Computers and Homeland Security

Overview After the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, security became a major concern of citizens and lawmakers. Although the term "homeland security" is sometimes interchanged with the term "homeland defense," many government officials stress that "homeland security" encompasses policies, laws, organizations, and procedures designed to protect the rights and freedoms inherent in the US Constitution, whereas "homeland defense" deals with extra-territorial threats and preemptive operations. For a comprehensive description of homeland security and homeland defense, you can refer to the Department of Homeland Security training page at www.dhs.gov/xfrstresp/training/.

On October 8, 2001, the President of the United States issued an executive order to create the Department of Homeland security (DHS). The DHS mission statement is: "We will lead the unified national effort to secure America. We will prevent and deter terrorist attacks and protect against and respond to threats and hazards to the nation. We will ensure safe and secure borders, welcome lawful immigrants and visitors, and promote the free-flow of commerce." You can read more about the Department of Homeland Security at its Web site www.dhs.gov.

Computers and the Patriot Act On October 26, 2001, the President of the United States signed the Patriot Act, which was designed to define terrorist activities and provide law enforcement officials with legal tools for finding, catching, and prosecuting terrorists. The Act is controversial because, according to civil liberty advocates, many provisions of the Act appear to limit individual freedom and rights guaranteed under the Constitution. Lawmakers are finding it difficult to balance security and privacy to fend off terrorist threats without trampling civil liberties. You’ll find a summary of the Patriot Act and links to discussions of its ramifications, at Wikipedia. Be aware, however, that the information there tends to be negative. For an in-depth critique of the Patriot Act as it relates to online activities and the Internet, connect to the Electronic Frontier Foundation. You can find additional criticisms at the Center for Democracy and Technology Web site www.cdt.org/security/usapatriot/analysis.shtml.

US-CERT Established in September 2003, US-CERT’s mission is to protect the nation's Internet infrastructure. It is responsible for analyzing and reducing cyber threats and vulnerabilities, disseminating cyber threat warning information, and coordinating incident response activities. US-CERT is the operational arm of the National Cyber Security Division (NCSD) at the Department of Homeland Security. It operates the National Cyber Alert System that identifies, analyzes, and prioritizes emerging threats, including viruses and intrusions. You might want to look at the Cyber Security Tips to make sure you are doing everything you can to secure your computer against threats. You can also sign up for CyberSecurity Alerts by e-mail at www.us-cert.gov/cas.

Database Analysis Computers are a key tool in the fight against terrorism. Many experts believe that technology will be able to sort through mountains of data collected from intercepted phone calls, travel records, and watch lists. The NPR Web site offers a good overview of antiterrorist technology.

According to FCW.com, data mining can be applied to databases to comb through vast amounts of digital information, discover patterns, and identify relationships that could indicate criminal activity. Similar technologies are commonly used by businesses to track consumer activity and predict their behavior. A potential problem with this technology is that it might identify patterns that, when applied, lead to false arrest of innocent citizens. Whether computers can be programmed to pick out meaningful activity patterns from databases and identify terrorists is yet to be determined.

The United States government is researching the use of databases and data mining to collect and analyze information pertaining to terrorist activities. Projects include Terrorist Information Awareness (renamed from Total Information Awareness). As with many other antiterrorism programs, the TIA came under fire for potential violation of civil liberties. Funding for this project was withdrawn by congress pending a detailed report about its purpose and scope. According to a Wired magazine article, however, some of the funding for TIA was redirected to similar programs. So research into the technology continues.

Computer translation Documents and phone call transcripts pour into U.S. security agencies, but there’s one catch—much of the data is not English. Computers can be used to translate documents and have become more sophisticated at this task thanks to research for ordinary text-to-speech and voice recognition technologies. You’ll find an article about computers translating Arabic documents at www.al-bab.com/arab/comp2.htm.