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• Biomedical Research: Observations on DOD's Management of Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs

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  From the Introduction: "The Department of Defense (DOD) is among the United States' largest federal sponsors of biomedical research, which contributes to discoveries of new drugs, vaccines, medical services, and other approaches for preventing, diagnosing, and treating diseases, conditions, and injuries. [1] For fiscal year 2021, Congress appropriated nearly $2.4 billion for the Defense Health Program for research, development, test and evaluation, which includes biomedical research. [2] Of that amount, about $1.5 billion funded DOD's Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs (CDMRP), including 36 research program areas such as cancers, alcohol and substance abuse disorders, and spinal cord injury. [3] CDMRP has grown since its initial appropriation of $210 million in 1992 (about $367 million in fiscal year 2021 dollars) to fund a breast cancer research program."

  United States. Government Accountability Office

  2021-11
• Maximum Use of Civilian Communications Capabilities for National Security

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  From the introductory Staff Study section of this analytical study: "The civilian communications industry in the United States, with a plant value of over 7 billion dollars, employing over 1/2 million skilled communications men, and rapidly expanding, is capable of furnishing sufficient skilled and experienced personnel in wartime to meet practically the entire Armed Forces and industrial requirements. […] Signal Corps experience in both recent Wars has demonstrated and proven the value and benefits of military utilization of civilian industrial trained and experienced technicians as implemented through the 'Affiliation' principle. […] Current programs leading toward a utilization of this civilian skilled manpower reservoir, principally through the 'Affiliation Program', can ultimately utilize only a minor fraction of the segment of this group of personnel which would be available to the Armed Forces in wartime. Current program limitations and implementing experiences indicate a definite need for a more comprehensive program of civilian skilled personnel utilization. […] Since there exists in the Signal Corps a positive wartime requirement for trained and skilled civilian communications personnel; since there exists within the civilian communications industry a sufficient force of this category of personnel to meet practically all wartime manpower requirements; and since current programs provide for only a minor utilization of this civilian capability; - the urgency of the problem warrants consideration of a plan designed to achieve maximum utilization of this capability."

  U.S. Army Command and General Staff College. School of Advanced Military Studies

  Heltzel, William E.

  1947-11-19
• Congressional Budget Office Cost Estimate: S. 2102, Supporting Expanded Review for Veterans in Combat Environments Act of 2021

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  This is the Congressional Budget Office Cost Estimate as ordered reported by the Senate Committee on Veterans' Affairs on July 28, 2021. From the Document: "S. 2102 would require the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to extend eligibility for mammographic screenings to any veteran who, after September 11, 2001, served in locations associated with exposure to toxic substances or who served in Southwest Asia during the Persian Gulf war. Under current law, the department provides mammograms to veterans who are 40 or older. The bill would expand eligibility for mammographic screening for post-9/11 veterans who are under 40 years of age. All veterans from the Persian Gulf War are now at least 48 years of age and eligible for mammograms from VA under current law."

  United States. Congressional Budget Office

  2022-01-28
• Federal Civil Defense Administration Annual Statistical Report for Fiscal Year 1957

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  "The Federal Civil Defense Administration was created by the Federal Civil Defense Act of 1950, Public Law 920, 81st Congress, which was passed January 12, 1951. […] From the time FCDA was created, programs have been developed and have gone forward to discharge these responsibilities. Since early 1953 the Agency has also had responsibility for coordinating Federal assistance to the States in major natural disasters, under authority of Public Law 875, 81st Congress. This is the third Annual Statistical Report published to show in summary form the progress made in several aspects of civil defense in the United States and particularly in the programs carried on directly by FCDA. Interim Statistical Reports were published at the end of each quarter during the past year to provide more current data on some of the programs. […] Each part is subdivided into a number of items with charts and tables giving statistics on a related group of matters pertinent to civil defense operations and programs. Unless noted otherwise, the source of all material is the FCDA National and Regional Offices. In nearly all cases, the information reflects program status as of June 30, 1957."

