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

1. 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

2. 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

3. 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)

4. 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

5. 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

6. 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)

7. The Challenge of Protecting our Complex, Open Transportation System • Weak Links, con’d • 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)

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

9. 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)

10. Meeting the Challenges, con’d. • 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(Spiderman’s “lesson learned”) • Share information, educate and train (ASCE’s security objectives)

11. Some Key Components to Transportation Security • Counter-Terrorism • Technology • Planning, Training and Drills • Standards • Professional Societies • The Civil Engineer

12. 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

13. 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.

14. Role and Importance of Planning, Training and Drills • Emergency Response Procedures   • Consequence Management Systems  • Coordination and team building across disciplines

15. Role and Importance of Standards • Policies and Procedures • Training • Equipment • Software • Communications • Record-keeping • Data

16. Role and Importance of Professional Societies • Information Sharing • Education • Training • Development of Guidance for Practitioners and Regulators

17. 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

18. 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

19. 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

20. ASCE Transportation Security Committee • Major Conference in 2004 • Website • Speakers’ Bureau • White Paper Series • User’s Guide Series on Transportation Security • National Teleconferences on transportation security topics

21. 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

22. 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