Critical Releases in Homeland Security: October 10, 2018

"The 2017 Atlantic hurricane season challenged critical infrastructure and key resources across a wide area. Harvey, Irma, and Maria each exposed different aspects of how density, dependencies, and distance impact expression of risk. Each event was dramatically different in terms of context, inputs, and outputs. But taken together this real-world stress-test of engineered systems, supply chains, and related networks offered helpful strategic insights. Survivor-facing lifelines are complex adaptive systems that tend to resist command-and-control, but are often predisposed to resilience, and can be influenced by effectively targeted choices. The author outlines several key factors that decision-makers should monitor to inform their choices."

From the Executive Summary: "Today's terrorist landscape is more fluid and complex than ever. For this reason, counterterrorism remains a top priority for this Administration. Our principal terrorist enemies are radical Islamist terrorist groups that seek to conduct attacks globally, violate our borders, and radicalize and recruit potential extremists within the United States and abroad. We continue to face threats from Iran, the most prominent state sponsor of terrorism, through its global network of operatives and its ongoing support to an array of terrorist groups. Terrorists motivated by other forms of extremism also use violence to threaten the homeland and challenge United States interests. These terrorist threats are different in many ways, but they all seek to use violence to undermine the United States and disrupt the American way of life."

"Beginning in February of 2018, the Subcommittee on Information Technology of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform held a series of hearings on artificial intelligence (AI). In connection with those hearings, majority and minority staff met jointly with experts from academia, industry, and government, and reviewed multiple reports from leading AI experts. Through these efforts, several points became evident. First, AI is an immature technology; its abilities in many areas are still relatively new. Second, the workforce is affected by AI; whether that effect is positive, negative, or neutral remains to be seen. Third, AI requires massive amounts of data, which may invade privacy or perpetuate bias, even when using data for good purposes. Finally, AI has the potential to disrupt every sector of society in both anticipated and unanticipated ways. In light of that potential for disruption, it's critical that the federal government address the different challenges posed by AI, including its current and future applications. The following paper presents lessons learned from the Subcommittee's oversight and hearings on AI and sets forth recommendations for moving forward."

"The House Homeland Security Committee has been tracking terrorist activity linked to the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) since the group's formation. This report was produced by the Committee's Majority Staff and is intended to capture the scope of ISIS external operations against Western countries, including the United States, as well as other terrorist incidents inspired by the group. It provides a high-level examination of ISIS-linked plots and attacks targeting Western countries along with a summary of each incident. At the end of July, ISIS has been tied to at least 243 terrorist plots or attacks against the West since 2014."