  United States. Federal Civil Defense Administration

  1957
• Effects of Catastrophic Events on Transportation System Management and Operations: Comparative Analysis

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  "In order to provide a better understanding of how the surface transportation system is both affected and utilized in an emergency situation, the U.S. Department of Transportation Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) Joint Program Office and the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) Office of Operations commissioned a series of six case studies examining the effects of catastrophic events on transportation system management and operations: 1. Blackout, New York-New Jersey-Connecticut Metropolitan Area, August 14, 2003 2. Blackout, Great Lakes Region, August 14, 2003 3. Terrorist attack, New York City, September 11, 2001 4. Terrorist attack, Washington, D.C., September 11, 2001 5. Rail tunnel fire, Baltimore, Maryland, July 18, 2001 6. Earthquake, Northridge, California, January 18, 1994 Each of the events resulted in substantial, immediate, and adverse impacts on the transportation system, and each has had a varying degree of influence on the longer-term operation of transportation facilities and services in its respective region. This comparative analysis summarizes the surface transportation activities associated with these catastrophic events and the lessons learned from each. The case studies have provided material for a series of Transportation Response and Recovery Workshops developed by the FHWA and held in major metropolitan areas around the country."

  United States. Department of Transportation. Research and Special Programs Administration

  DeBlasio, Allan J.; Zirker, Margaret E.; Regan, Terrance J.

  1958-01-01
• Defense Infrastructure: DOD Should Better Manage Risks Posed by Deferred Facility Maintenance, Report to the Subcommittee on Readiness and Management Support, Committee on Armed Services, U.S. Senate

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  From the Highlights: "DOD manages facilities worldwide with an estimated aggregate plant replacement value of about $1.3 trillion. Sustaining these facilities involves maintenance and repair to keep them in good working order. Deferring maintenance can lead to deterioration, potentially affecting DOD's ability to support missions. GAO [Government Accountability Office] was asked to review DOD facility sustainment. This report examines the extent to which (1) DOD's cost factors for estimating its facility sustainment funding requirements are comparable to those of other federal agencies and fully account for DOD's sustainment costs; (2) DOD's facility sustainment funding aligns with its funding goals; and (3) DOD has a deferred maintenance backlog and a process for managing any such backlog. GAO reviewed documentation and interviewed officials about DOD's process for estimating facility sustainment funding requirements and managing deferred maintenance; analyzed funding and deferred maintenance data for FY2017 through FY2020; and contacted a non-generalizable sample of 12 DOD installations from six DOD components to discuss facility sustainment."

  United States. Government Accountability Office

  2022-01-31
• Civil Defense Today

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  "In the preattack phase in civil defense we have only two tools to work with. We have never had more than two, and, as far as I can see, we never will have more than two. Those two tools are simply the utilization of space and the utilization of shielding. To gain space you put distance between yourself and the explosion of the bomb, or the point where you assume the bomb will be exploded, the neighborhood you assume it will be exploded in. That simply becomes evacuation. This business of evacuation is an interesting one. I started talking about it back in 1953. You have to keep your calendar a little bit in mind when you talk about concepts of this type. We try to think back to what we knew about these things in 1953, because obviously I wasn't smart enough to know in 1953 what I know in 1957. Neither was anybody else in the world at that time."

  Industrial College of the Armed Forces (U.S.)

  Peterson, Val

  1957-02-25
• Review of U.S. Customs and Border Protection's Fiscal Year 2021 Drug Control Budget Formulation Compliance Report

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  From the Document: "The Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) Circular, 'National Drug Control Program Agency Compliance Reviews,' requires National Drug Control Program agencies to submit to the ONDCP Director by February 1 of each year a detailed accounting of all funds expended for National Drug Control Program activities during the previous fiscal year. At least every 3 years, the Office of Inspector General is required to review the report and provide a conclusion about the reliability of each assertion made in the report."

  United States. Department of Homeland Security. Office of Inspector General

  2022-01-27
• Challenges in Computational Social Modeling and Simulation for National Security Decision-Making

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  "On October 26th and 27th, 2010, Sandia National Laboratories (SNL) organized an interdisciplinary workshop in which participants from a range of institutions and research backgrounds presented and discussed papers on a range of topics related to the development and use of computational social science (CSS) in national security decision-making. Computational social science refers to the use of computational modeling and simulation approaches, including agent-based, social network, discrete event, and systems dynamics methodologies, to study behavioral, cultural, and social dynamics. CSS has long roots in computer science, artificial intelligence, and quantitative social science. Over the past decade, CSS methods have captured the attention of the national security community as a source of analytic and decision-support technologies for a range of challenges, from counterinsurgency to terrorism." Note: This document has been added to the Homeland Security Digital Library in agreement with the Project on Advanced Systems and Concepts for Countering WMD (PASCC) as part of the PASCC collection. Permission to download and/or retrieve this resource has been obtained through PASCC.

