Protection of critical infrastructure and private property are growing areas of concern.
Our electrical grid is probably the most important part of our infrastructure as other grids depend on it – think of just cyber, refrigeration, and water – none of which will work without electricity. The attack on a key substation in California in 2013 demonstrated the vulnerability of our electric grid. Ultimately, it’s clear that the grid can be brought down by a cascading series of failures caused by well-focused attacks.
If a few (not many) attacks were to occur on a limited number of electrical substations, the recovery would not be measured in hours or days, but possibly weeks or months. It’s not difficult to imagine disruptions of mass proportion that could be wrought by such an event. This would not be an event of “inconvenience,” but of real damage, disease, and death. As energy sources continue to expand and diversify, there will be an increasing requirement to protect new pipelines and other critical infrastructure.
Similarly, private property can be vulnerable to both terrorist and criminal attack. In some parts of the world, attacks against private property and kidnapping for ransom are becoming increasingly common threats. Protecting private property and key infrastructure will require a multi-faceted approach, including developing and deploying systems with the ability to monitor and report human activity. Without awareness of both key and remote areas, terrorists and criminals will be able to conduct attacks with impunity. Affordable technology solutions must be developed which will need to be unattended, intelligent and connected. Most importantly, systems will need to be “integrated” and scaled at the right level to be able to provide security for differing use cases.
Innovative Algorithms’ team has years of experience working with the US electric grid and combating crime, terrorism, and violent extremist groups abroad. Deployment of Innovative Algorithms’ sensor systems has the clear potential to provide affordable and scalable solutions for protection of both critical infrastructure and private property.
