How can technology help in preventing terrorist attacks?
(NISHMA NATHA PATIL)
M. Sc-IT Part-1 Roll Num- 199376
ABSTRACT
IOT Internet of Things men the
artificial intelligence has its dynamic nature,
efficiency and accuracy led to the hasty and
unrestrained explosion of modern intelligent
security systems, plying vital role in
monitoring various organizations well as
industries. Many developing countries are
facing terrorism from so many years and
thus they are implementing their ideas and
efforts to survive in the worst circumstances.
In this paper, some of the effective
and efficient technologies of IOTs based
security system is been proposed to handle
these situations. Its defensive and attacking
mechanism makes possible to detect terrorist
activities using behavior analysis from
videos of human activities and helping the
institutions and organizations from such
terrorist attacks. Initially the system is
trained using the self-generated and pre-
defined patterns. Some of the agile securities
are also used to control the terrorist attacks.
We can say that terrorism is the
greatest threat to national security and
cannot be defeated by the conventional
military force alone. In the critical areas
such as Iraq, Turkey and Afghanistan
regular forces cannot reach these hostile or
the terrorist groups, the instigators of
terrorism. The groups have a clear
understanding of the relative ineffectiveness
of the counter-guerrilla operations and they
rely on the guerrilla warfare to avoid major
combat as their primary means of continuing
the conflict with the governmental
structures. In the Internal Security
Operations, detection of terrorist and hostile
groups in their hiding places such as the
caves, lairs, etc. can only be achieved by
professionally trained people such as Special
Forces or the intelligence units with the
necessary experience and tools suitable for
collecting accurate information in these
often harsh, rugged and mountainous
countries. To assist these forces, commercial
micro-sensors with wireless interfaces could
be utilized to study and monitor a variety of
phenomena and environments from a certain
distance for military purposes. In order to
locate hidden terrorist groups and enable
more effective use of conventional military
resources. By using these mobile sensor
devices, improving communication for data
transfer from the source, and developing
better ways to monitor and detect threats,
terrorist ability to carry out attacks can be
severely disrupted.
NEED OF STUDY
We know that terrorism has become
the latest threat to the peace of the world and
its security. Terrorists are improving their
abilities and sophistication in all aspects of
their support and operation. Weapon
technology has become more increasingly
available. The purchasing power of terrorist
organization is on the rise with the ready
availability of both trained personnel and
technology to operate it.
The terrorists are not only
threatening the freedom and ideals of
democracy but they are also causing a
development of mankind and progress.
So there is need for stringent
provision for prevention of terrorism. Using
some technologies we can predict the threat
and would try to prevent from the further
cause of it. So that the number of attacks are
lower down and the security is maintained
within the nations and there is less harm to
the life of people.
INTRODUCTION
The cities are on the frontline of
crime and terrorism. Some of them are at
more risk than others where all of them are
vulnerable. Now days the cities are
experimenting with innovative approaches
to preventing crime and countering
extremism.
The most successful are improving
intelligence gathering, community outreach,
strengthening policing and investing in new
technologies to improve urban safety. These
types of cities are said to deploy ‘agile
security’, problem-oriented and data driven
approaches that speed up decision-making
and design in environmental changes to limit
insecurity.
Agile security measures start with
the premise that many types of crime,
radicalization and terrorism are non-random
and even predictable. With some exceptions,
they cluster in time, space and among the
specific population groups. There is massive
increase in the computing power and
advances in machine learning have made it
possible to sift through the huge quantities
of data related to the crime and terrorism, to
identify underlying correlations and causes.
The processing and harnessing of these data
flows is crucial to enabling the agile security
in cities.
DETECTING CRIME BEFORE IT
HAPPENS USING TECHNOLOGIES
Precondition of the agile security is
connected to the urban infrastructure. When
city authorities, private firms and the civic
groups have the access to the real time data
whether generated by the crime mapping
platforms, CCTVs, smart lights or gunshot
detection systems they can get better at
detecting crime before it occurs.
Crime mapping platforms:
Predictive crimes mapping tools had
existed for more than a decade but are only
used by a fraction of only British forces. A
spokesperson for the force said the software
uses an algorithm which is originally used to
predict earthquakes to estimate the
likelihood of a crime occurring in a
particular location during a window of time.
It will pin a series of locations on the
map where the highest likelihood of a crime
would be occurring to patrol.
For every 15 min spent in the 500ft
square zone it equates to two hours of no
crime.
All the officers sitting in a Kent can
access the system from force computers and
print the out maps to use on patrol. The
reports give the location and main crime
types predicted such as robbery, burglary
and sexual offences and officers are asked to
patrol the areas which are at most risk.
Gunshot:
There is a technology used to reduce
the gun violence which is called as
ShotSpotter. Here it is like the microphones
are placed strategically around the high
crime areas so they pick up the sounds of
gunfire and alert police to the location of
shooting’s via dots on a city map. The
ShotSpotter also sends alerts to apps on
cop’s phones.
“It goes through the dot and found
the casings 11feet from where the dot was
according to the GPS coordinates”. So it’s
incredibly helpful and has saved a life of
peoples.
