Introduction
By nature of the term, prevention cannot happen without prior knowledge. When combating the terrorist threat, a government’s greatest asset is a deep understanding and knowledge of the threat. While there are many ways knowledge is obtained, three places the Department of Homeland Security can look at to improve the intelligence network of the nation overall through better intelligence interpretation are within cyber risk, border response, and internal management restructuring overall.
Cyber Risk
Responding effectively to attack as it happens is important, but prevention saves both lives and time. A terrorism prevention plan is generally going to stress the importance of information flow among actors (Newman & Clarke, 2008). …show more content…
Specifically cited in McCaul’s questioning to witnesses (2013), the maritime network is an area in need of information sharing and cooperation. Where vessels are moving and what they are moving is not always shared among agencies. Encouraging cooperation among such agencies as the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI), Department of Defense (DoD), the Navy, and the Coastguard, increases what in the questioning, Admiral Allen refers to as situational awareness. Legitimate and illegitimate flows can be better identified to help create a bigger picture of what is occurring along the border of the nation (A New Perspective on Threats to the Homeland, 2013). The DHS can help consolidate these information databases by providing the technology needed to open the pathways for communication. When the DHS is an active participant in information gathering and helps facilitate cooperation, its actors can learn in real time not only what foreign movements are happening, but what the various command centers involved in this network are instituting and reacting to, resulting in a multi-directional information flow. With a greater picture, the DHS may then be able to help direct these command centers where best to apply their resources at the border at any given
By nature of the term, prevention cannot happen without prior knowledge. When combating the terrorist threat, a government’s greatest asset is a deep understanding and knowledge of the threat. While there are many ways knowledge is obtained, three places the Department of Homeland Security can look at to improve the intelligence network of the nation overall through better intelligence interpretation are within cyber risk, border response, and internal management restructuring overall.
Cyber Risk
Responding effectively to attack as it happens is important, but prevention saves both lives and time. A terrorism prevention plan is generally going to stress the importance of information flow among actors (Newman & Clarke, 2008). …show more content…
Specifically cited in McCaul’s questioning to witnesses (2013), the maritime network is an area in need of information sharing and cooperation. Where vessels are moving and what they are moving is not always shared among agencies. Encouraging cooperation among such agencies as the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI), Department of Defense (DoD), the Navy, and the Coastguard, increases what in the questioning, Admiral Allen refers to as situational awareness. Legitimate and illegitimate flows can be better identified to help create a bigger picture of what is occurring along the border of the nation (A New Perspective on Threats to the Homeland, 2013). The DHS can help consolidate these information databases by providing the technology needed to open the pathways for communication. When the DHS is an active participant in information gathering and helps facilitate cooperation, its actors can learn in real time not only what foreign movements are happening, but what the various command centers involved in this network are instituting and reacting to, resulting in a multi-directional information flow. With a greater picture, the DHS may then be able to help direct these command centers where best to apply their resources at the border at any given