Security Countermeasures

Step 10 Determine if Existing Countermeasures are Sufficient to Address Possible Attack Scenarios. Security countermeasures envisage a four-tier approach, involving deterrence, detection, delay, and response. These four components are described briefly below. Persons wishing a detailed discussion of security countermeasures should obtain a copy of the Protection of Assets Manual, published by the American Society of Industrial Security (www.asis.org). 

Deterrent countermeasures either discourage terrorists from considering your facility or stop attacks in progress. For example, pop-up bollards in roadways may be used to stop an intruding vehicle. Large earthen berms around storage tanks serve double duty to stop a vehicle and contain a chemical spill. Real or dummy video cameras can cause a terrorist to consider another target. 

Detect countermeasures allow facility personnel to identify surveillance and incipient attack. Security cameras play an important role in detection, and recent developments in software make it possible to pick unusual behavior out of crowds for more thorough investigation. Entry alarms and proximity alarms are additional detection countermeasures. In extremely sensitive cases, detection countermeasures may be set a distance away from the facility to identify a possible attack before it arrives at the boundary. 

Military or submilitary response to a terrorist attack is something best prepared for well in advance of an attack, and such plans should be the result of involvement of law enforcement in cases where significant consequences coincide with a vulnerable target. However, in many plants using toxic materials, a military response may be inappropriate, as it may be possible for the military response to cause the same kind of consequence that the terrorist intended to cause. For example, if it becomes necessary for armed personnel to protect chemical facilities, they must be well trained to avoid such events. 

Step 11 Periodically Review Security and Implement Improvements. Like any other component of a business operation, security must be managed to ensure that it continues to function properly, to adjust to changes in the nature of the assets and the threats, and to implement opportunities to improve efficiency and effectiveness. Security programs should involve ongoing discussions with law enforcement to monitor changes in the threat as well as interaction with company technical and business efforts to monitor changes in operations and assets. In addition, formal security vulnerability analyses should be repeated periodically. 

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Likelihood of adversary success (LAS) The potential for causing a catastrophic event by defeating the countermeasures. LAS is an estimate that the security countermeasures will thwart or withstand the attempted attack, or if the attack will circumvent or exceed the existing security measures. This measure represents a surrogate for the conditional probability of success of the event. 

Who will determine how the security strategy will be implemented Who should implement the security countermeasures ... 

Step 4 Prioritize the Work. Unless your company needs to consider only one easily demarcated facility, it is important to prioritize your efforts to analyze vulnerability and implement security countermeasures. Prioritization should take into account the attractiveness of the asset or target, the difficulty with which an attack could be carried out, and the potential damage that could result. In the simplest form, attractiveness, ease, and damage could be ranked on a qualitative scale (e.g., 1-3), then the three scores summed. Screening approaches with more detailed scales may also be used if finer detail is needed. 

Working with supply chain partners (implementing security countermeasures) Technology can be used for both safety and security (e.g., GPS to indicate location en route, emergency response to accident, and monitoring time-sensitive chemicals/materials). Technologies focused on security should not distract the main function of the carriers (e.g., the safe transport of chemicals from point A to B). 

Following this prioritization process or a similar one, a transportation system can be evaluated to identify those issues that need to be escalated to a more detailed TSVA to better understand the potential consequences, vulnerabilities, and level of risk, or to compare potential security countermeasures. 

Vulnerability is a measure of the likelihood of adversary success (Las) in causing the desired consequences (mathematical complement of protection system effectiveness). Vulnerability, or Las, is an estimate of the likelihood that the existing security countermeasures will be overcome by the attempted attack. This factor represents a qualitative surrogate for the quantitative conditional probability of success used in some government risk assessment models (U.S. Department of Justice, 2002). There are numerous subfactors involved in the analysis of Las, so this factor may be difficult to quantify. Alternatively, the TSVA team can assess the vulnerabilities and existing countermeasures to determine the defined adversary s ability to succeed. 

Extremely Unlikely (or remote) Multiple layers of effective security countermeasures... 

Based on these results, the team recommended the following security countermeasures for consideration ... 

The selection of the appropriate security countermeasures will be included as part of the conclusion of the example in Chapter 7. 

On Security Countermeasures Ranking through Threat Analysis" by Andrea Bondavalli, Andrea Ceccarelli, Felicita Di Giandomenico, Fabio Martinelli, Ilaria Matteucci and Nicola Nostro ... 

On Security Countermeasures Ranking through Threat Analysis... 

The aim of this section is to describe our integration of two existing approaches, one for the model-based security assessment, and the other for quantitative security controlling strategies, in such a way to provide a novel approach for the evaluation, ranking, and selection of the best security countermeasure, if any. 

On Security Countermeasures Ranking through Threat Analysis 251 Table 2. Definition of Criminal and Hacker profiles... 

The research questions of this paper therefore (i) include a ranking of transportation routes and modes where to allocate security countermeasures based on certain assumptions and (ii) provide this ranking considering both inter—and intra-modal transports of hazardous goods. 

Possible applications of the M2STTLAL model pertain to the anticipation of potential attacks to a targeted chemical supply chain and the limitation of the consequences of these attacks thanks to an appropriate evaluation of terrorist threats. Additionally, the MXSTRAJl model can lead to a better definition and allocation of the security countermeasures for both intra-modal and inter-modal levels. 

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