Role of CCTV in TTPs:
Mainly it is a conceptual framework,
to critically evaluate the role of the closed
television circuit i.e. CCTV in the terrorist
TTPs which is (Tactics, Techniques and
Procedure), which is focusing on camera
system avoidance and targeting. This will be
examined in terms of the interplay of tactics
and the technology, between the surveillance
(provided by the CCTV) and also its
avoidance, or also the destruction as these
serve a precondition to successfully
committing an act of the terrorism, from an
precondition to successfully committing an
act of the terrorism from an operational and
tactical perspective.
The main role of TTPs in the
terrorism analysis is that the concept is used
to identify individual patterns of behavior of
a particular terrorist activity, or also a
particular terrorist organization. This
concept of TTPs helps to examine and
categorize more general tactics and weapons
used by a particular terrorist activity, or a
particular terrorist organization. The current
approach to the terrorism analysis involves
an examination of the behavior of an
individual terrorist, or that of a terrorist
organization, in particular their use the
specific weapons, used in specific ways; and
which may include different tactics and
strategies being exhibited. Normally the
technology aspects of tactics, techniques and
procedures are also treated as the indiscreet
elements within the TTPs. However, a
specific focus on CCTV as an ‘opponent’, so
to speak, raises an interesting focus on the
specifics of a technology that encourages a
counter tactic or the operation to be created.
In such case the specific need to destroy or
render useless the capacity of police,
security or defense to surveil of an area,
collect the information, and digital images
of people’s activities. As first stated, the
dominate debate to do with CCTV is its
effectiveness in the crime prevention;
however, viewed the alternatively, that a
terrorist actor likely sees CCTV systems as a
potential operational and tactical threat, an
analogy can also be made with known
criminal and activist perceptions who do
target the CCTV specifically. It is argued
that a likely outcome based on the need to
achieve the operational security, is the
‘downing of CCTV’ as a precondition for a
successful attack. This then later point
which will be examined next, in two
sections:
Actual instances of attacks on CCTV
equipment and, a recent example of CCTV
avoidance strategy in a case of the terrorism.
Some of the circumstances emphasizes on
how the presence of CCTV can be a factor
in the terrorist TTPs. In particular, the
choice of a specific location for the arming
of an assailant, where there is an illicit
transaction can take place, looked at from a
tactical and the operational perspective; two
fundamental operational objectives are in
fact achieved:
The initial avoidance of detection
and intervention by security, which has the
potential to disrupt the terrorist operation
from going ahead, to start with.
The latent- advantage that without
CCTV coverage a key element in the
policing is denied, with the lack of real-time
physical evidence being available post-the-
terrorism event, during investigations,
leading to prosecutions – which again,
which has the potential to disrupt future
terrorist operation from going ahead.
Remote Sensing:
Remote sensing from the space can
be as simple as taking photographs of the
earth from space using an optical camera
and also the photographic film. The sensors
on board a satellite in the either
geosynchronous orbit [GEO], or an inclined
or the polar low-earth orbit [LEO], perform
remote sensing from the space. In addition
to the numerous civilian applications, this
technology is also used for military
reconnaissance and the verification of
compliance with arms control treaties and
contributing to world security. The
command and the control system of the
terrorist groups leave Radio Frequency (RF)
signatures which are easily targeted by the
Military Electronic Units. Even though the
terrorist groups are need to give a
centralized command and control of their
activities, they
will sometimes operate very slow
communications, or maybe hand written
notes carried by human messengers from
the civilian population and making
activities much more difficult to detect.
One of the most important discoveries in
the detection of these terrorist groups is
the use of unmanned aircraft, such as
Pioneer, Harpy, Ranger, Scout, Searcher,
Heron, Hunter, I-See, I-View, which, due
to special features, make detect of
inimical groups much easier, using
evaluated data (images and video) sent
from 3000 m or higher. These planes
with night-sight are ready to observe the
movements of groups in the dark.
However, these aforementioned methods
are supported images of previously found
detection, which suggests that the group
must are already located. This study
proposes a system for locating hidden
groups in places where previously no
valid signals are detected. Building on the
previous uses of sensors (in environmental
detection) our proposal constitutes a
practical and important addition to mobile
sensor usage within the sort of tagging or
attaching sensors to domestic animals: the
detection and site of terrorist groups
hidden in caves and harsh environments.
While the system
proposed doesn't claim to get every
possible human target, it represents an
easily employed additional reconnaissance
tool for the advantage of Special Forces.
Uses of the Internet for
countering terrorist activity:
While terrorists have developed some
ways to use the web in furtherance of
illicit purposes, their use of the web also
provides opportunities for the gathering of
intelligence and other activities to
stop and counter acts of terrorism, also as
for the gathering of evidence for the
prosecution of such acts. A significant
amount of data about the functioning,
activities and sometimes the targets of
terrorist organizations springs from
website, chat room and other Internet
communications. Further, increased
Internet use for terrorist purposes provides
a corresponding increase within
the availability of electronic data which
can be compiled and analyzed for counter-
terrorism purposes. Law enforcement,
intelligence and other authorities are
developing increasingly sophisticated
tools to proactively prevent, detect and
deter terrorist activity involving use of the
web . The use of traditional investigative
means, like dedicated translation
resources for the timely identification of
potential terrorist threats, is
additionally expanding.
