, joined “my side” of the debate. Cofer Black is no Propeller-Headed Geek; he is a hardcore practitioner who has fought terrorists his entire career. He knows how they think, act and believe, and he acknowledges cyber terror as an issue.
For the past several years, DHS has quietly been testing various forms of advanced technology to identify, detect and deter criminal and/or terrorist acts before they happen. It appears DHS is trying to emulate the Tom Cruise movie “Minority Report.” Yet, several experts believe that relying on the current technology will create many false positives, targeting innocent people for additional questioning and slowing down security queues at busy airports. We don’t need to waste scarce government monetary resources trying to develop “thought crime software.”
An electromagnetic pulse (EMP) attack – produced by a nuclear weapon detonated at a high altitude or by a geomagnetic storm – has the potential to decimate America’s electrical and technological infrastructure. The Commission to Assess the Threat to the United States from Electromagnetic Pulse Attack found that an EMP is a threat to our society and military. Yet, despite broad consensus, Congress has yet to act in a substantive manner. For the most part, U.S. government agencies have not taken planning for their response to an EMP attack out of the theoretical stages.
As the 10-year mark since the attacks of September 11 approaches, the images I saw from my house across the Hudson River are still fresh in my mind. It was a defining moment for our country. The event took friends from us too soon, changed our ideas of safety, changed our understanding of the vulnerabilities in our systems, and had a profound impact on all of us, both as individuals and as a country. As we approach the 10-year commemorative, we pause to reflect the journey 10 years on.
“FEMA will not save you,” said Michael Brown, former director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
A new report from the DHS Office of the Inspector General is a reminder of our rail system’s vulnerability to attack. While the report criticizes DHS’s oversight of rail security spending, the more important issue is that our rail and mass transportation systems continue to remain vulnerable. Globally, there are about 90 terrorist attacks per month on surface transport, with a third of those targets being trains.
The elaborate extortion bomb hoax in Sydney is an active reminder that extortion and kidnap for ransom are very real threats. This threat is real, not only in Australia but globally. Extortion through terror is often dismissed as some form of Latin American phenomenon, but that simply isn’t true. If something can be imagined, it can be done.
I know lots of people who have written about how “wild” the cyber realm is today, and the lack of “rules” makes it a Hobbesian State of Nature. The bottom line is that in cyber, there is an incredible freedom to digitally take matters into ones own hands. The concept of nation states having a monopoly on the instruments of power is simply not true in cyber, and it does not matter how big ones biceps are if you can work a keyboard.
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