A Decision Framework for Managing Risk to Airports from Terrorist Attack

Abstract

This article presents an asset-level security risk management framework to assist stakeholders of critical assets with allocating limited budgets for enhancing their safety and security against terrorist attack. The proposed framework models the security system of an asset, considers various threat scenarios, and models the sequential decision framework of attackers during the attack. Its novel contributions are the introduction of the notion of partial neutralization of attackers by defenders, estimation of total loss from successful, partially successful, and unsuccessful actions of attackers at various stages of an attack, and inclusion of the effects of these losses on the choices made by terrorists at various stages of the attack. The application of the proposed method is demonstrated in an example dealing with security risk management of a U.S. commercial airport, in which a set of plausible threat scenarios and risk mitigation options are considered. It is found that a combination of providing blast-resistant cargo containers and a video surveillance system on the airport perimeter fence is the best option based on minimum expected life-cycle cost considering a 10-year service period.

Analysis of Affordance, Time, and Adaptation in the Assessment of Industrial Control System Cybersecurity Risk

“…Special journal issues show a range of concerns and approaches, including the effects of terrorist attacks on utilities, (43) the use of historical data on disturbances to analyze utility risk, (44) and methods for assessing the vulnerability of critical infrastructures. (45) Recent work provides assessment methods for terrorist threats to airports specifically, (46) and methods that recognize the interaction of countermeasures in a portfolio-based analysis. (47) A central aspect of much of this work is the mutual adaptation between attackers and defenders.…”

“…(47) We do not deal with the effects on dependent infrastructures, (80) and we ignore the costs of risk measures, which form an important component of other methods. (46) We also neglect the problem of multiple actors facing independent choices about protective actions that are nonetheless interdependent. (81) And we do not address the analysis of threat agents, their capacities, incentives, and motivations.…”

A Systems‐Based Risk Assessment Framework for Intentional Electromagnetic Interference (IEMI) on Critical Infrastructures

“…We adopt the concept of intrusion areas or zones as defined in the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) standard K.81, (21) and applied in several risk analyses in the security context, e.g., Shafieezadeh et al (22) Zones are geographical areas or volumes bounded by barriers. Each zone may contain several different points of entry (PoE) (23) from which the operation of an IEMI source causes the target different levels of damage or effect.…”

Advances in Risk Analysis with Big Data

“…Risk analysis for safety is closely related to security. There is no doubt that terrorist attacks, (14) import security for food, (15) aviation security, (16) and cyber crimes are all important security-related issues, which can be much enhanced if we make a wise use of data for risk analysis.…”