Guarding Against Terror
By Lincoln D. Stein
In the months after September 11, much has changed and nothing has changed. In my suburban neighborhood, the county sheriff's department has been patrolling the reservoir system daily. At work, there has been markedly more interest in office security systems, biometric devices, and smart cards. On the road, I've seen National Guardsmen in New York's Penn Station, and have watched the guards at airport security checkpoints confiscate nail files and tweezers from outgoing passengers. And of course, there are flags and ribbons everywhere.
But inwardly it feels like business as usual. The President exhorts the citizenry to resume normal economic activity, and aside from a general call to volunteer time in community service and be watchful, there's nothing specific that the general citizen can do to help in the proclaimed war on terrorism. Increasingly, the flags and patriotic slogans have degenerated into marketing devices. The U.S. Congress is counting on patriotism to justify reforming wire-tap laws. Big business is encouraging consumption as a patriotic act. Even email spammers have gotten into the act, peddling anti-anthrax cures, security doors, and phony charities. Is there nothing we can do in the wake of September 11 to make the world a better and safer place?
As it so happens, we, as information system professionals, have a lot we can do. The lesson of September 11 is that theoretical risks have a way of coming true. For years, individual experts and expert commissions have warned us about the lax security at American airports. Despite repeated demonstrations of the destructive power of bombings in Beirut, Kenya, Tanzania, and Yemen, lawmakers chose to ignore these warnings.
