by Jill Kermes | Jun 28, 2019 | Corporations, Federal, State and Local Agencies
With summer air travel expected to hit a new
record between June 1 and August 31 this year, travelers should
expect to see
longer lines at security checkpoints.
To address these challenges, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is hiring an additional 2,000 employees and employing new technologies like automated screening lanes and computed tomography.
360-degree Security View
As these changes move forward, implementing artificial
intelligence and machine learning technologies can also help reduce wait times
and increase the effectiveness of security screening.
In fact, experts suggest that AI and big data analytics can move
the screening process from the current single point in time analysis to a 360-degree
view of a person’s behavior over a broader time range by linking
data sets to identify risky behavior even before a potential bad actor gets to
the airport.
This thinking is in line with the recommendations from the
White House’s 2018
National Strategy for Aviation Security (NSAS). NSAS highlighted the importance of
strengthening aviation domain awareness through integration of open-source data
into existing air surveillance and law enforcement intelligence, collection and
analysis of advanced and anticipatory information, and layered and risk-based security
measures.
The International Air Transport Association is also working on a program to facilitate the exchange of critical security data. According to the Director General and CEO Alexandre de Juniac, “This is similar to the way that our safety colleagues work with data to do predictive risk analysis. This tool will provide early detection of changes to security environments in different parts of the world, so we can effectively deal with emerging threats and the impacts of changes to security procedures.”
The Role of AI
AI-driven technologies, like Lumina’s Radiance platform are another facet to the solutions being implemented in the U.S. and globally.
Radiance has the ability to comprehensively mine
unstructured data sources, whether across the open web, or among disparate,
legacy data systems. It ingests, integrates and analyzes those data sets,
searching against more than 6,500 terms related to aviation security.
The platform conducts nearly 135,000 searches across all
publicly-available data on the web, correlating names with these associated
risk behaviors and cross-referencing over 1 million queries into Lumina’s
proprietary databases of risk.
Then add to this open source search internal data sets such as passenger bookings and travel history – or in the case of insider-threats, employee-related data – and airline and airport security experts have an important tool to help predict and prevent threats.
Looking ahead
To be sure, integrating AI driven technologies like Radiance
are not a thing of the far of future. Research shows that 66%
of airlines and 79% of airports plan to implement these capabilities
across a wide variety of use cases by 2021. In fact, AI in aviation was valued
at $152
million in 2018 and expected to increase to
$2.2 billion by 2025. And,
passengers are ready for these technologies to help expedite their time at airport security and make their travel more
seamless. An online poll of UK passengers found that 68
percent of respondents would welcome AI at airports, and another study
found 65
percent would share additional personal information to speed up
processing at the airport.
Learn more about Radiance’s capabilities for the airline
industry here.
by Jill Kermes | May 30, 2019 | Federal, State and Local Agencies
Late last month, President Donald Trump signed
an Executive Order transferring responsibility for security clearance screening
from the Office of Management and Budget to the Defense Department.
The Administration had previously called the clearance process a target for government reform, noting in 2018 that “background investigations are critical to enabling national security missions and ensuring public trust in the workforce across the Government.”
The Administration’s efforts are part of an ongoing focus on
reforming the clearance process, and reducing the existing backlog.
That is because the current backlog peaked at 725,000 open investigations in 2018, with some Americans waiting more than 500 days just to start their first day at work. As part of these efforts, the Federal Government hired 2,500 additional investigators in 2018 to address the backlog.
Re-thinking Security Clearance
In addition to the Executive Order, in February, Senator Mark Warner (D-VA), reintroduced The Modernizing the Trusted Workforce for the 21st Century Act (S.314).
The legislation calls for a major overhaul of the system.
It also sets targets to reduce the backlog to 200,000 by the end of 2020, and shorten the time required to issue a secret level clearance to 30 days or fewer and top secret level clearance to 90 days.
The legislation also establishes the “clearance in person” or “one-clearance” concept. This would enable – within two weeks or fewer – clearances to follow employees who change agencies.
Similarly, the legislation calls for continuous evaluation. It would move from the existing periodic reviews, to dynamic and ongoing reviews in the future.
In many ways, these recommendations represent a complete re-thinking of the security clearance process.
As Senator Warner notes in his legislation, technologies will play a critical role in preventing, detecting and monitoring threats. He also notes the role data integration and analytics can play in expediting or focusing
re-investigations through delta reporting and continuous evaluation.
An Antiquated System
As many security experts have pointed out, the current system is not only time consuming and slow, it is also out of sync with how people live today. For example, as it currently works, a field investigator is assigned to confirm information from the applicant’s form, and to make sure that individual does not represent a threat to national security.
These determinations are based on the 13 adjudicative guideline criteria, which among others include, financial considerations, foreign preference and influence, alcohol consumption, and drug involvement.
To be sure, 50 years ago, interviews with neighbors, colleagues and other associates could help provide meaningful insights into our lives and habits. But today, we share these very same insights publicly, willingly and knowingly across a variety of online platforms, making the Internet a useful, but largely untapped resource.
