REPORTS...: October 2009 Archives

A recent GAO report discussed how increased demand during a severe pandemic could exceed the capacities of Internet providers' access networks for residential users and interfere with teleworkers in the securities market and other sectors, according to a DHS study and providers (see figure below). Private Internet providers have limited ability to prioritize traffic or take other actions that could assist critical teleworkers. Some actions, such as reducing customers' transmission speeds or blocking popular Web sites, could negatively impact e-commerce and require government authorization. However, DHS has not developed a strategy to address potential Internet congestion or worked with federal partners to ensure that sufficient authorities to act exist. It also has not assessed the feasibility of conducting a campaign to obtain public cooperation to reduce nonessential Internet use to relieve congestion. DHS also has not begun coordinating with other federal and private sector entities to assess other actions that could be taken or determine what authorities may be needed to act.  GAO REPORT

Related, in the press ... READ MORE

The congressional advisory pane, U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission, has released a contracted report entitled: Capability of the People's Republic of China to Conduct Cyber Warfare and Computer Network Exploitation.

The report concludes the government of the People's Republic of China (PRC) is a decade into a sweeping military modernization program that has transformed its ability to fight high tech wars. A major element of this modernization effort, known as informationization, is guided by the doctrine of fighting "Local War Under Informationized Conditions," i.e., the People's Liberation Army's efforts to develop a fully networked architecture capable of coordinating military operations on land, in air, at sea, in space and across the electromagnetic spectrum. DOWNLOAD

The Commission contracted with Northrop Grumman Corporation to produce this report on the basis of a competitive contract awarded in March 2009. Questions regarding this Report or the Commission's procedures for contracted research should be directed to: John Dotson, Research Coordinator for the Commission. 

A new DHS report titled The Macroeconomic Impacts of the 9/11 Attack: Evidence from Real-Time Forecasting evaluates the macroeconomic impacts of the 9/11 attack on US real GDP growth and the unemployment rate by examining how forecasts of these variables were revised after the attack occurred.  DOWNLOAD REPORT

DHS has recently released a report from the Homeland Security and Analysis Institute that offers "recommendations on how the members of the DHS Intelligence Enterprise and the corresponding risk community can improve their collaboration in producing decision-quality threat inputs." It identifies "outstanding research issues" and a "need for greater cross-discipline familiarity" and recommends "moving beyond 'supply and demand' to mutually beneficial collaboration" and "leveraging systematic engagement to achieve better threat judgments."  VIEW REPORT

FBI WMD coordinators are often unfamiliar with local threats, Says DOJ Inspector General "Weapons of mass destruction specialists at FBI regional offices often lack an understanding of local WMD threats and routinely fail to contribute to local risk assessments, the U.S. Justice Department's inspector general concluded in" a recent report.  READ MORE

DOJ Inspector General Report