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20 July 2005

1 Editorial
Engineers Australia was proud to again be been involved in last week's Safeguarding Australia conference including the SET Summit on Counter-Terrorism Technology.

Over 300 people attended the event in Canberra. All three days of the event highlighted the contribution that engineering can make to national security, either directly or indirectly. For example, the proposed maritime surveillance system will only be delivered by integrating existing systems, while the re-development of the Melbourne Cricket Ground required clever engineering.

The conference was opened by the Attorney-General, The Hon. Philip Ruddock, MP. One of his most interesting points was how he viewed the phases of protecting Australia against terrorism. He considered that Australia has experienced three phases and we are currently in the third one.

The "first phase" was the immediate aftermath of September 11 2001, when we hardened obvious targets and quickly boosted the capability of our various security agencies to detect and prevent acts of terrorism.

The "second phase" of our response involved refining our approach by reviewing what we had achieved and identifying opportunities for greater improvement. This phase necessarily drew the business community and Australia's industrial operations into a stronger engagement.

The third phase consists of covering off on important but less urgent priorities, such as protecting improbable but high consequence targets. It also involves drawing the community, local government and the business sector more deeply into Australia's fight against terrorism.

The SET Summit on the last day of the event saw a range of varied technical presentations ranging from the practicalities of national ID card options to blast modelling and from countering shoulder-launched missiles to the future trends in CCTV technology. In particular, we would like to thank the following for their presentation at the SET Summit:

• The Hon Gary Nairn MP, Parliamentary Secretary to the Prime Minister
• Dr Lynn Booth, Department of Prime Minister & Cabinet
• Dr Greg Simpson, Coordinator of the Secure Australia Program, CSIRO
• Neil Bryans, Director Information Sciences Laboratory, DSTO
• Dr Ron Hutchings, Coordinator National Interest and Capability Enhancement, ANSTO
• Dr Phil McFadden, Chief Scientist, Geoscience Australia
• Mike Rothery, Attorney-General's Department

Finally, would like to thank the organisers of the Research Network for a Secure Australia for their involvement in the SET Summit, notably A/Prof Priyan Mendis, Prof Joseph Lai and Prof Ed Dawson.

Bruce Howard, Security Commissioner, Engineers Australia

2 Accessing the presentations from the Safeguarding Australia Conference

1. A number of the presentations from the conference are available at http://www.safeguardingaustraliasummit.org.au/program.html. The ones listed are those which have been supplied by the presenter. Some presentations not be provided due to their sensitivity.
2. A 235-page book has been produced containing 16 papers from the refereed stream of the SET Summit. The book is available for purchase for $35 including postage. See below.
3. Due to the interest shown by the audience in papers from the two tech update streams at the SET Summit, we are considering producing a volume of these presentations. Progress in this will be announced in the future newsletters. .

3 New Publications

Recent advances in counter-terrorism technology and infrastructure protection
This 235-page book contains the proceedings of the 2005 Science, Engineering and Technology (SET) Summit. The Summit showcased cutting edge research and accomplishments in SET. The proceedings contained the refereed papers from the Summit.

The papers are:

