Transportation%20Security:%20The%20Threat,%20The%20Challenges%20and%20Our%20Next%20Steps

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Transportation Security The Threat, The
Challenges and Our Next Steps

• Eva Lerner-LamChair, ASCE Transportation
  Security Committee
• American Society of Civil Engineers
• Infrastructure Security of the Built Environment
• Washington, DC
• November 6, 2002

PALISADES
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Critical Importance of Transportation

• Evacuation and Recovery
• Includes trucking, shipping, ports, distribution
  centers, highways, bus and rail transit,
  waterways, airport landside, etc.
• Disruptions in the transportation network can
  have significant regional, and possibly national,
  impacts

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The Threat is Real

• Landside airport, railroads and public
  transportation are particularly vulnerable
• 76 percent of Americans are concerned about
  traveling by highway, train, or public transit
  inside the United States (USDOT BTS Feb 2002)

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Types of Threats

• Armed Assault
• Hostage Taking
• Chemical Release On Board or In Facility
• Explosive On Board or In Facility
• Chemical Outside
• Explosive Outside
• Cyber Attack on Control Systems

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The Challenge of Protecting Complex, Open
Transportation Systems

• Transportation services are networks that
  comprise a SYSTEM.
• Our national transportation SYSTEM is complex
• Multi-jurisdictional modes
• Multi-modal jurisdictions
• OPENNESS is critical to efficiency and
  effectiveness of the SYSTEM

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The Challenge of Protecting our Complex, Open
Transportation System

• The System is only as strong as the weakest
  link
• Weak links can be
• Intermodal (e.g., bomb planted in truck at
  distribution center destined for highway bridge)
• Locational (e.g., passengers with explosives or
  chemical devices boarding Amtrak in remote
  station stop)

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The Challenge of Protecting our Complex, Open
Transportation System

• Weak Links, cond
• Procedural (e.g., IT password systems)
• Human error (e.g., the sleeping guard at a rail
  maintenance yard)
• Cyber Space (e.g., cyber disruptions in command
  and control would affect train, bus and other
  vehicle operations)

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Additional Challenges

• Policy Making
• Policy Paralysis
• On-the-Ground
• Interdependencies with other critical
  infrastructures (gas, power, telecommunications,
  etc.)
• Lack of Standards and Adequate Training

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Meeting the Challenges

• Deliberate
• Keep focused on the (moving) target
• Leverage skill sets of others (policy, research,
  planning, design, engineering, construction,
  operations, maintenance, etc.)support TISP!
• Communicate, communicate, communicate
• Thorough
• One step at a time, on many fronts(devil is in
  the details)

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Meeting the Challenges, cond.

• Be aware of the threats to transportation
  (situational awareness is as important as
  policy awareness)
• Understand the effects of individual actions
• on the overall transportation system (WTC and
  Pentagon attacks started in Boston and Newark)
• on ourselves (Spidermans lesson learned)
• Share information, educate and train (ASCEs
  security objectives)

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Some Key Components to Transportation Security

• Counter-Terrorism
• Technology
• Planning, Training and Drills
• Standards
• Professional Societies
• The Civil Engineer

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Role and Importance of Counter-Terrorism

• Intelligence Collection and Analysis, including
• Due Diligence on Vendors, Contractors and
  Employees
• Surveillance of Reconnaissance Activities
• Visible Patrols
• Pre-Emptive Arrests or Assaults

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Role and Importance of Technology

• One more tool in the security toolbox.
• Uses
• Intelligence gathering
• Positive identification and location
• Must always be used with human judgment.

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Role and Importance of Planning, Training and
Drills

• Emergency Response Procedures  
• Consequence Management Systems 
• Coordination and team building across disciplines

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Role and Importance of Standards

• Policies and Procedures
• Training
• Equipment
• Software
• Communications
• Record-keeping
• Data

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Role and Importance of Professional Societies

• Information Sharing
• Education
• Training
• Development of Guidance for Practitioners and
  Regulators

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Role and Importance of the Civil Engineer

• Consider security as a critical element in the
  planning, design and engineering of
  transportation infrastructure and operations
• Use Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design
  (CPTED) principles
• Natural access control
• Natural surveillance
• Territorial reinforcement

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Role and Importance of the Civil Engineer

• Good security and infrastructure hardening
  measures may not completely eliminate crime or
  terrorism or danger to travelers but good design
  will reduce the risk and consequences.
• Ronald S. Libengood, CPP
• SecuraComm LLC

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ASCE Transportation Security Committee

• Cross-cutting committee of the new Transportation
  and Development Institute of ASCE
• Two Task Committees
• Transportation Operations Security
• Transportation Infrastructure Security

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ASCE Transportation Security Committee

• Major Conference in 2004
• Website
• Speakers Bureau
• White Paper Series
• Users Guide Series on Transportation Security
• National Teleconferences on transportation
  security topics

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Contacts

• Eva Lerner-Lam, Chair
• Charles Barker, P.E., ARM, Vice Chair
• Alain Kornhauser, Ph.D., P.E., Task Committee
  Chair for Transportation Operations Security
• Charles Neubauer, Ph.D., P.E., Task Committee
  Chair for Transportation Infrastructure Security
• Amar Chaker, Ph.D., P.E., ASCE Staff Contact

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Acknowledgements

• Charles Barker, P.E., George C. Sharp, Inc.
• Ross Gill, USDOT Volpe Transportation Center
• Lee Goldstein, Business Contingency Group, LLC
• Ronald S. Libengood, CPP, Securacomm LLC
• George Kovatch, Ph.D., P.E., Consultant