Homeland Security

Securing critical infrastructure and ensuring public safety from adversarial threats has proven to require continued attention, investment, and adaptive strategic measures. As a result of the continued threats that are brought by strategic adversaries, security agencies must continue to update their existing protocols, security procedures, and technologies in order to expose and deter threats.

Application: Technology Adoption for Airport Security

In direct response to the 9/11/2001 terrorist attacks, the United States government passed the Aviation and Security Act, which established the Transportation Security Administration (TSA). The goal of the TSA, and other global transportation security agencies such as the Canadian Air Transport Security Authority and India’s Central Industrial Security Agency, is to develop policies and protocols that are intended to protect mass transportation systems. Specifically, in the aviation industry, such agencies are responsible for passenger and baggage security screening at airports, as well as the safety of traveling aircraft. In response to the adaptive behaviors of adversaries, it is critical that aviation security agencies continue to update existing protocols, implement new proactive safety procedures, and adopt new security screening technologies in order to expose adversarial threats and decrease the overall threat to the international aviation industry.

Research Objective

To develop decision support systems that provide startegic insights into technology adoption for securing critical infrastructure by analyzing the strategic behaviors of attackers (e.g., terrorist organizations) and defenders (e.g., security agencies).