One evening my husband walked into the house calling out “Honey, I’m home.” I immediately responded “Who died?” Silence. Entering the den where I was sitting he asked how on earth I knew. I simply guessed, from the dark and defeated sound of his voice and his delivery very different from the norm. I am not psychic. (If I were rest assured I’d be writing this blog from my villa on the French Riviera.) I wasn’t born that way either; this is a learned skill. I am tuned in (to the innumerable bits of data communicated to us from people and situations in our midst) and aware (of what the baseline consists of).
The point is that the human brain is an amazing piece of technology. It adapts to new input, analyzes with lightening speed, is highly trainable, has a solid RAM (random access memory). Our human cognitive structures are after all a progenitor for much of the technology we have created and use today.
So why are we so insecure and reluctant to depend on our human skills?
In the news now is the full body backscatter x-ray scanner. Some believe that this technology would have found the underwear bomb that Abdulmuttalab was wearing on Northwest Flight 253 to Detroit on December 25. Maybe yes, maybe no (the electronic fig leaf and ACLU come to mind). And besides, there will always be a new way to defeat these technologies, fueled by the motivation and creativity of the terrorist. I’m not against the scanner or technology! I’m just pointing out that a full body scanner can’t assess human motivation. Only we humans can do that.
Technology is a means for detection, only. It can’t be used as threat assessment tool which is a cognitive skill that must be performed by well trained, empowered human beings.
you rightly state that technology is a means for detection at the most and if successful,technology is a deterrent ,also at most.Threat assessment and threar analysis rely mainly on many efforts by many experienced people in many places to recruit human intelligence sources that can be trained ,motivated and carefully deployed to monitor a targer person or group of persons suspected of being involved with the planning in secret of putting together an elaborate operational plan to gradually succeed,step by step, no matter how slow,how laborius ,to then activate the perpetrator and his backup team to continue with the plan of action; whether its the WTC on 9/11 or London underground or Madrod or Bagdad or Bali or even Detroit this Xmas; they can strike 24/7.It is virtually impossible for the system and its people to maintain a 24/7 fulltime alertiveness and focus and readiness. The human mind has limitations to be on 100% alert indefinitely. The supervisory staff and handler of sources must be dedicated enough, motivated enough to get 100@ performance from their people.Its an ongoing process with no time nor date nor end; its a long,risky ,frustrating game to beat a devious and dedicated foe who is prepared to sacrifice his or her most costly attribute; life! Scary and demonic and weird. Are the protectors motivated enough to also put their most costly asset; their lives on the line? I am afraid that the system falls short on this crucial question, now,yesterday and also tomorrow. The real challenge is to keep our staff and sources motivated,Each individual is motivated by various rewards or objectives . The supervisor should be able to identify the motivational scorecard of each colleague and then ensure that the scorecard is kept dilligently and where a weakening is observed to rectify immediately.thw road is long. The tiger we ride is strong. We can not get off. We have to stay on top. If not we will be killed by the tiger .This is no option, never, never.
Good luck all compatriots; keep at it hard enough, persistently enough.We shall conquer evil, we must conquer evil.Our lives depend on it.
A systematic approach to security management must include people, processes and technology. One cannot work without the other.
However, the human factor is the key ingredient since it has intuition above and beyond what processes (missions, objectives, procedures, decision-making) and technology (evaluation, detection, human-sensory complements) provide us. Both on the offensive and defensive sides.
That is why we must train our professionals to be perceptively skilled. Chameleon Associates’s training approach is a sound one in that respect.