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By Martin Shubik and Aaron Zelinsky
Published 1/26/2010
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Given the vast scope of vulnerable network systems, future attacks are highly likely. To minimize the costs inflicted by terrorist attacks, governments should focus more resources on post-attack recovery regimes. Shubik and Zelinsky suggest a framework for analyzing the vulnerable network resources in the United States with an eye toward recovery. They conclude by proposing three central goals that are currently underemphasized in U.S. policy: detection of attacks in real time, effective public relations during and after attacks, and emphasis on post-attack recovery. In this context, they examine three vulnerable network systems: the public highways, the water system, and the power grid.
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By Nary Subramanian
Published 12/31/2009
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Oil pipeline supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) systems monitor and help control pipes transporting both crude and refined petroleum products. Typical SCADA systems employ a client-server architecture where data collected by clients are collected and stored centrally at the server. However, this has several vulnerabilities, including excessive reliance on the central server, links between the clients and servers providing points for illegal access, and often porous authentication mechanisms. At the business level, the client-server architecture fails to satisfy security concerns even more: business continuity depends critically on the central master, and adaptability of the system to match business changes is suspect. Service-oriented architecture (SOA) helps to improve security of SCADA systems by providing much better adaptation to business-level security concerns, especially by incorporating Business Process Execution Language for Web Services (BPEL4WS). In this article Subramanian describes an SOA-based architecture for an oil pipeline SCADA system that employs BPEL4WS for providing improved security compared to traditional architectures. An SOA-based SCADA divides the entire length of the pipeline system into zones; services offered within a zone are controlled by the zone master, and zone masters periodically update the group master, which is a role assigned dynamically to one of the zone masters based on business considerations. The system is validated by developing an SOA-based system using NetBeans that implements the zone and group masters as BPEL4WS services.
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By C. W. Swonger
Published 12/4/2009
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C. W. Swonger introduces the compelling requirements for the information architecture of a highly reliable surveillance system, suggesting a structure for the hierarchy of descriptors of the visually observable form of human figures in an intelligent automated visual surveillance system. He describes the processing functions performed on such information in a decision system driven by a relational database and reviews the requirements for an economically and operationally beneficial security system for both domestic and international and military scenarios in the context of this system architecture. He also discusses the value of a distributed architecture and a client-server information-handling model for ensuring system application flexibility.
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By James E. McGinley
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In Freedom’s Unsteady March: America’s Role in Building Arab Democracy, Tamara Cofman Wittes challenges the failure of the Bush administration to advance its democracy agenda and the inability of incumbent Arab states to accommodate the rising needs and aspirations of their citizens. At stake is world stability in the face of an unsustainable status quo and seismic forces of social change. James E. McGinley reviews the book.
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By Mark S. Hamm
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Terrorism as Crime brings a practical criminological perspective to the counterterrorism field, which tends to be dominated by studies of the sociopolitical factors that stimulate such terrorist groups, rather than studies of the means by which such groups support themselves and execute their plans. The analysis and policy advice, supported by detailed dissections of counterterrorism investigations and trials, may appeal to government officials and the layperson alike. Joseph Wheatley reviews the book.
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By Yukinori Komine
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Professor Komine has produced a very useful book on a seminal period of American and world history, says reviewer Richard C. Thornton. Writing about the U.S. opening to China, based on newly available archival material, Komine takes the reader through the labyrinthine intricacies of Washington’s bureaucratic politics, describing concentric rings of secrecy in which only the President himself knew the full magnitude of the events he set in motion, including others only as they became integral to the implementation of his vision. Richard C. Thornton reviews the book.
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Articles last updated 1/26/2010
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Book Reviews last updated 6/15/2009
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By Amitai Etzioni
Published 2/9/2010
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Our coastlines are wide open.
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By Barry Kellman
Published 1/26/2010
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“How should we cope with a massive anthrax attack, and how can we prepare now so that our coping is optimal?” asks Barry Kellman. The policy progress manifest in President Obama’s Dec. 31 executive order “Medical Countermeasures Following a Biological Attack” and the Homeland Security Department’s Proposed Guidance for Protecting Responders’ Health During the First Week Following a Wide-Area Anthrax Attack” indicates a serious and commendable commitment to address anthrax threats. The question remains, however, whether all of these programs and policies add up to produce security from biothreats and whether more might usefully be done.
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By Peter Humphrey
Published 1/5/2010
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Al-Qaeda’s surprisingly competent tradecraft strongly suggests that it will attempt to pass off some its membership as out-of-area Latins to infiltrate the United States through our southern border. Western intelligence agencies must begin to discern and track Spanish-speaking Muslims aggressively.
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7/17/2008
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The journal interviews Elaine C. Duke, Homeland Security Deputy Under Secretary for Management, about the Homeland Security Department’s plans for the transition to a new presidential administration.
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10/16/2006
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The journal interviews Admiral Thad Allen, Commandant, U.S. Coast Guard, who discusses the challenges facing the Coast Guard today.
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5/24/2006
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Quartel discusses the Dubai Ports World sale, cargo security, and international trade.
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Commentaries last updated 2/9/2010
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Interviews last updated 7/17/2008
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Homeland Security Institute
2900 South Quincy Street
Arlington, VA 22206 |
U.S. Department of
Homeland Security
Washington, D.C. 20528
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