Challenges to Reform
In fact, according to Gary Reid, Director of Defense Intelligence patterns of life, including scans of
public-facing social
media could
one day be considered.
A significant challenge is the volume of data on the
web.
With more than 2.5 quintillion bytes of data created on the Internet every day, searching for relevant content can be like looking for the proverbial needle in a haystack.
The role of AI and Machine Learning
One way to solve for this is through machine learning and AI capabilities – a super-charged web search, allowing for all that publicly available, open-source data to be searched for risk behaviors – in this case, associated with the 13 established adjudicative guidelines.
But rather than having to weed through thousands of pages of
search results, these technologies can quickly synthesize the data and cull out
high priority risks associated with guideline selectors.
As a result, analysts receive the most critical data first, helping streamline their search process and gather the most relevant information.
Call it the Radiance Solution
Lumina’s AI-powered Radiance technology is specifically designed to overcome the challenges of massive unstructured data ingestion, evaluation, and prioritization. This provides a rapidly deployable, scalable and user-friendly solution for the security clearance process.
The technology is comprised of three modules, for
edge-to-edge risk detection.
Radiance Open Source Intelligence (OS-INT)
OS-INT is a deep-web listening tool that uses machine learning and artificial intelligence to assess and prioritize risk. OS-INT scours publicly available data across the entire Internet, correlating names entered into the system with content related to its exclusive behavioral risk profiles (BRPS). It then cross-references that information with more than one million queries into Lumina’s proprietary databases of risk. And, unlike social media monitoring, OS-INT is not reliant on a single platform or social media API, allowing for continuous ingestion of all open source data.
OS-INT’s security clearance bundle includes more than 16,220 terms related to the adjudicative guidelines. OS-INT performs nearly 325,000 searches across the entire web. It then correlates names with associated risk behaviors. Similar results would take an individual running a manual web query more than 18 years to read and analyze.
OS-INT completes searches in an average of 4-5 minutes, providing prioritized, high resolution, and actionable results. In addition, the system allows for continuous monitoring and evaluation, mapping previous results against results from more recent queries.
The configuration of BRPs only collects publicly available information, within the scope of the investigation. And, it does not use account creation or digital interaction with a person of interest. As a result, the collection of information adheres to Security Executive Agent Directive 5 guidelines.
Radiance Internet Intelligence (NET-INT)
NET-INT’s proprietary algorithms continuously identify, monitor, capture, and prioritize IP addresses exhibiting anomalous behavior across multiple risk dimensions. In addition, its massive system of data ingestion has the capability to catalogue, index and redeploy Internet content related associated with the adjudicative guidelines.
The system captures an IP addresses’ pattern of life data,
prioritizing anomalous behavior. NET-INT also screens IP addresses
associated with an entity or person of interest against all IP addresses
displaying anomalous behavior collected over the system’s lifespan.
NET-INT’s continuous monitoring of a POI’s Internet research behavior then helps predict emergent behavior indicative of a violation of the guidelines.
Radiance Human Intelligence (HUM-INT)
HUM-INT is powered by the S4 app, a crowd-sourced, mobile application that allows users to confidentially report concerns in real time. The S4 app can be configured as a workplace tool, allowing employees to submit information related to potential risk behaviors exhibited by co-workers. A centralized management portal allows clients to access real-time threats to geo-fenced facility locations.
The Way Forward
As Washington continues its efforts to reduce the security backlog, and modernize the existing process, machine learning and artificial intelligence will play an important role.
Senator Warner recently said, “There is much more we can do to reform decades-old policies and processes to reflect today’s threat environment, adapt to the dynamic of a modern mobile workforce, and capitalize on opportunities offered by modern information technology.”
by Jill Kermes | Sep 18, 2018 | Corporations, Federal, State and Local Agencies
The very nature of popular music events makes them attractive for terrorists and extremely difficult to defend. Here are a few reasons why these targets aren’t going away.Open-air festivals and concerts provide a particular challenge for law enforcement officials charged with keeping people safe. Violent extremists have targeted these events to sow chaos and destruction in places where people should feel comfort and enjoyment.
Sprawling Event Venues & Loud Volume
Today’s event venues are often held in large areas of open space. In such circumstances, there are simply too many people unprotected from outside elements. Following an Ariana Grande concert in May 2017, Salman Abedi, a British citizen of Libyan descent, detonated a suicide bomb during concertgoer’s exit from the show. More than 800 people were injured, and Abedi took the lives of 22 individuals. Abedi had been a “subject of interest” for MI5 in 2015 and had been reported to authorities as many as five times by leaders of the Muslim community in Manchester, but the service had no reason to take further action at the time. The attack took place at the Manchester Arena, where approximately 14,200 people were attending the event. The improvised explosive device, packed with nuts, bolts, and screws to act as shrapnel, was detonated in the foyer of the arena following the last performance of the evening. The bomb was so deadly that it killed people over 65 feet away from the explosion’s source. The attack had added tragedy due to the type of casualties: out of the 139 people who needed hospitalization or were severely injured, 79 were children.
