Computers in Homeland Security

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Computers in Homeland Security

The DHS, Department of Homeland Security, uses a color coded system for informing the general public of what state of readiness the country should be in, in case of a terrorists threat. The system they use is a five color system, with each color representing a different step in readiness. Green means low risk of terrorist attacks, blue is Guarded, or general risk of a terrorist attack, yellow means elevated, or significant risk of a terrorist attack. Orange means high risk of an attack, while red means severe risk of an attack. Today the country is always on either orange or red. Since President Bush has been in office the country itself, has been on high alert of an attack (http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2002/03/20020312-5.html).

As part of this paper I took a poll of how many people know about the use of homeland securities and to also see if they knew the meaning of the colors of our alert system.

-Question 1 was if a person knew if computers were used in homeland security.

-Question 2 was if they knew what the colors used in homeland security meant.

Names

Question #1

Question # 2

Jack

yes

yes

Jill

no

no

Tom

no

no

Andrew

yes

yes

Edrick

yes

yes

Mike

yes

yes

Dustin

no

no

Jorge

yes

yes

Shayla

no

no

Malika

no

no

Cheriene

no

no

Martha

yes

yes

Chris

no

no

Tim

no

no

Tomas

no

no

Jude

no

no

Jimmy

yes

yes

Kristina

yes

yes

Jackie

no

no

Tosin

yes

yes

Warren

yes

yes

Sam

yes

yes

Cory

no

no

Marshall

no

no

As technology has increased the importance of computers being involved with homeland security has increased significantly. They have started to use computers for ways to check passenger baggage. Notice how when someone goes through an airport they have to walk through several metal detectors. These detectors are run by computers in order to check what people have on them.

Another way computers are used is a complex system of watch lists and security triggers. These lists are what the airport security uses to decide who to take under heavy watch. Since more that 600 million people fly a year. They hope that a computer system called CAPPS 2 can help to check about 5% of the people who fly each year.

Another thing that Homeland security uses computers for is surveillance. This is probably the most used place for computers in Homeland Security. With surveillance, there has been a big discovery in cyber optics.

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