  Sandia National Laboratories; United States. Defense Threat Reduction Agency

  Gieseler, Charles; McNamara, Laura A.; Trucano, Timothy Guy

  2011-06
• Public Views on Multiple Dimensions of Security: Nuclear Weapons, Terrorism, Energy and the Environment: 2007

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  "We analyze and compare findings from identical national surveys of the US general public on nuclear security and terrorism administered by telephone and Internet in mid-2007. Key areas of investigation include assessments of threats to US security; valuations of US nuclear weapons and nuclear deterrence; perspectives on nuclear proliferation, including the specific cases of North Korea and Iran; and support for investments in nuclear weapons capabilities. Our analysis of public views on terrorism include assessments of the current threat, progress in the struggle against terrorism, preferences for responding to terrorist attacks at different levels of assumed casualties, and support for domestic policies intended to reduce the threat of terrorism. Also we report findings from an Internet survey conducted in mid 2007 that investigates public views of US energy security, to include: energy supplies and reliability; energy vulnerabilities and threats, and relationships among security, costs, energy dependence, alternative sources, and research and investment priorities. We analyze public assessments of nuclear energy risks and benefits, nuclear materials management issues, and preferences for the future of nuclear energy in the US. Additionally, we investigate environmental issues as they relate to energy security, to include expected implications of global climate change, and relationships among environmental issues and potential policy options."

  Sandia National Laboratories

  Jenkins-Smith, Hank C.; Herron, Kerry G.

  2007-12
• Strategic Analysis of Complex Security Scenarios

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  "Many advanced technical tools are available to prevent attacks on national infrastructure. Nevertheless, while traditional analyses of security problems have succeeded in producing good technical solutions, they have often ignored the human factor integral to these problems. Human attackers (who may be individuals or state-level attackers) expend substantial effort to breach security because they have the incentive for doing so. People involved in implementing security follow individual incentives, which need not align with global security concerns; consequently, desired security solutions are often implemented poorly, or not at all. This complex interplay between individual incentives and global (organizational and/or national) goals can be modeled and analyzed using game theoretic techniques. By analyzing not only what is possible, but also what is motivated, a holistic approach to security problems can be developed, informing policy and providing tools to policy makers. We study game theoretic models that unify several current incentive-based approaches to security, and develop simulation-based and mathematical optimization methods for analyzing such models that exploit the high-performance computing capabilities at Sandia."

  Sandia National Laboratories

  Vorobeychik, Yevgeniy

  2012-09
• Inherently Safer Technology Gaps Analysis Study

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  "This project consisted of an analysis of the current state of knowledge for improving safety regarding toxic industrial chemicals, including an examination of current and state-of-the-art techniques and technologies capable of increasing safety and security in production, transportation, storage, and use of hazardous chemicals. The primary goal was to improve national security through improved safety by providing a foundation for a comprehensive evaluation of the current state of knowledge surrounding the source and production methods of the 'Release -- Toxic' chemicals in DHS CFATS [Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Standards] Appendix A list of chemicals of interest. Additionally, this project assisted in the data gathering and development of the CSAC IST [Chemical Security Analysis Center Inherently Safer Technology] Metrics. This involved an in-depth effort to understand specific chemical processes followed by a conceptual effort to redefine the Chemical Release Reduction Modifier that was included in the original Index."

  Sandia National Laboratories

  Foltz, Greg W.; Paap, Scott M.; Anstey, Mitchell R.

  2012-08
• Towards Risk-Based Management of Critical Infrastructures: Enabling Insights and Analysis Methodologies from a Focused Study of the Bulk Power Grid

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  "This report summarizes research on a holistic analysis framework to assess and manage risks in complex infrastructures, with a specific focus on the bulk electric power grid (grid). A comprehensive model of the grid is described that can approximate the coupled dynamics of its physical, control, and market components. New realism is achieved in a power simulator extended to include relevant control features such as relays. The simulator was applied to understand failure mechanisms in the grid. Results suggest that the implementation of simple controls might significantly alter the distribution of cascade failures in power systems. The absence of cascade failures in our results raises questions about the underlying failure mechanisms responsible for widespread outages, and specifically whether these outages are due to a system effect or large-scale component degradation. Finally, a new agent-based market model for bilateral trades in the short-term bulk power market is presented and compared against industry observations."

