The US risks delivery by terrorists of nuclear weapons hidden in shipping containers to US ports. Navy Admiral Vern Clark has stated that the Navy and Coast Guard have the capability to deal with such problems, but lack a critical element--good information regarding ships coming to US ports from all over the globe throughout the course of their voyages. Our system for gathering that intelligence would require insertion of hardened wireless devices capable of detecting nuclear weapons into containers prior to loading. The devices would continuously detect and be monitored by US authorities throughout the container's journey from loading in the foreign country to the ship's arrival at the US port. Ships bearing containers without devices could be barred from US ports. Since devices may be in enemy hands during loading, novel security measures would be required to harden them against tampering and reverse engineering. We propose to use our ANGEL security system, developed over the last five years, as a foundation for the container system. ANGEL protects networks through orthogonal authentication, audit, strobed encryption, automatic network generation and installation, and random confusion. We plan to extend proven ANGEL technology to design a highly secure container monitoring system. Military: -Avoidance of a container-enabled nuclear, "dirty bomb", etc. attack on the homeland. -Opportunity to "inspect" 100% of containers imported into US ports, rather than current spot checks of about 5%. -Use of detecting device system could be required for containers that would be imported through Canadian or Latin American ports. -Since an enemy will probably tamper with the devices, there should be opportunities for gathering forward intelligence against the enemy before it realizes it has been detected. -The detecting devices could provide intelligence to the Navy as to the location of a particular container ship at any point in its voyage. - Intelligence from the system might be valuable to prevent terrorist attacks on Naval vessels afloat using weapons hidden in shipping containers. -This system could also be used by the Navy to securely ship its own containers under continuous surveillance between Navy bases. -The proposed system is far more cost efficient than building large structures at each port to scan containers from the outside, as the wireless devices involved are cheap and can be easily upgraded to contain latest sensors and wireless technology as technology advances. Outside scanning will create bottlenecks at ports. Upgrading physical structures to incorporate new scanning devices will be expensive and time consuming. -The proposed system could be extended to cover truck bodies entering the US. -Greater likelihood of detecting dangerous cargoes if sensors can be put inside the container and given a longer period of time in which to scan the cargo. Commercial -Decrease risk that a container ship will be destroyed at some point in its voyage or in port by a terrorist bomb. -Decrease risk that a shipping line will be ruined by having its container ship involved in an terrorist attack on the US. -Use of system by shipping lines could result in reduction in insurance premiums. -Use of system by shippers could result in reduction in insurance premiums. -Use of system would give preferential treatment at ports to shipping lines that used it, reducing shipping times and costs. ANTICIPATED RESEARCH BENEFITS The proposed research and development involved in showing the feasibility of creating containerized for nuclear weapon detection using ANGEL technology has broad applicability to other areas of immediate concern to DoD, including the following: Authentication. Knowing who is on the other side of the connection is a fundamental problem in multiple military and business applications. How do we know that it is Alice? How do we know that it is still. Alice? The ANGEL system is designed to provide multiple methods of authentication, including biometrics and other system knowledge. This problem depends both on technology and on process engineering. Even in the area of quantum cryptography, where encryption theoretically cannot be broken, the problem of authentication has not been solved. ANGEL could have application here as well. Streaming. ANGEL technology can securely provide randomly generated keys to large systems and securely strobe or change the keys. The proposed research has as one goal extending strobed encryption to streamed data. Code Randomization. ANGEL is a system whereby random values may be passed to a large network at the time of installation, the installation may be authenticated through multiple methods (orthogonally) and then these values may be randomly changed. Adding confusion to computer systems is an opportunity to frustrate reverse engineering by a sophisticated enemy. ANGEL is an ideal platform and test bed to fully explore the possibilities of adding code randomization to complex systems that must withstand enemy attack. Forward Intelligence. Enclosing wireless devices in tamper aware containers which contain various types of detectors has a broad applicability in the military and civilian area, in that such devices might be able to detect enemy intrusion or attacks before the enemy was aware that he had been detected. The ANGEL is ideally suited to set up a system of devices that could detect and report attacks. Several devices could be connected to one another so that they would detect an attack on one of their number and be able to report it before they themselves could be disabled. NASA has already expressed interest in purchasing ANGEL technology to secure communications in space, once the technology is fully developed. DUAL USE COMMERCIALIZATION STRATEGY Military, Police, Fire, Homeland Defense Applications. The highly secure flexible wireless network we are designing would provide the ability for military and emergency personnel of all types to continue communicating among themselves and with the outside world when natural disasters or enemy attacks occur. Communications and information access should save lives. Private Financial Sector. The ANGEL point-to-point networking and data packaging technologies were originally developed for a large international bank client, who has been using them to transfer millions of dollars in trades from clients in Europe and Japan to the home US office. We believe that there is a large market for the ANGEL technology in the financial infrastructure market, by which we refer to the major international banks and stockbrokers. After September 11th, the financial industry has recognized that it needs the same kind of highly secure flexible wireless networks already proposed for the military and emergency civilian personnel to protect its employees and its assets, and keep the industry running, in emergency situations. There is also pressure from the OCC and the Basel Committee of the Bank for International Settlements (BIS), an international organization which fosters cooperation among central banks and other agencies in pursuit of monetary and financial stability, on large banks to improve operational risk systems. There have been some disastrous frauds perpetrated on banks by trusted insiders, some of which have ruined the banks involved . The SEC is also pushing the financial industry toward T+1 settlement, which will entail yet more operational risk as new systems become operational. The ANGEL system is not a consumer product, but is very appropriate for large financial institutions that are focused on the management of risk. The potential market is huge. A measure of the size of the financial infrastructure might be the flow of funds through the Group of Ten Countries, which in 1997 was $1,435,449 billion dollars. Using this figure as a starting point, we calculate that the market for security services in the financial infrastructure market would be $92 billion dollars annually.