Online discussions provide a chance to
present opposing viewpoints or to
interact in constructive debate, which
can have the effect of discouraging
potential supporters. Counter-narratives
with a robust factual foundation could also
be conveyed through online discussion
forums, images and videos. Successful
messages can also demonstrate empathy
with the underlying issues that contribute
to radicalization, like political and social
conditions, and highlight alternatives to
violent means of achieving the desired
outcomes.20 Strategic communications
that provide counter-narratives to terrorist
propaganda can also be disseminated
via the web , in multiple languages, to
succeed in a broad, geographically diverse
audience.
“Digital Me” Sitting on the Device:
Smartphones are getting to be an
extension of the user, capable of
recognizing them and predicting their next
move. They will understand who you're ,
what you would like , once you want it,
how you would like it done and execute
tasks upon your authority.
Your smartphone will track you
throughout the day to seek out ,plan and
solve problems for you said Angie Wang,
principle research analyst at Gartner. It
will leverage its sensors, cameras and data
to accomplish these tasks automatically.
For example, within the connected home,
it could order a vacuum bot to
scrub when the house is empty, or turn a
rice cooker on 20 minutes before you
arrive.
LITERATURE REVIEW
1. Bart Schuurman and Quirine Eijkman,
“Moving Terrorism Research Forward: The
Crucial Role of Primary Sources,” The
International Centre for Counter-Terrorism -
The Hague 4, no. 2 (2013), 1-13
2. For instance: John Horgan, “Issues in
Terrorism Research,” The Police Journal 70,
no. 3 (1997): 193–202; Ariel Merari,
“Academic Research and Government
Policy on Terrorism,” Terrorism and
Political Violence 3, no. 1 (1991): 88–102;
Andrew Silke, “The Devil You Know:
Continuing Problems with Research on
Terrorism,” Terrorism and Political
Violence 13, no. 4 (2001): 1–14.
3. Alex P. Schmid, “The Definition of
Terrorism,” in The Routledge Handbook of
Terrorism Research, edited by Alex P.
Schmid (London, New York: Routledge,
2011), 40–41; Schuurman and Eijkman (see
note 1), 1–13.
4. Andrew Silke, “Contemporary Terrorism
Studies: Issues in Research,” in Critical
Terrorism Studies: A New Research
Agenda, edited by Richard Jackson, Marie
Breen Smyth, and Jeroen Gunning (New
York, Abingdon: Routledge, 2009), 34.
CONCLUSION
The use of AI for the predictive purpose in
the countering terrorism is neither inherently
good nor inherently bad. Rather this are the
way such capabilities are used is critical.
The current constructs that regulate the use
of predictive AI countering in the terrorism
seems unlikely to either safeguard against
misuse or to enable the most of the
beneficial use of these technologies, both in
terms of operational performance and
adherence to human rights principles.
Pursuing more concerted efforts to use
predictive AI in counter terrorism operations
would require commitment in the terms of
research and experimentation, in order to
develop models that are ready to use. If AI
technologies for predicting terrorism reach
maturity, greater data access and
centralization- under strict safeguards that
could offer a way of mediating infringement
of privacy to proportionate ends. Currently,
specific regulations of the use of AI for the
purpose of predicting involvement or risk of
terrorism are partial, or entirely absent.
Where restrictions do exist, they often focus
on access to data and not on how the data
are used. Paradoxically, restricting access
could limit the ability to develop good
models that could otherwise improve
compliance with conditions of
proportionality and non-discrimination.
More centralized access with better
regulation could be fairer than incidental
access at the discretion of whichever actor
or agency is able to obtain it. Existing
assumption- such as the beliefs that broader
access to data is always deleterious for
human rights, and that centralization of
analysis inherently bad- should be reviewed
in the light of technical possibilities for
controlling powers of access and increased
transparency. The development and use of
predictive capabilities can be a valid
justification for a wider access to, and use
of, public data, provided that models are
thoroughly validated before use that the
initial stages of analysis are automated and
that technical measures of control are in
place to prevent misuse. Continued access to
any data for the purpose of countering
terrorism should be contingent on the ability
to derive sufficient predictive value from
those specific data- meaning that
proportionality of access is directly linked to
fulfilment of a legitimate aim. Governments
will use new technological means at their
disposal when pursuing critical
objectives such as public safety. The fact
that AI makes invasion of privacy at scale
much easier means that the use of those
technologies remains a public policy
concern. This does not mean that use of AI
for predicting terrorism by liberal
democracies should be off limits. In fact,
good predictive capabilities based on the
automated analysis of less intrusive data
could be part of sensible restrictions
on disproportionate use of measures that
present greater threats to privacy and other
associated freedoms. A decision-making
process, with measurable performance, with
regard to who should be subject to more
intrusive surveillance may be key to limiting
the use of technically enabled surveillance
where practical limitations are likely to be
eroded. How successfully states manage
the powers that new technology brings them
will continue to reflect how well established
their institutions are, and the strength of
their commitment to protecting citizens’
rights in general.