  Sandia National Laboratories

  Laviolette, Randall A.; Richardson, Bryan T.; Cook, Benjamin K.

  2008-01
• Verification and Validation of Social Science Simulations: Some Thoughts for Consideration in National Security Applications

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  "Threats to national security have become increasingly complex and adaptive involving the intersection of technical, operational, and human considerations. Non-state actors that use non-traditional means of attack such as terrorism and the threat of acquisition or use of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) are of particular concern, as the numbers of actors, their potential repertoires of behaviors, and the dynamic, co-evolutionary nature of their actions with those of other actors compound the problem space enormously. The expansion along these several dimensions has encouraged the emergence of many new modeling approaches, as well as the innovative application of existing methods across domain spaces, to support transdisciplinary data collection, analysis, and decision support. The direct inclusion of social sciences in particular, and (although to a lesser extent) the humanities in the threat analysis endeavor introduces new concepts, frames of reference, and language to what historically was a field structured around the physical and engineering sciences." Note: This document has been added to the Homeland Security Digital Library in agreement with the Project on Advanced Systems and Concepts for Countering WMD (PASCC) as part of the PASCC collection. Permission to download and/or retrieve this resource has been obtained through PASCC.

  Sandia National Laboratories

  Hayden, Nancy Kay

  2007-07-13
• Design for Resilience in Infrastructure Distribution Networks

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  "The recognition that resilience is a critical aspect of infrastructure resilience has caused the national and homeland security communities to ask 'How does one ensure infrastructure resilience?' Previous analysis methods have primarily focused on system recovery activities following the occurrence of a disruptive event. In this report, we expand on those methods by including pre-disruption investment options, in addition to post-event recovery activities, as means to infrastructure resilience. The report describes a stochastic optimization model for designing network infrastructure resilience to a variety of uncertain potential disruptions. The model seeks investment-recovery combinations that minimize the overall cost to a regional distribution network. A set of numerical experiments illustrates how changes to disruption scenarios probabilities affect the optimal resilient design investments."

  Sandia National Laboratories

  Vugrin, Eric D.; Turnquist, Mark A.

  2012-07
• Development of Chemiresponsive Sensors for Detection of Common Homemade Explosives

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  "Field-structured chemiresistors (FSCRs) are polymer based sensors that exhibit a resistance change when exposed to an analyte of interest. The amount of resistance change depends on the polymer-analyte affinity. The affinity can be manipulated by modifying the polymer within the FSCRs. In this paper, we investigate the ability of chemically modified FSCRs to sense hydrogen peroxide vapor. Five chemical species were chosen based on their hydrophobicity or reactivity with hydrogen peroxide. Of the five investigated, FSCRs modified with allyl methyl sulfide exhibited a significant response to hydrogen peroxide vapor. Additionally, these same FSCRs were evaluated against a common interferrant in hydrogen peroxide detection, water vapor. For the conditions investigated, the FSCRs modified with allyl methyl sulfide were able to successfully distinguish between water vapor and hydrogen peroxide vapor. A portion of the results presented here will be submitted to the Sensors and Actuators journal."

  Sandia National Laboratories

  Brotherton, Christopher M.; Wheeler, David R.

  2012-05
• FRMAC Assessment Manual: Pre-Assessed Default Scenarios, Volume 3

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  "The primary purposes of this manual are to provide the user with: a sound scientific basis in technical and assessment processes, plus conversion values that have been agreed upon ahead of time. This assures that the correct values will be used and the results will be consistent among users from shift to shift; one document, for quick and easy use, that contains all technical values and assessment processes expected to be used during a radiological response. However, reference documents will be available at the FRMAC for special assessments that are not included in this manual."