1. Eleven principles of creativity and terrorism by D.H. Cropley, Systems Engineering and Evaluation Centre, University of South Australia
2. The development of a model for testing and evaluation of security equipment within Australian Standard / New Zealand Standard AS/NZS 4360:2004 - Risk Management by David E.L. Jones and Clifton L. Smith, Security Systems Research and Testing Laboratory, International Centre for Security and Risk Sciences, Edith Cowan University
3. Security modelling for risk assessment by M.A. Branagan, W.J. Caelli and D. Longley, Information Security Institute, Queensland University of Technology
4. Automatic handwritten signature verification system for Australian passports by Vamsi K. Madasu, Brian C. Lovell and Kurt Kubik, School of ITEE, University of Queensland
5. Risk assessment and mitigation of blast damage to built infrastructure by M.G. Stewart and M.D. Netherton, Centre for Infrastructure Performance and Reliability, School of Engineering, The University of Newcastle
6. Numerical simulation of blast wave propagation in a building structure by X.Q. Zhou, H. Hao and A.J. Deeks, School of Civil &Resource Engineering, The University of Western Australia
7. Incident notification: requirements and frameworks by Renato Iannella, National ICT Australia
8. Study of risk management systems for critical infrastructure protection by R. Kusumo and J.P.T. Mo, CSIRO Manufacturing and Infrastructure Technology
9. Parametric analysis of building structure response to ground excitations of different frequencies and duration by H. Hao and B. Pillage, School of Civil and Resource Engineering, The University of Western Australia
10. Numerical prediction of rock mass damage and safe separation distance between underground chambers under explosion loads by C. Wu and H. Hao, School of Civil &Resource Engineering, The University of Western Australia
11. Towards intelligent networked video surveillance for the detection of suspicious behaviours by M.J. Brooks, A.R. Dick and A. van den Hengel, School of Computer Science, University of Adelaide
12. Deployment of passive radio frequency identification systems for remote vehicle tracking by J.P.T. Mo and R. Kusumo, CSIRO Manufacturing and Infrastructure Technology
13. Recent developments in control room and infrastructure protection by V. Svars, R. Svars and S. Hada, Vistek, Melbourne
14. Performance of ultra-high strength concrete panels subjected to blast loading by Tuan Ngo, Priyan Mendis and Nelson Lam, Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering, The University of Melbourne and Brian Cavill, VSL Pty Ltd
15. Design and development of a portable, lightweight and rapidly deployable vehicle barrier by Nigel Buckley and Zac Macher, AVS-elli
16. Fragmentation and weaponisation of buildings: A review by A Gupta, R Lumantarna, T Ngo, P Mendis and C Flaherty, Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering, The University of Melbourne

A hardcopy of the book costs $37.30 (including postage and handling in Australia) while a pdf of it costs $30.00. To purchase it, please download the purchasing form. ISBN 0-9757873-1-4

The business opportunities in supporting the Australian Intelligence Community
More than $500 million is spent each year by the Australian Intelligence Community (AIC). This report details the business opportunities in supporting the AIC, and the costs and benefits of winning work. The AIC comprises six Australian Government intelligence and security agencies which are:

• Office of National Assessments (ONA)
• Australian Secret Intelligence Service (ASIS)
• Defence Signals Directorate (DSD)
• Defence Intelligence Organisation (DIO)
• Defence Imagery and Geospatial Organisation (DIGO)
• Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO)

The reports highlights

1. understanding the AIC, its customers and its machinery
2. how intelligence priorities are set
3. detailed description of each agency, including their roles, growth, main challenges, main challenges and indicated or inferred responses
4. defining the agencies' cultures, their drivers and biases
5. advice on how to break into the market and how to determine if market entry is a sound business decision
6. a summary of the business opportunities for each agency
7. a list of the organisations which have contracts and consultancies with AIC agency

The Executive Summary is available from here.

A hardcopy of the 27 page report costs $190.00 (including postage and handling in Australia) while a pdf of it costs $140.00. To purchase it, please download the purchasing form here. ISBN 0-9757873-1-4

4 News from around the nation
GovCert
The Commonwealth has formed a Computer Emergency Readiness Team or GovCert and its role is to plan for a cyber-terrorist attack and focus on harm minimisation, law enforcement and recovery arrangements, according to the Australia Financial Review. It is within the Attorney-General's critical infrastructure protection branch, and it will also liaise with foreign computer emergency teams on security issues that cannot be handled by Australia's not-for-profit computer emergency response team AusCert. GovCert is headed by Steven Stroud, the former manager of the Defence Signals Directorate's information security group.

IT Expert Advisory Group changes
The membership of the IT Expert Advisory Group within the Trusted Information Sharing Network has changed.

No longer on it are Graham Ingram, AusCert general manager; Troy Braban, B2Bcom; and David Jonas, Convergence e-Business Solutions.

Continuing members include Bill Caelli of Queensland University of Technology and Ah Chung Tsoi of the Australian Research Council, Representation from Symantec, Internet Security Systems, Australian IT Security Forum and the Defence Science and Technology Organisation will continue.

