Google Meets Sherlock Holmes

From Newswise:

In any one day, homeland security and law enforcement agencies might sift through thousands of complex and often contradictory clues about potential terrorist threats. To thwart another September 11, analysts must meld the encyclopedic eye of Google-age technology with Sherlock holmes’s inductive genius.

MI5 Tracks 2000 Terrorists

Via Security Managment Weekly & Washington Post:

Around 2,000 terrorism suspects are being monitored by British authorities,
and an equal number of individuals are suspected of also being involved in
insurgent or malicious activity, according to remarks from MI5 Director General
Jonathan Evans in a rare public address. Britain's Security Service has recorded
a rise in the number of terrorism-related arrests, including foiled plots to
bomb international jets and detonate car bombs in public places, but attributes
this growth in part to heightened security efforts. Evans and Prime Minister
Gordon Brown both underscore the threat of Islamic terrorist activity in the
country, and Evans has named al-Qaeda as one group with a "clear determination
to mount terrorist attacks against the United Kingdom." The MI5 head says while
the attacks are mainly carried out by Britons, citizens are being influenced and
trained by militant groups in Pakistan and Somalia. Evans adds, however, that
non-extremist agents from Russia and China also pose a threat to the country by
attempting to steal civilian and military technology, and by placing undercover
operatives within Britain.

Grenades, a Bicycle, and the Cover of Darkness

Surveillance tapes will likely provide little help in determining the identity of culprits behind Thursday night's ‘grenade’ attack on the Mexican Consulate building in New York City. In circumstances eerily similar to a 2005 incident at the British Consulate, novelty grenades filled with explosives were thrown through windows at approximately 3:30AM. Thankfully, no one was hurt.

The detonation blew out several windows and sent debris flying into the building, located in the Murray Hill section at 27 E. 39th Street between Madison and Park avenues. […] Ramon Xilotl, Mexico's Consul General, tells CBS 2 that the early morning attack, which left explosive fragments on the sidewalk, broke three windows and was captured on surveillance video. "They showed the explosives but nobody is seen in the camera. But there is a witness that saw the individual," he said. (via WCBSTV.com, Video)

Like the 2005 attack at the British Consulate, a person on a bicycle was seen
peddling away from the explosion. Beyond that detail, however, meaningful
leads in the case are few and far between.

I find it somewhat amazing that in this time of heightened security and seemingly
ubiquitous surveillance a man on a bicycle can conduct an attack like this
without leaving behind so much as a single image. Perhaps the next consulate
will fare better.

If it Walks Like a Terrorist

Behavior scientists at the University of Buffalo received an $800,000 grant to develop a technology that would help identify terrorists by their behavior. The project aims to fuse a variety of known biometric and video analysis technologies into a single “malfeasance score.”
“No single biometric is suited for all applications,” said Govindaraju, who also is founder and director of UB’s Center for Unified Biometrics and Sensors. “Here at CUBS, we take a unique approach to developing technologies that combine and ‘tune’ different biometrics to fit specific needs. In this project, we are focusing on how to analyze different behaviors and come up with a single malfeasance indicator.” The UB project is among the first to involve computer scientists and behavioral scientists working together to develop more accurate detection systems based on research from each field.

I wish them luck, but this is a tremendously difficult problem to solve.