  Sandia National Laboratories

  2003-04
• Systematic Method for Identifying Vital Areas at Complex Nuclear Facilities

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  "The need for physical protection of nuclear facilities has long been recognized. However, the events of September 11, 2001 have increased the urgency of ensuring that adequate protection is provided. This report describes a systematic method to identify areas containing nuclear material, or the minimum complement of equipment, systems, or devices to be protected against sabotage. Because these areas are referred to as vital areas, the process is referred to as vital area identification (VAI). VAI focuses on 'what to protect,' while physical protection system design addresses 'how to protect.' Further, VAI is an evaluation of what to protect without consideration of the threat's capability to overcome physical protection measures or the difficulty of providing physical protection. VAI identifies areas, structures, systems, and components to be protected; the threat to these items and the ease or difficulty of protecting the items against a threat are considered after the areas and items to be protected are identified."

  Sandia National Laboratories; United States. National Nuclear Security Administration

  Beck, David F.; Hockert, J. (John)

  2005-05-12
• Methodology for Prioritizing Cyber-Vulnerable Critical Infrastructure Equipment and Mitigation Strategies

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  "The Department of Homeland Security (DHS), National Cyber Security Division (NSCD), Control Systems Security Program (CSSP), contracted Sandia National Laboratories to develop a generic methodology for prioritizing cyber-vulnerable, critical infrastructure assets and the development of mitigation strategies for their loss or compromise. The initial project has been divided into three discrete deliverables: 1) A generic methodology report suitable to all Critical Infrastructure and Key Resource (CIKR) Sectors (this report); 2) a sector-specific report for Electrical Power Distribution; and 3) a sector-specific report for the water sector, including generation, water treatment, and wastewater systems."

  Sandia National Laboratories

  Dawson, Lon A.; Stinebaugh, Jennifer

  2010-04-01
• Advanced Metering Infrastructure Security Considerations

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  "The purpose of this report is to provide utilities implementing Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) with the knowledge necessary to secure that implementation appropriately. We intend that utilities use this report to guide their planning, procurement, roll-out, and assessment of the security of Advanced Metering Infrastructure. This report discusses threats to the AMI, the likely sources of threat, damage mechanisms, and attack consequences. A high-level assessment of risk due to AMI exploitation is given. The report concludes with an outline strategy and specific recommendations for reducing risk. A utility implementing the recommendations contained in this report as it installs AMI technology will be positioned to detect and withstand attacks that attempt to exploit the vulnerabilities of the AMI."

  Sandia National Laboratories

  Parks, Raymond C.

  2007-11
• Guide to Critical Infrastructure Protection Cyber Vulnerability Assessment

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  "This document describes a customized process for cyber vulnerability assessment in compliance with the Critical Infrastructure Protection standards adopted by the North American Electric Reliability Corporation in 2006. This guide covers the planning, execution, and reporting process."

  Sandia National Laboratories

  Parks, Raymond C.

  2007-11
• Advanced Concepts for Controlling Energy Surety Microgrids

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  "Today, researchers, engineers, and policy makers are seeking ways to meet the world's growing demand for energy while addressing critical issues such as energy security, reliability, and sustainability. Many believe that distributed generators operating within a microgrid have the potential to address most of these issues. Sandia National Laboratories has developed a concept called energy surety in which five of these 'surety elements' are simultaneously considered: energy security, reliability, sustainability, safety, and cost-effectiveness. The surety methodology leads to a new microgrid design that we call an energy surety microgrid (ESM). This paper discusses the unique control requirement needed to produce a microgrid system that has high levels of surety, describes the control system from the most fundamental level through a real-world example, and discusses our ideas and concepts for a complete system."

  Sandia National Laboratories

  Menicucci, David; Moyet, Ortiz J.

  2011-05-01
• Enhanced Chemical Incident Response Plan (ECIRP) - Appendix F: Remediation Analysis with Decision Support Tools (DSTs) for Wide-Area Chemical Hazards

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  "The Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) commissioned an assessment of the Consequence Management (CM) plans in place on military bases for response to a chemical attack. The effectiveness of the CM plans for recovering from chemical incidents was modeled using a multiple Decision Support Tools (DSTs). First, a scenario was developed based on an aerial dispersion of a chemical agent over a wide-area of land. The extent of contamination was modeled with the Hazard Prediction and Assessment Capability (HPAC) tool. Subsequently, the Analyzer for Wide Area Restoration Effectiveness (AWARE) tool was used to estimate the cost and time demands for remediation based on input of contamination maps, sampling and decontamination resources, strategies, rates and costs. The sampling strategies incorporated in the calculation were designed using the Visual Sample Plan (VSP) tool. Based on a gaps assessment and the DST remediation analysis, an Enhanced Chemical Incident Response Plan (ECIRP) was developed."