Cultural Significance
Soft targets like music festivals and concerts offer terrorists practical and symbolic value. The symbolism of attacking Westerners who are enjoying themselves is what makes it an attractive target. On November 13, 2015, three gunman stormed into the Bataclan theater in Paris and killed 89 people attending a heavy metal concert. In a night that was coordinated to the last detail, the brunt of the damage came in the tight, dark spaces of the concert hall. There was little security, as the perpetrators killed three people on the sidewalk in front of the venue and then simply walked in to carry out the rest of their attack. The killers were part of an ISIS cell operating out of Belgium and France and had come in response to French and American airstrikes in Syria. In the nearly three years following the incident, Paris’ music scene has almost returned to normal, but the ubiquitous police presence is a reminder that danger still remains.
Masses of People
Events with large crowds will always be attractive targets to extremists, whether the reason stems from religious extremism or a political motive. In the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history, 58 people were killed when Stephen Paddock opened fireon a Jason Aldean concert in Las Vegas, Nevada. Over 22,000 people were in attendance when Paddock began spraying bullets indiscriminately into the crowd. When a threat goes undetected before the attack, it can be very difficult to thwart once it is in motion due to the unorganized chaos that follows. Frighteningly, Paddock had reserved hotel rooms overlooking the Lollapalooza music festival in Chicago a few months before the Vegas massacre and was reported to have searched online for information regarding Fenway Park and associated Boston music festivals.
Despite the efforts of officials in recent years to prevent attacks on soft targets, large-scale casualties have still occurred at musical events with an alarming frequency. Officials recognize that these targets are difficult to harden by their very nature. Therefore, new approaches are needed to detect and monitor relevant activity that may indicate the planning of such attacks.
Lumina’s risk sensing capabilities illuminate areas of emergent unrest by monitoring online behavioral patterns consistent with the means and motivation of attack planning. By predictively identifying these online behavioral patterns, Lumina empowers organizations and venues to identify and mitigate potential threats to their physical security.
oyment.
Sprawling Event Venues & Loud Volume
Today’s event venues are often held in large areas of open space. In such circumstances, there are simply too many people unprotected from outside elements. Following an Ariana Grande concert in May 2017, Salman Abedi, a British citizen of Libyan descent, detonated a suicide bomb during concertgoer’s exit from the show. More than 800 people were injured, and Abedi took the lives of 22 individuals. Abedi had been a “subject of interest” for MI5 in 2015 and had been reported to authorities as many as five times by leaders of the Muslim community in Manchester, but the service had no reason to take further action at the time. The attack took place at the Manchester Arena, where approximately 14,200 people were attending the event. The improvised explosive device, packed with nuts, bolts, and screws to act as shrapnel, was detonated in the foyer of the arena following the last performance of the evening. The bomb was so deadly that it killed people over 65 feet away from the explosion’s source. The attack had added tragedy due to the type of casualties: out of the 139 people who needed hospitalization or were severely injured, 79 were children.
Cultural Significance
Soft targets like music festivals and concerts offer terrorists practical and symbolic value. The symbolism of attacking Westerners who are enjoying themselves is what makes it an attractive target. On November 13, 2015, three gunman stormed into the Bataclan theater in Paris and killed 89 people attending a heavy metal concert. In a night that was coordinated to the last detail, the brunt of the damage came in the tight, dark spaces of the concert hall. There was little security, as the perpetrators killed three people on the sidewalk in front of the venue and then simply walked in to carry out the rest of their attack. The killers were part of an ISIS cell operating out of Belgium and France and had come in response to French and American airstrikes in Syria. In the nearly three years following the incident, Paris’ music scene has almost returned to normal, but the ubiquitous police presence is a reminder that danger still remains.
Masses of People
Events with large crowds will always be attractive targets to extremists, whether the reason stems from religious extremism or a political motive. In the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history, 58 people were killed when Stephen Paddock opened fireon a Jason Aldean concert in Las Vegas, Nevada. Over 22,000 people were in attendance when Paddock began spraying bullets indiscriminately into the crowd. When a threat goes undetected before the attack, it can be very difficult to thwart once it is in motion due to the unorganized chaos that follows. Frighteningly, Paddock had reserved hotel rooms overlooking the Lollapalooza music festival in Chicago a few months before the Vegas massacre and was reported to have searched online for information regarding Fenway Park and associated Boston music festivals.
Despite the efforts of officials in recent years to prevent attacks on soft targets, large-scale casualties have still occurred at musical events with an alarming frequency. Officials recognize that these targets are difficult to harden by their very nature. Therefore, new approaches are needed to detect and monitor relevant activity that may indicate the planning of such attacks.
Lumina’s risk sensing capabilities illuminate areas of emergent unrest by monitoring online behavioral patterns consistent with the means and motivation of attack planning. By predictively identifying these online behavioral patterns, Lumina empowers organizations and venues to identify and mitigate potential threats to their physical security.