New members are Greg Stone, national technology officer, Microsoft Australia; Steven Stroud, Attorney-General's GovCert and a representative from National Information Communications Technology Australia. The Department of Communications, IT and the Arts' Ashley Cross continues to chair the panel.

Customs to arm their vessels
The first of Customs vessels has now been fitted with a deck mounted 7.62mm general purpose machine gun. To date they have only carried sidearms for boarding operations, and a rifle and shotgun for personal defence. According to Minister for Justice and Customs, Senator Chris Ellison "Recent experience has shown a growing trend in the unwillingness of some illegal fishing boats and other vessels suspected of criminal activity to comply with requests to be boarded".

Call goes out for Urban Warfighting technologies
The chief of staff of the US Joint Forces Command has invited industry and academic leaders to turn their attention to delivering integrated capabilities for joint urban operations requirements. Key challenges sought to be overcome include: difficulties associated with identifying/targeting adversaries; C3 systems that operate reliably in urban environments, and underground; platform and personnel navigation systems that operate reliably in urban environments, and underground; multi-spectral and integrated ISR sensors capable of seeing through roofs, walls, structures, and vehicles at some standoff distance; tags for individuals and vehicles to support tracking, identification and targeting that operate reliably in urban environments, and underground; processes/procedures to systematically engage subject matter experts and institutions to asses and evaluate political, military, economic, social, infrastructure, and information issues; an ability to pick targets out of severe background clutter, and a means to separate military targets from civilian look-alikes; and an ability to disguise sensors and deploy them in stealthy ways.

Broome wharf extension a boost for border security
Work has commenced on the Broome Wharf extension which is claimed to make a significant boost for border security, according to Minister for Justice and Customs, Chris Ellison. "The wharf extension will facilitate the vital border protection work of the Royal Australian Navy and Customs' National Marine Unit in the North West, as well as enhancing the capacity of the Port of Broome to accommodate increased trade and tourism," Senator Ellison said. The total cost of the extension is expected to reach $16.82 million

Container examination building opens in Darwin
A specialised building that enables Customs officers to examine high-risk cargo in a safe and secure environment has been opened in Darwin. The building houses a fixed x-ray unit, trace particle detection equipment, container venting devices, and breathing apparatus. A mobile x-ray unit and detector dog teams will also be deployed to the facility as required.

The facility will be used to search for drugs and weapons, as well as goods infringing copyright and trademark legislation, and other Customs regulations. Customs had leased the building, located in the Port of Darwin, for three years with an additional three-year option, at a cost of approximately $1 million. With the new building, Customs officers in Darwin will now be able to inspect approximately 120 sea cargo containers (or about 150 'twenty foot equivalent units' or TEUs) each year. Previously, all examinations were carried out either on the wharves or at cargo depots, under less than ideal conditions. The new building will ensure a higher level of security and also protect the goods and Customs officers from the elements.

5 Water sector received the first funding for Computer Network Vulnerability Assessments
The Australian Government will provide co-funding to Yarra Valley Water to conduct assessments of their computer network systems under the $8 million Computer Network Vulnerability Assessment (CNVA) programme. Under the CNVA programme, critical infrastructure owners and operators can apply for up to half of the total cost of bringing in experts to undertake assessments of their computer networks. Yarra Valley Water joined together with Brisbane in Victoria to undertake the assessment of their computer networks at a cost of around $120,000 - 50 per cent of which will be funded by the Australian Government. The assessment will focus on the security of their Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) systems. SCADA systems are used for remote monitoring and control in the delivery of essential services such as water, electricity and gas.

6 Large-scale terrorist exercise in Queensland
A counter-terrorism exercise involving a large-scale terrorist attack in Queensland is currently running and will be concluded on 28 July. Called Orchid Alert, it was designed to evaluate crisis and consequence management capabilities in the event of a contemporary terrorist threat. It is the fourth of five exercises this year as part of the ongoing counter-terrorism exercise program. The exercise runs until 28 July. It involves a range of discussion and capability exercises for hundreds of personnel from Federal and State security, intelligence and emergency service agencies Orchid Alert will involve participation from a number of Australian Government agencies including the Protective Security Coordination Centre, Australian Federal Police, Australian Defence Force, Emergency Management Australia, the Department of Health and Ageing and the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry.