  Sandia National Laboratories

  Hoette, Trisha M.; Foltz, Greg W.; Hassig, Nancy L.

  2011-07
• Low-Power Public Key Cryptography

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  From the Office of Scientific and Technical Information website: "This report presents research on public key, digital signature algorithms for cryptographic authentication in low-powered, low-computation environments. We assessed algorithms for suitability based on their signature size, and computation and storage requirements. We evaluated a variety of general purpose and special purpose computing platforms to address issues such as memory, voltage requirements, and special functionality for low-powered applications. In addition, we examined custom design platforms. We found that a custom design offers the most flexibility and can be optimized for specific algorithms. Furthermore, the entire platform can exist on a single Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC) or can be integrated with commercially available components to produce the desired computing platform."

  Sandia National Laboratories

  Beaver, Cheryl; Draetos, Timothy; Schroeppel, Richard

  2000-11-09?
• Economics Definitions, Methods, Models, and Analysis Procedures for Homeland Security Applications

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  "This report gives an overview of the types of economic methodologies and models used by Sandia economists in their consequence analysis work for the National Infrastructure Simulation & Analysis Center and other DHS programs. It describes the three primary resolutions at which analysis is conducted (microeconomic, mesoeconomic, and macroeconomic), the tools used at these three levels (from data analysis to internally developed and publicly available tools), and how they are used individually and in concert with each other and other infrastructure tools."

  Sandia National Laboratories

  Ehlen, Mark A.

  2010-01-29
• Estimating the Economic Impacts of Terrorist Events at the Individual Chemical Facilities: Initial Results

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  From the Executive Summary: "The U.S. Congress enacted Section 550 of the 'Homeland Security Appropriations Act of 2007, P.L. 109-295', to direct the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to identify and secure the Nation's high-risk chemical facilities. Within DHS, the Infrastructure Security Compliance Division (ISCD) is responsible for implementing the Chemical Facility Anti-terrorism Standards (CFATS) regulatory process. Part of this process requires determining whether and how facilities should be regulated based on how critical they are to the national economy. ISCD partnered with Sandia National Laboratories (SNL) to develop a method for identifying economically critical chemical facilities. SNL first conducted a comprehensive review of historical chemical-facility events to understand the types of impacts caused by disruption to a chemical facility. It then reviewed potential methods for measuring the economic criticality of chemicals and facilities and ultimately developed a methodology based largely on the economic impacts literature. Research was then conducted on specific alternative approaches for estimating how the loss of a chemical facility could cause national-level economic impacts. The method identifies national economic impacts by measuring the costs of four primary impact types: (1) Cleanup and decontamination of the chemical facility or affected area; (2) Repair or replacement of chemical facility equipment; (3) Local business interruptions caused by the chemical event and cleanup; and (4) Chemical supply-chain interruptions. […] SNL's general finding is that terrorist events at a chemical facility are not likely to cause national-level economic impacts, but that impacts could be significant at the local level. The initial results suggest average gross domestic product (GDP) impacts for onsite and offsite events in the hundreds of millions of dollars and billions of dollars, respectively, with nearly 25 percent of the GDP impact occurring in the first year."

  Sandia National Laboratories

  Ehlen, Mark A.; Pepple, Mark A.

  2014-11
• Metaphors for Cyber Security

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  From the Abstract: "This report is based upon a workshop, called 'CyberFest,' held at Sandia National Laboratories on May 27-30, 2008. Participants in the workshop came from organizations both outside and inside Sandia. The premise of the workshop was that thinking about cyber security from a metaphorical perspective could lead to a deeper understanding of current approaches to cyber defense and perhaps to some creative new approaches. A wide range of metaphors was considered, including those relating to: military and other types of conflict, biological, health care, markets, three-dimensional space, and physical asset protection. These in turn led to consideration of a variety of possible approaches for improving cyber security in the future. From the proposed approaches, three were formulated for further discussion. These approaches were labeled 'Heterogeneity' (drawing primarily on the metaphor of biological diversity), 'Motivating Secure Behavior' (taking a market perspective on the adoption of cyber security measures) and 'Cyber Wellness' (exploring analogies with efforts to improve individual and public health)."

