Science and Terrorism

‘We have the technology to identify individuals accurately from a database of millions, but what do we do once we’ve ID’d them?’ asks Clive. ‘If a person is who they say they are, but still wants to carry out a terrorist activity, iris scanning alone can’t stop them.’

This is one pitfall of all biometric recognition systems – they can only be used to pinpoint true or false identities, not detect terrorist activities. Another major issue is that of civil liberties. Many people are worried about their personal data ‘falling in to the wrong hands’. While officials insist that electronic passport chips are safe and secure, there have been issues with this data being either intentionally hacked into or unintentionally corrupted. There are also concerns about how the data will be used, for example in ‘profiling’ to filter a population for suspects. So far, these suspicions have kept many biometric schemes on the back-burner.

But it’s not just people who carry unique fingerprints. Drugs and explosives also have their own signatures that can be picked up by special equipment. Such detection devices are already in use at public venues such as airports. They use a technique called ionability spectroscopy to test for residues of drugs or explosives on suspicious packages. ‘The system’s portable and designed for easy use,’ explains technology manager Georgia Ranger. ‘It allows operators to analyse material swabs to get either a positive or negative reading for a suspicious substance.’ It sounds tough to beat: ‘In theory, it’s possible to wash off explosive residues, but in practice it’s very difficult,’ says Georgia.

New technologies are being developed that could outdate what’s currently in use by identifying explosives inside containers. One of these is terahertz (THz) spectroscopy. Terahertz is a type of radiation with a frequency between microwave and infrared wavelengths. Bouncing this radiation off of objects can provide information about what they’re made of.

Until recently, Terahertz radiation wasn’t very useful as it was hard to produce. But advances in technology have made it possible to incorporate Terahertz into portable systems for people or baggage scanning. Terhertz radiation can see through common materials, so it’s able to detect what’s inside someone’s luggage or underneath their clothing. It’s also safe to use on people as it doesn’t produce dangerous radiation like X-rays.

But this see-through strength has also proved to be a potential pitfall, causing social and legal issues surrounding people’s privacy. The technology is also still very expensive and has some problems with scanning objects in wet environments, as its rays are absorbed by water. Despite these potential pitfalls, Terahertz researcher Andrew Burnett is confident that we’ll be using this technology in security systems before long. ‘Counties like the USA are putting lots of money into Terahertz research, so I expect we’ll see it being used for security within 5 years,’ he explains. ‘But the technology is very sensitive, so we’ll need to build up a big database of substances to search for.’

New technologies like biometric identification and Terahertz scanning will undoubtedly make a difference to national security systems. ID fraud will become increasingly difficult with sophisticated biometrics and new generations of scanning technologies could be integral to catching and deterring explosives and weapons smugglers.

But people who want to carry out crimes and terrorist activities will no doubt learn to adapt to these new technologies or find different ways to cause chaos. Recent national cyber-attacks in Estonia and Israel show that those who want to cause harm are adapting to new technologies too.

Georgia Ranger believes there is no one magic bullet for a security solution. ‘More and more bits of kit are currently being introduced,’ she explains. ‘Hopefully these new technologies will smooth our security processes, but all technologies have their limitations.’ ‘For the tightest security we need more than one technique,’ adds Andrew. ‘The best answer is to use lots of different technologies in combination.’

For more information

UN - Office on Drugs and Crime - Terrorism and Weapons of Mass Destruction
http://www.unodc.org/unodc/terrorism_weapons_mass_destruction_page002.html

Center for Nonproliferation Studies - Weapons Grade Uranium Smuggling
http://cns.miis.edu/pubs/week/070126.htm