Other counter-terrorism exercises were carried out in Melbourne, Darwin and Adelaide in April and May, and an extra $17.42 million has been allocated by the Government over four years to increase the number and scope of counter-terrorism exercises.

The expanded exercise programme involves, but is not limited to, six attack scenarios, including:

1. Attack on the electricity grid
2. Hijacking an aircraft
3. An attack on a significant point in the food chain
4. An attack on a ferry in Sydney Harbour (or similar water area)
5. A bio-terrorist attack, and
6. An attack on an offshore oil rig.

7 Security boost for Australia's regional airports
All four aviation-based Australian Federal Police (AFP) Regional Rapid Deployment Teams (RRDTs) are now operational, according to the Minister for Justice and Customs, Senator Chris Ellison. The four teams, each comprising eight AFP Protective Service Officers (PSOs), operating from Perth, Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane Airports, will commence routine deployments throughout the country this month to enhance security at regional airports and will also be available for deployment to regional airports in the Northern Territory, South Australia and Tasmania.

The first of the four teams was launched in Melbourne on January 1 2005. The Regional Rapid Deployment Teams are design to provide a high visibility, pre-emptive capability that can deploy to regional airports in response to any increase in threat as a result of intelligence. The teams will work closely with the aviation industry and local police and include bomb appraisal officers and an explosive detection dog. They will participate in security training programmes and support a response to security threats. Their presence will complement to existing security measures and extend the features of the Counter Terrorist First Response (CTFR) capability provided 11 major and capital city airports across the country. Protocols have been settled with Australian State and Territory Police for the operation of these AFP teams. There was also consultation with regional airport owners and operators.

8 North West Shelf Security
North West Shelf Security Dampier is to become the operational base for Navy to secure the North West Shelf. Patrol boats will be based there to provide an enhanced quick reaction capability to respond to potential threats, including terrorist attack, and will add to the Navy's overall border protection capabilities. The patrol boat crews will fly into and out of Dampier to maintain patrol cycles on a rotational basis. Whilst major maintenance requirements will be carried out in Darwin, some maintenance will be conducted in Dampier. The families of crew members will reside in Darwin with the majority of the fleet.

This initiative is part of a $139.3 million package over four years to protect Australia's offshore oil and gas facilities on the North West Shelf and protect Australia's borders.

When asked if "there is a real security risk on the North West Shelf?", the Minister replied, "Well, we can't point to any particular threat, but these days you plan for the unexpected even more so than the expected. The patrol boats, our existing fleet and the Coastwatch contractor, have done a tremendous work in terms of what we might call illegal behaviour, illegal people movement, illegal fishing and that sort of thing. These patrol boats based here will do the same work, but we additionally don't ever dismiss the possibility of a terrorist threat. And it's that possibility of a terrorist threat that really drives us to enhance our capabilities to these new levels. There is no intelligence that says that assets here are likely to be attacked, but when you survey the national assets of greatest importance to us strategically, the assets here are very high on the list and that's why we're making this additional enhancement."

Senator Hill continued "Well we've identified the key strategic assets and one - among the highest on that list were the offshore assets and the infrastructure in this part of the world, and we decided to add an extra layer of defence, in effect, and that layer will comprise firstly of the two new patrol boats so we'll have a 365 day coverage of state-of-the-art patrol boats. And we are also looking at the possibility of unmanned aerial vehicle surveillance."

9 Slow speed in unmanned aerial vehicle in maritime surveillance
The trial to deploy large unmanned aerial vehicles in a maritime surveillance role around Australia is making progress but "not quite as quickly as we would have liked" according to the Defence Minister, Senator Robert Hill. "We believe we now have a commitment from General Atomics to provide their new Mariner unmanned aerial vehicle, which is a maritime development of the Predator vehicle". The trial for that aircraft will probably being about April 2006 with Defence Science and Technology Organisation having the primary role of managing that contract. This vehicle is still in the developmental stage, and there is no large unmanned aerial vehicle yet operating anywhere in the world in a maritime surveillance role.