  Sandia National Laboratories

  Karas, Thomas H.; Moore, Judy; Parrott, Lori K.

  2008-08-01
• Genomics-Enabled Sensor Platform for Rapid Detection of Viruses Related to Disease Outbreak

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  "Bioweapons and emerging infectious diseases pose growing threats to our national security. Both natural disease outbreak and outbreaks due to a bioterrorist attack are a challenge to detect, taking days after the outbreak to identify since most outbreaks are only recognized through reportable diseases by health departments and reports of unusual diseases by clinicians. In recent decades, arthropod-borne viruses (arboviruses) have emerged as some of the most significant threats to human health. They emerge, often unexpectedly, from cryptic transmission foci causing localized outbreaks that can rapidly spread to multiple continents due to increased human travel and trade. Currently, diagnosis of acute infections requires amplification of viral nucleic acids, which can be costly, highly specific, technically challenging and time consuming. No diagnostic devices suitable for use at the bedside or in an outbreak setting currently exist. The original goals of this project were to 1) develop two highly sensitive and specific diagnostic as says for detecting RNA [ribonucleic acid] from a wide range of arboviruses; one based on an electrochemical approach and the other a fluorescent based assay and 2) develop prototype microfluidic diagnostic platforms for preclinical and field testing that utilize the assays developed in goal 1. We generated and characterized suitable primers for West Nile Virus RNA detection. Both optical and electrochemical transduction technologies were developed for DNA [deoxyribonucleic acid]-RNA hybridization detection and were implemented in microfluidic diagnostic sensing platforms that were developed in this project."

  Sandia National Laboratories

  Brozik, Susan M.; Manginell, Ronald P.; Moorman, Matthew W. . . .

  2013-09
• What Then Do We Do About Computer Security?

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  "In November 2010 Jim Gosler, Sandia Fellow, asked several of us several pointed questions about computer security metrics. Never mind that some of the best minds in the field have been trying to crack this nut without success for decades. Jim asked Campbell to lead an informal and unfunded group to answer the questions. With time Jim invited several more Sandians to join in. We met a number of times both with Jim and without him. At Jim's direction we contacted a number of people outside Sandia who Jim thought could help. For example, we interacted with IBM's T.J. Watson Research Center and held a one-day, videoconference workshop with them on the questions. Over the year Jim added more questions to the list upon occasion and upon occasion we provided our then-current answers in the form of short, informal documents, usually about one page each. As we now complete a year on this work we have gathered our now-current answers and present them in this report. The following are Jim's collected questions: (1) I have a million dollars; how should I spend it to maximize my computer security? (2) I am a program manager for computer security. How do I identify the proposals that will increase my computer security? (3) I am a program manager for computer security. When a funded proposal completes how do I determine how much security I got for my money? (4) Why is this problem so hard? (5) How will our civilization's response to this problem play out? (6) How do I address deterrence in this world? The rest of this report is organized as follows. The next section presents the answers for each of us. The subsequent (and last) section presents a summary."

  Sandia National Laboratories

  Berg, Michael J.; Campbell, Philip L.; Davis, Christopher E. . . .

  2012-01
• Future of Infrastructure Security: A Workshop Held at Sandia National Laboratories

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  "Sandia National Laboratories hosted a workshop on the future of infrastructure security on February 27-28, 2013, in Albuquerque, NM. The 17 participants came from backgrounds as diverse as federal policy, the insurance industry, infrastructure management, and technology development. The purpose of the workshop was to surface key issues, identify directions forward, and lay groundwork for cross-sectoral and cross-disciplinary collaborations. The workshop addressed issues such as the problem space (what is included in 'infrastructure' problems?), the general types of threats to infrastructure (such as acute or chronic, system-inherent or exogenously imposed) and definitions of 'secure and resilient' infrastructures. The workshop concluded with a consideration of stakeholders and players in the infrastructure world, and identification of specific activities that could be undertaken by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and other players."

  Sandia National Laboratories

  Garcia, Pablo; Turnley, Jessica Glicken; Parrott, Lori K.

  2013-05